Since I'm a big believer in creating a full menu when I cook, I decided to pair my beef wellington with garlic mashed and asparagus topped with hollandaise sauce, which is a bit heavy all around, I'm sure some food network chefs would chastise me for not having something light to break it up, but I cook for real eaters, and this is how we roll.
Also, cooking without a glass of wine is criminal. Since I planned on opening a bottle of red for the meal, I decided to start with Fess Parker Chardonnay, mmm buttery deliciousness.
Starting with the beef wellington, I needed to prepare the duxelles mixture. For those of you wildly uneducated folk (to be fair I had no idea this had any part in beef wellington) duxelles is a mushroom, shallot concoction that is wildly delicious. I might just start making it to eat by the spoonful but I'll save that for another day.
Mushroom Duxelles:
-1/2 lb mushrooms (I just used the plain old white mushrooms, but I'd be curious to experiment with something a little more flavorful, morels maybe?)
-2 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
-3 Tbsp finely chopped shallot
-1 1/2 Tbsp of fresh thyme leaves
-1/4 cup dry vermouth, sherry or white whine (I went with sherry, mostly because I already had some in my cabinet)The recipe suggested to finely chop the mushrooms using a food processor, unfortunately I no longer have a food processor so I had to get after it the old fashioned way. Grab your big ass knife and do what must be done.
Once you chopped it all down, here comes one of the weirder instructions I've ever followed. Scrape all of the mushrooms into a clean cotton towel (make sure you don't mind if it gets stained, because that's about to happen) Wrap the towel around the mushrooms, and over the sink, twist the towel to wring out as much liquid as you can. This step became especially strange because you're dealing with completely dry mushrooms. However if you keep wringing it out, and seriously get after it, it will take a minute for anything to start happening. Eventually though the towel will start to soak up whatever bizarre liquid lives inside mushrooms. Get as much as you can out and set the mushrooms aside for a minute.
Personal tip: read the entire recipe before you start going step by step. This may seem like common sense, and if you said to me "Danimal, you're an idiot of course you read the whole thing" the first thing I would do is slap you, no one talks to me that way. The second thing I would do is explain that I myself (and I am sure countless others) dive right into a recipe and then come to a step where all of the ingredients are not properly prepped for that moment. So read ahead, get everything ready, it will eliminate the "oh, crap!' moments from your cooking experience.
Chop the shallots, prep the thyme and for good measure, set aside the sherry. This way everything is ready to go right when you need it.
Grab a big non-stick skillet (10 or 12 inch will get the job done - I'm in love with my 12 inch skillet...we're very happy together) and heat it with the burner set somewhere between medium and medium-high. Throw the first tablespoon of butter in there. OBVIOUS TIP ALERT: swirl the butter to make sure it doesn't burn.
Add the mushrooms, shallots, thyme and a pinch or three of salt and pepper. Cook it for about five minutes or so stirring often until the mushrooms have browned a little bit. Add the other tablespoon of butter and once its melted add the sherry and continue cooking and stirring until it evaporates.Can we talk for a minute about how sautéing butter and onions of any kind smells? Heavenly, thats how.
When the sherry evaporates get it out of there, throw it a bowl or whatever container you prefer and stick it in the fridge to cool. You may think to yourself "Self, I'll just set this aside because I'll need it in a few minutes when I start assembling the beef wellington." Well you would be wrong. I'll get to the reasons eventually but I did not cool my duxelles and I ran into some minor issues later. Nothing that couldn't be fixed but it would have been better if I had cooled it.
So while I was doing all of this, I got my potatoes started.
Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Chives
-2 heads of garlic
-1 tablespoon of olive oil
-2.5lbs of red-skinned potatoes, peeled
-1/2 cup whipping cream
-1/4 cup of butter
-2 Tbsp of sour cream
1/2 cup fresh chives - chopped
Preheat the oven to 425, cut the top off the head of garlic so you can see the cloves. Place them in a small baking dish and drizzle the olive oil over it, throw in a touch of salt and pepper just for good measure. Bake for about 45 minutes. When its done you can literally squeeze the garlic cloves out of the head and into a small bowl and set aside.
Peel the potatoes. BONEHEAD MOVE ALERT: Don't try to send all of the peels down the disposal drain. It will back up, badly. I learned this lesson a long time ago, then I learned it again three or four more times before it really stuck. Once I learned it with some leftover tuna that had spoiled. Any time your sink is spewing old tuna all over the place you aren't having a good day.Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling water until the potatoes are very tender, probably about 20 minutes. Since the idea is to be able to mash them, you definitely want to make sure they are tender or you are just making more work for yourself. Plus you end up with hard chunks, and while I do like a few lumps in my mashed potatoes you don't want to have to really CHEW your mashed potatoes.
Once they are tender, drain the water and return the potatoes to the pot. Stir over low heat for a minute or two to make sure that all of the water is evaporated (who wants watery potatoes - not this guy). Add everything and mash it. Useful if you have the fun little mashing tool, if you don't, well, you're on your own. A fork might work, it might not, go buy the mashing tool, seriously, like now, do it now.
Beef Wellington
-2 filets mignon - 1 inch thick (to be fair, I made 4 but I'm an overachiever)
-2 sheets puff pastry
-1Tbsp unsalted butter
-4Tbsp Mushroom Duxelles (I don't know exactly how much the duxelles recipe made, but I used all of it - the more the merrier right?)
-1 egg
-Proscuitto
At this point there is a whole lot of juggling going on, timing is usually the part of cooking I have the most trouble with. Trying to get everything to be ready at the same time is no easy feat.
Somewhere early on it is in your best interest to start the puff pastry thawing (if you made your own then you're a better person than I)
If your filets are an odd shape, get some kitchen twine to tie them into a more round shape, which works better for the whole wrapping them in puff pastry thing. Season the steaks with salt and pepper (don't be shy, add more, and when you're done add a little more) Grab that skillet you were using earlier for the mushrooms and heat it over medium heat. Add the butter and swirl away until melted. Toss the filets in there for about 3 minutes a side. You just want to sear them a little bit. Do not overdo it here for you will end up with medium-well or well-done steak at the end. And if you like you're steak that way, then 1: You're an idiot and B: You don't know what you're missing.
Allow the steaks to cool and then wrap them in wax paper and toss them in the fridge for a while. This is a step I chose to skip as well. And in a second I'll explain why that was not a good idea on my part.
At this point if your timing is working out, your garlic should be out of the oven, so preheat the oven to 400. Whisk the egg together with 1Tbsp of water to create the egg wash.
Now that everything is ready and the puff pastry is thawed lay out the puff pastry and get ready to make magic happen. Don't forget to flour the surface where you lay out the pastry or you will be in for a world of hurt, ok maybe just an annoyance but do it anyway. I initially forgot to do this, and immediately regretted it.
Spread a few tablespoons of the duxelles on the pastry, toss a filet in there and wrap it in proscuitto. Then wrap the puff pastry around it. I'm sure there is some fancy way to do this. I was more concerned with function at this point. Lather, rinse, repeat depending on how many you are making. Once wrapped brush with the egg wash.
Here is why its so important to cool the duxelles and the fillets. If they are hot or even warm, guess what happens, the pastry starts softening and sticking to everything. And I do mean everything. It makes it extremely hard to A: wrap the filets and 2: to pick them up and transfer them to the pan.
You can survive this mistake, I sure did. But when puff pastry is melting/falling apart in your hands you will realize there was a better way to do it.
Transfer the wrapped filets to a roasting or baking pan and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the internal temp of the steak is around 120F (get a quick read thermometer)
Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
At this point my potatoes were completely done and just staying warm over low heat (I'd just stir/check on them every few minutes). The steaks are in the oven with 30 minutes to go. Since the asparagus doesn't take very long I hadn't even thought about them yet.
-1lb Asparagus (I seriously don't think I had a whole pound. Cook as much as you need or as little)
-3 egg yolks
-salt and white pepper
-1 ice cube
-1/2 cup of unsalted butter - melted and kept warm
-2-teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
So for cooking the asparagus I just followed the recipe I had from the Williams Sonoma Sauces cookbook. But looking back I would grill them, asparagus is always better grilled. But from the recipe I took my big ol' skillet (I told you I love this thing) filled it about 3/4 full with water and brought the water to a boil over high heat. Toss the asparagus in and they'll be tender and ready to go in about 5-7 minutes.
The sauce was weird, I've never made hollandaise before, but I love sauces so I thought it would be fun. Its actually not that fun, it is stupid. In a saucepan (dammit my big one is in use) add three tablespoons of water, the egg yolks and a pinch of salt. Cook it over low heat and whisk like crazy. The recipe said to do it for 1-2 minutes until the mixture turned foamy. My mixture never turned foamy. It then says to continue whisking until it turns a pale yellow and starts to thicken. This also did not happen. You might be starting to understand why I think this sauce is stupid.
It then warns about the sauce turning granular and adding an ice cube if it does. This also did not happen. Then you are supposed to start whisking in your melted butter, 1 Tbsp at a time. It started to resemble something at this point but not a thick looking hollandaise. I hate this sauce, have I mentioned that. Once all the butter is in there add the lemon juice. Point of fact: I did not use "fresh" lemon juice, I didn't care enough to go buy lemons and squeeze them. However as soon as I added the lemon juice the entire concoction magically transformed into this thick liquid the recipe was talking about.
Season it with salt and white pepper and serve it soon or the world will end. More likely: the sauce will thicken to the point of being no good or curdle which would be even worse.
If you have timed everything right, and I did because quite frankly I'm a genius, then the filets should be just about done. Time to start plating.
Everyone gets a filet, some potatoes and asparagus. Then spoon the hollandaise over the asparagus. I didn't try this, but I bet you could spoon some of that good stuff over the potatoes as well, seriously why wouldn't you try that? Oh well, missed opportunity.
I chose to pair everything with a bottle of Firestone Pinot Noir, which was outstanding. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
All in all it turned out fantastic if I may say so myself. There were a few missteps that I would correct if I made this again. Obviously I had a minor debacle with melting puff pastry, but I recovered nicely. I also slightly overcooked the steak. I can't figure it out if I did this when searing the steaks or if I left them in the oven a little too long. But they came out closer to medium than medium rare. Definitely still delicious and acceptable, but I like it when my steak is still bleeding. 
Where I found my recipes:
http://cookingfortwo.about.com/od/beef/r/beefwellington.htm
http://cookingfortwo.about.com/od/ingredients/r/duxelles.htm
Williams Sonoma Sauces Cookbook
Epicurious: Garlic Mashed with Chives
Bravo! We want more!!
ReplyDeletep.s. Does this mean you'll cook for us in Vermont??
p.p.s. The fettuccine with sausage recipe looks suspiciously familiar...yum!
xxoo M&C
Of course I'll cook in Vermont. Usually I don't cook when we're all together because everyone else wants to, so I let them. But I'll definitely put something together in VT.
DeleteAnd yes, I believe I have you to thank for the fettucini recipe, but I cant remember.