Daring Cooks Beef Wellington

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

Since I am allergic to fish and seafood, I made the beef wellington. My beef wellington looked so elegant. The puff pastry was nicely browned and flaky, and the beef was tender and juicy. I wanted to make it with filet mignon, but they wanted $24 a lb at the supermarket, so I used two well trimmed New York steaks instead.

 

With the Beef Wellington I served colorful Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Asparagus. A great recipe I found on a great blog, For the Love of Cooking.



It was a beautiful meal but probably not something I'd make again. If I'm going to splurge on the fat and calories in puff pastry I'd rather have it for dessert! Thanks Simone for a fun challenge!

 

Beef Wellington
(serves 4)
preparation time - 2.5 hrs.

Button mushrooms - 17.6 ounces/500gr (stalks removed and finely chopped)
Olive oil - 2-3 tbsp
thyme - 1 sprig (I used dried marjarm)
Beef fillet, center cut piece - 21.16 ounce/600 gr (I used 2 New York Steaks)
English mustard - 1 tbsp (I omitted)
puff pastry (all butter pastry pack) - 17.6 ounce/500 gr (I used Pepperidge Farm)
parma ham (prosciutto) - 3 slices (I used pancetta)
egg yolk - 1 pcs, beaten

For the herb crepes:
plain (all purpose) flour - 0.3 cup/1.76 ounce/50 gr
milk - 0.5 cup/125 ml
1 egg
mixed herbs - 1 tbsp (chopped, use herbs such as cervil, chives and tarragon) (I used dried marjoram)
butter - 0.5 tbsp

Instructions:
1. To make the crepes, whizz the flour, egg and milk with a pinch of salt in a blender or processor until smooth. Pour into a jug and stir in the herbs and some seasoning. Leave to rest.
2. Fry the mushrooms in a little oil until they give up all their moisture and it has evaporated, leaving you with a thick paste. Add the thyme leaves and some seasoning and keep cooking for a few minutes. Cool.
3. Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter, heat a 15 cm crepe pan and oil it lightly. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer on the base of the pan, cook until the top surface sets and then turn over and cook briefly. Remove and repeat with the rest of the batter. This will make a couple more than you need so choose the thinnest ones for the recipe.
4. Sear the beef all over in a little oil in a very hot pan. Brush with the mustard, season and allow to cool.
5. Lay a large sheet of cling-film on a kitchen surface and put two crepes down on it, overlapping a little. Lay over the parmaham (prosciutto). Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham and put the beef in the centre. Roll the cling-film up, taking the crepe with it, to wrap the beef completely into a nice neat log. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C/390F. Roll out the pastry, remove the clingfilm and wrap the beef in the pastry like a parcel, with the ends tucked under. Trim to keep it nice and neat. Brush with egg, score with shallow lines across the top and chill for 20 minutes.
7. Cook for 20 minutes. The best way to test if the meat is done to your liking is to neatly and carefully stick a skewer into the beef, count to three and then test it against your inner wrist. If it is cold, the beef will be raw, if it is warm then the beef will be rare and if it’s hot, it’ll be cooked through. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.