Beef Wellington
prep: 35-40 mins, plus cooling and chilling
cook. I hour 5 mins-l hour 20 mins
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2 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
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1.5 kg/3 1b 5 oz beef fillet, cut from the middle of the fillet, trimmed of fat and sinew
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55 g/2 oz butter
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150 g/5h oz mushrooms, chopped
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2 garlic cloves, crushed
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150 g/5h oz smooth liver påté
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few drops of truffle oil (optional)
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1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
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2 tsp English mustard
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500 g/ 1 1b 2 oz ready-made puff pastry
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1 egg, lightly beaten
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1. Put a big frying pan over high heat and add the olive oil. Rub salt and pepper into the beef and sear in the pan. (This method gives a rare version. If you.want it less rare, roast it at 2200C/4250F/Gas Mark 7 for 20 minutes at this stage.) Set aside to cool.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat, add the mushrooms and fry for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat, add the garlic and fry for another 5 minutes. Put the mushrooms and garlic in a bowl, add the påté, truffle oil, if using, and parsley, and beat with a fork. Leave to cool.
3. Rub the mustard into the seared beef fillet. Make the pastry into a rectangle large enough to wrap the whole fillet with some to spare. Spread the mushroom paste in the middle of the pastry in a shape the size of the base of the beef and lay the beef on top. Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and fold it over, edges overlapping, and across the meat to enclose it completely.
4. Preheat the oven to 2250C/4250F/Gas Mark 7. With the join underneath, place the wrapped beef in a roasting tin and brush with beaten egg. Leave to chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, then transfer to the preheated oven and bake for 50 minutes. Check after 30 minutes — if the pastry looks golden brown, cover it in foil to prevent it burning. Remove from the oven, cut into thick slices and serve.
The fillet is a very tender prime cut of beef
with a good flavour making it ideal to
this special occasion recipe