I have been meaning to do anouther cooking with beer post for some time but just have not found the time.  But the other night I was watching a show on Morel Mushrooms being picked in British Columbia and I decided I had to try the mushroom out for the first time.  The recipe I used came from MidwestLiving but called for a dry red wine.  I put a question out to twitter and to two Certified Cicerone’s I know and came up with the Duchesse De Bourgogne as a great replacement for the dry red wine.  Morel Mushrooms can be hard to find it seems but I found mine at Famous Foods in Vancouver.

Ingredients List:

1/4 ounce dried Morel mushrooms (Chanterelles if you cant find them)
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped red onion
1 table spoon whole green peppercorns in brine, drained
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 330ml bottle Duchesse De Bourgogne
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 condensed beef broth.
8 beef tenderloin steaks (or preferred steak)

First place the Morel mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with hot water.  let this sit for 20 minutes.  After mushrooms hydrated rinse under hot water and squeeze out excess water.  Chop mushrooms into small pieces.

Dice up onions, measure out green peppers and black pepper.

In a large skillet or frying pan melt butter over medium heat

Add mushrooms, onion, green peppercorns and cracked black pepper and cook uncovered, over medium low heat for 15 minutes stirring often.

Remove from heat.  Add the Duchesse De Bourgogne then return to heat.  Bring up to a boil then reduce heat.  Simmer, uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes or until the beer is reduced by half and mushroom mixture is thickened slightly.  Make sure to stir occasionally.

Add the whipped cream and condensed beef broth.  Heat over medium heat until tiny bubbles appear around edges.  Reduce the heat to medium low heat and stir occasioanlly for 20 to 25 minutes or until mixture thickens to desired consistency.  Remove from heat and set aside.

They reccomended making mashed potatoes as a side dish so I did that while I finished up the sauce.  I added some garlic, butter and milk while mashing the potatoes.

The next step is to grill your meat.  I will leave this to you as depending on your size of steak, thickness and preference it will take different times to cook.  I use this website as a guide.

Once the steaks are finished reheat the sauce and drizzle it over your steak.  I even put it on the potatoes and it tasted great!  This beer is an epic mildly sour Flanders Red Ale and added a nice light tart flavour that went well with the cream and the mild earth notes from the Morel mushrooms.  This might be the best meal I have ever cooked.  My personal opinion for sure.  Cheers.

Here are my full sized photos.