Beef Wellington
Beef Wellington. Inspired by Gordon Ramsay. An elegant dinner entree. A most wonderful dish! I bought what is more like the tail end of the fillet. I had to do some trimming and ended up with 2 pieces. I made 2 Beef Wellingtons. I used my own homemade puff pastry, but you can easily use store bought.
Beef Wellington. Inspired by Gordon Ramsay. An elegant dinner entree. A most wonderful dish! I bought what is more like the tail end of the fillet. I had to do some trimming and ended up with 2 pieces. I made 2 Beef Wellingtons. I used my own homemade puff pastry, but you can easily use store bought.
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 lb beef tenderloin trimmed
- 12 oz baby bella mushrooms
- 1 sheet puff pastry rolled out thin
- 1 tbsp mustard (up to 2 tbsp)
- 7 slices prosciutto
- 1 egg for sealing the puff pastry/glazing the top
- salt/pepper i used kosher salt and coarse grind pepper
- 3 tbsp oil (up to 4 tbsp) to sear the beef
- Carbohydrate 5.73350872594368 g
- Cholesterol 94.7694077166667 mg
- Fat 66.8982063287154 g
- Fiber 1.00369819195144 g
- Protein 26.5560237611383 g
- Saturated Fat 16.2323995347329 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (237g)
- Sodium 301.329405746235 mg
- Sugar 4.72981053399223 g
- Trans Fat 5.57854236245211 g
- Calories 729 calories
Step-by-step
- Trim fillet, if needed, of all the fat and sinews. Season with salt and pepper. Heat some oil in a large pan quickly. You don't want to cook the beef, just sear so you seal in the juices. Fry the seasoned beef all over until it's brown. Remove and allow to cool. Brush generously with the mustard.
- Roughly chop the mushrooms and blend in a food processor to form a puree. Heat a skillet until hot. Add the puree of mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. I also added some onion powder. Cook without any oil/butter until it is dry and all the water has evaporated. The mixture should be sticking together in the form of a paste. Set aside and cool.
- Roll out a generous length of cling film, lay out the four slices of Prosciutto ham, each one slightly overlapping the last. Spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the ham. Place the beef fillet in the middle. Roll the prosciutto and mushrooms over the beef into a tight log shape. Twist the ends to secure the cling film. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes, this allows the Wellington to set and helps keep the shape.
- Roll out the pastry quite thinly to a size which will cover your beef. Unwrap the meat from the cling film. Egg wash the edge of the pastry and place the beef in the middle. Roll up the pastry, cut any excess pastry off the ends and fold neatly to the 'underside'. Turnover and egg wash over the top. Chill again to let the pastry cool, approximately 5 minutes. I let mine chill for about 20 minutes while I cleaned up. You will also want to preheat your oven to 425 F.
- Egg wash again before baking. I placed my beef loaf unto a parchment lined baking sheet. This helps with the clean-up. Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes on middle rack. I then moved the sheet pan to the lower middle rack, for an additional 20-30 minutes. The total baking time should be about 35-40 minutes, depending on the size. Mine took about 40 minutes for the larger piece and 30 minutes for the smaller piece. Rest 8-10 minutes before slicing. Serve with potatoes and salad. ~ If , you like your beef more well done, you can cook it longer. Just make sure you cover the puff pastry lightly with a foil so that it won't burn on you. Use an instant thermometer, if need be.
- TIP: When sauteing mushrooms, make sure they are completely dry. It should clump up on you and sort of form a paste. If you don't extract all the water from the mushrooms, you will have a soggy puff pastry.
- TIP: I baked mine at 425, 10 minutes on the middle rack and an additional 30 minutes on the lower rack so that the puff pastry would not burn on top.
A list of ingredients never explains the physics of moisture management. Beef tenderloin releases water as it heats, and raw mushrooms contain upwards of ninety percent water by weight. If those two liquids meet inside a sealed pastry, steam ruins the crust. Success depends entirely on driving every drop of moisture out of the duxelles before assembly. Pulsing baby bella mushrooms in a food processor creates a fine paste, but that paste must cook in a dry skillet until it completely ceases to steam and clumps into a dense mass.
The Assembly and Baking Sequence
Chilling the wrapped tenderloin in plastic wrap for ten to fifteen minutes compresses the prosciutto and mushroom layer around the meat, establishing the cylindrical shape necessary for even slicing. Once wrapped in puff pastry, a secondary chill of five to twenty minutes firms the butter laminations in the dough. Place the baking sheet on the middle rack at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for the first ten minutes to set the pastry rise, then drop the pan to the lower middle rack for the remaining twenty to thirty minutes. This prevents the top from burning before the internal beef reaches the desired temperature.
- Wet duxelles creates soggy pastry; cook the mushroom puree until it forms a dry paste with zero visible liquid.
- Sear the beef tenderloin quickly in a hot pan just to color the exterior without cooking the interior.
- Rest the baked Wellington for eight to ten minutes before slicing to let the muscle fibers reabsorb juices.
- Cover the pastry loosely with foil if browning too quickly while the internal meat continues cooking.
