Easy Beef Wellington - Food Wishes

[Music] hello this is chef john from food wishes.com with beef wellington that's right i'm going to show you just how easy it is to make an individual beef wellington featuring a perfectly cooked filet mignon the world's most amazingly delicious mushroom pate all wrapped up in a crispy pastry crust that's actually cooked all the way through and i don't think there's any other recipe i know of that has disappointed so many people that tried to make it and a lot of that is bad technique but also wildly unrealistic expectations about the crust but we'll get into that later and we have a few tricks up our sleeve but first we need to get started by making our duck cells which for me is going to start by slicing and then finally chopping up these brown mushrooms and while most recipes have you do these in a food processor into a fine paste all right for me using that method the mushrooms just don't dry out and caramelize like i want them to so i'm going to take the extra three or four minutes and chop them up nice and fine like this at which point we're going to cook those down in a ton of butter set over medium-high heat along with a nice big pinch of salt and what we'll do is cook those stirring for as long as it takes for them to become beautifully browned deliciously caramelized and almost fully dehydrated which is going to take a few minutes so don't be in a hurry and as usual when we cook mushrooms they're going to be all wet and soggy at first but then eventually they will dry out and all those little pieces will start frying in that butter and before you know it they will look a little something like this but we're not done because once they get to this stage we're going to add some minced shallots or if you want instead a little bit of onion and garlic or hey you could put all three and we'll go ahead and cook that for another few minutes or till those shallots soften and sweeten up and turn translucents as well as our mushrooms get even browner and more beautiful or in other words looks a little something like this and then once that happens we're going to finish this up with a little bit of freshly ground black pepper a couple shakes of cayenne and a couple three tablespoons of white wine which is my preference even though a lot of recipes call for things like cognac or brandy or sherry for me those are a little too sweet for this very rich dish so i prefer the white wine and basically as soon as we stir that in and that wine evaporates which is only going to take a couple seconds we will turn off the heat and we will transfer this into a bowl to cool and then as soon as this mixture is about at room temperature we will add the last and most important ingredient two ounces of the finest truffle infused pate you can find and we will toss that in and mash everything together with a spoon and please note we're gonna need one of the smooth style pates for this not that core stuff which i usually sell as country pate all right the smoother the better and if you can't find one that has truffle in it don't worry you could if you want just add a few drops of truffle oil to a regular one or just do it without but it really does add a nice flavor and generally the fancy grocery store you go shop at define this and the puff pastry and the filet mignon they're going to always have a few different kinds of pate and almost always one of them will feature truffles along with duck liver or chicken liver and or pork liver in fact not to brag but mine had all three and it might not look like it but that is one of the most delicious things you will ever taste and if you just stood there and ate the whole bowl no one would blame you but please don't so we'll just set that aside and move on to the beef and for each beef wellington we plan to make we'll need one piece of perfectly trimmed center-cut beef tenderloin which we are generously going to season on both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper and we'll want to make sure we get some salt and pepper on the sides as well and as far as the portion size goes we have to get one that weighs between seven and eight ounces okay so make sure your butcher weighs the man shows you and if you're doing more than one they have to all be the same and if you're keeping score at home mine was exactly seven and a half ounces which i think is ideal then what we'll do once this is seasoned is go ahead and brown it up in the same pan we did our mushrooms in that we tossed some more butter into and set over high heat and to be clear we are not cooking the fillet at this point we are just browning the surface to give it a little bit of a head start and also create a ton of flavor and as you can see i like to do this thing where i kind of sweep the butter that's melted in the pan underneath the fillet which may or may not do anything but it makes me feel good and i assume the same goes for the beef and besides searing both sides nice and brown we will also want to give those sides a little color as well and that's it once that's been nicely browned as shown we'll transfer that onto a plate and then into the fridge so it can chill before we wrap it up speaking of which let's talk puff pastry all right one reason i really prefer the individual beef wellingtons to the ones done with a larger whole piece of tenderloin is because the frozen puff pastry you get at the store almost never comes in nice large sheets okay it's usually creased and folded into panels like this which makes working with larger pieces of beef much more problematic but if we're doing a single portion one of these quarters is going to be perfect so we'll go ahead and transfer one of those onto a floured surface and as usual we want to work with puff pastry while it's very very cold alright so place it down frozen and then as it just starts to thaw and get pliable we can begin to build our wellington and the first step of that would be to place down about three tablespoons of our mushroom duck cell pate mixture and we will gently press that out into roughly the same size and shape as our fillet and again it's very important that our pastry is still nice and cold and firm otherwise you're going to be pressing that pastry out too thin which is actually going to be the top once this is baked and then once that's that we can go ahead and top it with our chilled fillet but not before we spread it with a little bit of dijon a trick i picked up for my good friend who i've never met gordon ramsay who actually spreads it on his before he covers it with the mushrooms and for some reason prosciutto which he says he does for flavor and to keep the pastry crisp but i think it makes no difference and i really don't want my beef tasting like ham but hey what do i know and then what we'll do once that's been mustard is go ahead and place that dijon side down on top of our mushrooms at which point we will wrap this with our now very pliable dough and i like to start by kind of stretching out folding over these shorter sides okay if you're working with a square piece of pastry never mind but i'm going to bring those sides up first and then the other two ends and we're attempting to cover this without stretching that dough too much okay it's totally fine to stretch it out near the bottom which is going to be underneath but we really don't want that dough that's going to be on the top stretching out too thin so please be gentle and try to only stretch and pull the stuff that's going to be underneath and if there's obviously extra dough in some spots go ahead and pull it off and no we do not need a perfect seal at the bottom in fact a couple small holes is actually an advantage since that's going to allow some moisture and steam to bubble out underneath and i believe will help keep the top even crisper so to me that is looking pretty good right there and then we'll place that in the fridge until exactly 15 minutes before we're gonna put these in the oven at which point we're going to pop them in the freezer for exactly 15 minutes okay our pastry has to be super cold before it goes in the oven and then the last thing we're going to prep here is our secret weapon which is an extra piece of puff pastry that we cut into a circle that's roughly the same size as our wellington and then what we'll do once we place that on some parchment on a sheet pan is go ahead and dock it with a fork which is going to let steam escape and help this dry out and get a little crispier and then what we'll do is go ahead and toss that into the center of a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes at which point we'll take it out and we will flip it over and we will press it down with our spatula and then we will put it back in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes or until it's beautifully cooked and perfectly crispy at which point we'll simply let that cool and then use it as a base after we cut our wellington and i'll explain why later but you probably already figured it out and that's it assuming our wellington has chilled for 15 minutes in the freezer we'll go ahead and pan that up which i'm going to do on top of some foil with a piece of parchment from the package of puff pastry okay might not stick to the foil but i want to be safe and then we'll place our wellington down at which point we'll give it a very thorough brushing with an egg wash which is simply a beaten egg with a teaspoon of water and no we do not need to waste time decorating this which is fine if you want to i mean you are the duke ellington of your beef wellington and if you want to jazz it up with some marks on the surface go ahead but i don't think it's really going to make any difference since once this is baked we're going to cut it and present it with the cut side up and you're not even really going to see the sides and that's it once that's been brushed we'll go ahead and pop that into the center of a 450 degree oven for between 23 and 25 minutes or until it looks like this and if you're checking the center with a probe thermometer i would pull this at like 122 which is probably going to end up at like 130 by the time it rests and yes we do want to get it off that hot pan and transfer it onto a plate or right onto the cutting board and then do not even think of cutting into this for at least five minutes and while mine was resting i made sure everything in the house was totally quiet because i wanted you all to hear exactly what it sounds like when you cut into a beef wellington featuring a crispy cooked all the way through puff pastry except just as i started to slice the alarm i'd set for the resting time went off so this is what you get instead but anyway hopefully you could hear how crispy that was and you can definitely see how perfectly this is cooked and then after cutting it in half i'm going to trim and then eat a little bit of puff pastry off both sides which is going to help us sit up nice and straight on our plate and that's it we'll go ahead and plate up by transferring that on top of that crispy piece of puff pastry we cooked earlier and yes if you're gonna do a classic old school recipe you have to go with some old school classic plating as well oh yeah that is how you got a michelin star back in the day oh and by the way i really do think we want our filet to have that beautiful rosy color but it still has to be hot to the touch okay if it's a beautiful rosy color but it's still lukewarm or cool to the touch it's too rare or at least i think so and then feel free to serve this however you want but i went with a very simple brown pan sauce which is nothing more than a very high quality beef stock reduced down with a little bit of wine vinegar and then finished with butter and yes i am going to do a quick video for that but very very simple and easy and i think beautiful and that's it are surprisingly easy perfectly cooked without a whole bunch of extra tricks beef wellington is ready to enjoy and one thing that you have to know here is no matter what technique you used and no matter how perfectly crispy your puff pastry was coming out of the oven as soon as it's cut and you're serving it that pastry is definitely going to absorb meat juices and fats and become saturated with all that goodness but that's normal and fine and delicious okay there's a huge difference between soft pastry and raw pastry so as long as your pastry cooked all the way through and it looks like a thin piece of bread and not like a piece of raw cookie dough you did a great job and should not be disappointed anyway but because everybody does like crispy buttery flaky pastry that's why we put the extra bit underneath because now we get the best of both worlds okay we have that pastry that was wrapped around the beef and mushrooms which is crispy on the outside but as we discussed on the inside is soaking in all those glorious juices and then we're pairing that with the unsaturated extra crispy pastry on the bottom for a one-two punch that's hard to beat but anyway above and beyond the texture of our two different kinds of pastry here the flavors in this thing are just out of this world right that rich savoriness of that pate sort of melted into those mushrooms which were already an umami bomb really just defies description and no if i didn't tell you you would have no idea there was liver in this so please relax and make it as shown because it really is perfect and i think one reason this recipe got so complicated over the years is that people kept trying to come up with tricks for keeping the pastry super crispy like wrapping it in parma ham or wrapping it in a crepe to absorb the moisture but trust me none of that really matters since that pastry is always going to soften and absorb moisture once it's cooked that is just science so we're not going to obsess and we're going to hedge our bets by cooking that little extra piece of pastry and then we're just gonna allow ourselves to enjoy this as the food gods intended with no regrets and no second thoughts although possibly a second glass of wine and no it's not nearly as hard as you thought it was as long as your technique is sound and your expectations for the pastry realistic you should be able to produce something as good or better than this which is why i really do hope you give this a try soon so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts a printable written recipe and much more info as usual and as always enjoy you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 459,700

Rating: 4.9376187 out of 5

Keywords: beef, wellington, recipe, easy, individual, tenderloin, classic, holiday, Christmas, chef, john, food, wishes, cooking, recipes

Id: wZmGgx2WkNw

Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/kittycatpajoffles]

:O! Great idea for a smaller meal for one or two people.

[u/skeenerbug]

This look amazing, if only I could afford filets