Beef Wellington

Funny story - I make this maybe once a year, usually for a special occasion,  the last time was for Dave's birthday last August and I took some pictures so I could blog it...but I only remembered to take pics for the first half of the steps. I didn't want to post the fabulous recipe without photos, so I decided to wait until I made it again and I'd get the rest of the photos! So when Cathy told me she wanted to make it for her son who has never had beef wellington, but since she'd never made it she wondered if I'd help - you can't imagine how happy I was to say yes! Shhhhh - I didn't tell her that I was helping so I could finish the blog post LOL, I just let her think what a nice friend I am ;)

I have only followed one recipe for beef wellington since I started making it years ago - Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Wellington from the food network. There are only like a billion recipes if you google for one - but trust me, this one is ridiculously good and I really don't think it's ever not turned out great. Do not let the mushroom layer throw you off if you don't like mushrooms - I know 2 people that hate mushrooms (one of them is Cathy!) and they still love this dish. You don't see or taste mushroom, promise.

Tyler's recipe includes a green peppercorn sauce but I've never made it,  mostly because it's hard to find canned green peppercorns. I don't think it needs sauce, but (as I'm a dipper) I have made creamy horseradish before and this time Al made a homemade bernaise that was great with it. Tyler serves his with roasted fingerling potatoes, sometimes I do that but other potatoes are just as good - Al made smashed potatoes which were amazing. Click here for a couple recipes for them - even if you don't make the beef wellington you have to make smashed potatoes! He also did grilled romaine with blue cheese dressing that I'll post later.

This is a multi-step process but none of it is hard, I'm not going to lie that it isn't time-consuming tho. The upside is that it looks amazing, tastes amazing, and everyone will assume you are an amazing chef when you serve this! Make sure they see it out of the oven before you slice it, it's very impressive - and if a hunk of meat wrapped in puff pastry can be described as beautiful, then it is definitely beautiful.

For the Duxelles (mushroom layer):

• 3 pints (1 1/2 pounds) white button mushrooms
• 2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly cnhopped
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 2 T. unsalted butter
• 2 T. olive oil
• kosher salt and ground black pepper

For the Beef:

• One 3-pound center cut beef tenderloin (filet mignon), trimmed (*see my note below)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 12 thing slices prosciutto
• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
• 2 T. Dijon mustard
• flour, for rolling out puff pastry
• 1 pound puff pastry, thawed if using frozen
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 t. coarse sea salt

*you want the tenderloin to be uniform in size, that's what 'center cut' means - you don't want one end thin and the other thick.

1. For the Duxelles:
2. Add mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and thyme to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add butter and olive oil to a large saute pan and set over medium heat. Add the shallot and mushroom mixture and saute until most of the liquid has evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside too cool. 

1. 
   
   1. my note: after it cooks down, this will look like thick pate or spread, or cat food as Cathy's son deemed it. You don't want the cooked mushrooms to have any liquid in them. After it's cooked down I put it in a colander and press out any remaining liquid with a paper towel. Get the mushroom mixture very dry. 
2. For the Beef: 
3. Tie the tenderloin in four places so it holds its cylindrical shape while cooking. Drizzle with oil, then season with salt and pepper. Heat a large, heavy-based skillet over medium-high heat and lightly coat with oil. Sear the beef all over, including the ends, until dark brown, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. 

Meanwhile, set out your prosciutto on a sheet of plastic wrap (note plastic needs to be about a foot and a half in length so you can wrap and tie the roast up in it) on top of your cutting board. Shingle the prosciutto so it forms a rectangle that is big enough to encompass the entire filet of beef.

my note: I find packages of prosciutto hanging by the deli cold cut department, it usually comes with a piece of coated paper in between each slice. Al found a large container of it which was great since they were doubling the recipe, except the slices weren't separated and totally stuck together - the prosciutto is sliced so thin it's very hard to separate. We ended up just putting thin pieces on the mushrooms as best we could and it turned out fine, once you cover with the puff pastry you don't see the pretty shingled prosciutto. 

Using a rubber spatula, evenly cover the prosciutto with a thin layer of duxelles. Season the surface of the duxelles with salt and pepper and sprinkle with thyme leaves. 

                                       

the mushroom layer is only on half to show you the shingled prosciutto underneath.
You'll spread the mushrooms over the entire layer of prosciutto

When the beef is seared, remove from heat, cut off twine and smear lightly all over with Dijon mustard. Allow to cool slightly.

1. Roll the tenderloin up in the duxelles covered prosciutto using the plastic wrap to tie it up nice and tight. Tuck in the ends of the prosciutto as you roll to completely encompass the beef. Roll it up tightly in plastic wrap and twist the ends to seal it completely and hold it in a nice log shape. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to ensure it maintains its shape.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. Depending on the size of your sheets, you may have to overlap two sheets and press them together. Remove beef from refrigerator and cut off plastic. Set the beef in the center of the pastry and fold over the longer sides, brushing with egg wash to seal. Trim ends if necessary then brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef, saving ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. Top with coarse sea salt. Place the beef seam side down on a baking sheet.

1. Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash, then make a couple of slits in the top of the pastry using the tip of a paring knife. Doing this creates vents that will allow the steam to escape when cooking. Bake until pastry is golden brown and beef registers 125°F on an instant-read thermometer, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before cutting into thick slices.

my note: I like to sprinkle coarse salt and coarse pepper on top of the puff pastry after brushing with the egg wash. I just like how it looks. In the photo below we made a braid for one of the tenderloins using the scraps from trimming the ends - stick it to the top using the egg wash.

recipe found here at foodnetwork.com

Here's another photo I found in my files from Dave's birthday, I baked it with 'happy birthday' letters cut out of dough scraps stuck to the top using egg wash like the braid above.