Beef Wellington

xxdilemmaxx

Having an special dinner party for 6 this weekend, got a 1.5k of fillet beef half price so was thinking of making beef wellington. Just wondering if anyone has any recipes?

There are loads on the net but can't do a trial run so was looking for one that is tried and tested!

Also, anyone any ideas of what to serve as sides, was thinking roast potatoes, stir fried savoy cabbage and honey glazed carrots but only have one oven so not sure if temp would be too low for roasties?

Any ideas for starters and desserts (3 of the guests have said they're not dessert people tho!) also appreciated!

bakerscooks

Hi

Made Beef wellington, my guests are still talking about this recipe. It is very simple use 4oz button mushrooms, 1 dsp chopped parsley, thyme. Butter .5lb puff pastry from packet. egg for glazing and some water cress for garnish.
Trim fillet, pepper it and brown quickly in hot butter, then roast in a quick oven for 10 mins. take out and allow to go cold. in the mean time slice the mushrooms, saute in butter for a few mins, take off the hob add the herbs and cool. Roll out pastry to rectangle. devide it into two one piece two thirds larger than the other. Put the mushroom mixture on the larger piece, lay the beef on top. press up the pastry around it. lay the other pastry over the top, brush with egg glaze and decorate. Bake in a hot oven for 35-40 minutes or until well browned. Slice, garnish and serve.

I think the veg sound nice- I would suggest par boiling the spuds for 7 mins then drying them, put them in the same oven as the beef on another try with fat- goose is nice for the same time as the beef.
For dessert- dont go for a pasrty on as you already have it with main course how about Raspberry Rose Crush really easy and can be done in advance and assemble later.
Meringues
2 eggs
50 gm caster sugar
50 gm icing sugar sieved
5 gm corn flour sieved
1 tsp rose water
1 tbsp coarsely crushed raspberries

Raspberry crush
150 gm Caster sugar
250 gm raspberries ( 2 Punnets)
2 tsp rosewater (optional)
300 gm crème fraîche
200 gm cream

For the meringues
Heat the oven to 100deg c. whisk the egg whites and a pinch of salt in a spotless, grease free mixer pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar with the mixer on slow. Fold in the icing sugar then the corn flour with a metal spoon. Then fold in the raspberries and rosewater.

Spoon or pipe onto a greased and lined baking tray and bake for 45-50 mins turn off the oven and leave to cool in the oven completely.

Raspberry crush
Meanwhile, combine the sugar, 10gm of raspberries and 125ml of water over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, cook until syrupy 5 – 7 mins strain and cool. Add the rosewater and remaining raspberries coarsely crush with a fork and set aside.

Whisk the cream and crème fraiche in a bowl until smooth. Spoon a little cream into serving glasses, then a little raspberry mixture then meringue. Repeat layers and top with a crumbled meringue.

Serve with extra meringues.

For starter how about a winter soup and to make it a bit special drizzle some white truffle oil before serving?

Hope this helps

waltersobchak

make sure you put a very thin savoury crepe as the first layer after the pastry before the mushroom duxelle, this will stop the pastry from going soggy..

also the traditional way to make the mushrooms would be to bled them in a food processor until their pulsed, and place them into a dry pan to remove all the moisture, once the mix is dry strain it and refry it in butter with garlic and thyme andthe cool

personally i think the best garnishes for wellington are buttered spinach
vichy carrots and fondant potatoes

vichey carrots are made by placing your carrots in boiling salted water with butter, as the water and butter reduce it emulsifies

el dude

What's the best cut of beef to use? Would this be okay?

waltersobchak

it HAS to be beef fillet, because of the quick cooking time of the pastry

bakerscooks

yep, HAS to be Fillet!

el dude

Right, cheers. Was going off of this recipe, which says tenderloin. Could i get the tenderloin and trim it myself? Might that work at all? Looking on the same website and the beef fillet is €88, :eek:

waltersobchak

el dude wrote: »

Right, cheers. Was going off of this recipe, which says tenderloin. Could i get the tenderloin and trim it myself? Might that work at all? Looking on the same website and the beef fillet is €88, :eek:

yeah the americans call tenderloin what we call fillet, and its 88 for the whole fillet, for a piece for 3-4 people would cost 20-30 euro

Magic Monkey

Gordon Ramsey's Beef Wellington recipe works, there's a video too.

Keith in cork

Beef wellington does NOT have to be fillet. Fillet is best and the most common cut used. When using fillet brioche is whats generally used, puff pastry for larger cuts, first cooking the meat, then taking it out, resting, rolling in pastry and finishing in the oven.

The duxelle method and reciepe above is pretty poor.

Done right with a good duxelle, and brioche finding a better way of eating your fillet will prove a difficult task.

waltersobchak

Keith in cork wrote: »

Beef wellington does NOT have to be fillet. Fillet is best and the most common cut used. When using fillet brioche is whats generally used, puff pastry for larger cuts, first cooking the meat, then taking it out, resting, rolling in pastry and finishing in the oven.

The duxelle method and reciepe above is pretty poor.

Done right with a good duxelle, and brioche finding a better way of eating your fillet will prove a difficult task.

beef wellington is not generally used with brioche and yes it does have to be fillet, no other cut of beef is tender enough to work with the pastry, thats the point of it, having soft tender meat with crisp pastry,with any larger cut by the time the meat has rested the pastry would be soggy and the dish ruined.. also brioche is an extremely complex and time consuming bread to make, with a high failure rate of making correctly(if inexperienced) why would you potientially want to ruin such an expensive piece of meat with it..

Flamed Diving

Fillet, FFS...

Shin of Beef would do just as well.