Beef Wellington by Raymond Blanc

This luxurious dish is a combination of rich beef fillet with earthy mushrooms, herby pancakes and a crispy quick puff pastry. This will wow your dinner guests and is easy to make following my recipe and using the Chef Titanium to do the hard work.

Difficulty

Medium

Time

175 min

Author

Raymond Blanc

Ingredients

Servings

10

Makes

1 pastry

For the puff pastry:

  • 250 g plain flour

  • 250 g unsalted butter, diced 2 cm, cold, *1

  • 5 g salt, finely milled

  • 125 g water, ice cold, *2

For the mushroom duxelle:

  • 100 g white onion, finely chopped

  • 1 sprig thyme

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 30 g unsalted butter

  • 2 pinches sea salt

  • 2 pinches ground black pepper

  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

  • 500 g flat mushrooms, finely chopped in a food processor

  • 10 g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

  • 2 g tarragon, leaves only, finely chopped

For the beef wellington:

  • 1 kg beef, fillet

  • 2 pinches sea salt

  • 2 pinches ground black pepper

  • 30 ml vegetable oil

  • 4 thin pancakes, herb-flavoured, cut into squares

  • 500 g puff pastry, (see recipe), rolled to 30 cm x 35 cm and 5 mm thick

  • 2 egg yolks

  • 1 pinch salt

For the red wine sauce:

  • 30 g unsalted butter

  • 2 shallots, small, finely sliced

  • 100 g button mushrooms, finely sliced

  • 250 ml red wine

  • 350 ml chicken stock, brown

  • 1 leaf tarragon

Utensils

Sauté pan large, Frying pan large, Baking tray large, Greaseproof paper, K-Beater

Instructions

To make the puff pastry:

In your Kenwood chef Titanium with the k-beater, mix the flour and butter at a low speed for 10 seconds. Add the salt to the iced water and gradually combine until the dough comes roughly together, this should take no longer than 10 seconds. You should still see lumps of butter in the pastry *3.

Remove from the bowl and on a floured surface roll into a rectangle of 1-2cm thickness (approximately 25cm x 10cm). Now to create a double turn; by folding both ends of the pastry into the middle to meet and then fold the pastry in half, rotate 90º, and repeat the double turn. Flatten with a rolling pin to a 2cm thickness, cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour *4.

Repeat the rolling process again, this time folding a single turn; fold a third of the pastry over, and then over again and refrigerate for a minimum of 1/2 hour or freeze until needed.

When ready to use, roll out a 30 cm x 15 cm rectangle 1/2 cm thick and reserve in the fridge until ready to make your Beef Wellington.

To make the mushroom duxelle:

In a large sauté pan covered with a lid, on a medium heat, gently sweat the onions and herbs in the butter with a pinch of salt and pepper for 5 minutes.

Once they're translucent and soft, remove the lid, increase the heat to high, add the garlic and cook for 20 seconds stirring constantly to reduce the liquid from the onions and cook out the raw garlic.

Add the finely chopped mushrooms, another pinch of salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes stirring all the time until they're cooked through and all the moisture has evaporated.

Add the chopped herbs and spoon the mixture onto a tray and leave to cool before placing in the fridge to firm up.

To make the beef wellington:

Season the fillet of beef with salt and pepper.

Preheat a large frying pan on a high heat and sear the beef on all sides in the oil for no longer than 2 minutes.

Place onto a clean oven tray and leave to cool.

Place the pancake squares onto the pastry, leaving a 1.5cm gap from the edge of your pastry.

Remove the thyme stalks and bay leaf from your mushroom mixture and spoon onto the pancakes, spread to an even thickness.

Place the seared fillet of beef in the centre of the mushrooms.

In a small bowl with a fork, mix the egg yolk and salt together and brush the inside edges of the pastry with the mix. Gently roll the pastry, pancakes and mushrooms around the beef.

Firmly press the overlap of pastry to seal in the beef and tuck the edges underneath.

Place this onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper with the seal on the bottom. Using a small knife, gently score the pastry with whatever pattern you chose, brush with the remaining egg yolk and leave to rest in the fridge while you preheat your oven to 200C.

Cook for 35 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and leave to rest for at least 15-20 minutes before you carve it at the table with a little red wine sauce and vegetable of your choice.

To make the sauce:

In a medium saucepan, on a medium heat, soften the shallots in the butter for 2-3 minutes, add the mushrooms and soften for a further 2 minutes.

Pour in the red wine and reduce it by 1/2. Add the stock, bring to the boil and continue to reduce by 1/2. Taste, correct the seasoning if required and infuse the tarragon for five minutes.

Remove the tarragon sprig, bring it back to the boil and serve alongside your beef wellington.

Chef's Notes:

*1 It is important for the butter to be cold and not soft so that it doesn't blend into the flour, retaining whole lumps of butter through the dough.

*2 The iced water ensures that the butter remains hard.

*3 The mixing time in the machine is minimal. If you over mix the pastry it'll develop its elasticity and become difficult to work with, shrinking when it is cooked.

*4 The resting time allows the butter to firm up and the stretched dough to lose its elasticity which would cause the pastry to shrink when it's cooked.