Tips/Tricks?

Hey Guys,

Making a big dinner for my sister tomorrow. Planning on making salad with a basic balsamic vinaigrette, then comes the hard part of making a Beef Wellington, that I've never tried on making, I'm looking for a good recipe, planning on using Ramsay's wellington recipe, but is there anything better out there? Or if Ramsay's is pretty good, any tips on how to change it for the better, from what I've seen I should leave out the prosciutto and add some foie gras? Then I'm also making a chocolate cheesecake in the morning, have a great recipe from Nigella Lawson. Does this sound like a pretty good meal to you guys? Anything I should know about cooking these things that I probably don't (I've made the cheesecake before, and the vinaigrette is really easy).

Cheers,

I was thinking that for the salad I would probably do arugula and diced tomatoes with the vinaigrette. Agreed with BDL about not sparing any olive oil, I'm thinking maybe a good red wine/balsamic vinegar? But the real trick in my book is around a Tbsp of minced garlic, garlic makes everything better. Going to look for some Dijon when I run out to the store in a bit.

As I said before, I've never tried making Wellington, I could even take that further that I've never even had Wellington, so I have no idea how it's good, and how it isn't. So parma should give it some good saltiness then, but how about the Duxelle, anyway I can sub it out/make it without a blender, I noticed on Gordon's video that it's really minced, to a degree I don't think I can do with my knife skills. Can I just use foie gras instead?

Sauce is a great idea IMO, but I just have no idea what will go with it best? I'm thinking marchand du vin, as proposed by you. The fact that it makes things more complicated is no issue, I basically thought of the hardest dish I could make, so you could say my sister is my guinea pig ;) I think she'll be alright with my Wellington unless something goes horribly wrong. :/

By the way, I'd love to try your recipe sometime, but my sister's husband already bought a nice tenderloin, which I'm basically forced to use just because I go back to boarding school Monday morning. I was thinking of making one Wellington for the three of us, but then I read over the idea of individual ones, which sounds great, anything I should do different in preparation other than making 3 different pastries, and as for when you cover it in mustard (should I use normal English mustard?), then do I give it another sear?

As the cheesecake goes, I think I'm sticking with it, but I might try to make a good pumpkin pie tomorrow, any secret tricks for it welcome as well. Weekends are the only time I have access to an actual kitchen, in boarding school, food is much worse than you'd expect, I actually brought a second suitcase filled with can soup, just because I'm not sure they know how to cook anything other than chicken there. By the way, what do you guys think? Graham cracker crust or digestive biscuits (living in the UK, so biscuits might be more accessible)? Never made it with biscuits before though .

Thanks for the replies,

Zoui21

So I made it, and apparently it's pretty good considering I'm 15. Cheesecake is currently in the oven, but it'll only be ready by tomorrow, so I guess we now know whats for dessert tomorrow. :) Have pics of the main dish today, I made one big wellington and one individual wellington (which turned out to be the better wellington, props to everyone for the idea). I messed up the big Wellington when I cut it because everything didn't bond too well because of the ham, even though it was a very good addition. So basically my first wellington experience went pretty well, and next time I make them I know I need to make individual wellingtons and a) make the parma bond the beef and puff pastry better or b) don't use parma ham and add a little extra salt. The duxelle was great because I found a food processor and some fresh thyme at my sisters. A little white wine and it was perfect

This was the individual one, the better one in my opinion. Had it with a side of arugula and tomato salad with a perfect vinaigrette.

And this was a piece of the whole wellington, which had better salt distribution, but fell apart when I cut it :(

This one doesn't look too pretty

By the way, thanks BDL for the idea of the red wine reduction, in my sister's opinion, it was the extra kick that brought the wellington over the top. My first time making a red wine reduction, and it was great.

Now I need to try an acclaimed wellington to see if I compare

Will post pics of the Cheesecake tomorrow if anyone is interested.

Hope this looks like a good attempt,

Zoui21

Not a bad trick, yea, I've used it before, but mostly only if I needed very finely grated cheese/zest a citrus. Will try that next time, but telly you the truth, the garlic was not overpowering, I did mince it pretty well though if I do say so myself (I used fresh garlic, not the stuff in a jar). It may have been more of a teaspoon than a Tbsp though, but it worked out pretty good in proportion to the amount of oil and balsamic

PS. Here's the chocolate cheesecake, just had a piece for lunch, pretty delicious. :D It cracked a bit so I covered it up with some berries, I think some whipped cream would have been nice, but I didn't have it anywhere close.