Individual Beef Wellington

[Jade Emperor]

From the daily meal threads:

There’s a lot of steps here, and it’s probably a meal that you might make when you’ve got the time and inclination to go for it!
It’s really delicious, and it’s also quite flexible to alterations for your tastes.
Let’s start with the basics.

I use small, fluted tart pans that have the push through bottom, but you can use any baking pan you desire. Grease before use.
The recipe here will make about four individual Wellingtons, but as always, you can scale up or down as required.

PASTRY:

I have a particular preference for my pastry recipe that I have worked on for years. You can also choose to use prepared pastry from the supermarket if you wish.

200gm plain flour, well sifted
1/2 tsp table salt
100gm unsalted butter - cubed, VERY cold
65ml water VERY cold

In food processor, blend flour and salt to combine.
Add cubed, cold butter and pulse until mixture resembles fine crumbs.
Add water a little at a time, pulsing the food processor until the dough comes together.
Transfer to a sheet of baking paper and form into a flat dough with your hands. Then another layer of baking paper and use a rolling pin to form a circle of dough about 4mm thick, and large enough to line the pans and make a lid.
You may need to use two or more trays of baking sheet covered dough for this.
Place dough onto baking trays and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight (use within 24 hours, or freeze for later use)

• I have a stainless steel, large and heavy rolling pin that I keep in the refrigerator.
The important thing to remember about a good shortcrust pastry is to keep everything as cold as possible at each step. Working the dough will warm up the butter (which you want to avoid as much as possible).

After the chilled pastry has been readied, remove from fridge and quickly cut into the size you need to make the bottom lining of your pans. Return the rest to the fridge.

Gently drape the pastry into the greased pan and push into the sides and bottom to form the bottom case. Cut the excess pastry to the edges, to your preference. You can leave some overhang if you want a rustic look around edges for your finished product.

Place the lower pastry cases, in the pans, into the freezer while you move onto the duxelles.

 

[Jade Emperor]

DUXELLES:

This part of the recipe is very open to your own interpretation and tastes.
I use my homemade chicken and Drambuie pate when I have some on hand. Otherwise it’s just fine to use some nice store bought stuff.

It’s a bit hard to give exact measurements for the duxelles, but about eight button Swiss brown mushrooms to 100gm of pate is the amount I use for two pies.

Chop the mushrooms finely, cook in butter in a frying pan. Let cool completely and then place into a blender with the pate (at room temperature). Here you can add thyme, basil or any other herbs you want. Perhaps a little rum or brandy. Maybe some cracked pepper. It’s your duxelles now, give it some of you in there (preferably not literally ) Blitz until smooth, although it may still have some texture in it but this is fine.

Place into refrigerator for now.

 

[Jade Emperor]

BEEF:

I use very good quality fillet steak for this. Make sure the cut you choose is not too fatty (ie: Wagyu is not for this dish and neither is rump etc)

You then need to get your frying pan screaming hot with just a little oil. Salt the steak all over and just add to the hot pan for about a minute either side. You only want to sear the steak here. It should be quite rare inside when you take it out of the frying pan.

 

[Jade Emperor]

ASSEMBLY:

Remove the bottom crust pans from the freezer and spread with a generous layer of the duxelles. Place the beef into the mushroom mixture and push down, further spreading the mixture to the sides of the crust.
Top with more duxelles, ensuring that the steak is completely covered and the filling now comes to the top of your shell.

Cut out the lid crusts from the extra pastry in the fridge and cover.
Pinch the dough shells together all around, making sure it is sealed tightly. Use any of your favourite pastry decoration techniques here. Perhaps the back of a fork to crimp, maybe roll out some scrap pastry to make pretty ribbons for the top, use cookie cutters for fun designs.

Make sure to put a couple of cuts in the top of each pie to allow moisture to escape.

Return the pies to the freezer for at least another half hour.

 

[Jade Emperor]

COOKING:

Preheat oven to 220c or 180c convection.
Remove pies from freezer and arrange on a baking tray.
Brush each pie with egg wash and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden.
Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

• You can roast the halved Bosc pear on the baking tray alongside the pie if you wish.

• Whilst the pie is baking, steam your chosen vegetables and make your sauce as desired.

 

[msmofet]

Thank you

 

[msmofet]

How thick is the steak?
Can puff pastry be used?

 

[Jade Emperor]

I usually cut about 1-1/2 to 2 inches of steak.

You could certainly use puff pastry but you might want to consider blind baking the lower portion of the crust. There can be some moisture retention in the mushroom mixture which might cause the base to become soggy and compromise the integrity.

 

[medtran49]

Great tutorial!

 

[Aunt Bea]

Great post for a very elegant meal!!

A few years ago mini beef Wellington appetizers were all the rage in this area for Christmas/New Year’s celebrations.

 

[dragnlaw]

I'm heading back to my old stomping grounds for a week of house/dog/cat/chicken sitting. Will be barely enuf time to visit family and a couple of friends but just might do this for a couple of them.
or as just mentioned by Aunt Bea, do them as an appetizer and then something else? Have this one - it uses lean minced beef. (talk about cheating! but the essentials are there)