Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington

This is a brief post on the Beef Wellington we prepared during Christmas Eve. You can always make one during special occasions or when there's a craving for it.

I modified Gordon Ramsay's YouTube video recipe.

The first step is to season the tenderloin (we bought about 700g) with some salt and black pepper before searing it in a hot frying pain. I used a tablespoon of ghee instead of butter because ghee has a higher smoking point. Be sure to sear all around the beef but don't over-cook it.

Pan-seared tenderloin

Let the beef cool down and pat dry with paper towels before brushing a layer of Dijon mustard on it.

Tenderloin brushed with Dijon mustard

While resting the beef, prepare the duxelles. Mince the mushrooms (400g) with a clove of garlic, season with salt and pepper. Add in chestnuts (handful) to blend as well. I used the frying pan I seared the beef with, since there's still the ghee in it, to stir-fry the duxelles. I added a chopped onion to the hot ghee first and once the onion is softened, I added in the blended mixture.

Stir-fry the mixture with a sprig of thyme. After a while, you will notice that the mixture releases a lot of fluids (mainly from the mushrooms), continue stirring until the mixture is dry. Then add 50ml of red wine and 2 teaspoon of dark soya sauce and continue cooking until the mixture is dry again. Remove from the pan and let it cool down. Remove the thyme from the mixture.

Making duxelles - mixture of minced mushrooms, chestnuts and seasoning

Once the beef and the duxelles are cooled, place a few layers of cling film on the table, then put 1 to 2 pieces of filo dough on the cling film. It is useful to absorb the juices that are released from the beef and prevents the puff pastry from being soggy. Next, layer a few pieces of parma ham (we used 8 pieces). The width of the parma ham layer is slightly wider than the width of the tenderloin by 2 to 3 cm on both sides.

Preparing to wrap the cooled ingredients. Layer of filo dough and parma ham arranged on a cling film for easy rolling

Spread the duxelles onto the parma ham. There's no need to put too much, around 1 cm thickness is more than enough.

Layer of duxelles spread onto the parma ham

Place the beef on the lower third of the layers and roll it up with the help of the cling film.

Tenderloin placed on top of the duxelles

Twist and tighten the sides of the cling film to compact the roll. Leave it in the fridge to firm up before wrapping it with the puff pastry.

Rolled into a sausage-like structure, tightened by the cling film

I use ready-made puff pastry that is made with butter and not margarine.

Using ready-made butter puff pastry

Once the roll is firm, remove the cling film and wrap the puff pastry over the filo dough using the same method as above (with the help of a cling film and tighten the structure). You can then put it back in the fridge again until you are ready to cook it. Before baking, egg wash the puff pastry and use the back of a knife to draw some patterns on the pastry, be careful not to cut through it.

Puff pastry is wrapped over the filo dough, remember to remove the cling film first

In your free time, you can do up some decorations using the leftover puff pastry. :)

Extra puff pastry used for decoration

I roast the Beef Wellington in a convection over at 220C for 10mins, then rotate it and lower the temperature to 200C for another 30 mins. Your mileage may vary.

Beef Wellington done, and decoration in place

Sliced open to reveal medium rare tenderloin

Note:
Beef registers 48.8C to 54.4C on an instant-read thermometer for rare, 54.4C to 57.2C for medium rare.
Cover pastry with foil if it gets too brown while cooking.
You can spread a layer of foie gras or liver pate on the duxelles.