Traditional Beef Wellington
Blog Entry: Wednesday 22 Apr 2009
‘This really is a special occasion dish,’ says Matt. ‘Classically English and truly delicious, the fillet of beef simply melts in your mouth. It’s great for a gathering of friends or family as it’s a real centrepiece on the table and something that will never fail to make people go “wow!”’
Traditional Beef Wellington
Serves 4
Ingredients
175g plain flour
110g butter
2lbs of fillet of beef
10 rashes of unsmoked bacon
400g button mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
5g salt
A little cold water
1 egg (mixed in a bowl)
To make the Pastry:
1. Freeze the butter for 5 hours until hard.
2. Place the flour in a large mixing bowl with the salt. Grate the butter (ideally in a food processor, but fine by hand) and mix with the flour (don’t handle it too much as you want the butter to stay as cold as possible).
3. Add a LITTLE cold water to bind the mix together. Leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
To make the Mushroom Mix:
1. While the pastry is chilling, slice the button mushrooms in half or quarters depending on their size.
2. Place sliced mushrooms in a pan with a little olive oil and the crushed garlic.
3. As soon as the mushrooms are cooked, remove and blitz in a food processor for a couple of seconds so they’re crushed not pureed.
Main Method:
1. Heat some olive oil in a pan and when hot, sear the fillet for two minutes until browned all over and then place on a board.
2. When the fillet has cooled down, coat with English Mustard using a pastry brush.
3. Roll out two sheets of cling film (enough to cover the fillet when rolled) and place them next to each other, so they’re overlapping slightly.
4. Lay the bacon on the cling film and place the mushroom mix on top of the bacon. Then place the fillet in the middle of the cling film on top of the bacon and mushroom mix and roll as tight as you can. Leave to set in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. On a floured bench, quickly roll enough pastry to wrap comfortably around the fillet.
6. Take the fillet out of the fridge and carefully remove the cling film. Place in the centre of the pastry and roll the pastry around the fillet like wrapping a present!
7. Use the egg mix to stick the ends of the pastry together. Finally, flip around so the seals are at the bottom.
8. With a pastry brush spread the remaining egg mix over the pastry and place in the oven for 20 minutes at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 and then turn down to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for a further 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and rest for half an hour before serving.
9. Serve with your choice of potatoes and vegetables.
Leave a reply