12 Recipes of Christmas – Beef Wellington

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – ten lords a leaping… and Cook Local gives you Beef Wellington.

Ten Lords A’Leaping.

Wow. Two tricky ones in a row.

The most obvious solution would have been frog’s legs. But well, finding local frog’s legs wasn’t as easy as we hoped. So what to do?

How about Leaping Frog Chicken? Well, that would have been great and all, but we’ve got A LOT of poultry already in this damn song, so let’s find another route.

So we get a little creative. Again.

Lords.

You know who has Lords? The Sith. Wait, no. I mean England. England has Lords. They have a whole damn house of them.

And you know who was one of the famous members of the House of Lords?

Wellington.

And wouldn’t a nice Beef Wellington be a fantastic alternative to turkey for your Christmas dinner table?

So when we started this Twelve Recipes of Christmas series, I mentioned that there was a reason why we were going through the days backwards. Well, I can finally share that with you. This month is our first Daring Cooks Challenge! This month’s Daring Cooks challenge was Beef Wellington. How convenient.

This is a rather complicated recipe. It isn’t hard, but it is time consuming and there are a lot of steps you need to follow. So do yourself a favor. Read the recipe several times. Start the dough about 4 hours before dinner. Make sure to count the time you’ll need to chill the dough, chill the wrapped steak, and rest the final cooked packet. Oh, and use a good quality steak. We used a butterflied tenderloin from Olsen Farms.

Beef Wellington, from BBC Good Food and the Daring Cooks

• Beef tenderloin steak, at least 1.5 lbs
• 1-2 pounds of mushrooms, stems removed, and diced
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 sprig of thyme, minced
• 1 Tbsp grainy mustard
• 3 slices prosciutto
• 1 egg yolk

For the crepes

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp herbs of your choice
• 1 Tbsp butter

For the pastry

• 15.8 ounces (3.2 cups) flour
• 7 ounces (1 tbsp short of half a pound) butter, diced
• salt

First, make the pastry.

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
2. Add the butter to the bowl and use your fingers or a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add the salt.
4. Now add 2-3 tbsp of water.
5. Mix the dough well (your hands work best here).
6. If the dough isn’t at all sticking together, add another 2 tbsp of water, one at a time.
7. Turn the very firm dough out onto a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes.
8. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge while you prepare the beef, crepes, and mushrooms.

Next make the crepes.

1. Melt the butter in a small skillet over low heat.
2. Mix the flour, milk, and egg in a blender (or use an immersion blender) until smooth.
3. Transfer to a pitcher. Set aside for a few minutes.
4. Add the butter and mix well.
5. Heat the butter slicked skillet over medium heat.
6. Pour in enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan.
7. When bubbles appear in the top of the batter, flip the crepes and cook the other side for another minute.
8. Transfer to a plate and cool.
9. Repeat with the remaining batter. You should get 4-5 crepes.

Now the mushrooms (I told you this was a rather complicated recipe)

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of oil.
2. Cook the mushrooms over medium heat. They’ll release their water and after about 15 minutes, will turn into a sort of mushroom paste.
3. Set aside.

And last, the steak and the assembly. Hooray! We’re almost done!

The egg wash turns golden brown

1. Season the steak with salt and pepper.
2. Sear on all sides and cool slightly.
3. Brush with mustard and set aside.
4. Spread a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and lay two crepes on it so they are sort of overlapping.
5. Next lay the prosciutto slices down.
6. Next spread the mushrooms.
7. Set the steak on top of the prosciutto and then use the plastic wrap and wrap the prosciutto and crepes around the steak.
8. Refrigerate the wrapped steak for 30 minutes.
9. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out. You’ll want to make sure the dough is large enough to wrap completely around your steak with a little extra on all sides. The dough will be kind of thick and that’s just fine.
10. Unwrap the steak (just from the plastic, not the crepes) and lay it on the dough.
11. Fold the dough around the steak, making a packet with the edges underneath the packet. Trim the excess and use a little water to seal the edges if necessary.
12. Brush the top with a beaten egg yolk and use a knife to score the top with diagonal lines. Be careful not to cut all the way through the dough.
13. Preheat the oven to 390.
14. Chill the wrapped steak for 20 minutes.
15. Cook the steak for 20 minutes and check for doneness. Stick a skewer into the meat (from the side of the packet) and leave it there for 3 seconds. Hold the skewer against your wrist. If it’s warm, the meat is medium-rare. If it is hot, the meat is medium-well to well done.
16. Let the packet rest for 20 minutes, slice, and serve.

Notes: Beef Wellington was one of those dishes that I never thought I’d make. It always seemed like one of those “professional” dishes that are best done in restaurants. This recipe was rather long and drawn out with the puff pastry dough, the beef, the mushrooms, and the wrapping and baking, but it wasn’t hard. Just time consuming. I recommend reading the recipe a couple of times before beginning and leave yourself plenty of time to get everything done. Start making the dough at least 3 hours before dinner. The quality of your steak is important. You want a very flavorful and good quality steak. Ours was so good that when we were searing it in the pan, I very nearly just wanted to slice it up and eat it plain!

Related posts:

• A last minute meal for those late nights Today’s recipe was truly a last minute meal. In fact,...

Tagged as: Beef, mushrooms