Beef Wellington

Posted by Vanessa in Cooking, December 21, 2009

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Filet + Puff Pastry = Insanely Delicious

We were having a family Christmas dinner last week, and I wanted to make something special.  I was searching for ideas, when I came across something I’d written on my to-do list a few weeks back:  Tyler’s Beef Wellington.  It was settled.  A great, hopefully, dinner for some awesome people who were driving a long way to see us.

Tyler’s Beef Wellington was a lot more involved than what I ended up making.  My husband basically just wanted beef tenderloin wrapped in puff pastry, so I cut out all the extra steps, and had success with it.  That’s not to say you couldn’t add in all the fixin’s.  I bet it would be amazing that way too.  I’ll link to Tyler’s recipe so you can check it out, but below you’ll find exactly what I did.  And let me tell you, this is an expensive piece of meat, but seriously melt-in-your-mouth delicious, so maybe give it a whirl for Christmas dinner.  (We just decided we’re having Airman Anderson’s Chicken on Christmas Day, because to my husband, Asian food is where it’s at.  Amen.)

And please don’t be disgusted by the picture.  I know it looks kinda gross where I checked the meat with the meat thermometer and juices ran out.  I’m sorry.  Really it tastes great, I just didn’t get a good picture of it.  Sigh.

Beef Wellington

recipe adapted from Tyler Florence
Details
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes.
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes.
  • Ready in 60 Minutes.
  • Makes: 8 Servings
Ingredients
  • 1 (approximately 3-pound) center cut beef tenderloin (filet mignon), trimmed
  • butter
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 box puff pastry, thawed
  • flour for rolling out puff pastry
  • 1 egg plus 1 tablespoon water, lightly beaten for egg wash
Directions
  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
  • Place beef in a small baking dish, and spread with 2 tablespoons softened butter. Season with Kosher salt and black pepper. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until browned. Remove from pan, and allow to cool completely. (Tyler browned his in a skillet and I\'m sure that works great too. I happen to have issues browning things in skillets so I took the safe route and did it in the oven. I was sweatin\' nervous thinking I might ruin this $40 piece of meat.) You can do this step way ahead of time and keep the meat in the refrigerator until you\'re ready to cook it.
  • When you\'re ready, preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
  • On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. Depending on the size of your sheets you may have to overlap 2 sheets and press them together. I used both sheets. Remove beef from refrigerator and set the beef in the center of the pastry and fold over the longer sides, brushing with egg wash to seal. Trim ends if necessary then brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef - saving ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. I added a few star cutouts with the leftover pastry to make it pretty. Cut a few slits in the top of the dough too. Top with a little Kosher salt. Place the beef seam side down in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  • Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown and beef registers 125 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven and rest before cutting into thick slices.
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