We had friends over for dinner last night. They're a lovely couple and we've enjoyed their company for many years. We even spent a week in Tokyo with them last January in a hands across the waters business association meeting. Also, he's the outgoing president of the board of directors for my bride's business, the national association that she's the CEO of.

So you would think it would be worth it to make a nice dinner. I splurged a bit.

The picture above shows about $80.00 worth of microplaned black truffle that went into the wine reduction sauce for the filet mignon—the center portion chateaubriand section of the tenderloin.

I freelanced the reduction a bit. It turned out great—I think it was one of the best, most complex, flavorful sauces I've ever made. It was really good. Everyone was happy.

The reduction

2 cups red wine (I would use a good cabernet—maybe not a 2001 Napa, but one you would enjoy drinking) 

1 large shallot, minced

1 large carrot, scrubbed and diced

3 mushrooms, diced

1 dried chipotle pepper, left intact

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp butter

a few sprigs of rosemary

In a nonstick pan, heat the olive oil and butter to shimmering, add the carrots and saute for two minutes. Add the shallots and continue for another minute. Add the mushrooms and render out and reduce some of the liquid released from the mushrooms. Add the wine and reduce heat to allow the wine to steam, but not boil. Reduce the liquid to less than 1 cup. Strain through fine mesh, clean pan with a paper towel and return the liquid to the pan. Reserve chipotle pepper. Continue to reduce, again with the liquid just steaming, until you get to 2 or 3 tablespoons. Be careful, the reduction quickens as it reduces. Set aside the reduction to use when making the sauce. 

The sauce

1/3 cup wine (same as above)

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup beef stock

1 medium shallot, minced

2 T rosemary leaves

1 large truffle, microplaned

(reserved) chipotle pepper

2 T unsalted butter, kept well chilled 

Once the meat has left the saute pan and is either resting or in the oven to finish cooking, judge how much fat is left rendered. Return pan to high heat. Add a small amount of unsalted butter if there is not enough fat to saute the minced shallot. Saute shallot until edges begin to color and it becomes translucent. Add  wine to deglaze pan to release the fond. Using a wooden straight ended spoon, scrape the bits of fond off the pan so that it becomes part of the sauce. Add stocks. Add rosemary. Taste a small amount of the liquid to judge how much bite there is from the chipotle. If you can't detect much of its smokiness, add reserved chipotle without breaking the skin, keep intact. Continue stirring and reducing until the sauce will coat and stay on the back of a spoon. It should be about 1/2 cup, more or less. Remove chipotle and discard. Add the reduction. Add truffle shavings. Reduce another minute. Taste and add fresh pepper if desired. Offheat, add the chilled butter and stir to incorporate.

Spoon a tablespoon of the sauce onto the plate. Plate the rest of the dinner and place the meat on top of the sauce. Add sauce to top of meat, using all the sauce to distribute evenly.

Get a long lingering kiss from your partner after the dinner.

The rest of the dinner included haricot verts blanched and then sautéed in sesame oil with slivered onions and precooked applewood smoked bacon crumbles and my renowned creamy mashed potatoes. I considered at one point just to add the shaved truffle on top of the potatoes when served, but instead decided to incorporate into the sauce. I'm glad I did it that way.

So, it was an indulgence to use an ingredient worth more in weight than gold, but these were good friends and we had a lovely time and a lovely dinner together.