Filet Mignon Nirvana

Grill Nirvana: Defined as reaching perfection with the grill; being one with the grill; finding inner peace via the grill. Grill Nirvana is achieved only after the griller has gained the wisdom of perfect grill clarity. This highest level of spiritual attainment can be reached with Bobby Flay's Black Pepper and Molasses-Glazed Filet Mignon (Boy Meets Grill, page 150). This must be in the top five Bobby Flay recipes that I have grilled to date. Just take a look at that perfect crust and that perfect glaze. This Filet Mignon was cuttable with a fork. I started by brushing olive oil on the filets and dusted them with Kosher salt and ground black peppercorns. When the filets hit the grill, I had the heat up high to sear the meat and get that pepper-crush started. But quickly I lowered the heat and let the filet grill/bake to insure it kept that classic filet tenderness.  When the filets turned, I brushed on the Molasses Glaze (more on that in a moment). The heat was high enough to caramelize the glaze into the meat, but not so high that the glaze would burn. On the other side of the grill I laid asparagus crossways over the grill grates. I used Bobby's asparagus grilling techniques and his recipe that uses ground pepper, olive oil and feta cheese (Grill It! page 12). Filet Mignon is usually a small, but thick cut of meat, so be careful to get it cooked all the way through with prolonged, low heat. I was aiming for an internal temperature of about 140 - just past medium. That temperature proved to be perfect. 


The Glaze. Filet Mignon is known to be very tender, but not always that flavorful, so the glaze made all the difference. I chopped onions, garlic and gingerroot and one-after-the-other let them cook in olive oil in a sauce pan on the grill. Then I added - are you ready - Dark Rum from Barbados. We try to pick up rums from different Caribbean countries when we visit. We have Tortuga from Grand Caymen. We have Appleton from Jamaica. We have Monte Gay from Barbados. We even have some Havana Club from Cuba. For this recipe I used Cockspur from Barbados. The aroma of that rum reducing down with the ginger, garlic and onions was almost as good as the Filet Mignon itself. When the rum had boiled down almost to dry, I added a little orange juice and a lot of molasses. 

The aroma was even better than before! The Molasses-Rum reduced down even further with constant stirring. As I said before, when the filets turned, I brushed this glaze all over them and I must admit that before they were all the way done, I dipped the filets into the sauce pan to soak up all the remaining glaze. None of this could go to waste!

All the grill recipes here on Bobby Flay Everyday come from Bobby's many grill books. I will always give you the book and the page number where you can find - and hopefully duplicate the grill recipes I try here. And remember you can buy the books and DVDs through this website. Check out the lower right side of the page - link to Amazon from here - get some of Bobby's books and then follow along!

I don't know if I can top this grill nirvana experience - but I will keep trying! Paul