I've been digging around in my drafts folder because the reason that I've not blogged recently isn't because I haven't had ideas..
I've just not bothered to finish anything.
Here is a little gem I started back in December. Even thought LB and I don't really celebrate the Winter Holidays in a traditional sense (we are both a bit eclectic in our spiritual belief systems), we do enjoy the excuse for a super rich meal of inappropriateness.
This year, I decided to tackle the Beef Wellington.
If you are unfamiliar, it's basically beef tenderloin wrapped in foie gras, mushroom duxelle, crepes (to absorb the juice) and then puff pastry.
Even for me that's a little fussy.
I did some research and I stumbled upon this video by Gordon Ramsey
I liked this.. seemed simple.
So I gathered my ingredients and I went for it.
It was delicious. I'll be honest, I did Dijon mustard even though Gordon said not too... I also over "blitzed" my mushrooms so they were kinda smushy but tasty!
I would have cooked mine a little less because I like my beef still mooing but LB prefers a little less moo in hers. (for the record, this gorgeous tenderloin came from The Meat House in Stuyvesant Plaza)
A little gallery of pics below..
We enjoyed this very much, but honestly, it was expensive and fussy and a lot of work. I don't know that the level of enjoyment outweighed the effort.
This was totally fun and I’ll probably never do it again
I remember this as it went down on Instagram! It looks like you did a wonderful job. This has been something I’ve been wanting to try, but the cost and amount of work have discouraged me.
When you break it down into steps, it’s really not that much work. It’s more about time, actually. There is a lot of passive/inactive time because you are waiting for things to chill ..and the duxelle can be made the day before. I also “cheated” and bought puff pastry. I usually make it but didn’t want to fuss about with it.
I’ve thought about trying this, but that’s as far as it’s gotten. And it’s likely as far as it will get. Too expensive for me. It does look delicious, though.
It was very expensive .. that tenderloin wasn’t cheap. LB says her mom used to make a ground beef version where she just made little meatloafs of seasoned meat and wrapped them in puff pastry. That’s an option I would consider if I wanted to try this again.