Beef Wellington is the perfect main for a special dinner. Cooking a spectacular dinner for friends and family has never been simpler with shop-bought pastry.
Ingreadient
- 1 fillet of beef, roughly 1.35kg/3lb
- dash olive oil
- 15g/½oz unsalted butter
- 4 thin shop-bought pancakes
- 1 pack (roughly 375g) ready rolled, all-butter puff pastry
- 175g/6oz chicken liver pâté
- 1 small free-range egg, beaten
- For the mushroom stuffing
- 55g/2oz unsalted butter
- 150g/5oz shallots, finely diced
- 250g/9oz flat black or shiitake mushrooms, roughly chopped
- 3 tbsp double cream
- salt and pepper
Direction
- Season the beef with salt and pepper on all sides.
- Heat the oil and butter in a non-stick frying pan, when hot, add the beef and seal until browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.
- To make the mushroom stuffing, heat the butter in the frying pan until foaming. Add the shallots and cook until softened and golden. Add the mushrooms and cook until all the liquid evaporates. Add the cream and season with salt and pepper. Continue to gently heat until the liquid has reduced slightly. Set aside to cool completely.
- Preheat the oven to 230C/210C Fan/Gas 8.
- Place two of the pancakes on the rolled out pastry sheet, slightly overlapping. Spread a strip of chicken liver pâté across the centre of the pancakes, to roughly the same width as the beef fillet.
- Cut three-quarters of the way into the beef, creating a cavity. Fill with the cooled mushroom mixture. Place the beef on top of the pâté and cover with the remaining two pancakes. Fold the pastry over the beef, trim any overlap and neatly fold the ends. Brush the seam with a little water and place seam-side down on a large baking tray. Decorate the top with the extra pastry, if desired, and then brush all over with beaten egg.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5 and cook for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden-brown.
- Place on a carving board and allow to rest for 5 minutes before carving into thick slices.
