Blow your guests away with this classic and incredibly delicious Beef Wellington. Serves: 10 Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 2 hours (including resting time)
Ingredients 1kg beef fillet 3 tablespoons olive oil 250g chestnut mushrooms 50g butter 1 large sprig of fresh thyme 100ml dry white wine 12 slices prosciutto 500g puff pastry 30g flour for dusting 2 egg yolks beaten
Method1 Preheat the oven to 220⁰C. 2 Brush the beef fillet with a tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. 3 Seal the beef fillet in a pan with a tablespoon of butter. Make sure that the pan is very hot in order to colour to the meat. 4 Place in a baking tray and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. 5 While the beef is cooling chop 250g chestnut mushrooms as finely as possible till they resemble breadcrumb texture. 6 Heat the remaining oil and butter in a large pan and fry the mushrooms and spring of thyme on medium heat until all moisture from the mushrooms has evaporated. 7 Remove the mushroom duxelle from the pan and cool. Don’t forget to discard the thyme. 8 Overlap 2 large pieces of cling film on a clean counter top. Make sure that the counter top has been wiped with a damp cloth to stop the cling film from moving. 9 Lay 12 pieces of prosciutto on the cling film, slightly over lapping in a double row 10 Spread half the duxelle over the prosciutto. Place the fillet in the middle of the prosciutto and cover the meat with the remaining duxelle. 11 Using the cling film roll the prosciutto over the beef fillet and roll into a sausage shape twisting the ends of cling film to tighten as you go. 12 Dust your work surface with a little flour. 13 Roll out a third of the puff pastry into a 18cm x 30cm strip and place on a non-stick baking sheet. 14 Roll out the remainder of the puff pastry to about 28cm x 36cm sheet. 15 Unwrap the rolled beef fillet and place it on the smaller sheet of puff pastry. 16 Drape the larger piece of puff pastry over the top of the fillet. Carefully shape the puff pastry layer around the beef fillet making sure to secure the edges. 17 Trim the joins to about 4cm and seal the rim with a form or the back of a spoon. 18 Brush the pastry casing with the egg yolk. 19 Mark the top scoring with long diagonal lines (do not cut deeply into the puff pastry) 20 Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge 21Place in the oven and cook for 25 minutes till the pastry is golden brown.
