Recipes: December 2007 Archives

'Take a chance, 'cause you might grow.' - Gwen Stefani, What you waiting for?

... Beef in a bit of pastry with a bit of stuff in the inside to make it taste nice.

We had this for Christmas lunch. It was tasty.

If I were an eloquent food writer I would start off by saying something like 'The British think they invented Beef Wellington, but so do the French, who call it Boeuf en Croute' (which is just what wikipedia or some other online fount of wisdom says).

And then I'd blah blah blah on and on about it and it's origin and it's background and you'd all either be asleep or saying 'wow, Ash knows an awful lot about Beef Wellington/Boeuf en croute/Beef in a bit of pastry'.

Instead, being ineloquent (which actually seems to be a word, thanks spell checker) and neither British nor French, nor apparently a food writer seeing as I used the word 'tasty' above to describe this dish, I will simply give you the recipe.

First of all make the pastry. It uses puff pastry which is both fun to make (yes really) and infinitely rewarding. Do you see my tongue pressed firmly into my cheek there?

This recipe makes 450g and comes from the venerable Good Housekeeping Institute. Which means it's been triple tested. Which is another way of saying 'if it goes wrong it's YOUR fault!'.

How to make Puff Pastry

450g plain white flour
pinch of salt
450g butter (yes, you have to use butter here), chilled
15 ml lemon juice
300 ml chilled water

1. Sift the flour and salt together. Cut off 50g of the buter and flatten the remaining butter between two sheets of clingfilm into a long flat slab about 2 cm thick. Put it in the fridge.
2. Put the flour and the 50g butter into the food processor and whizz until it resembles very fine crumbs. Add the lemon juice and enough of the water in a steady stream through the processor funnel to make a soft elastic dough. Turn it out onto a floured board and then shape it into a round ball. Using a knife cut a cross half way through the dough ball and then open them out to form a star shape (this makes sense when you do it but I should have taken a picture for you). Roll out and make the star points about four times thinner than the centre bit. Put the cold slab of butter (from the fridge) in the centre of the star.
3. Fold the flaps over like an envelope to cover the butter. Press gently with the rolling pin. Flour liberally and then roll out to a rectangle about 16 x 8 inches. Fold the bottom third of the rectangle up to the centre and the top third down and keep the edges straight. Press with the rolling pin, wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Take it out the fridge and with the folded edges to the sides repeat the process. Do this sequence five times in total.
5. Shape the pastry as required, then rest it in the fridge for about another 30 minutes before baking.
6. Bake at 220C unless otherwise specified in the recipe. If you want to freeze it roll it out to the size required, then cover it with wax paper and roll it up, then put it into a polythene bag and freeze.

Darlings, that was just the pastry!

Now for the beef.

Beef Wellington/Boeuf en croute/Beef in a bit of pastry

50g butter
1.6 kg piece of fillet of beef. I used a 900g entrecote which was nicely rolled and tied by the butcher. A fillet of beef would be different because you wouldn't have to untie it after browning and cooking it for the first bit before you do the pastry shell. If you use an entrecote or other rolled up beef thing, remember that you don't want the strings in your finished dish!

For the filling:

250g button mushrooms, chopped
2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped.
1 red pepper
2 tablespoons or so of tomato concentrate
splash of red wine
bit of red thai curry paste, or chilli paste or whatever else you want to put in for zing
2 tablespoons dried thyme or fresh thyme to taste

1. Heat some of the butter in a frying pan and when it foams add the beef (which you previously dried off with a paper towel after bringing to room temperature), and brown it all over. Put the lid on the pan and allow it to cook at a lower heat for about 25 minutes or put the oven on 220 and roast for 20 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool.
2. Using the same pan melt the rest of the butter, add the shallots and garlic, fry for about 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and red pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients and then cook until you have a thick mixture, it shouldn't be watery. Let it cool down in the pan.
3. Roll 1/4 of your pastry out into a rectangle about 1 inch larger than the beef and prick with a fork. Bake it at 220C for 10 - 12 minutes until crisp and golden. Allow to cool then trim to the size of the beef and place on a baking sheet.
4. Roll out the remaining pastry to a rectangle about 12 x 16 inches. Cut a small square out of each corner. Keep all the trimmings.
5. Place the meat on the cooked pastry square. Season the beef with salt and pepper (take off the strings if you used a rolled cut of beef). Spread the filling all over. It's easiest to use your hands.
6. Wrap the uncooked pastry all around the beef, tucking it under the cooked pastry base. If you're doing this ahead then put it in the fridge until you're ready to cook it.*
7. Make a slit in the top of the pastry and brush with beaten egg. Decorate with shapes cut from leftover bits of pastry. I made little hearts, aren't I sweet? Brush the little hearts with egg.
8. Bake at 220C for about 35 minutes for medium rare, 40 - 45 minutes for medium. Leave to stand for 10 minutes  before serving.

I served mine with roasted butternut and tomato.

*If you want to freeze yours then do it at this stage. Open freeze until solid then wrap in freezer film and then in foil. Thaw overnight and cook as above.