Dear Reader,
How has your week been? I’ve had a fabulous one. Work has been busy with some unexpected challenges. Such challenges, however; accentuate the amazing skills and nature of the marvellous group of people I have the honour of working with.
Personally, life has been pretty good too. Feeling joy and happiness is wonderful.
Ingredients
- Eye fillet steak (beef)
- Dijon mustard
- Brown mushrooms (chopped)
- White onion (chopped)
- Parsley (chopped)
- Sage (chopped)
- Pitted prunes (chopped)
- Pâté
- Puff pastry (store bought)
- Instant gravy
- Broccolini
Instructions
- Truss a piece of eye fillet steak with butcher’s twine.
- Season the beef liberally with salt.
- Put the meat into a plastic vacuum bag and seal it.
- Refrigerate the meat for a few hours and let the salt penetrate the meat.
- Cook the beef in a water bath at 54 °C for about 2 hours.
- Refrigerate the meat in the bag overnight (this isn’t necessary but I cooked the meat on Saturday and cooked this meal today [Sunday]).
- Remove the meat from the bag and dry the surface of the steak with kitchen paper and snip the butcher’s twine and remove the string.
- Rub some Dijon mustard over the beef.
- Sauté the onions in a little rice bran oil or vegetable oil.
- Once the onions have become translucent, add the mushrooms and sauté until the schroom juices exude freely.
- Once the bulk of the water has become vapour, add in the prunes, sage, and parsley. Mix everything well and turn off the heat.
- Transfer the duxelles to the bowl to cool down. Have some absorbent paper in the bottom of the bowl to tamponade any free juices. I don’t want the duxelles bone dry, I want it to start off moist and once it gets hot again, it’ll get wet.
- One a sheet of puff pastry trowel a thin layer of pâté and then a thin layer of the duxelles.
- Place the meat on this and trowel some more pâté on the beef plus a layer of duxelles.
- Brush some melted butter on the exposed surface of the puff pastry.
- Add a sheet of puff pastry on top and press around the edges so the two sheets bind.
- Cut away the excess pastry with a blade and if you feel up to it, use the excess pastry to make some weird looking shapes to add on top of the pastry casing.
- Brush the pastry with some beaten egg and add a little flaky salt.
- Place the meat and pastry creation into a moderate oven and cook until the pastry is a golden brown.
- While the Beef Wellington is cooking, steam some broccolini and make the instant gravy.
- When the pastry looks good, remove the Beef Wellington from the oven and allow it to rest for about ten minutes.
- Slice the Beef Wellington in half and place one half on a dinner plate. Keep the other half in the refrigerator for a meal the next day.
- Put the broccolini on the plate next to the meat and then spoon over some gravy.
- Give thanks to the Lord for the meal and tuck in.
Spoilers | Have you watched any good movies lately? | Spoilers
Last night a friend and I watched Pig. It stars Nicolas Cage and a pig. It was released in 2021 we really enjoyed it.
The pig is a truffle pig, and Nicolas Cage plays a former chef with a dark personality.
When I say the movie stars the pig, it’s not like the movie, Babe. The pig is only seen in the first few minutes of the movie, but the pig forms a large part of the movie without being seen.
Final Thoughts
- Do you like Beef Wellington?
- How was your week?
- Have you seen Pig?
I love beef wellington and anything wrapped in puff pastry! I haven’t heard of Pig but I mostly watch tv shows online nowadays anyway 🙂
I always have sheets of puff pastry in the freezer when wrapping something in pastry takes my fancy 😊
The mention of Beef Wellington brings a big smile on my face as it is a gloriously familiar retro party dish from decades back. Very festive indeed !! I do not use sous vide and prunes have never entered the arena . . . but am used to the classic crepes placed between the pastry and the meat to absorb any liquids produced. Like the broccolini with yours . . . an absolutely delightful side ! smile What with watching the summer-sports-mad Australians doing so well at winter sports in Beijing one’s time limits have hardly led to looking at movies . . .
I recently watched a YouTube video of the traditional method using the crepes. I’m too lazy to go to that much trouble. My mother introduced me to using prunes for a little sweetness. I’ve used prunes ever since.
Interesting about the prunes ! Certainly a healthy variant !! I learned to make this in my 20’s – Time-Life in the sixties had a priceless series of around-the-world cooking I collected and most of which I still have . . . I have to check up and will, but methinks the recipe appeared in the classic St Petersburg Franco-Russian book – I said ‘I’ll never manage’ that and was so proud when I did. Yes, too much work for one . . . but oh so lovely when cooking for others . . .
I remember making it for in-laws when I was newly married. It turns out my ex mother-in-law preferred her beef well done.
No comment but a big smile !
smile a whole conversation just seems to be missing . . . ?
I’m not sure what is happening with disappearing comments
I have great memories of Beef Wellington. My mother used to make it all of the time, and in kindergarten, we were all asked to contribute a recipe for a Mother’s Day cookbook we were making as a class, with our recipes and drawings in it. When it was my turn to tell the teacher my favorite recipe, I told her about Beef Wellington, which was my favorite (still is). It was the only Beef Wellington recipe in the cookbook, and it left out a lot of steps as you can imagine, but my mother has kept it all of these years.
That’s a wonderful story and memory. What a treat to have Beef Wellington as a regular meal growing up. I only had it a couple of times growing up.
That looks delicious! Looks like you made a ‘weird’ ‘pastry face’ on top of the Beef Wellington. Eyes on the right…(Pareidolia)
Thanks, Alice. I see it now. Excellent 😊
For anyone else interested:
pareidolia /parɪˈdəʊlɪə /
▸ noun [mass noun] the perception of apparently significant patterns or recognizable images, especially faces, in random or accidental arrangements of shapes and lines:
there could be a mysterious stone coffin on Mars, or, more likely, it’s just the latest example of pareidolia.
Beautifully plated, Gaz! For me, the mushroom duxelles and the pastry are the best bits of a beef wellington… fairly quiet week here, as we’ve had two back-to-back severe storms, though my part of the world wasn’t the worst affected. Haven’t seen (or heard of) Pig, but it sounds interesting.
Thanks, Emma, I agree, I was lapping up the gravy with the pastry and duxelles into glorious mouthfuls.
Good to know there was no damage for you in the storms.