Beef Wellington

The recipe I know wraps it in a pancake before the pastry. I imagine that keeps the juices from giving the pastry a soggy bottom.
Other than that, just don't overcok the beef!

www.raymondblanc.com/recipes/beef-wellington/

This is Raymond Blanc's

I watched a recent Jamie Oliver programme where he did a beautiful EASY Beef Wellington. Season and sear the beef, make mushroom duxelle by frying off onion, mixed mushrooms and lastly a small amount of chicken livers which you then chop up small and coat the beef, then roll in ready made good quality puff pastry. It looked perfect I'm sure you can probably find it on his website or on catch up TV.
PS He didn't do the classic one wrapped in a pancake or with pate de fois gras thankfully.

I would love to cook beef wellington, but the meat needs to be pink, and DH would absolutely not eat it that way. The last time I had it was when DS was dined out by his mess on leaving the RAF. It was perfect and sublime. They cooked DH a well done fillet of beef and he was a happy philistine! I hope you find a good recipe and have an enjoyable Christmas lunch.

When I've done it (before the dreaded gluten intolerance) I did one very similar to the Jamie one that Teetime mentions but I think the pastry was lined with bacon before rolling. Don't forget to slash the top.

Jamie Oliver did a Beef Wellington on Channel 4 last night and made it look easy. Something I hadn't seen before was that he cooked the assembled parcel on its baking tray on top of the hob for a while before baking to make sure that the bottom was cooked. Hope you can find it on catch up or You Tube.

Jamie Oliver Beef Wellington

I made it years ago,as a relatively new wife, for a dinner party. The partner of one of DH's friends who was new to us, took one look at it and whined 'I don't like under cooked meat'. I served everyone else who thought it was amazing and then put it back in the oven for her until it was cinders! Never made it since but I do like to eat it occasionally

Jamie oliver just can't leave anything alone! The traditional beef wellington does not need a load of soggy mushrooms inside it.
First the beef. it must be well hung. Ask the butcher how long and buy one that has been hung for 3 weeks which you can expect for that price.
That and good class puff pastry should be adequate. The beef must be pink so buy a meat thermometer and check the temp in the centre of your prize piece. Good luck.

I thought a traditional Beef Wellington always had a stuffing inside it, usually a mushroom and pate type.

I did cook it once when I was a young wife but I think I only put the stuffing on the top not all round.
DN often makes that on Christmas Eve.

Perhaps I should try it again soon.

I should imagine that it would be rather dreary without the duxelle under the pastry.

I made this several times years ago and the recipe I used - probably from the Cordon Blue book or similar - said to cook the beef for a short time first in the oven and then cool and take any string off!! Then put pâté on the top before encasing in the pastry. It works quite well if you use shortcrust pastry too if you are not keen on puff. I agree about the mushrooms not being a good idea - I tried that only once!

I have never had a Beef Wellington without pate or mushrooms and it was quite the thing when DH and I were 'courting' around 100 years ago!

I like Delias individual ones. Not the same wow factor though.

The layer of whatever you use between the meat and pastry are what "makes" it IMHO

You have to have a few breadcrumbs in the duxelle mix, I think, to soak up juices so that it's not soggy.

sez she who only made it once but have eaten it a few times since.

I haven't looked at any recipes yet, but the tip about cooking the baking tray from the bottom on the hob before putting it into the oven sounds a good idea.

For the layer between the meat and the pastry I may go for bacon, maybe with mustard and/or herbs. Or fried onions...

For the vegetarian contingent, I was planning on doing cheese wrapped in pastry to look similar. Probably goat's cheese.

I don't think I've ever actually eaten Beef Wellington myself!

I used the one from Mastering the art of French Cooking and I always did a mushroom duxelles. DH always refused to carve in public so it goes to the table(rare) a heap of flaking and bloodied pastry. You can see why I refuse to give dinner parties these days. It looked beautiful.

I bake a slice of puff pastry just the size of the beef before wrapping in the pasty. Made it last week for the family- went down well.

Well, thank you for the helpful hints. I did it almost entirely à la Jamie and the best part was the mushrooms!

I showed it to the guests before I started slicing it, so it wasn't so bad then, when I put it on the table once it was sliced. Unfortunately, I did it slightly too long and it wasn't pink in the middle any more. Difficult to keep to the time when guests are arriving and drinks are being served and one party has a toddler who might, or might not have slept.

The goat's cheese in pastry that I did for the DIL worked out very well, even though I didn't add anything - not even salt and pepper. I gave one which was left over to my sister-in-law and pointed out that, as it was only cheese and pastry, she could even use it as a sweet dish with honey.

I am not brave enough to do it for my guests later in the week

Glad it went well, JackyB. I might give it a go one day.