Beef Wellington

According to the trusty Wikipedia:
"Beef Wellington is a preparation of beef tenderloin coated with pâté (often pâté de foie gras) and duxelles, which is then wrapped in puff pastry and baked."
Believe it or not, Hell's kitchen is what introduced me to Wellingtons... I have never seen or heard of them before that. That show really popularized that dish (you'll know what i mean if you watch the show)... cuz Gordon Ramsay's ALWAYS yelling about it. For the first few seasons, 90% of the time, there were always problems with the wellingtons... and the way Ramsay deals with those problems... really makes an impression on you ;) Anyways, JLo and I always wondered why those chefs kept screwing up... were wellingtons really that hard?! Well after finally making them myself, the answer to our question is: NO. They're are NOT hard to make. But they are, however, hard to perfect. Our wellington tasted good... but the problem was the pastry, ARGH! It didn't rise in the bottom, got all soggy, and broke apart when i tried to remove it from the pan... still need to find a solution for that. But yea, my pastry problem didn't lower spirits... cuz i thoroughly, whole-heartedly, 100%-edly enjoyed my food, thank goodness I'm not a perfectionist!

Gordon Ramsay rocks my socks.

Beef Wellington
from Gordon Ramsay
INGREDIENTS:

• 400g Beef fillet
• 400g Flat mushrooms
• 4 slice Parma ham
• English mustard for brushing meat
• 200g puff pastry
• 1 egg for brushing pastry

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200c.
2. Heat some oil in a large pan and quickly fry the seasoned beef all over until it’s brown. Remove and allow to cool.
3. The point of this is simply to sear the beef and seal all those juices in, you don’t want to cook the meat at this stage. Allow to cool and brush generously with the mustard.
4. Roughly chop the mushrooms and blend in a food processor to form a puree. Scrape the mixture into a hot, dry pan and allow the water to evaporate. When sufficiently dry (the mixture should be sticking together easily), set aside and cool.
5. Roll out a generous length of cling film, lay out the four slices of Parma ham, each one slightly overlapping the last. With a pallet knife spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the ham.
6. Place the beef fillet in the middle and keeping a tight hold of the cling film from the outside edge, neatly roll the parma ham and mushrooms over the beef into a tight barrel shape.
7. Twist the ends to secure the clingfilm. Refrigerate for 10 -15 minutes, this allows the Wellington to set and helps keep the shape.
8. Roll out the pastry quite thinly to a size which will cover your beef. Unwrap the meat from the cling film. Egg wash the edge of the pastry and place the beef in the middle. Roll up the pastry, cut any excess off the ends and fold neatly to the ‘underside’. Turnover and egg wash over the top. Chill again to let the pastry cool, approximately 5 minutes. Egg wash again before baking at 200c for 35 - 40 minutes. Rest 8 -10 minutes before slicing

Basic Steps:

NOTE: i used button mushrooms, normal ham, and normal mustard.

Beef Wellington