The Perfect Beef Wellington
 
Cooking a beef wellington can be quite overwhelming sometimes, but when made well it’s the king of recipes and a real bench mark for many chefs. Perfectly cooked, tender beef with a crisp buttery pastry, that’s the goal. Follow my recipe and you will be serving up this perfect luxury dinner for your friends and family.
 
Serves 6
Ingredients
 
1kg fillet of beef centre cut trimmed (ask your butcher) 2 tbsp Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme and rosemary
200g Wild mushrooms
200g Chestnut brown mushrooms
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Chopped rosemary and thyme 100ml Dry white wine
1 tsp Butter
12 sliced Cured ham
2 375g Ready rolled puff pastry 2 Egg yolks beaten for glazing
 
Here’s how:
 
Pat the fillet of beef dry with kitchen towel.
Drizzle the oil over the fillet of beef, then season with salt, plenty of pepper and the chopped herbs.
Pre heat a large non stick frying pan on a medium to high heat.
Place the beef into the pan and cook until golden on all sides.
Remove the beef from the hob and place in the fridge.
Chop the mushrooms into small pieces and place in the same pan that you cooked the beef in as there is plenty of flavour there.
Season the mushrooms with salt, as this will draw out the moisture.
Add the butter and stir together.
When you have cooked the mushrooms for 5-6 minutes the mushrooms should have released their moisture and the liquid should have evaporated.
Pour in the white wine and turn up the heat to boil down the wine to intensify the flavour.
Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Overlap two pieces of cling film on a clean worktop, then lay 12 slices prosciutto on the cling film, slightly overlapping.

Spread half the mushrooms over the prosciutto. Sit the fillet of beef on top and spread the remaining mushroom on top of the beef.

Use the cling film’s edges to draw the prosciutto around the fillet, then roll it into a sausage shape, twisting the ends of cling film to tighten it as you go.

Chill the fillet in the fridge while you roll out the pastry.
Lightly flour the worktop and unroll the pastry.
Place the beef wrapped in the ham and mushrooms on one half of the pastry. Brush the edges with the beaten egg yolk, then place the other roll of pastry on top.
Press the pastry around the beef and trim the excess.
Transfer the wellington onto a non stick baking tray and brush the top with the beaten egg.
Place the wellington into the fridge and chill for 30 minutes before brushing again with the remaining beaten egg yolk. This will help give a wonderful golden glaze when baked.
Pre heat the oven 180c and bake 20-25 minutes for rare, 30 minutes for medium. Allow the wellington to rest for 10 minutes before you serve.
For a simple red wine sauce boil 1 pint of red wine and 1 pint of beef stock down to 1/2 a pint. Whisk in 50g butter and serve.
Try serving this dish with a Bordeaux, Chianti or my personal favourite a Malbec.
 
Recipe by Peter Sidwell