Beef Wellington is an old staple of gourmet dining. There is some debate as to where the dish originated. The French would like to take credit, but why would they name something after Wellington ? Some say the English invented it, but that can't be proved either. Regardless of who first wrapped a beef tenderloin in pastry the end result is a wonderful main course that looks as beautiful as it tastes. There are many varieties but all use the center-most portion of a whole beef tenderloin. I bought a peeled whole tenderloin and cut off the tail section as well as the chains, the extensions on the sides of the thicker end of the tenderloin. I cut a 12" section out of the middle of the tenderloin to use for the beef wellington. The other pieces I froze to use as steaks. Be sure to clean off all of the fat and silver-skin from the beef. The recipe I am using calls for dry-aging the beef for three days uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Here is what the beef looked like after it was cut, cleaned of all silver-skin, tied and aged.
The beef is about 12 " long and approximately 3.5 Lbs. The whole filet was between 5 and 6 Lbs., so you can see that this is just the center cut portion of the fillet. One question I had was whether to buy a prime or choice tenderloin. In talking this over with a qualified expert, I was advised that the difference between prime and choice is the inter-muscular fat content in the beef. Since the tenderloin has such a limited amount of inter-muscular fat there is really no discernible difference between choice and prime when it comes to tenderloin. Consequently I went with the choice. I will let you know how that decision came out.
I am making the classic French form of Beef Wellington which calls for coating the beef with Foie Gras pate', then another layer of duxelles, a cooked mushroom, shallot, cream and herb creation and
encasing the whole thing in a puff pastry. Here is what it should look like when done.
I will add some pictures of my completed product when I finally get it assembled and cooked. When served, the Beef Wellington will be topped with a red wine sauce that is a bit of a process in itself. When serving a main course as dramatic as Beef Wellington, you do not want to have anything else too complicated on the plate, so I will serve simple roasted asparagus and baby roasted rosemary potatoes with the beef.
The recipe I am using for the Beef Wellington comes form Cook's Illustrated. Here is a timeline for the preparation:
2-3 Days before serving: Dry age tenderloin.
Up to 2 days before serving: Make the stock base for the sauce.
Up to 1 day before serving: Make the duxelles. Brown the dry-aged beef.
Day of serving: Assemble and bake the Beef Wellington.
Ingredients:
1 Beef Tenderloin - center cut Chateaubriand, 3 to 4 Lbs. trimmed weight, about 12" long and 4" in diameter, tied.
2 TBSP olive oil
2 tsps. table salt
2 tsps. fresh ground black pepper
5 ounces fine pate', mashed until smooth
Unbleached all purpose flour for dusting work surface
1 Lb. puff pastry, either homemade or Dufour brand frozen puff pastry. (Available at Whole Foods)
1 Large egg
Preparation:
3 days prior to serving, place trimmed and tied beef on a wire rack set above a rimmed baking dish and refrigerate uncovered for 48 hours.
One day prior to serving, heat 12-inch heavy bottomed skillet over high heat until very hot, about four minutes. Meanwhile, rub tenderloin with oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper and lightly rub into meat.
Set tenderloin in hot skillet, curving to fit if necessary, and sear on first side without moving, until well browned, about one minute, pressing down on meat so that bottom of roast makes full contact with pan. Using tongs, rotate tenderloin and brown on all sides, about one minute per side. Remove from skillet and wrap hot tenderloin tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours before day of serving. Here is my browned tenderloin:
Day of serving, unwrap tenderloin and cut off and discard twine. Using a small spatula, spread pate' over top and sides of tenderloin.
Dust a large sheet of parchment paper with flour. Unwrap puff pastry and place on parchment; dust puff pastry lightly with flour and cover with a second sheet of parchment. Roll into a 12 by 15" rectangle, mending cracks as you roll. Remove top sheet of parchment and with a sharp knife trim two 1-inch bands off long side to form a 10 by 15" rectangle. Refrigerate bands on parchment lined plate.
Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. Beat egg with 1 TBSP water and set aside.
Remove plastic wrap from duxelles (see recipe below). Invert duxelles onto puff pastry; peel off parchment. Place tenderloin pate' side down onto duxelles-covered dough.
Brush edges of dough lightly with beaten egg. Wrap tenderloin in dough by bringing long sides together and overlapping by about one inch. Trim off excess dough. Encase ends by turning up as in wrapping a package and seal. Insure tenderloin is wrapped tightly. Carefully invert dough-wrapped tenderloin onto prepared baking sheet and brush dough lightly with beaten egg; refrigerate uncovered for at least thirty minutes.
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake Wellington until light golden brown, about 15 minutes, then using bands you cut from the dough, arrange decorative ribbons on top. Continue to bake until deep golden brown and instant read thermometer inserted into center reads between 113 and 115 degrees for rare, about 15 more minutes, or around 120 degrees for medium rare, about 20 more minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes and then transfer to a carving board, and cut crosswise into 1/2" slices. Serve with sauce(see recipe below).
Duxelles Recipe
Ingredients:
1 Lb button mushrooms, brushed of dirt and broken in rough pieces
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2-3 large shallots-minced (about 1/2 Cup)
2 TBSP heavy cream
1 tsps Madeira (optional)
1 tsps table salt
1/2 tsps fresh ground black pepper
1 TBSP minced fresh thyme leaves
Preparation:
One day prior to serving, process half of the mushrooms in food processor until chopped uniformly fine, about 10 1-second pulses, stopping to scrape down sides after 5 pulses (mushrooms should not be ground so fine as to release liquid). Transfer chopped mushrooms to a medium bowl and repeat to chop remaining mushrooms. Here are my chopped mushrooms:
Heat butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat until foaming; add shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mushrooms, increase heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring frequently, until most of liquid given off by mushrooms has evaporated, 7 to 10 minutes.
Add cream, Madeira, salt and pepper; cook until mixture is dry, about 3 minutes longer. Off heat, stir in thyme. It should look something like this:
Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; turn duxelles onto baking sheet and, with a rubber spatula, spread into 8 by 10" rectangle of even thickness. Cover flush with plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely cold, at least 2 hours or up to 24. Here is what mine looked like:
Red Wine Sauce
Ingredients:
21/2 Lbs. beef oxtails-trimmed of excess fat
2 medium carrots- chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 medium celery ribs, chopped into 1 inch pieces
4 small onions, chopped coarse (about 3 Cups)
1 large head garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
2 tsps tomato paste
1 bottle dry red wine like Cabernet Sauvignon
4-6 large shallots, minced (about 1 Cup)
1 bay leaf
10 sprigs fresh thyme
1 15 Oz. can low sodium beef broth
1 15 Oz. can low sodium chicken broth
1 tsps whole black peppercorns
6 parsley stems
1/4 cup ruby port
4 TBSP unsalted butter cold, cut into 4 pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Two days prior to serving, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Combine oxtails, carrots, celery, onion and garlic in large flameproof roasting pan; spray lightly with cooking spray and toss to combine. Roast, stirring every ten minutes, until beef and vegetables are well browned, 40-50 minutes, adding tomato paste to roasting pan after 30 minutes.
While oxtails and vegetables roast, bring wine, shallots, bay leaf, and thyme to simmer over medium heat in a heavy bottomed 8 quart stockpot or Dutch oven; reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to about 1 1/2 Cups, about thirty minutes. Set pot aside. Here is my wine and shallot pot both before and after reduction:
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| Wine and Shallots |
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| Reduced wine and shallot mixture |
Place roasting pan with the browned oxtails and vegetables over a burner(s) set at high; add beef and chicken broths and bring to a boil, scraping up browned bits on bottom of pan with a wooden spoon. It will look like this:
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| Oxtails and vegetables with broth added |
Transfer contents of roasting pan to stockpot with wine reduction. Add 7 cups of water, peppercorns, and parsley stems and bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered until richly flavored and full bodied, 3-4 hours. Here is my broth when it first started boiling:
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| Oxtail, vegetables, wine reduction and water mix |
It is hard to believe, but after the 3 to 4 hours you will end up with the solids protruding out of the top of the liquid and not much liquid left.
Strain broth into large glass measuring cup or container(you should have about 2 cups), discarding solids in the strainer. Cool to room temperature; cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. Here is my broth after being in the fridge overnight and having the fat skimmed off of the top:
It is basically a beef based jell that is about 4 by 7" and 1"thick.
While Beef Wellington bakes skim hardened fat from surface of stock using a soup spoon and discard. Transfer stock to a small saucepan and simmer over medium low heat until further reduced to about 1 cup, 10 to 15 minutes. Add port; set aside off heat.
While Beef Wellington rests, return broth to simmer over medium heat and whisk in butter 1 piece at a time. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper and serve with Beef Wellington.
Tomorrow I will be assembling my beef Wellington and serving. I will take some more pictures and post them a day or two later. We skipped lightly over the pate' portion of the recipe. Hopefully you will be able to find it in your local fine food store. I couldn't find any in Kansas City but was able to find actual foie gras (fatty duck or goose liver from force fed animals). I decided to make my own pate' using the duck livers I bought, but that is another whole story and recipe for some time later.
Nolan requests a post on cooking the perfect bacon.
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