Ah, British food. I always think of eel pie and fish and chips with bones in it. Well, that stuff sucks, so I made beef wellington instead. I’ve not had much luck with puff pastry lately, my last batch didn’t puff too much (remember my Kangaroo pie?) so this time I’m using store bought pastry. GASP! England!
Someone told me that it’s called beef wellington because the finished product kind of looks like a shiny boot. Well, it doesn’t so I think that’s bull. Another story according to Wikipedia is that it was made for the 1st Duke of Wellington because he loved pate, mushrooms and red meat. He must have died of gout or something.
I didn’t use pate for this one, I just used the mushroom duxelles (minced mushies!) although it would have been less sloppy with the pate and mushrooms. Oh well, it looked and tasted good.
Beef Wellington:
500gm Beef tenderloin fillet
Enough puff pastry to wrap it in
200gm mushrooms (I used ‘normal’)
half an onion
about 8 bits of chives
1 x garlic clove, smooshed
beaten egg for the pastry
OK, so first, trim the beef fillet of all sinew if you were cheap like me and didn’t want to pay the butcher. This is actually a bit tricky if you have a) never done it before, and b) don’t have a good knife. OK, done? Awesome, just sear it in a pan, season it with salt and pepper. Don’t cook it through, just brown it on the outside. Put it in the fridge to cool.
Get the mushrooms, onion, garlic and chives and chop or mince really finely. Then sauté in the same pan. Allow to cool in fridge.
Ok, once it’s all cool, roll out your pastry (or just ahem.. defrost it..) and place on a sheet of plastic wrap. Spread the mushroom mix over it and then place the beef at the top. Roll with the glad wrap till it’s all covered. Pinch to seal and brush with beaten egg.
Bake in oven until golden, and then slice with an electric knife! If you use a non-electric knife, use a serrated one carefully, otherwise the pastry will just fall off. Eat with potatoes mashed with cream!
