Recipe for teres major with pommes duchesse
This sous vide-cooked Teres Major, served with Pommes Duchesse, cold béarnaise cream, and a rich onion marmalade, is one of the most delightful yet easiest dishes I’ve tackled recently.
Teres Major is a premium beef cut! It resembles the tenderloin in both appearance and texture, but in terms of flavor, Teres Major far outshines the usual tenderloin. And with the sous vide method, this insanely delicious and tender piece of meat is cooked to perfection.
It’s not a cut you’ll typically find in the supermarket fridge since it’s not as well-known here – in fact, it belongs to the category of “butcher’s secret cuts,” and you can almost always get your butcher to order Teres Major for you. By the way, the price per kilo of Teres Major is lower than that of tenderloin.
Here, I served the tender Teres Major with Pommes Duchesse. Pommes Duchesse – the small “rosettes” of baked mashed potatoes – is a classic French side dish that is both decorative and super delicious. You can make Pommes Duchesse in many different patterns; the only limit here is your imagination.
With a dollop of onion marmalade and cold béarnaise cream, this meal was simply complete and appealed to all senses. By the way, the recipe for the onion marmalade yields about a small jar. It can easily keep for a couple of months in the fridge, so you’ll have onion marmalade for another time too (it’s truly wonderful, for example, on top of a potato pizza or spread in a sandwich).
Read much more here about Teres Major sous vide.
Ingredients
Cold béarnaise cream
- 75 gram Sour Cream 0.18
- 7.5 gram Bearnaise essence either homemade or bottled
- 0.75 gram Tarragon either dried or fresh
- 2.5 gram Lemon Juice
- 1.5 gram Flake Salt
- White pepper optional, to taste
- Cayenne Pepper optional, to taste
Onion Marmalade
- 3 Onion red onion
- 25 gram Oil
- 50 gram Apple Cider Vinegar
- 30 gram Balsamic Vinegar
- 25 gram Sugar
- 9 gram Thyme fresh
- 1.25 gram Dijon Mustard
- 21 gram Honey
- Salt to taste
- Pepper from a grinder, to taste
Fries Duchesse
- 500 gram Potato
- 3 gram Salt
- 60 gram Butter
- 1 Egg Yolk
- Spices to taste - for example thyme, salt, and pepper
Teres Major sous vide
- 2 Teres Major
- Salt to taste
- Pepper from a grinder, to taste
- Ghee or a 1:1 mixture of oil and butter
- Flake Salt to taste
Instructions
Onion Marmalade
- Take a cutting board and a knife.
- Cut the onions into thin slices.
- Take a pot.
- Add the oil and onions to the pot.
- Sauté the onions until they are soft but do not take on color.
- Add sugar, balsamic, and vinegar to the pot, and turn the heat down to very low.
- Let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Then, add mustard, honey, thyme, and salt.
- Let it simmer until the liquid has completely evaporated and the onions are soft.
- Season the onion marmalade to taste.
- Take a clean, sterilized jar.
- Pour the marmalade into the jar and refrigerate until serving.
- Take a bowl.
- Add crème fraîche, Bearnaise essence, tarragon, lemon juice, and flake salt.
- Mix it together.
- Season to taste with white pepper, cayenne pepper, and possibly more salt and/or Bearnaise essence.
- Let the bearnaise cream sit for a few minutes before serving or refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Start by peeling the potatoes.
- Then cut them into smaller cubes (about 3 x 3 centimeters).
- Take a pot.
- Add the potatoes to the pot.
- Fill the pot with water so the potatoes are just covered.
- Add salt to the water.
- Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes until they are tender.
- Drain the water from the cooked potatoes.
- Transfer the potatoes to a bowl.
- Take a fork and roughly mash the potatoes.
- Cut the butter into smaller pieces.
- Add the butter to the bowl with the potatoes.
- Mix it well.
- Add the egg yolks and mix again.
- Optionally, season the mashed potatoes with a bit of thyme, salt, or pepper.
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit) fan.
- Find a piping bag and a star nozzle.
- Fill the piping bag with the mashed potatoes.
- Take a baking tray.
- Line the baking tray with a piece of baking paper.
- Pipe the mashed potatoes onto the baking paper. You can, for example, make small rosettes or shapes of your preference.
- Place the baking tray in the preheated oven.
- Bake your Pommes Duchesse for 10 to 15 minutes. The goal is just to give them a bit of color.
- Take the finished Pommes Duchesse out of the oven.
- Trim the meat if necessary – this cut can have both tendons and fat lumps, which we want to remove.
- Then season the meat with salt and pepper.
- Place the meat in a vacuum bag.
- Vacuum seal the bag.
- Place the bag in your sous vide.
- It should be cooked for 105 minutes at 55.5°C (131.9°F). If you prefer your meat rare, set the temperature between 52 and 54°C (125.6 and 129.2°F). If you prefer medium, set it between 59 and 61°C (138.2 and 141.8°F).
- Remove the vacuum bag from the sous vide.
- Take the meat out of the bag.
- Pat the meat dry with a clean tea towel.
- You can now choose to give the meat a nice crust using several methods. Here, I suggest two different ones.
- Grill: Use either a gas/charcoal grill or a grill pan. The most important thing is that you have patted the meat dry with the tea towel and that the temperature of the grill/grill pan is as high as possible. Brush the meat with a bit of oil (neutral in flavor) and give it between 10 and 20 seconds on each side. Feel free to press down on the meat when grilling on the uneven side.
- Regular Pan: Again, the most important thing is that the pan's temperature is as high as possible. Add neutral-flavored oil to the smoking-hot pan and optionally add a bit of butter (or replace the oil and butter with ghee). Both butter and ghee give a good nutty flavor to the meat. Sear the meat for 15 to 20 seconds on each side.
- No matter which method you choose, remember that the meat is already cooked and only needs to get a crust. Also, the meat does not need to rest afterward. Place it on a cutting board, cut it into 1 to 2 centimeter thick slices, and sprinkle the meat with flake salt.
- Bon appétit!
