need the ultimate beef wellington recipe

[Heathcliffscathy]

must be totally foolproof and allow me to make it the day before i cook it...is this in any way possible?????

1. Get some beef

2. Put it in a Wellington

Sorry couldn't resist !

ok, it's def this is it soph? Thought you had decided against? Is it his favourite?

No- fraid not - hte pastry will go all soggy!

Why not try whole fillet of beef wrapped in mushrooms and pancetta instead. You can do all the preparation the day before and then pop in the oven 50mins before serving time?

ahhhh, tis a jamie oliver thing isn't it...think i have it...must go look.

so how long could i do it before cooking so the pastry doesn't go soggy?

i know i had decided against www, but it is his favourite...

I think it depends on how dry you can get hte pate and mushroom mixture.

But if you get it too dry then it spoils the juicyness of the dish IYSWIM!

Do you have a friend (CD} who you could give the fillet, pate/mushrooms and pastry to, who you would trust to assemble it for you just before bringing it to the dinner party?

In fact I think you could probably even put hte pate/mushroom mix on before hand and just do the pastry wrapping before cooking!

how much before cooking?

and do you have a fool proof 'you've made it and it's never failed you' recipe???

This is hte one I use, it's for a 3lb fillet roughly!

1tsp oil
1.5oz butter
8oz mushrooms finely chopped ( I use a mixture of different ones)
8oz smooth pate
1 small onion
2 tbsp horshradish sauce
1lbish of puff pastry
beaten egg to glaze

Brown the fillet in the oil in a frying pan, then transfer to a hot oven and roast for 20mins and cool.

Fry onion slowly in butter, add finely chopped mushrooms. Leave to cool then mix with the pate and horshradish.

Roll out the pastry to fit the joint (13" by 11" as a starting point).

Put the pate/mushroom mixture down the middle of the pastry, leaving a wide border at each side. Season the meat and then place it on the middle and fold the pastry over hte meat, shape, then turnover so the join is underneath and decorate appropriately.

Glaze with egg.

Bake in 220c oven for 50mins (last 25 mins of cooking time should cover with foil).

how many will that feed soapbox?

and how pink is it when finished (we like the meat pretty rare)?

Six well, 8 getting a bit mean

That is for medium rare in the centre I would say, and just cooked through on the edges (we have 2 friends who don't do blood)

I'd knock 10mins off if you want to go bloodier.

If you want to be really revolutionary, I have had wellington that hasn;t had hte pre-cooking and it was lovely and bloody and very tender

so i need a four lb fillet for ten do you think?

and no pre-cooking would mean searing it and then just 50 mins in oven??

Yes, I think 4lbs for 10 would work well.

You need to give it a bit longer cooking for the bigger joint though. So why not stick to the 20 pre cook and 50mins (or cut it to 45) main cooking?

The no precooking with a 4lb might just be a little too bloody

yes. in a dracula way

I just hate the lack of precision when cooking for a large number, with hideously expensive ingredients too!

It's my nightmare that the piece de resistance turns out to be somewhat lacking!

which is why i need a failproof version of this recipe for that many people

heeeeeeeelp me someone.....

thanks soapbox though, you've got me this far...now i need a frigging chef methinks....

otherwise it's back to the drawing board as with wellington you can't test it and like you say the ingredients are too bl*ody expensive!!!!!!

Could you google recipes to get cooking times?

The recipe is fine, it's just how long to cook it for!

google was my first recourse. incidentally do you know how much the posh butcher that we go to for xmas meat charges for a ready made one? £10 per head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

buy it from lidgates or harrods.

Will cost you about £60 though.

Sorry!!!!! that is the sum of my knowledge on beef wellington. Oh, and that it is yummy

PPH - never mind where you get hte blinking thing from - how long do you cook one for 10??????

sophable he will love you just as much if you do some sort of beef fillet without the pastry wrapper. Honest! And much less risky all round (although no cheaper sadly)

for 10 you'd need to do 2 really. Unless you had a monster cow

Thing about wellington is you can't slice it thinly because the pastry would disintegrate, you need to do good fat slices and you'd never get 10 out of a fillet.

If you were doing a straight fillet you could slice it more thinly and probably make a big fillet stretch to 10, especially if you did some yummy dauphinoise or something with it

Nah! You can definitely get a 4lb fillet! That will be big enough.

Sophable - why not ask the butcher when you buy it. Ask how long for hte fillet on its own and then add 15mins to cook the pastry as well???

and dauphinoise you can do earlier and just chuck in the oven to finish. And god it is good, better than a bit of pastry and some mushrooms really. And some delicious vegetables - maybe grilled/roasted peppers and aubergines and a green salad - all of that could be done for 10 with no bother at all, I'd do that in my sleep and it would be yummy. and leave you lots of time for quaffing champagne and looking gorgeous...

A 4lb fillet is a just over 6oz meat each. A restaurant fillet is 5oz, so six will be ok????

Not a bad idea though to do two??