Beef Wellington for New Years Eve

 Beef Wellington or Auld Beaky’s Boot  

Auld Beak being the name given to Sir Arthur Wellesley the 1st Duke of Wellington disparagingly by the troops under his command (he is said to have had a rather long hooked snout)

I was contemplating what to have for New Year’s Eve, we had invited a friend around to see out the old and greet in the new. I know that she likes beef and has a similar taste in doneness as we do, so decided on Lord Arthurs Wellesley’s filet of beef.

So the filet of beef was removed from the freezer (I had bought too much a few weeks ago so decided that freezing was the best option.

To make the detrempe (starter pastry)

390g plain flour

1 tsp. of salt (I always measure using the palm of my hand)

90g of butter

205ml of ice cold water

5ml of lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)

For the first time ever I made the detrempe using a kitchen machine, well it was there and I used it, was it easier well yes and no, it was ok that everything went into the bowl and you just turn it on, but you still have all of the washing up and a bit more.

So butter cut up into dice and added to the flour and salt in the machine, turned it on and watched as it turned into small crumbs, added the water and lemon in a steady trickle until the pastry came together , turned it out onto a floured board and kneaded until it was silky (just a couple of minutes) made into a ball, wrapped in cling film and into the fridge overnight.

For the puff pastry

300g of butter at the same temperature as the pastry

Next day  roll the pastry out into an oblong about 20 by 30cm.

Between two sheets of cling film bash, squeeze and roll the 300g of butter into an oblong, that is about 1/2 of the size of the pastry. 

 Place the butter one end of the pastry and overlap the other half over sealing the edges with a little water.

And massage the butter inside until it fills the pastry envelope, and give it a roll to even out the surface.

Now fold 1/3 over and then the other 1/3 over this (just like folding a business letter and roll out to approx. the same size as before.

Repeat the folding process and put in the refrigerator to rest. Each time you roll and fold it put a finger print on the right hand corner to tell you how many times you have folded it, rotate the pastry 90 degrees each turn.

Repeat the process 4 more times, always allowing to rest in the fridge between folding’s.  Our pastry is now ready for use.

The Duxcelle

2 shallots very finely diced

1 tsp. of butter

300g of mushrooms chopped very fine.

Salt & Pepper

2 tsps. of Cepes powder

Heat the butter in a small frying pan and soften the shallot in this, set to one side, now in the same pan (don’t add any butter) fry the mushrooms over a very low heat, you want to get rid of as much of the water in them as possible, you will be surprised how much comes out of them.

When cooked through and dry add the sautéed shallots 

 and then mix in the Cepe powder and season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.

The Filet of Beef

1kg beef filet from the thick end.

Buy a piece of filet from a good butcher, this should be marbled through with fat, not too much but visible. The filet was about 1kg in this case and came from my favorite butcheress. This came from an animal raised on grass and was a beef cow not a milk cow that had reached the end of it’s production days. This makes a big difference to the quality and more to the point the taste.

Sea salt flakes (I used Swedish because Linda had a box from our Swedish friend Kalle)

Fresh ground pepper

Fresh thyme picked from the stalks (do not throw them away, they will be used to flavor the Madeira sauce)

English mustard (you know the one wink, wink)

Season a board with salt, pepper and fresh thyme, roll the filet in this. Heat some oil in a frying pan and when smoking hot, brown your filet all over, don’t forget the ends. 

Wrap your filet in cling film and twist the ends and allow to rest.

You will require;

A  layer of St Danielle, air dried ham about 100g, I bought mine from an Italian stall at the market and it was truly wonderful, I explained what I wanted it for and he cut it wafer thin and the layer was exactly the size I wanted.

The duxcelle farce

The puff pastry

English mustard

Now assemble the Wellington.

Roll out the puff pastry in a rectangle until it is about2cm thick, you require a piece that will completely enclose the filet so don’t skimp, there will be off cuts, but that’s life.

Spread the duxcelle onto the pastry in a rectangle the length of the filet (if it is a little larger don’t worry. Now remove the filet from the cling film (save any of the luscious juices for adding to the sauce later)

Cover the duxcelle with the layer of St Danielle

Now paste the filet all over with the mustard  (ends as well)

and place this in the center of  the layer of pastry, duxcelle and ham, cut away the corners in a square ,

fold each side to the center using a little beaten egg to glue the overlap together. Fold the end flaps up to the top and glue these also with a little egg.

Turn the whole parcel over and put it on a baking tray, I used a silicon baking mat on the bottom (worked great) set it aside to rest until ready to go into the oven.

Just before you put it in the over give it an egg wash all over the top and visible sides, and decorate, I had seen Gordon Ramsey do this, so what is good enough for F’n Gordon is good enough for me.

Place in the center of a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees C and bake for 25 minutes (if it is a little pale raise the temperature to 190 for about 5minutes)

Remove from the oven and cut and serve adding any juices (there will be plenty) that run out during the slicing.

Madeira sauce.

Chopped stalks of the mushrooms used in the duxcelle

1 Shallot chopped (I used the ends of the 3 that I had used for the duxcelle)

1 stalk of celery sliced

Stalks of the Thyme

1 tsp.  of mustard 

20ml of Madeira (more or less)

200ml of chicken stock

Salt and pepper to taste

Any juices that come from the filet

1 dessert spoon of olive oil

Heat the oil in a pan and add the mushrooms and shallots, pour in the Madeira and heat to get rid of the alcohol (OMG did I say that). Put in the thyme stalks and add the stock, let it slowly bubble away and reduce. When ready to serve, pour through a sieve, stir in the mustard and adjust the seasoning (adding any meat juices).

 Pommes Boulanger

750g of potatoes thinly sliced

200g of finely sliced onions

1 Clove of garlic crushed

Butter

Salt

Pepper

200ml Chicken stock (any stock will do but Linda had a big pot simmering on the stove so I nicked some of that)

2 tsp of chopped fresh rosemary

Rub the garlic around the cooking bowl, butter the bowl, place the crushed chopped garlic clove in the bottom and now start to layer the potatoes, and onions in alternative layers, sprinkling with rosemary, pepper and salt and dotting with butter between each layer. After the final layer of potatoes pour over the stock and dot with butter.

Cover and place in the oven at 180 degrees for about 40minutes (it depends on the potato sort), when they are cooked through, remove the cover and raise the temperature to 220 degrees and brown and crisp the top layer.

Added to this we served mange tout peas,

 some green asparagus

 and “Schwarzwurzel” (Black Salsify) in a crème sauce.

Black Salsify is a winter vegetable, this is a bit of a bind to prepare, you must first scrub it (I have never seen it sold ready scrubbed) to remove all the soil that adheres to it. Then it is pealed (put on rubber gloves or you will have brown fingers for the next few days) and put it into vinegar water until required, it goes brown very quickly if left in the air. The cream sauce was just some low fat crème fraiche stirred in.

So our New Years menu was:

Starters:

 Fois Gras stuffed dates

Served with Prosecco

Soup:James Martins Celeriac Soup

A celeriac soup, with croutons and crispy panchetta

The main:

Beef Wellington, with mange tout, green asparagus,black salsify, pommes boulanger and a madiera sauce.

The wine was a St. Emilion Grand Cru 2009

The plate of food

Dessert:

Was a fine cinnamon parfit with spiced damson preserve (damsons from Linda's hof)

We had a very enjoyable evening, the meal was wonderful, the beef was so tasty and butter soft. We ate our meal, turned on the tele to watch Freddy Frinton in Dinner for one, this is a must see here in Germany and is on every New Years Eve. We then turned onto BBC to see the New Year in to the Sound of Jool's Holland, his band and guests.

So it's a very Happy New Year to everyone, with health, wealth and happiness in 2012!!!