Individual Beef Wellingtons

There are few dishes more elegant than Beef Wellington. This savory recipe combines beef loin and mushrooms. Traditionally foie gras was included so this is up to you. The ingredients are wrapped in puff pastry and baked. For something that's surprisingly easy to make, albeit time-consuming, it looks like a million dollars and tastes like heaven. The dish can easily be completely prepped a day in advance and then slid into the oven for 30 minutes to bake before serving.

Ingredients

[b] Parsley · 2 tablespoons
[b] Shallot minced · 1 tablespoon
[b] butter, softened · ½ cup
[b] blue cheese (Gorgonzola) · ½ cup
[b] pepper · ½ teaspoon
[r] red wine, preferably Williamson Merlot · ½ cup
[f] beef tenderloin, 5 to 6 oz. each (choose equal-size center-cut portions) · 4 portions
[f] Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper · 1 portion
[f] vegetable or canola oil; more if needed · ½ cup
[p] (1 lb. each) frozen puff pastry (6 sheets total), · 1 package
[p] Flour for rolling · 1 item
[p] 2 eggs · 2 whole
[p] water · 1 teaspoon
[r] butter · ½ stick
[r] Cornstarch · 2 tablespoons
[r] tomato paste · 1 tablespoon
[r] Cold Water · 3 tablespoons
[r] sugar · 1 teaspoon
[r] low sodium soy sauce · 2 tablespoons
[r] low sodium beef broth · 32 ounces
[r] shallots finely chopped · ½ cup

Instructions

Blue Cheese Butter Use [b] ingrediens

Combine all ingredients, roll into log and refrigerate.

Filets: Use [f] ingredients

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

To sear the filets first season each portion of meat very generously on both sides with salt and pepper rubbing the seasoning into the meat to keep it in place.

Pour 1/8 inch oil into a heavy, oven proof, sauté pan and heat it until just smoking. Sear the filets over high heat for 2 minutes on each side until brown and crisp on the outside. Be sure your pan is very hot so that you just sear the meat and don't overcook it, and don't crowd the pan or the meat will steam rather than sear.

Once all the pieces are seared add them all to the pan and transfer pan to the preheated oven and cook to desired level of rare, medium or well done. Approximately 4 to 6 minutes for rare (red in center and warm throughout), 6 to 8 minutes for medium-rare (pinkish red in center and fairly hot), or 8 to 10 minutes for medium (pink in center, grayish brown surrounding and hot throughout.

When steaks are done to your liking, transfer to large plate. Tent steaks loosely with foil and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, allowing steaks to finish cooking from residual heat, and meat juices to redistribute and settle before serving

Pastry: Use [p] ingredients

Lightly whisk 2 eggs together with 1 teaspoon of water.

Roll out pastry sheets to about 3/16-inch thick and, using a sharp knife, cut out a 3 ½ -inch rounds. From the scraps, cut out diamonds or other shapes to use as decoration. Brush egg and water mixture all over pastry to give a glossy sheen. Decorate each pastry round with the cutouts and brush again with egg mixture.

Bake the pastry according to its package instructions and once it is golden brown remove and set aside.

Red Wine Reduction Use [r] ingredients

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat, add the shallots and stir for approximately 8 minutes until they are soft and slightly caramelized. Add the tomato paste and stir until it is integrated. Then pour in the beef broth, soy sauce and wine and bring the entire mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15minuts until the liquid has reduced by half.

In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water until it forms a smooth slurry. Slowly stir this slurry into the sauce and simmer until thickened. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Strain the sauce and serve.

To serve, place filet on warm plate, drizzle with sauce, then top with a slice or two of the blue cheese butter. Finally cap with the pastry drizzling additional sauce around each filet. Garnish with a few roasted baby carrots for color and serve with Williamson Wines Seduce Cabernet Sauvignon