Friday, March 29, 2013

Beef Wellington for Good Friday


 I am a huge fan of Chef Gordon Ramsay. I know many people will disagree with me but that is my opinion and he is a HUGE inspiration for me (even if he sorts of dislikes vegetarians ahaha!).
I love watching him and his shows, from the F-word, Kitchen Nightmares, Kill Your Meat Before You Eat, to his Great Escape adventures, MasterChef and of course, Hell's Kitchen.
I bet many culinary enthusiasts have come across his video on how to make Beef Wellington. I have always wanted to try it but being that beef filets/tenderloins are uber pricey, I never really dared to think about it. A few days ago, my family and I were brainstorming what to have for the Easter long weekend. We were pretty tired of turkey from Christmas, ham from New Year's, pork from Lunar New Year's, duck from  a dinner a couple weeks ago and chicken from a dinner a couple days ago. My lil bro brought up Beef Wellington, I wanted to make rack of lamb and we wanted to try goose. Geese are hard to come by this time of year so we had to choose between Beef Wellington and lamb. Since the weekend is long and we're food lovers, we decided to have Beef Wellington on Good Friday, possibly Filet Mignon (from the left-over cut we got for the Beef Welly) for Saturday and Sunday and Rack of Lamb for Easter Monday. I'm going to have a huge cooking adventure this weekend. :D

I did a lot of research on Beef Wellington and Gordon Ramsay's version was pretty simple. Some varieties excluded the mustard; used both pate and the mushroom duxelles; and even used crepes to avoid getting the pastry soggy.
I decided to incorporate all versions.
I layered the beef parcel with the homemade crepes, liver pate, prosciutto, and mushroom duxelles. The beef filet was brushed with mustard and I wrapped it all up in some store-bought puff pastry (I have no time to make it from scratch. It's just easier to go buy some.)
I was very, very, very nervous when I placed it in the oven. I was afraid it may come out raw. However, it came out just right: medium rare. And it was a hit with the family! I served thick slices of the Beef Wellington with roasted parsnips, potatoes, carrots, yellow sweet potatoes, onions and mushroom gravy.

Huge beef tenderloin from Costco. Seems like a fortune but it's so worth it, and very good $$/serving
It's beautiful!!!
Browning the filet! Get color to get the flavor.
Layering of crepes, liver pate, prosciutto and mushroom duxelles
(Left) Mushroom Gravy, Roasted Vegetables, Beef Wellington, Portobello Wellington


For myself, I made a Portabello Wellington. I sandwiched  two roasted portabello mushrooms with goat cheese, covered it in mushroom duxelles, crepes and puff pastry. It was fantastic!!
Portobello Wellington!

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