Perfectly cooked beef, mushrooms and flaky pastry make the best individual Beef Wellington. Make these individual versions for a special lockdown occasion or just for special family and friends.
Ingredients
- beef fillet steaks 4 small, trimmed
- olive oil
- shallot 1, finely chopped
- butter
- chestnut mushrooms 200g, finely chopped
- thyme a couple of sprigs, leaves stripped and chopped
- puff pastry 300g
- parma ham 8 slices
- egg 1, beaten to glaze
Method
- STEP 1: Heat a frying pan until very hot. Rub the steaks all over with olive oil and season well. Sear for a minute on each side, then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely.
- STEP 2: Cook the shallot in a knob of butter until soft, add the mushrooms and thyme, then season and cook, stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will give out a bit of water, so keep cooking them until there is no moisture left in the pan. Leave to cool.
- STEP 3: Roll out the pastry to 20p-thickness. Cut out 4 circles that are 2½cm larger than the fillets, and 4 more circles that are 3½cm larger. Sit the smaller circles on a baking sheet.
- STEP 4: Sit the fillets on 2 overlapping pieces of ham and top each fillet with some of the mushroom mix.
- STEP 5; Wrap each of the fillets up in the slices of ham.
- STEP 6: Sit each fillet on the smaller pastry circles, then brush the edges with egg.
- STEP 7: Drape over the larger circles and press to seal, making sure there are no air pockets.
- STEP 8: Mark the edges with the back of a fork and glaze the outside with egg.
- STEP 9: Score the top of the wellingtons. Chill for 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Bake the wellingtons for 12 minutes for medium rare, 15 minutes for medium.