What to serve with Beef Wellington

[sarahandemily]

It's my dp and dm's birthday on Friday and I'm going to have a go at beef Wellington as its one of my dp's favourites. What would you serve with it, in particular do you think it needs a sauce? Also would you make your own pastry or use bought? Thanks

I had to post. I made this recipe for my Dad's Birthday dinner.

I'm not a pastry expert but the pastry was very easy, in fact although it was time consuming to make, no stage of the recipe was particularly difficult.

It turned out to be one of the most show-stoppingly good things I have ever made!

On phone so not sure if link will work

m.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/beef-in-pastry.html

Ooh sounds encouraging. What did you have with it?

I'd make crispy Kale and pine nuts to go with it, possibly some small potatoes, roasted with garlic and rosemary and some gravy too.

Unless you're good with pastry, just buy it!

I would buy the pastry. Or if you really want to make it, have some bought in reserve (fresh, then you can freeze and use another time). My personal preference would also be for roast potatoes. Crispy kale and pinenuts sounds fab! Something I picked up from an event I went to was a mix of green veg (e.g. French beans, mange tous, peas, asparagus tips) with lightly roasted cherry tomatoes placed on top to serve. Looks lovely. But I think most things would go with beef Wellington - does your DP have any fave veg/potato dishes?

I'm mostly stuck on the sauce issue. I'm thinking of doing roasties or home made oven chips but think it will then be quite dry. But how do I make a posh gravy/jus with no stock or meat juices - or would a bearnaise work.

He won't care what the other veg are as he only eats them because he has to but I like the sound of your mixed veg with tomatoes

I did this last year. Ready bought pastry, liver pate instead of mushrooms in the beef (recipes vary) and fried leeks and mushrooms in butter as one side, and green beans wrapped in bacon as another. I didn't do a sauce. It was really yum. As a base i used Gordon ramsay's recipe but replaced the mushroom stuffing with liver pate.

I think we probably just had buttery mash and broccoli - I can't remember!

I bought some stock for the sauce in the recipe, and omitted the mushroom ketchup as I didn't have any.

another vote for small roasted pots. so easy to do as well. For a sauce, if you are doing traditional wellington with the duxelles and madeira I would chop up more mushrooms, fry in garlic and thyme as normal, add the madeira and then reserve a generous amount of it for your sauce, for which I would add a load of wine, reduce it and cheat by adding a beef stock cube. Yum, my mouth is watering!

d'oh didn't notice you said no stock!

I serve it with dauphinois potatoes- you can prep them well in advance, which saves time, and they come in their own sauce which stops the meal being too dry. Obviously you will have to eat noticing but salad the rest of the week to counterbalance the calorific onslaught...

Nothing not noticing, sorry!

you could replace the stock cube with a roux to thicken and a personal fav, a spoon of marmite for flavour :)

Romanesco cauliflower is in the shops ATM and is quick and easy to cook, alone or would work as part of a medley with green beans and peas.

I'd do Potatoes Dauphinoise because the timing of it is not critical, and it is moist and creamy.
A sauce Diane, creamy with mushrooms, would go with the Beef Wellington, can be bought ready made, and just heated up.

I like it with pepper sauce or gravy or a wine based jus. But I do like a sauce with it

Thanks all. Thinking of going for dauphinoise for a change

Well I’ve been a chef ten years and would love to no how you made puff pastry which is one of the hardest pastry’s to make no chef ever makes it lol