Date Night Recipe: Beef Wellington

Today I'm sharing the recipe I used when I made Beef Wellington last week for Valentine's Day. Like I said before, this is probably the best meal that I've ever made, it was delicious! 

Beef Wellington with Gouda mashed potatoes
and green beans with shallots

I combined a couple of recipes to get exactly what I wanted. Most Beef Wellington recipes call for a whole or half of a beef tenderloin, but since I was making this for two, I decided to do individual Beef Wellingtons and it worked well.

Beef Wellington

- 2 1-1.5" thick filets mignons (1-1.5 lbs)

- salt, pepper, thyme, olive oil

- 8 oz white mushrooms

- 8 oz cremini mushrooms

- 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

- 6 slices prosciutto 

- 2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted or homemade

- 2 egg yolks

Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sear the meat on all sides. Make sure not to cook the meat, just brown it on each side. Remove and set aside to cool. Brush the filets with mustard on all sides.

By hand or in a food processor on pulse, chop the mushrooms into a fine paste, almost puree. Transfer the mushroom mixture to a hot, dry pan and cook on medium until all of the water evaporates. Optional, add some chopped thyme leaves while the mushrooms are cooking. When all of the moisture is gone, set aside to cool.

Lay out two pieces of plastic cling wrap on the counter.  Place 3 slices of prosciutto on each, slightly overlapping, and top with the cooled mushroom mixture.

Place the beef in the middle of the ham/mushrooms.  Use the plastic wrap to help wrap the prosciutto and mushrooms tightly around the beef.  Twist the ends of the wrap to tighten the roll. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to 24 hours.

Roll out your defrosted puff pastry sheets.  Cut a strip about the width of each filet away from the rest of the sheet, this will make the wrapping process easier.  Brush the middle and edges of the larger pieces of pastry with egg wash and then place the unwrapped beef roll in the middle.  Brush the filet with extra egg wash and top with the smaller strip of pastry. Roll the pastry over the beef completely covering it and cut off any excess pieces.  Pastry that is more than 2 layers thick may not cook completely.  Once the pastry dough is sealed, flip it over and put your rolls in the fridge for another 5-10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the rolls on a nonstick baking pan and coat the tops with egg wash and score the top with a knife. Bake for 30-40 minutes. The pastry should be very golden brown, but if it starts to burn while cooking, be sure to cover it with tinfoil, that will prevent it from getting too dark. 

If available, use a temperature probe to check the internal temperature so that you don't under or over cook it. Remove from the oven at about 125 degrees internal temperature for rare and 135 for medium-rare. Allow the rolls to rest on the pan for about 10 minutes, this will help the meat reabsorb its juices.  

Slice the Beef Wellingtons and serve! Our filets were so large that we split one Beef Wellington for dinner, so this amount of beef could easily serve 4+ people with other sides.  

Adapted from: Gordon Ramsay and Simply Recipes