Beginner questions on beef wellington

[welshstar]

Hi

New to this and appreciate that this is a basic question, but still would like some advice.

Id like to make individual wellingtons using a a nice say 6 oz fillet, the issues im not familair with are

1 - How do you get a nice even coating of duxelles around the meat without it just falling off.

2 - this is the really stupid one, what cooking dish should i use to get the wellingtons to cook nice and even all around and not stick to the cooware and fall apart when i take the out ?

3 - What is the correct pate to use ?

4 - Any other useful tips ?

Thanks for any help in advance

Alan

[kuan]

Chille the duxelle, and make sure you use butter. Chop the mushrooms very fine.

Fois Gras pate of course.

Don't know the answer to the pan. The bottoms will get brown. But you serve them presentation side up.

[bughut]

This is the way i do it. Not sayin its the right way, but here goes.
1. a 4oz fillet may seem small, but the final resut is quite a size.
2.I always use home made chicken liver pate. Cheaper than foi gras and tastes really good.
3. My freind swears by making crepes and spreading the duxelle on this before wrapping round the steak. reckons it stops it getting a soggy bottom. ( Havnt tried it myself)???
4. Use a flat tray for an even browning
5.

[ChefDrizzle]

just use a regular sheetpan, lay some parchment paper down on it and sprinkle some semolina or i normally use cornmeal on the parchment... this will help it not get too browned on the bottom and it will be much easier to get them off the pan.

[oldschool1982]

Drizzel is correct about using the parchment paper yet I've never heard of using cornmeal? Not only will the cornmeal stick to the bottom of the Wellington but it will impart a texture that simply doesn't belong in the dish (mhpo). As far as pate goes....Kuan hits the mark. It's Fois Gras all the way for me only I like to use the variety with truffles as an ingredient. If that is too rich for the pocket book then Truffle flavored oil mixed in your duxelle would suffice. As far as the crepe wrapped duxelle Bughut mentioned? An interesting thought although I've never heard of nor seen that technique. Then again there's a couple thousand miles of pond between our respective regions.

Generally I brush the inside of the pastry with egg wash and after cooking the duxelle, allow the it to drain in a chinois or other fine mesh sieve over night. The addition of some slight weight helps to drain away a good amount of moisture. Never found a way to get rid of all the excess moisture since the steak itself is going to provide juice/moisture as well.

Good Luck.

[DC Sunshine]

Saw an episode of Ramsay's Hells Kitchen where they were making Wellingtons. He simply puts an extra fold of pastry under the wellington, which doesn't matter if it burns, then once cooked, take it off the tray and trim that extra fold off, gives you nice pastry under and on top, by the looks.

As for the duxelle, I've seen the crepe idea work well on Rosemary Queen of the Kitchen (English show) (yeah I'm a cooking show junkie!!). I think Ramsay wrapped his in panchetta under the pastry, not 100% sure. But do let it cool first.

Good Luck

[foodpump]

When making duxelles, you have to really cook out the mushrooms, since they are 95% water it takes a while. Some people like to put breadcrumbs in the duxelles as well, and some just use a piece of toast smeared with pate. I've also seen people use pork caul fat to wrap the seared off filets with the duxelles.

For me what works best is to roll the puff out and cut out cross shapes, lay the seared off tender down, pipe the duxelle on top, and fold the cross shape up, flip over and bake.

[Mezzaluna]

When I was married 15 years ago we offered Beef Wellington or Salmon Wellington. The beef was traditionally prepared with liver; the salmon had mushroom duxelles.

This past week I was visiting with my family. My older brother told me that people had become ill from the beef version! He thought the liver smelled "off". No one was made ill from the salmon dish. No one had told me all those years ago, until now.

Lesson: be exceptionally careful holding this dish for service.