Manageability – Pretty complicated, but not the worst.
I will never, until the day I die, skip a chance to make and eat a delicious steak. God created cows and woman said “well that will be my food now” and never looked back. So I leapt at the chance to make Kevin is Cooking’s Individual Beef Wellington, and it was dang good. A bit complicated, but dang good.
Some other recipes want you to use foie gras with your steaks, but I ain’t bout that. Fattened duck liver? No thanks. I’ll caramelize some onions and make a butter compound instead. And they are a tasty duo, to boot. I’ve had gorgonzola butter on steaks several times and this is a great way to do it. During assembly my puff pastry cracked, probably because I had to roll the sheets out, but I made up for with some pastry bows and Christmas trees.
Generally, I was just pumped to find beef tenderloin at my local grocery store. These are juicy, herby, buttery, savory, and lots of other descriptors that end with “y”.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 4 oz Gorgonzola crumbles
- 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary (leaves chopped)
- 3 lbs beef tenderloin filets (4 filet – 2 inches thick)
- 3 tbsp bacon fat (or olive oil, or butter, or motor oil, or oil from a teenager’s face)
- salt
- black pepper
- 1 yellow onion (large, thinly sliced)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 sheets puff pastry (bottom sheets are hard to fold)
- 2 eggs beaten (separated)
- 2 tsp of water separated
Instructions
Compound Butter
- Let butter come to room temperature and place in a bowl with the Gorgonzola crumbles.
- Chop the rosemary and mix in with butter and Gorgonzola cheese. With a spatula incorporate all the ingredients and fold onto a sheet of wax paper. Roll the butter mixture into a cylindrical shape working with the wax paper. Twist the edges and refrigerate until firm. Don’t giggle at the word “firm”.
Wellingtons
- Trim the fat off the filet and use kitchen twine to tie in a circle to hold it’s shape if needed. Season with kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. Sear both sides to seal in juices quickly in a hot pan with bacon fat, olive oil or butter (about 2 minutes a side). You want the outside caramelized and browned (not grey, that means your pan is not hot enough) and the inside pink. I just realized, cooking steak is probably harder for colorblind people. Sucks for them. Allow meat to rest and cool.
- In the same pan add the sliced onions and 2 tablespoons of butter and slowly brown and caramelize. This takes about 45 minutes on low. Do not burn and stir often. Set aside and cool.
- Allow puff pastry sheets to come to room temperature.
- Remove compound butter from refrigerator, unroll from plastic wrap and slice two 1/4 inch rounds per filet. Roll up and refrigerate the remaining compound butter.
Assembly
- Assemble with puff pastry sheets rolled in a rectangle. Slice in half to make 2 squares. In the center of each sheet top with 2 slices of the bleu cheese rosemary compound butter, a quarter of the caramelized onions, then the seared filet. Be sure to cut off the twine. I also found twine left over from the butcher, so keep your head up out there.
- Gently fold the puff pastry up and around the Wellington stack of ingredients, trimming the excess and keeping things as smooth as possible. Set each one seam side down on a tray lined with parchment paper that will fit in your freezer easily. Put any cut out puff pastry decorations on top and brush with egg wash and repeat the entire process with other filet.
- Place the dish with the Wellingtons in the freezer and after 1 hour cover with plastic wrap and continue to freeze for 4 hours or up to five days. (See Note 1)
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the other egg in a small bowl and set aside. Remove the Wellingtons from the freezer (do not thaw) and brush each with a fresh coat of egg wash. Put them on a lightly greased heavy rimmed baking sheet OR with a silicone sheet OR parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F and bake another 30 to 35 minutes. Using a meat thermometer – the internal temperature should be 120°F for a rosy, moist filet and 130°F for medium rare. Remove from oven, set aside and rest for 10 minutes. Cut each Wellington in half, and serve immediately.
Notes
- This is one of those recipes with a lot of steps and prep, so it’s great for making ahead of time and then when ready, bring it out and cook it. The freezing assists in keeping the center of these from getting well done since these are individually cut. You do not have to freeze, but it’s recommended.