Beef tenderloin - served cold or at room temperature

[potterstreet]

hi,

am cooking for 8 of us tomorrow and do not want to have the oven going when folks arrive as it will be 100 degrees here in the northeast. i have a beautiful beef tenderloin which i am thinking of roasting today with some sort of pepper/salt crust. i plan to refrigerate it until tomorrow, bring it up to room temperature and serve it on a bed of watercress with some kind of chilled sauce. any ideas? is it okay to roast today and serve tomorrow. i won't slice till serving time.

i am also serving oven roasted local vegetables at room temperature (done early tomorrow) and a caesar salad. my starter is going to be some sort of cold shrimp - might do ina garten's roasted shrimp today and chill that as well. dessert is being brought by a pal. the usual variety of beer, wine and cocktails will be on offer.

thanks!

jane

[robt5265]

chimichurri sauce would be excellent, especially in the warm weather.

[jameshig]

100% agree with chimichurri!!!

Cook today. Tomorrow, slice it cold and bring it up to room temperature before serving. It'll be easier to slice cold than it will room temperature. Also, if you are doing individual servings, make sure to season each serving before it goes out.

[ospreycove]

Room temp is fine, just make sure it is not cool/cold in the middle as then any streak/marbling will be white and the mouth feel will not be ideal.

[GretchenS]

Definitely OK to roast today and slice and serve tomorrow. I recommend searing to get a nice brown crust before roasting and use a meat thermometer to make sure you don't roast it too long -- remember it will continue cooking after you take it out although you can minimize that a bit by moving it out of the hot roasting pan right away using tongs. Love alkapal's sauce suggestions. Sounds like a lovely meal!

[Sooeygun]

Room temp and Alkapal's sauces sound great

Another good sauce with beef is roasted red pepper. I just made some last weekend to have with cold beef. I drained and rinsed a small jar of roasted red pepper (I was in too much of a time crunch to roast my own). Pureed in food processor with some sour cream and mayo to taste. Added fresh herbs from my garden, s&p and a little honey because jarred peppers sometimes have a little bitterness to them.

[alkapal]

room temp -- not cold -- tenderloin will taste better.

offer a couple of chilled sauces -- like a creamy horseradish sauce http://americanfood.about.com/od/saucesdipsanddressings/r/horseradish.htm

maybe a creamy mustard sauce

maybe a bearnaise-like sauce (tarragon, vinegar flavors -- but as a cold emulsified sauce), or one with some piquancy from pickles.

ooh, look at this: a tarragon mustard aioli! this would be my pick on a buffet! http://americanfood.about.com/od/saucesdipsanddressings/r/mustard_aioli.htm

also, i love me some chimichurri. i could DRINK chimichurri! http://www.chow.com/recipes/28393-arg...

~~~~~~
three sauces, i've concluded:
horseradish
tarragon mustard aioli
chimichurri

--- the latter two can be used quite succesfully with your veggies, too.