Beef Wellington

This is my take on beef wellington, I don’t add a pancake to the layers as some recipes call for and you can make this more special by having a nice fillet cut of beef and some white wine in your duxulle mix or use a normal cut of beef like I did in this recipe and some beef stock in the mushrooms. Either way this is absolutely bursting with flavour and a crowd pleaser.

Ingredients

Ready to roll puff pastry ,defrosted (500g ) 1 sheet will cover a 1kg cut of meat
1kg cut of beef. I’d go for the best you can here, I paid twelve euro for a 1.16kg cut of beef eye of the round for this recipe.
One punnet of mushrooms ( ideally go for a mix of chesnut and white mushrooms it will add more flavour to your duxelle)
Two chopped garlic cloves
salt
pepper
garlic granules
one beef stock pot
12 slices of Serrano ham
Oil
Thyme (3 sprigs)
Butter
One egg
Clingfilm

Method

Firstly season your meat and place into a fan oven at 200degrees for twenty minutes for medium cooking. Let the meat rest
Next finely chop up your mushrooms and garlic and cook them in a knob of butter for a few minutes. Add the thyme sprigs and beef stock pot with 100ml of water and cook gently until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove the thyme and allow to cool.

Now the fun part, assembling the meat. Lay out a large piece of clingfilm ( baking paper will do aswell if you dont have clingfilm to hand)
Place two rows of six pieces of the Serrano ham (one under the other) onto the clingfilm, overlapping the ham slightly.
Now spread half your duxelle mix over the ham and then place the meat in the centre.
Spread the remaining mushroom mix over the meat and now you need to roll the clingfilm to help you cover the meat in full with the ham. Twist either end of the clingfilm and place the joint into the fridge for at least thirty minutes before cooking. This can last twenty four hours in the fridge at this point.


Cut one third of the pastry roll off and roll it out with a little flour until you can see the base size of your meat and place onto a baking tray with baking paper.

After at least half an hour remove the clingfilm and place the meat onto the rolled out pastry.

Brush some egg around the pastry at the bottom.

Now with the remaining pastry roll it out so it covers the top and sides of the meat and with your rolling pin drape it over the meat and seal it to the bottom pastry.
Get a fork and go around the pastry and seal all sides of it at the bottom. Then with a knife gently scour the top of the pastry (do not fully cut it) and brush the remaining egg all over the pastry.

Put the meat back into the oven at 200degrees for approx forty minutes and when the pastry is golden brown. This time will give you the perfect medium cooking meat so adjust times if you like it a little more done .

Serve with roasties and veg of choice and enjoy!