Fancy Dinner: Beef Wellington

In the spirit of the holidays, I wanted to do something out of the norm. And nothing says fancy like tedious, time-consuming French cooking. I was watching a Gordon Ramsey Christmas special a few weeks back where he prepared a Beef Wellington and it didn't look too hard so I gave it a shot.

Apparently, Beef Wellington itself is not technically French but given the work involved it may as well be. The menu tonight was:

• Hearts of palm salad
• Beef Wellington
• Madeira sauce
• Roasted tomatoes
• Whipped potatoes

Here is the hearts of palm salad. It's butter lettuce, sliced hearts of palm, tomatoes, mozarella, and boiled eggs. The dressing is a variation of my standard dressing:

• Half a clove of garlic, minced and microved for 15 seconds along with a tblspn of oil
• 1 teaspoon dijoin mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar (or any vinegar of your choice)
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise for creaminess
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

Hearts of Palm Salad

Here is the Beef Wellington. Since there was only a few of us, I reduced the recipe significantly to serve 4. Here is the Gordon Ramsay recipe from BBC. There's also a similar (non-metric) recipe from The Food Network. A helpful hint is to use an instant read thermometer to get the meat to your desired doneness - remove from oven at 120 degrees for rare, 125 for medium and 130 for well.

The sauce is a reduction of:

• 1/2 cup Madeira
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup minced onions or shallots
• 2 sprigs of thyme

Then add:

• 3 tablespoon prepared demi-glace thinned with 3/4 cup water (or use 3/4 cup beef stock)
• Salt and pepper to taste

After simmering for 10 minutes, add 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 2 teaspoons water to thicken.

Beef Wellington with Madeira Sauce

Roasted tomatoes were an easy side. Placed in the oven with about 15 minutes to go on the tenderloin. The toping is a mixture of equal parts bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and olive oil to moisten.

Roasted Tomatoes

The final dish - piped whipped potatoes is in the back drop. The piping was pretty simple - toss the finished potatoes into a pastry bag and have fun. Maybe it's me, but rounded piped shaped potatoes never look terribly appetizing so I tend to go with a "braid" shape down the center of the plate.

Recipe for the potatoes is from Cooks Country. I halved the original recipe:

• 2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 2 inch cubes, rinsed under water. Place into steamer basket and steam for 20 minutes
• Drain the potatoes, return to pot and put over low heat for 3 minutes to remove any moisture.
• Heat 3/4 cup milk, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, 3 tablespoon butter separately
• Use standing or hand-held mixer on low to break up potatoes. Add milk and butter mixture and continue mixing on low until incorporated.
• Turn speed up to high and whip potatoes for another 3 to 5 minutes.
• Taste and adjust for salt and pepper as needed.

For dessert, I attempted pots de creme -- let's just say they weren't quite picture worthy but very tasty in that melted ice cream sort of way (note to self: don't improvise on baked goods recipe in the future... ummm, right)

Happy New Year!