Beef Wellington is a traditional English dish, made from beef fillet garnished with mushroom stuffing, all baked in puff pastry. While the exact origins of the recipe remain uncertain, we do know that it was named after Arthur Wellesley. Former Duke of Wellington and Prime Minister of Great Britain, he is best known for defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
Beef Wellington recipe
Ingredients
For 6 people, allow approximately 1.5 kg of beef fillet. We generally opt for the central part, in a piece of uniform thickness. You also need 450g of puff pastry, 2 tbsp. mustard, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of olive oil, and 60g of butter for cooking.
For the stuffing, we use 450g of mushrooms of your choice. It is even possible to use a mixture of several species. Add to this 2 onions, 2 shallots, 2 cloves of garlic, a bunch of thyme and 8 thin slices of ham. Finally, we provide 2 egg yolks as well as a little flour for cooking the dough.
The realization
The joke
The first step in making beef Wellington is preparing the stuffing. Peel the garlic, onions and shallots, and chop them finely. We cut the cleaned mushrooms into small pieces.
In a large pan, brown everything in 30g of butter, then add the stripped thyme. Leave to brown for about 10 minutes before removing from the heat to cool.
The beef fillet
We then move on to the beef fillet which we season generously with salt and pepper. In another pan, heat the remaining 30g of butter with the oil, before browning the roast on all sides to create a sort of waterproof shell. This will help “retain” the juice inside the meat during cooking in the oven. Be careful not to cook the meat: allow around 1 to 2 minutes per side. Once this process is complete, let the meat cool, then brush it generously with mustard.
Assembling the Beef Wellington
Before assembling, don’t forget to preheat the oven to 200°C/th.6-7.
On a floured work surface, spread the puff pastry into a rectangle. Then place it on a lightly floured baking tray. We delicately cover it with slices of ham, which we cover with fried mushrooms. To finish, place the roast in the center before folding the puff pastry over to wrap everything. To be sure to hold your beef Wellington tightly, you can also use cling film which you place under the puff pastry before closing everything.
Before putting it in the oven, brush the top of the puff pastry with egg yolk using a brush, to give it a pretty golden color. Finally, lightly perforate the top of the dough so that the steam can escape. You can even decorate the whole thing by placing pieces of puff pastry on top in the shape of stars or crosses, or by drawing geometric shapes directly on the dough using a knife.
The cooking
All that remains is to put it in the oven and cook for around 40 minutes (more or less depending on the desired doneness of the meat). Once removed from the oven, let your beef Wellington rest for at least 10 minutes to give the meat time to absorb the stuffing and juice. Good tasting !
