Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Individual Beef Wellingtons

You know how many times I have seen Gordon Ramsey make these on Hell's Kitchen and how many times I heard "you should make those"?  If you took 3 boxes of smarties and counted all of them out and multiplied that by about 10, that might come close.  You win Mr. BM!

I cannot rave enough about this dish - its, its, glorious!
We are not huge beef eaters anymore but how can you go wrong with butter slathered meat with a buttery flaky crust?  I only see 1 downside - the ever growing waistline should you want to eat this dish more than 3 or 4 times a year. Meh...carpe diem!

Individual Beef Wellingtons
makes 4 portions

4 beef tenderloin medallions
1 small shallot diced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/2 c. sliced mushrooms
1/4 c. liverwurst (traditionally made with pate)
4 tbsp. softened butter + more for sauteing
1 pkg. puff pastry
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg yolk
*reserve pan juices if you want to create a sauce by adding 1 c. beef stock and 2 tbsp. red wine to it over med heat and reduce by at least half*

Preheat oven to 425F.
Place beef medallions in a shallow baking dish and disperse the 2 tbsp. soft butter between the 4 pieces.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes (depending on thickness of the beef - you will want rare but browned meat)  Remove and let cool to touch.
Saute mushrooms and shallots in butter and set aside to cool as well. 
In a separate bowl mix the liverwurst and another 2 tbsp. butter.
Now you have your components for the filling and once everything is cool you are ready to begin - GET READY!
Take your puff pastry and roll it out on a lightly floured surface - you'll want it relatively thin, about 1.5 cm maybe in thickness (you don't want it to break)  **The brand that I purchase comes perforated so that you can separate it into two - so you would use 1/2 for 2 medallions**

Place the 2 medallions on the pastry, spread a layer of liverwurst over top and add mushrooms and onions as well.  Fold up the dough around creating a package, cutting any excess off as you will not want to have too much pastry.  Repeat for the other two.  Place on a baking sheet, brush with egg yolk and make a few slits in for air to escape.
Bake at 450F for 10 minutes then reduce your oven to 400 and continue to bake for another 10 minutes.
Let rest a few minutes before serving.
My mouth is watering again
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