Filet mignon sandwich with truffle butter

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Open-faced filet mignon sandwiches with truffle butter (photo by the adorable La Fuji Mama)

If I had to pick my favorite dish from Trufflepalooza 2010, I think it would be this open-faced filet mignon sandwich with truffle butter. 

At the original Trufflepalooza last year, I sauteed filet mignon chunks in butter and served them with grated truffle on top - delicious, but extremely ugly and hard to photograph. This year, knowing lots of my food blogger friends (love you all!) would be taking pictures of the 13 different truffled menu items, I took aesthetics into account. 

My capable husband grilled the filet mignon just as the party was starting. Filet mignon from...Costco. What can I say? When you need 15 pounds of meat, Whole Foods isn't an option, at least not on my budget. Although, to tell the truth, we bought too much. We would have been fine with six or seven pounds. Live and learn, live and learn.

By the time we were slicing the meat, buttering the bread and assembling the open-faced sandwiches, the filet mignon was warm, but no longer hot. That worked in our favor, I think: The meat had rested adequately and stayed extremely moist. It was cooked perfectly - well, most of it, anyway. The first one I cut into didn't show much pink, and I think I bellowed at my poor husband pretty forcefully. But I overreacted. The rest was fine.

Next time I'll serve these earlier in the party; we had more leftovers of this dish than I expected. But leftovers can be good, as in the hot filet mignon and truffled Brie sandwiches I made a few nights later. Also, when we ran out of truffle butter, the die-hards still hanging around the kitchen decided to try the same sandwiches with Sabatino truffle honey. In case you were wondering: phenomenal.

Open-faced filet mignon sandwiches with truffle butter

• 1 lb filet mignon (two good-sized filets)
• salt and pepper
• 1 baguette
• truffle butter (I make my own truffle butter, but I also like D'Artagnan black truffle butter)
• truffle oil (I prefer Sabatino white truffle olive oil or Sabatino organic black truffle oil)
• truffle salt (I like Sabatino truffle sea salt)
• 1 black summer truffle

Heat up your grill (gas or charcoal, no matter) or heat a heavy ridged grill pan on the stove. You don't want to get it blazing - filet mignon is on the delicate side. I like filet mignon cooked over a medium grill.

Sprinkle the filets with salt and pepper. Grill until medium rare. I use an instant-read meat thermometer and pull the steaks when the middles reach 125 degrees (F); by the time they cool, they'll be up to 130 degrees and perfectly pink throughout. Let the filets cool on a plate or cutting board, loosely tented with foil, until they are warm but not hot, about half an hour.

While the steaks are cooking and cooling, cut the baguette into 1/4-inch slices. You should get about 30 for a standard baguette. I love La Brea Bakery baguettes, which are also conveniently available (freshly baked!) at our local Costco. Lay the bread slices out on a large board and spread each with a thin layer of truffle butter.

Now cut the filets into thin slabs that will more or less fit on the baguette slices. Lay one slice of meat on each piece of buttered bread. Sprinkle each piece with a few drops of truffle oil and a pinch of truffle salt. Grate the fresh truffle over the whole thing and serve. It's the best finger food you can imagine.