Filet Mignon with Red Chile Sauce

Here is my version of Bobby Flay's Filet Mignon with Red Chile Sauce recipe.

Cooking the filet's was pretty straight forward. He did his on the grill and I used my cast iron skillet. Season the filets with salt, pepper and ground cumin. Place the filets in a hot skillet with about a tbs of oil and cook on both sides for about a minute and a half. Place the skillet in a 425F oven for about 10 minutes until medium rare as determined by the finger test. After you spoon the sauce over the filets, place a slice of goat cheese on top and use a blow torch to melt and brown the cheese. I used a Benzomatic MAPP gas torch but I'm sure there are more kitchen friendly models around ;)

For the chile sauce, seed all the peppers then toast them in a hot iron skillet for about 30 seconds per side. Be careful here as they will burn easily. Saute the onions and garlic in a medium saucepan until soft then add the chicken stock and peppers and simmer on medium low for 25 minutes. Using a slotted spoon transfer the peppers and onions to a food processor then add 2 cups of the chicken stock and process until smooth. Pour this chile sauce into a medium hot saute pan snd simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Remove the saute pan from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche and maple syrup.

As for the red chile sauce, my peppers looked smaller so I used an extra ancho and New Mexico chili. I watched this episode on Food Network and he was ambiguous about how much of the stock liquid to add to the food processor so I added the stock until it looked right, about 2 cups.
The recipe says to strain the sauce but the picture on the Food Network site doesn't look strained. I have made this chili sauce a couple of times and I strained it the first time for a velvety smooth sauce. For this recipe I did not strain the sauce and it was a bit thicker which was also very nice.
The addition of the creme fraiche and maple syrup is a must as the sauce will have a raw unfinished taste without it. I was amazed at the price of pure maple syrup at $9.35 a bottle! Also creme fraiche is very hard to find so here are some substitutions. Use honey instead of pure maple syrup. For the creme fraiche use use 1/2 cup each of sour cream and whipping cream, let stand at room temperature for 12 hours then refrigerate.

What you will need for the chile sauce.
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 large red onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
3 New Mexican red chiles, lightly toasted
2 quajillo chiles, lightly toasted
2 ancho chile, lightly toasted
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup creme fraiche
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Salt and freshly ground pepper