Beef Wellington is one of my all-time favourite dishes, IGI - any chance you might post the recipe in question here?

Happy to, Ian!

Beef Wellingtons



4 tbsp olive oil
4 fillet steaks
1 onion, diced
4 small garlic cloves
Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
125g (4½ oz) button mushrooms, finely diced
100g (3½ oz) girolles or shitake mushrooms, finely diced
2 tbsp double cream
4 chive pancakes
8 slices of Parma ham
1 kg (2¼ lb) puff pastry
4 egg yolks, beaten

1. First, make the chive pancakes:

4 eggs
150g (5½ oz) plain white flour
200ml (7fl oz) milk
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Vegetable oil for frying

Beat the eggs and flour in a bowl. When smooth, gradually beat in the milk to make a thin consistency. Heat a pan with a little oil and cook 4 thin pancakes (about 30 seconds each side works well). Transfer to a plate, separating them with a layer of greaseproof paper.

2. Sear the steaks for 30 seconds on each side (top, bottom, edges). Remove and cool. Heat the remaining oil, add the onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaf and cook gently for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and let them soften, then stir in the cream and reduce a little. Tip out and leave to cool.

3. Lay 1 pancake on a board and arrange 2 overlapping sides of ham on top. Spread one quarter of the mushrooms over the ham, then place a steak in the middle. Bring the ham and pancake together to meet in the middle over the steak and gather together like a moneybag.

4. Put the parcel in the middle of 3 rectangular sheets of clingfilm (you need 3 for strength) and fold up opposite corners of the film, gather and twist to close the parcel as tightly as possible. Make 3 more parcels the same way. Chill in the fridge for at least one hour.

5. Quarter the pastry. Roll out each portion to a 3mm thickness and cut out a disc, using an upturned dinner plate as a guide. Discard the clingfilm, then put a wrapped steak, seam side up, on the pastry base. Brush the edges of the pastry with egg yolk, then bring up over the top and trim excess pastry.

6. Seal the edges, pinching and smoothing the joins with water, then turn the parcels seam-side down and smooth into a round shape. Place seam-side down on discs of greaseproof paper and chill for 15 minutes. Brush with more egg yolk and chill again for 15 minutes. Repeat.

7. Preheat the oven to 180°C (Gas mark 4). Just before baking, score curved lines in the parcels with the tip of a knife. Place on a heavy, preheated baking sheet/tray, removing the parcels from their paper discs. Cook for 12 minutes for rare meat.

Yum.

Come on, Anna...where are you?!!

To follow, chocolate tart (Sainsbury's, I'm afraid; time is limited at the moment!) with a lemon meringue ice cream (home-made).

Antheil, it seems you're also clutching your newly-earned Fifth Star!

Very Christmassy if I may say so.

Beef Wellington? I'd have thought it would be more like

 

Tommo, can I come to your house for Boxing Day?

Of course, I'd love to have you both for Boxing Day.  (martle, stoppit!).  But seating space may be a tad of a problem.

But never mind - I may have some Ham left for a pagan New Year gathering.... 

Tommo

Actually, may as well tell you about the Christmas meal I'm doing.

Stuffings - i) sausagemeat with apple and chestnuts, with a healthy sploosh of Grand Marnier.  ii) sausagemeat with mushrooms and figs.

Stick them inside a duck.  (and put the remainder in a roasting dish).  Roast the Duck.

Meanwhile make the duck sauce - a sweet and sour one.

In one pan, brown some onions, then cook with some tomatoes, chopped carrot and herbs (delicate ones like thyme, rather than a full-nosed rosemary) and water to make a sort of tomatoey stock.  Let that bubble away whilst you do the sweet and sour bit.

In another pan, melt some sugar in a teeny weeny bit of water.  When it is on the cusp of going brown, add white wine vinegar little by little.  The sugar immediately goes hard, but keep heating and stirring and it will eventually go back to a syrup.

Then strain the tomatoey stock intop the syrup, and add dried apricots.  When the dried apricots have gone guey and glisten, take off the heat.  When the duck is ready, warm the sauce through again, and serve over the carved duck.

I'll be doing this with Stewed Red Cabbage, Roast Pots, brussels and parships.

Tommo

Made a paneer and spinach dish for tea today which was sort of based on a recipe on the back of the packet of paneer: Palak Paneer. I had to modify it a bit and increase the quantities of the spices but it turned out to be very nice. Paneer is quite odd, it's a whole milk cheese but it has a quite distinctive texture - certainly not like putting cheddar in your curry! I've only had it once or twice before. There's certainly a nice smell lingering in the kitchen at the moment! Served with Basmati rice, mango pickle, yoghurt and sliced onion and tomato.