Well, Well, Wellington

As in Beef. As in crusted with pastry. As in what Josh suggested I make for our at-home anniversary dinner.

I had never made such a meal. I had never considered it. I didn't think it was something I wanted to make. I didn't have a recipe.

But I did have the interweb and thus I had a world of recipes within my grasp. So I searched. And I found one. This one in fact:

Ingredients

For the Duxelles:

• 3 pints (1 1/2 pounds) white button mushrooms
• 2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Beef:

• 1 (3-pound) center cut beef tenderloin (filet mignon), trimmed
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 12 thin slices prosciutto
• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• Flour, for rolling out puff pastry
• 1 pound puff pastry, thawed if using frozen
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• Minced chives, for garnish
• Green Peppercorn Sauce, recipe follows
• Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
• Warm Wilted Winter Greens, recipe follows

Directions

To make the Duxelles: Add mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and thyme to a food processor and pulseshallot and mushroom mixture and saute for 8 to 10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool. until finely chopped. Add butter and olive oil to a large saute pan and set over medium heat. Add the

To prepare the beef: Tie the tenderloin in 4 places so it holds its cylindrical shape while cooking. Drizzle with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper and sear all over, including the ends, in a hot, heavy-based skillet lightly coated with olive oil - about 2 to 3 minutes. Meanwhile set out your prosciutto on a sheet of plastic wrap (plastic needs to be about a foot and a half in length so you can wrap and tie the roast up in it) on top of your cutting board. Shingle the prosciutto so it forms a rectangle that is big enough to encompass the entire filet of beef. Using a rubber spatula cover evenly with a thin layer of duxelles. Season the surface of the duxelles with salt and pepper and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves. When the beef is seared, remove from heat, cut off twine and smear lightly all over with Dijon mustard. Allow to cool slightly, then roll up in the duxelles covered prosciutto using the plastic wrap to tie it up nice and tight. Tuck in the ends of the prosciutto as you roll to completely encompass the beef. Roll it up tightly in plastic wrap and twist the ends to seal it completely and hold it in a nice log shape. Set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to ensure it maintains its shape.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry out to about a 1/4-inch thickness. Depending on the size of your sheets you may have to overlap 2 sheets and press them together. Remove beef from refrigerator and cut off plastic. Set the beef in the center of the pastry and fold over the longer sides, brushing with egg wash to seal. Trim ends if necessary then brush with egg wash and fold over to completely seal the beef - saving ends to use as a decoration on top if desired. Top with coarse sea salt. Place the beef seam side down on a baking sheet.

Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash then make a couple of slits in the top of the pastry using the tip of a paring knife - this creates vents that will allow the steam to escape when cooking. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until pastry is golden brown and beef registers 125 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven and rest before cutting into thick slices. GarnishSauce, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, and Warm Wilted Winter Greens. with minced chives, and serve with Green Peppercorn

Green Peppercorn Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1 cup brandy
• 1 box beef stock
• 2 cups cream
• 2 tablespoons grainy mustard
• 1/2 cup green peppercorns in brine, drained, brine reserved

Add olive oil to pan after removing beef. Add shallots, garlic, and thyme; saute for 1 to 2 minutes, then, off heat, add brandy and flambe using a long kitchen match. After flame dies down, return to the heat, add stock and reduce by about half. Strain out solids, then add 2 cups cream and mustard. Reduce by half again, then shut off heat and add green peppercorns.

This is Tyler Florence's Ultimate Beef Wellington.

Before Baking

On the serving platter after resting and slicing.

I made every part of it--including the Green Peppercorn Sauce. (I had to order the green peppercorns from a spice outfit in the Bronx. Then I had to find a brining recipe. Yeesh, the things I'll do for love,) I got to flambe it! That was fun. I'm not a big sauce person with my beef, but you just can't go wrong with cream and brandy.

Green Peppercorn Sauce (the green modifies the peppercorns not the sauce)

So let me go back to the beginning of the evening:

I made Ina Garten's Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms. The recipe said to bake them all squished together in a pan. I was only making 6. I didn't have a baking dish the right size! What to do?

Then I had what I thought was wonderful idea. The solution to all my problems. Use a muffin tin!

You can see that the mushrooms nestled in very nicely. They just didn't come out as cleanly as I had hoped. I thought that small tongs (like for asparagus) would have been the perfect tool. Not really. A paring knife and fork worked much better.

Josh made Manhattan's when he got home. He had to make the cocktails. You see, my anniversary gift to him was a Boston Shaker. (We exchanged gifts on Saturday. He is enamored of his new "toy." I got the America's Test Kitchen cookbook.)

We had salads. Caesar for Josh, complete with hardboiled egg and anchovies. Garden for moi. I forgot to take pictures of those. (If you like hardboiled eggs, you should really follow the link. These are beautiful and tasty.)

I made mashed potatoes. Josh told me that I make the best mashed potatoes. In the world. Better than any restaraunt. Better than his mom's. He likes that I leave the skins on. (Really, that's more of a lazy thingt than a culinary thing.) He didn't want me to do anything different from what I typically do. (Don't tell him I used buttermilk this time.) For the first time in our married life if not the first time in his entire life, Josh thought that maybe the potatoes were "too much with the starch" at dinner. I think the pastry on the beef was a slight sensory overload. We'll see how he feels about that tonight as we eat leftovers.

Mashed Potatoes

I made a spice cake for dessert. I forgot to take a picture of that, too. Sorry, I'm only a girl. The recipe came from my new cookbook. It's tasty, but not particularly special. Oh well. Live and learn, I guess.

I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking and I'm sorry I haven't been sharing. I will try to do better. I will tell you all, though, that I'm off to SC on 10/13. Mom's having sinus surgery and my presence as nurse and babysitter are required. I return on the 22nd, so maybe I'll have more to post then.

Till later,
Kristen