Pan-Seared Filet Mignon with Garlic Herb Butter
Valentine’s dinner for many is a perfectly cooked steak which is so incredibly easy to master at home that you will wonder why you ever paid quadruple for one in a restaurant. This year, I’m going to go all out and make filet mignon, served with mashed potatoes and whatever vegetable catches my eye in the produce section.
The steak cooking method described below is a popular “restaurant style” used by many cooks from Ina Garten to hacks like me. One variable seems to be, when to add the butter (not the herb butter which if using, tops the meat just before serving) but the plain butter which infuses some fat into this extremely lean cut of beef. I prefer to add it just before finishing the steaks in the oven as opposed to melting it in the pan with the olive oil before searing. This ensures that the butter does not burn in the scorching hot pan. I use this stovetop to oven method to cook all of my steaks with the only adjustment needed for various cuts being cooking time. I hesitate to stick a meat thermometer in cooking meat (for fear that the juices will run wild) but if that’s what you need to prevent overcooked beef, stick away. There’s a great “touch test” that will have you comparing the feel of your beef with the back of your hand* which works extremely well.
I’m sure that it’s obvious that I borrowed an image to use in the post. Thank you Omaha Steaks. I haven’t cooked filet mignon in awhile and didn’t have a picture on file. I will try to replace it with a photo of my own but no guarantees. I just may get caught up in the Hallmark romance that is Valentine’s Day. You can gag now 
Enjoy!
Filet Mignon
*With your non-dominant hand, make a V shape using your thumb and pointer finger, with the palm of your hand facing down, the fleshy part of the back of your hand at the base of the bottom of that V is where you should be touching. The softness of that part when you are making a very relaxed fist resembles the softness of rare meat. If you were to just slightly tighten that fist by wrapping your fingers around each other loosely, the softness of that part of your hand would resemble medium cooked meat. If you were to make a tight fist, then the softness of that part of your hand would resemble well done.