Tournedos Lucullus

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch / 30 cm heavy skillet
• •3-quart / 3 L broad saucepan
• •Food processor with metal blade
• •Two dessert spoons for shaping quenelles
• •Slotted spoon
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Large oval serving platter

Instructions

1. 1

   Set the service

   Remove the tournedos from the cold thirty minutes before cooking, but leave them unseasoned. Heat the oven to 200°F / 95°C and place the serving platter inside to warm. Set out the prepared cocks’ combs, olives, truffle, demi-glace, and bread rounds. Everything must be ready before the beef meets the pan: the sauce and garnish can wait gently, but tournedos cannot.

2. 2

   Make chicken forcemeat

   Put the chilled chicken, ¾ teaspoon of the salt, and the white pepper in a chilled food processor. Pulse until the meat becomes smooth and tacky, then incorporate the egg white. With the machine running in short bursts, add all but 1 tablespoon of the cold cream in a thin stream. Stop as soon as the forcemeat is smooth, glossy, and firm enough to hold on a spoon. If it turns loose or grainy because it became warm, stop processing and chill it for ten minutes, then pulse in the reserved cold cream. Ça se rattrape.

3. 3

   Poach the quenelles

   Bring the water to 180°F to 185°F / 82°C to 85°C in a broad saucepan. It should barely tremble, never boil. Using two damp dessert spoons, shape the chicken forcemeat into 8 small quenelles de volaille, oval chicken dumplings, and lower them into the water. Poach gently for 7 to 9 minutes, turning once, until firm yet springy and 165°F / 74°C at the center. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain well, and cover loosely.

4. 4

   Fry the croûtons

   Heat ¼ cup of the clarified butter in the heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bread rounds and fry until deep butter-gold and crisp on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. These croûtons, the fried bread crusts, are part of the dish rather than decoration: they catch the beef juices and demi-glace. Drain them on a rack and hold them in the low oven.

5. 5

   Build the garniture

   Bring the demi-glace and truffle essence to a bare simmer in a wide saucepan. Reduce for 3 to 5 minutes, until the sauce nappes, coating the back of a spoon in a glossy layer. Add the cocks’ combs and olives already prepared through Blanchings (No. 273), followed by the quenelles and sliced truffle. Warm everything over the lowest heat without boiling. If the sauce becomes too tight, loosen it with a tablespoon of water; if it remains thin, lift out the garnish and reduce the sauce alone before returning it.

6. 6

   Sear the tournedos

   Season the tournedos with the remaining salt and the black pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons of clarified butter in the clean skillet over high heat until it shimmers. Add the beef without crowding and sear, undisturbed, for 2½ to 3 minutes per side, then brown the edges for about 30 seconds. For medium-rare, remove the tournedos at about 125°F / 52°C and rest them for 3 minutes. If the butter blackens and smells bitter, lift out the beef, wipe the pan, and continue with the reserved clean butter. The crust can still be saved.

7. 7

   Crown and sauce

   Arrange the four hot croûtons in a loose crown on the warmed platter and set one tournedos on each. Remove the strings. Surround the beef with two quenelles, one cocks’ comb, three olives, and truffle slices per serving. Spoon the truffled demi-glace over the tournedos and garniture, coating the whole with a thin gleaming layer and letting the remainder pool generously around the crown. Carry it straight to the table. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask the butcher for four center-cut filet medallions of equal thickness and tie them around the waist. Equal pieces reach the pan and leave it together, which matters when the whole crown must arrive hot.
• •Order cocks’ combs already cleaned, peeled, and cooked tender from a specialty poultry supplier. Jarred or vacuum-packed combs are the honest home equivalent to an in-house preparation station; drain them before warming, but do not replace them with an unrelated garnish and still call the dish Lucullus.
• •Use finished, pourable veal demi-glace, not a salty spoonable concentrate. Truffle oil is not truffle essence. Use real truffle juice or the liquor from a jar of whole preserved truffles, which gives the sauce depth without false perfume.
• •Fresh black truffle is splendid when the season permits, but a good whole preserved truffle belongs to the classical pantry and works honestly here. Pour a structured Médoc alongside and let the dish remain the celebration.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken quenelles can be poached up to one day ahead. Cool, drain, cover, and refrigerate them, then warm them gently in the truffled demi-glace shortly before serving.
• •The cocks’ combs and olives can be completed through Blanchings (No. 273) up to two days ahead and kept covered in the cold.
• •Finished demi-glace keeps for three days in the cold and freezes well in small portions. Add the truffle essence only during the final reduction.
• •Cut the bread rounds earlier in the day, but fry them shortly before dinner so their surfaces remain crisp beneath the sauce.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 390g)