Beef Wellington

If you want something a little fancy for the holiday weekend, here is a good recipe for beef wellington.  This recipe uses fillets and wraps them in individual pieces of puff pastry.  It is a little easier to deal with than the traditional version where you wrap the whole tenderloin in pastry.  I have had this recipe for over 30 years.  It originally came from a gourmet group that we belonged to in New Fairfield, Connecticut.  Have this with a big California Cabernet or an Australian Shiraz and you are in for a treat.

Ingredients:

8   5OZ. fillets of beef, well trimmed
vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. salt
dash pepper
12 Oz. Fresh Mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 TBSP butter - melted
1 1/4 Cup soft bread crumbs
1 1/2 cloves garlic - crushed
1 1/2 TBSP parsley - chopped
1/2 tsp. thyme
8 frozen puff pastry shells or 4 full sheets
2 egg whites slightly beaten

Preparation:

Put fillets in the freezer for 20 minutes to chill them.  Remove from freezer and brush them well with the vegetable oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Sear in skillet for about 5 minutes on each side.  Chill seared steaks in refrigerator.  Process mushrooms in a food processor until they have a pate consistency.  Sauté onion in butter until soft and translucent.  Add mushrooms, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley and the thyme to the onions.  Remove from heat and divide into 8 portions.  Roll out each pastry shell to about 9 x 5 inches and 1/8 inch thick.  If using puff pastry sheets, each sheet should do two steaks.  Place one portion of mushroom mixture in the center of each pastry rectangle.  Top with a chilled fillet.  Fold in the sides and end of the pastry, encasing the fillet.  Place the fillets in a shallow baking dish, with the seamed side down.  At this point you can hold in the refrigerator for up to several hours.  When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.   Brush each pastry shell with the egg white.  Bake 10 minutes for rare, 12 minutes for medium rare, or 15 minutes for medium.  I like to serve with twice baked potatoes and a green vegetable.  It makes a pretty plate and is delicious.