Eye Fillet Medallions with Garlic Cream Sauce

Getting to Know the Eye Fillet

The eye fillet is the tenderloin — a long, slender muscle tucked up under the backbone that does almost no work in the animal's life. No work means no tough connective tissue, and no connective tissue means the most tender cut on the whole beast. It's also the leanest, which is why the rules are short and non-negotiable: hot pan, quick cook, proper rest. There's no marbling in reserve to forgive a long cook, so this is the one cut you never slow-cook and never walk away from. Your Farmer® fillet comes as a twin pack of two 140g medallions — the neat, plate-sized shape comes from smaller-framed grass-fed cattle, and it's the right thickness to sear hard without drying out. If you want the full why behind the hot-and-fast rule, our guide to cooking grass-fed beef walks through it cut by cut.

Swaps and Variations

The garlic cream sauce is a workhorse, so don't stop at fillet. A scotch fillet takes it beautifully — richer cut, add a minute a side. Lamb loin chops work too: cook them to blush pink and spoon the same sauce over. In the pan itself, a handful of sliced mushrooms added before the garlic turns it into a garlic-mushroom cream, and swapping the parsley for tarragon takes the whole plate in a French direction. If cream's off the menu, mash an extra knob of butter with the garlic and let it melt over the steaks instead.

Storage and Leftovers

Raw medallions keep two to three days in the coldest part of the fridge, and if yours arrived frozen, thaw them overnight in the fridge rather than on the bench. Cooked fillet is best eaten the night you make it — reheating tends to undo all your careful medium-rare work — so if there are leftovers, slice them cold and thin the next day for a steak sandwich with mustard, or over a green salad. The sauce keeps two days in the fridge; loosen it over low heat with a splash of milk. The twin pack turns up in the Pack A rotation of our grass-fed beef CSA share, and when there's surplus you'll also find the eye fillet twin pack on its own.