Beef Tenderloin with Remoulade Sauce

The first time I had Remoulade Sauce was when we were all stationed in Hawaii and Allen Stephen made this fabulous shrimp salad with remoulade sauce that I couldn't stop eating. It was SO good. I put Allen's recipe on Recipes from Friends blog so you can have his as well. His salad was a big bowl of greens with large grilled shrimp. I can't remember what else he had in the salad. Probably tomatoes and cucumbers. I need to ask him again. There are so many great great variations of this sauce and I pretty much like every single one of them. to share with all of you. It is fabulous.)

Fast forward about 10 years and I was trying to come up with a kosher hors d'oeuvres for a party and had to have a sauce for the beef that did not have dairy in it (i.e. butter or cream.) I played around with a variety of ideas and then decided to make the remoulade sauce to go with it. It was such a hit that one of the guests at the party had her private chef call me later to get the recipe so she could be sure to have it on the menu at her next party. All of my staff kept eating it too.

Here is the great news. You can use this sauce on all sorts of things. It is obviously great with shrimp or beef, or as a dip for artichokes. I also used it as the dip for Green Pepper Rings fried in a cornmeal batter. (think of onion rings but made out of green peppers. I promise to post the recipe soon!) It is super quick and easy to make and keeps for at least three weeks or longer in the refrigerator.

There is a variety of ways you can do the meat. I like beef tenderloin the best but you can use your favorite cut of meat. I sliced tri-tip thinly and pan-fried it and that worked too. You can either grill whole tenderloin steaks and then cut it into cubes and then put long toothpicks to skewers on it to dip in the sauce. You could roast a whole beef tenderloin in the oven and put this sauce on the side. Or you could cube the beef tenderloin and cook in a super hot pan with some olive oil and kosher salt and cook it quickly so it is seared on the outside and still medium rare on the inside. (tip: for grilling the meat or roasting the meat in the oven I cook at high temperatures and season with olive oil and kosher salt.)

REMOULADE SAUCE

Serve with Beef Tenderloin, Shrimp or as a dip for Cornmeal Battered Bell Peppers

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup creole mustard or stone-ground mustard

(I use Plochman's of course!)

Juice from one lemon (about 1/4 cup)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 anchovy, minced, (optional)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons capers, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons ketchup

Dash of your favorite hot sauce (Crytal, Tabasco, Tiger, Cholula)

1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped (about 1/3 cup)

In a medium bowl mix all ingredients together until well combined