Pan-fried sirloin steak served with a creamy and rich mushroom duxelle flavored with tarragon for a delicious gluten-free dinner!

Yield: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Gluten Free Pan-Fried Sirloin with Creamy Mushroom Tarragon Duxelle

Mushrooms and steak, one of my absolute favorite meals. I love how down to earth this dish is and the flavors work so well together because mushroom, tarragon and steak go together because the flavors of each can be bridged together. A flavor bridge is one of the basic formulas when developing recipes. The flavor bridge dictates that if A goes with B and B goes with C and C goes with D, then A will go with D, too.

So the flavor bridge in this dish is: 

Tarragon goes with mushrooms.

Mushrooms go with cream.

Cream goes with steak.

So, steak goes with tarragon.

So now that you know why the flavors in this dish work together, I'll tell you a bit more about it: it's basically a posh version of steak and mushrooms. Growing up, steak and sauteed mushrooms was one of my favorite dinners. This dish, with its creamy, posh mushroom duxelle is an updated version of the thick cuts of grilled steak my dad used to serve with quick sauteed mushrooms and onions. This dish is brimming with mouthwatering umami flavor from the slightly charred taste of the steak to the earthy flavors in the mushrooms and the woody taste of the tarragon. It's all umami! Boderline umami overload, in fact. Not that that's a bad thing.

The traditional cooks amongst you might notice that I've deviated from the classic duxelle recipe. Normally, a mushroom duxelle is made by mincing the mushrooms finely because it is often used as a stuffing or as a filling for a Wellington. Because I wanted to serve my duxelle as a sauce and not just a component, I thought it'd be nicer to just slice the mushrooms so that they retain a bit of their texture. I served the mushroom duxelle and steak with fries, but you could elevate the dish with roast potatoes, silky mash or a tender fondant potato.

Ingredients:

For the sirloin
2 sirloin steaks
2 tablespoons clarified butter
salt
pepper
 
For the mushroom duxelle
1/2 cup double cream (heavy cream)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon tarragon
200 grams chestnut mushrooms
salt
pepper

Gluten Free Pan-Fried Sirloin with Creamy Mushroom Tarragon Duxelle

Instructions:

1. Season the steaks (at room temperature) with a bit of salt and pepper.
2. Fry in clarified butter until cooked to your liking. Rest the steaks on a cutting board while you prepare the duxelle.
3. Slice mushrooms thinly and cook in a dry pan until the mushrooms start to release their juices.
4. Strain the mushrooms into a sieve positioned over a bowl.
5. Add the olive oil to the pan and add the mushrooms back and cook until they are a deep golden color. Add the tarragon and pour the mushroom juice back over the mushrooms. Increase the heat and reduce the mushroom juice until it just coats the mushrooms.
6. Reduce the heat and stir in enough cream to cover the mushrooms. Cook the cream until thickened, season and serve the duxelle on top of the steak.