Tuesday 7 February 2012

Beef Wellington

This morning, Marks and Spencer at Paddington Green had packs of two small fillet steaks for the reduced price of £4, which means that... Beef Wellington makes it into Potless!

Just because the 'use by' date is today, doesn't mean that the steaks will be any less delicious. In fact, I was watching an old episode of River Cottage, where Hugh F-W and Ray the Butcher were moaning that beef isn't hung for long enough before being placed on supermarket shelves. So, in fact, the beef I bought this morning is even BETTER than the fresher stuff (theoretically). Shhh - don't tell M&S.

Serve these beauties with boiled potatoes and steamed veg. You won't need gravy - the mushroom stuffing in the Wellingtons adds enough moisture. £3 per serving (for today only, perhaps) Hooray!

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

250g plain flour
250g cold butter, cut into 1 cm cubes
1 teaspoon of salt
150ml cold water
4 fillet steaks
1 tablespoon of olive oil
200g mushrooms, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried or fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of brandy, port or sherry
Pinches of salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
Steamed vegetables, to serve

To make the puff pastry: Lightly mix the flour, butter, salt and water in a bowl, until you have a butter-flecked ball of pastry. Refrigerate the pastry for 1 hour. Roll out the pastry ball, in one direction only,  into one long strip and fold the ends into the middle. Turn the pastry 90 degrees and repeat. Repeat this process for a third and final time. Cut the pastry into 4 equal portions and refrigerate until needed.

Fry the steaks in a blisteringly hot pan, in the olive oil, until seared on all surfaces, but not cooked-through (3 minutes approx). Remove the steaks from the pan and add the mushrooms, onion, garlic, thyme, brandy, and salt and pepper. Cook on a moderate heat until all liquid has evaporated and the stuffing is soft and translucent (30 minutes approx). Take one portion of pastry and roll it to a 5mm thickness. Place a quarter of the stuffing in an even layer on the pastry, leaving a 1cm margin around the edges. Place a steak on the stuffing and close the pastry parcel, using water to seal the edges. Brush with the beaten egg. Repeat for the other three Wellingtons and then refrigerate them for an hour. Bake in a preheated 220c oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on how rare you like your steak. Serve with the steamed vegetables.


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