Traditionally an expensive dish to make because the cut of beef is prohibitively pricey. Beef Wellington is also a bit tricky to make as the pastry crust around the meet tends to get soggy unless you fully sear the meat and have a good vent at the top of your crust. Making smaller individual Wellingtons not only solves this problem, it makes a very cool presentation on the plate. For this I use beef tenderloin strips (or elk back strap strips if I had a successful hunt). I am going to give you the recipe using frozen puff pastry dough (such as flaky pie crust), but encourage you to make your own crust. It takes more time, but you will be more proud of yourself.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Beef tenderloin – cut into 6 strips
- 8 oz Cremini mushrooms
- 8 oz Frozen puff pastry sheet – thawed (or make your own)
- 1 Shallot – finely diced
- 1 egg
- 2 oz Tuscan Italian dressing
- 2 oz Parmesan cheese – grated
- 1 TBL Parsley – finely chopped
- 2 tsp Pepper – freshly ground
- Salt to taste
Process
- Mise en Place – measure and prepare your ingredients prior to starting.
- Preheat oven to 450F (230 C)
- In a food processor, chop mushrooms.
- Heat dressing in a skillet on med-high and add mushrooms. Cook 2 mins.
- Add shallots and cook ~2 mins, until liquid is all gone.
- Put mixture in bowl and add the Parmesan and parsley.
- Pepper both sides of each strip of beef.
- Heat skillet (or Dutch oven), on Med-high and add meat. Cook on each side ~1 min.
- Let meat cool at least 5 mins.
- Cut pastry into 6 squares ~10″x6″.
- Spoon the cheese mixture onto each square and place a strip of meat on top.
- Fold the pastry around the meat and cheese mix and flip over.
- Cut a small vent in the top of the crust so moisture can escape. I use a small round coring tool.
- Brush the crust with egg, this will help you have a hard golden brown finish on our crust
- Bake ~15 mins, or until crust has a nice brown finish.
- Cool ~7 mins before serving.
