Beef wellingtons

Name: Beef wellingtons
Total time: 45 min
Yield: serves 4

45 minutes + chilling
serves 4
A little effort

Perfectly cooked beef, mushrooms and flaky pastry make the best beef wellington. Make these individual versions for a special occasion or just for special family and friends

December 19, 2014 at 2:33 pm

Ingredients

beef fillet steaks 4 small, trimmed
olive oil
shallot 1, finely chopped
butter
chestnut mushrooms 200g, finely chopped
thyme a couple of sprigs, leaves stripped and chopped
puff pastry 300g
parma ham 8 slices
egg 1, beaten to glaze

Method

Step 1

Heat a frying pan until very hot. Rub the steaks all over with olive oil and season well. Sear for a minute on each side, then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely.
Step 2

Cook the shallot in a knob of butter until soft, add the mushrooms and thyme, then season and cook, stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will give out a bit of water, so keep cooking them until there is no moisture left in the pan. Leave to cool.
Step 3

Roll out the pastry to 20p-thickness. Cut out 4 circles that are 2½cm larger than the fillets, and 4 more circles that are 3½cm larger. Sit the smaller circles on a baking sheet.
Step 4

Sit the fillets on 2 overlapping pieces of ham and top each fillet with some of the mushroom mix.
Step 5

Wrap each of the fillets up in the slices of ham.
Step 6

Sit each fillet on the smaller pastry circles, then brush the edges with egg.
Step 7

Drape over the larger circles and press to seal, making sure there are no air pockets.
Step 8

Mark the edges with the back of a fork and glaze the outside with egg.
Step 9

Score the top of the wellingtons. Chill for 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Bake the wellingtons for 12 minutes for medium rare, 15 minutes for medium.