Tournedos Rachel (from Auguste Escoffier, Ma Cuisine)
Ingredients
(Serves four)
Seasoning
4 tournedos, about 220g each
4 slices beef marrow
Bordelaise sauce (see below)
4 artichoke bottoms
Asparagus tips
Method
Season and sauté the tournedos and cook rare. Arrange on a serving dish, with two of them served on top of a crouton, which has been cooked in clarified butter. Put a slice of beef marrow on each and cover with sauce.
Garnish with braised artichoke bottom topped with asparagus tips.
Potatoes Duchesse will have to be made and piped around the dish, to your liking.
Bordelaise Sauce (from Sauces by Michel Roux)
Ingredients 40g shallots, finely chopped
8 white peppercorns, crushed
200ml claret
300ml veal stock
1 small bouquet garni
100g beef marrow, soaked in iced water
30g butter, chilled and diced
Method
Put the shallot, crushed peppercorns and claret in a saucepan, set over high heat and reduce the wine by one-third. Add the veal stock and bouquet garni and bubble gently for about 20 minutes, or until the sauce will lightly coat the back of a spoon. Pass it through a wire-mesh conical sieve into another saucepan.
Drain the beef marrow and cut it into small pieces. Place in a small saucepan, cover with a little cold water and salt lightly. Set over medium heat and bring to about 80°C. Immediately turn off the heat, leave the marrow for 30 seconds, then drain it carefully.
Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste, whisk in the butter, add the well-drained beef marrow and serve immediately in a sauce boat (a small amount).
Macaroni Souffle
Ingredients - macaroni, milk, flour, eggs, butter, grated Gruyère cheese and nutmeg - were supplied for this dish, but no recipe. The soufflé had to be served at the same time as the tournedos.
Orders are ticked off on a sheet of paper at a wood bar where Japanese style curtains conceal the chefs and a red bell summons a pair of hands through the norin to fetch the order.
Subsequent fillings of the bowl are achieved by placing the bowl in a corner where radio waves detect its presence.
Another pair of hands will then appear to whisk away the empty bowl and replace it with a fresh one.
