Beef Wellington
I have been making Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner for many years . It has a few steps, but you can make it the day before and refrigerate until you bake it. You can use an entire beef tenderloin and wrap it in puff pastry, but I like to make individual Beef Wellingtons. You start by browning the beef tenderloin steaks (don’t cook it all the way through) and set aside to cool. I make the gravy at this time by using the same skillet I browned the beef in and sautéing an onion, carrots, celery and garlic, adding red wine, beef stock, some beef glace’ that I purchase at a gourmet food store and reducing the sauce for an hour and then straining it. Refrigerate until you warm it before serving and pour into a gravy boat. To make the duxelles, finely chop a mixture of wild and cremini mushrooms with a small onion (I use the food processor) and sauté it with some fresh thyme and garlic until they are nicely browned and set aside to cool. Allow the puff pastry to thaw and make a large square with the pieces and crimp them together really well. Place the cooled tenderloins evenly on the pastry and put some of the duxelle mixture under each tenderloin. Cut a large square around each tenderloin and then cut a square in each corner so you don’t have so much pastry to wrap and pull the pastry up and around each tenderloin and crimp really well around all the seams. Make little decorations with leftover pastry if you want. You can refrigerate them at this stage overnight. Just before you bake them, beat some eggs and brush them over the entire packages and bake. I like to serve them with scalloped potatoes with sautéed leeks and thyme with lots of Gruyere cheese, and roasted parsnips and Brussels sprouts. Click here for the recipe….
Place mushroom duxelle mixture under the beef and wrap the puff pastry around tenderloin.
Wrap the pastry around the beef and crimp all the seams together.
Decorate the tops with leftover pastry if you want and brush a beaten egg over top and make several slits to allow steam to escape before you bake. You can also make the Beef Wellington the day before and refrigerate. Before you bake, brush with the egg mixture.
