Friday’s Flavors: Individual Beef Wellington With Blue Cheese

Hey, Foodies! Happy Friday!

I’ve always wanted to try Beef Wellington. Fillet wrapped in pastry? Yes, please! So when a package of puff pastry caught my eye right around my birthday, I thought, why not? And when I was researching the process, cooking times, etc., and I came across a recipe that added gorgonzola into the mix, I remembered the blue cheese crumbles I had in the fridge, and again thought, why not? So I did.

I must say that since I wasn’t willing to let this meal be an all day thing, I skimped on a couple of steps. After you pan sear the steaks, most recipes suggest refrigerating them for an hour – I only did this for 40 minutes. Also, after you wrap everything in the puff pastry, it’s suggested that you put the wellington in plastic wrap and refrigerate for another hour. I found an explanation that this is done to help the puff pastry keep its shape during cooking – I didn’t care if it was pretty, just tasty, so I skipped this step entirely and put them right in the oven. To my surprise, it held its shape perfectly, and the taste? Well, I’ll definitely be making this again!

Ingredients:

2 fillet mignon steaks, 1″ thick, brought to room temperature

1 package of puff pastry

mushrooms (I used 4 good sized baby portabellos)

1 large shallot

garlic, 2-3 cloves

salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

1 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. high smoking point oil

parchment paper

Preparation:

Salt and pepper the meat. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet on high. Sear both sides and all ends of the steak, then turn the heat down to medium, removing the pan from the heat while it cools if the outside starts to crisp. Depending on the size of the steak, cook for another 10 to 15 minutes. When steaks are done, refrigerate for 40-60 minutes.

While the meat is cooling, finely chop mushrooms and shallots. You could also use a food processor if desired. Melt 1 tbsp. of butter in a pan and sauté mushrooms and onions until the shallots become translucent and the moisture is cooked out of the mushrooms. (Tip: dry clean your mushrooms so you don’t add extra liquid to them.) Add crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Stir until garlic is fragrant, then remove from heat and allow to cool.

If you don’t plan to refrigerate the assembled steaks for an hour, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Beat 1 egg to use as an egg wash.

Lay out your puff pastry dough. I rolled the dough I was working with a little thinner because it looked rather thick. Spoon blue cheese crumbles onto the dough in roughly the size and shape of your steaks. Add the cooled mushroom mixture over the blue cheese. Top with a steak. Fold opposite ends of the pastry over, sealing with a sparing amount of egg wash if it won’t stick on it’s own. Fold the other two ends, making sure all seams are well and tightly sealed. Remove any excess dough.

At this point, you can put the pastry wrapped steaks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour, or you can go ahead with the cooking process. When you’re ready to cook them, place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and brush with the egg wash. Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

And that’s it! It was a touch more labor intensive than the average meal preparation, mainly because of the refrigerating time, but it was soooo worth it. The flavors melded together into savory steak perfection, and the puff pastry took it to a whole new level of delectableness!

If you try it, please let me know if you like it!

Check back next Friday for another Foodie Flavor!