Flaky, buttery and meaty: Beef Wellington is for dinner

With the new year starting, even though we might not be able to have the larger gatherings that we long for, perhaps we can look on the bright side a little. A smaller group means we can up the ante on what we make.

Today we will be learning to make a version of a classic — Boeuf Wellington (it’s ok, we can still say beef) with a classic French Bordelaise sauce. Now, at the core, beef wellington is beef wrapped in puff pastry and baked — perhaps a little simplistic, but true, nonetheless. The key to this is a crispy, buttery puff pastry.

It is a layered dough with butter between every layer, and while a homemade puff pastry is great, and while I could teach you to make this layered dough, it is much easier and time saving to go to the store and buy premade frozen puff pastry. It is in the freezer section of pretty much any grocery. The one thing you will need to do is to make sure to thaw the dough in the refrigerator for a couple of days in advance. The dough needs to be pliable without being too soft. Many recipes for Beef Wellington call for prosciutto or ham, we will not be adding that in this version, but if you would like to add some, feel free — it is your dinner after all.

Let’s get started.

The Filling (Duxelles)

•One teaspoon olive oil

•One-pound fresh button mushrooms-minced

•One teaspoon crushed garlic

•One-pound fresh spinach-rough chopped

•4 ounces shredded swiss cheese

•One teaspoon salt

•One teaspoon ground black pepper

• One tablespoon Dijon mustard

In a medium sauté pan, add the oil, minced mushrooms and garlic and sauté just until the garlic starts to lightly brown. Now add the chopped spinach and cover the pan. This will help steam the spinach and keep it soft. This only takes a minute, so check it and stir it frequently. As soon as the spinach is wilted, add the rest of the seasonings and the mustard and mix well. Now add the shredded swiss, stirring constantly and remove from the heat. Set this to the side while we prepare the next component.

Bordelaise Sauce•¾ cup dry red wine (cabernet or merlot)

•2 medium shallots, finely chopped

•¼ teaspoon dried thyme

•One bay leaf

•2 cups beef stock

•One ounce roux

•Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Put the red wine, shallots, thyme and the bay leaf into a medium saucepan and bring to a low boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and let it reduce by 50%.

What this means is that we are gently boiling off the excess moisture until the volume in the pan is reduced by half. Once we have reduced the wine, we will add the beef stock. As before, I prefer to use a demi-glace product — “Better than Bouillon.” We will add ¾ of a tablespoon per cup of hot water to make our stock, mixing it well. Now reduce this wine/stock mixture by half. The next step is to strain the sauce through a fine strainer and return to a low simmer. We’ll thicken the sauce by using roux (butter and flour). Or in classic French cuisine, you can mix one tablespoon of softened butter and one tablespoon all purpose flour into a beurre manie, which is an uncooked roux. The effect is the same; we’re going to whisk a little at a time into the hot sauce until thickened.

Beef Wellington•4-six-ounce tenderloins

•Salt

•Ground black pepper

•2 tablespoon cooking oil

•Duxelles (from our previous step)

•Puff pastry

•One egg-whisked

In a large sauté pan, heat the oil. Generously season each tenderloin with salt and pepper and carefully add to the hot oil. We want to keep the heat high, because our purpose here is to sear the entire outer surface of the tenderloin, so we need to flip it and roll it until every side has a nice brown crust.

Be very careful not to overcook the meat though, because we will be putting it in the oven, and it will go up at least one level — medium rare will become medium, etc. — so be sure to cook the pieces one full level under what you like to eat! While the meat is searing, lightly flour your work surface and lay out the puff pastry sheet. It should unfold easily. Cut it into four equal pieces. One at a time, roll the pastry out until it about ¾ larger than before. Put around ¼ cup of the duxelles filling in the center of each pastry sheet and spread evenly, you can add more or less depending on the yield of your batch and your personal taste.

Add the seared loin to the center of the pastry and wrap it up like a birthday present. Then turn them over so the bunched closure is on bottom, and put them onto a sheet pan you have sprayed with a non-stick spray. Brush with your beaten egg to cover the entire package and put into a preheated 350-degree oven. The time this takes will vary from oven to oven, so I’m not going to tell you how long, except to say around 10 to 15 minutes, generally.

Keep a close eye on it. As soon as the crust is golden brown, remove it from the oven and let it rest 10 minutes. You can serve this with your favorite side dish — I recommend roasting some carrots and new potatoes since your oven is already going to be on. Plate each Wellington and cover with the Bordelaise sauce, pour a glass of a rich Cabernet and get ready for the compliments.

Until next time.

Bon Appetit.