Beef Wellington





 This one really was inspired by Gordon Ramsey and the Masterchef show.  When he said to a contestant that making the perfect beef wellington requires practise (i think he quoted 500 times as being the amount of practise required), I thought i should try my first and see how i went.

I added another degree of complexity and hardship and made my own puff pastry as well.  I have done that several times already though so making my own puff pastry didn't concern me so much.  I have a post on how to make your own puff pastry.

Ingredients

- 1 sheet of puff pastry (defrosted)

- 1 x 2lb piece of topside beef

- 2 Tbls oil or butter for searing the meat

- 1 cup of slices mushrooms

- 4 slices of ham

- 2 Tbls of yellow mustard

- 2 egg yolks beaten

- Salt and Pepper for seasoning the beef

Directions

In a medium sized skillet, heat the oil or butter.  Season the beef with salt and pepper and add it to the skillet searing the beef on all sides, just well enough to brown each side, say 3-4 minutes per side and then allow to cool.  The beef will cook more in the oven later.  It's now a good time to switch on the oven, pre-heating it to 220C.



Puree the mushrooms in a blender and then transfer to a small saucepan with a little melted butter till soft.  Tip out any excess liquid and then set aside to cool.

Roll out a long sheet of Glad Wrap.  place the ham slices on the plastic in a row slightly overlapping the edges by about a 1/4 of each piece.  Spread the mushroom puree on the ham slices.

Coat the outside of the beef with the yellow mustard and then place on the mushroom puree. 

We now roll the ham slices around the beef and tightly wrap the plastic.  Pop that in the fridge for 20 minutes.



Before



Roll out the patry large enough to wrap the beef.  Unwrap the beef from the plastic and place in the centre of the pastry.  fold the pastry around the beef and seal with the egg wash.  With a pairing knife put several diagonal slits in the top of the pastry - this will allow air to escape while in the oven.



After



Place on a baking tray and that goes into the oven for 30-35 minutes.  Check the beef temperature with a meat thermometer regularly.  65C for medium-rare, 70C for medium and anything hotter than that and it's not beef wellington!

Let the beef package rest for 10 minutes before slices and then slice into thick pieces and serve with mashed potatos and caramelised onion gravy...

Enjoy!



Plated up with mash and onion gravy



Look at the gorgeous puff pastry