Tournedos Roumanille

Tournedos Roumanille (small beef medallions with Mornay, tomato, olive, anchovy, and crisp aubergine) teaches orchestration. The beef is in the pan for barely minutes, so know this before touching it: every tomato must be grilled, every olive poached, every anchovy shaped, every aubergine round crisp, and the Mornay warm before the butter foams. Sear first and organize afterward, and the tournedos waits while its tenderness walks out the door.

The source entry assumed a saucier on staff, a stockpot never off the fire, finished Mornay ready for service, and a salamander fierce enough to glaze the platter in seconds. At home, you need a small saucepan of prepared Mornay, a hot broiler, and a thermometer. Separate sauce and garnish stations are brigade scaffolding and can go; the grilled tomato base, quick butter sear, Mornay glaze, olive and anchovy crown, and crisp aubergine are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The entry leaves the olive stuffing to the kitchen. A large pimiento-stuffed queen olive is the honest household equivalent to making four thimblefuls of a separate farce, and it preserves the specified stuffed, poached garnish without turning supper into an exercise in pomp. Have the platter assembled and the broiler fully hot before seasoning the beef. The timing is the dish.