Dan, I miss you with all my heart!
The idea of a Beef Wellington all started with the release of Pillsbury's gluten free pastry dough. The first thing that came to my head wasn't pie (because I'm not a baker), but Beef Wellington! Why Beef Wellington? Because Chef Gordon Ramsay has it as a staple on the Hell's Kitchen menu. What a great challenge. Try and make a Beef Wellington good enough that Gordon Ramsay won't be screaming at you telling you its RAW and throwing it down like it's garbage.
So task #1. Find a recipe. I opened up my Food Network App, search wellington, and spotted a recipe that looked good to me by Tyler Florence (recipe shared below).
Task #2, search out the ingredients. The only unique ingredients was the tenderloin cut (filet mignon) and procuitto (yes the tenderloin was wrapped in yummyness).
Knowing that I needed to do this right and go to a butcher, I went to Ben's Meat for the tenderloin. I knew the meat was going to be expensive for 3lbs, and $60 later I was about to work with the most expensive cut of meat I have ever worked with. And to be honest, that was a good price for that meat.
task #4 tackle this bad boy of a recipe. I spent the better part of a morning prepping the meat and the insides of the wellington. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, so I even called in reinforcements when it came to working with the gluten free pastry.
So what was the end results? A slight mess! It actually tasted amazing, and the meat was perfect. But there are two things I didn't do well that could have made this dish perfect.
As you can see the crust kind of fell apart |
Second thing I messed up on, was cutting the vents in the pastry. I could not have wrapped this damn thing, without the help of my pastry loving mother'n'law. I just had no idea what I was doing. We then cut the vents, but I think we needed to cut the vents deeper, or cut more of them. This particular recipe had a mushroom stuffing and mushroom contains lots of water. So, although the top stayed crispy (and damn that Pillsbury makes a good gluten free pastry crust), the bottom got really soggy because the moisture couldn't escape to well.
So here is the recipe:
The Ultimate Beef Wellington - From Tyler Florence
For the Duxelles:
- 3 pints (1 1/2 pounds) white button mushrooms
- 2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 (3-pound) center cut beef tenderloin ( filet mignon), trimmed
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 12 thin slices prosciutto
- 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- Flour, for rolling out puff pastry
- 1 pound puff pastry, thawed if using frozen
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- Minced chives, for garnish
- Green Peppercorn Sauce, recipe follows
- Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
- Warm Wilted Winter Greens, recipe follows
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
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 2 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.
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 - this creates vents that will allow the steam to escape when cooking. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown and beef registers 125 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven and rest before cutting into thick slices. Garnish with minced chives, and serve with Green Peppercorn Sauce, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, and Warm Wilted Winter Greens.
Green Peppercorn Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
- 1 cup brandy
- 1 box beef stock
- 2 cups cream
- 2 tablespoons grainy mustard
- 1/2 cup green peppercorns in brine, drained, brine reserved
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F and place a baking sheet inside to heat.
Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Fresh Herbs and Garlic:
- 2 pints fingerling potatoes
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 2 to 3 sprigs fresh sage
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 6 cloves garlic, left unpeeled
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus for sheet pan
- Salt and pepper
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Looks delicious!! Great job :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Dimple
DeleteWow what an adventurous recipe, looks like it was a big challenge! Dan would have been very proud at this grand effort, it looks so yummy!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was really tasty. I would make it again.
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