Individual Beef Wellingtons

This famous British dish was named in honor of The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. The traditional dish uses a 2–4 pound beef roast layered with mushroom duxelles (DUKE-sell) and pate du foie gras (pah-TAY do-FWAH-gra): and then wrapped in a puff pastry.

Baking meat in pastries goes back to the mid-evil days in England. When miners needed food they could put in their pockets and carry down into the tin mines. There's a Cornish saying: “The Devil is afraid to come to Cornwall, for fear of being baked in a “pasty”. (PAH-steas).

Not only is this dish expensive, but in my opinion, the pate du foie gras is produced by animal cruelty. Google it.

This is a poor man’s version that is much eaiser. Slave makes use of frozen beef patties from the local “Big Box Store”. They keep in the freezer for those times a quick meal is needed.

This dish takes planning ahead but it is VERY impressive!

Ingredients

4 frozen beef patties w/kosher salt and pepper to Master's taste

1 ½ Cups Low Salt Beef Stock

3 or 4 shallots and a small jar of Shiitake Mushrooms*

    *You can use onion and button mushrooms but the taste just isn't as good.

2 Tbs Canola Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

4 slices of smoked Gouda cheese

4 Tbs Dijon mustard

1 Lg Egg and 2 teaspoons water.

1 pkg Pillsbury Croissant dough The one without the perforations!

Directions

Just like you were making a pizza, everything is cooked ahead of time except the dough. In this case it needs to be chilled at least an hour in refrigerator before assembling. Ready?

Mince the mushrooms and shallots very fine.

Add 1 tbs of oil to a 12 inch skillet, bring to a medium high heat.

Stir in mushroom-shallot mix, sprinkle a pinch or two of sugar over it, cook stirring occasionally until the liquid is cooked out, about 5 minutes. Splash in some balsamic vinegar to deglaze. Let that cook out, remove the mixture (which is now “mushroom duxelles”)with a slotted spoon.

Add 2nd tbs oil, season and brown the patties on both sides about 2 – 3 minutes per side. Add the beef stock, reduce to a simmer put lid on. Let it simmer for at least 10 minutes. This is the step where the beef gets cooked to the done-ness your Master prefers. With hamburger this should be well done. By cooking it in the stock, the flavor will be held but much of the fats will steam out. Once this is cooked, both the patties and the dish of mushroom duxelle must be chilled for over an hour in the refrigerator. Slave suggests you do these steps after dinner the day before and let it cool overnight. 

 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a small bowl, beat the egg and water to make an egg wash.

Using a shallow baking sheet with ½ inch sides, line with parchment paper. ..or substitute foil and spray with cooking spray.

You want to wrap the beef mixture. So, like wrapping a package figure out what size you need the dough to be. If unsure try it with one of the cooled patties and a piece of wax paper.

Open the croissant dough and unroll onto another sheet of wax paper, then place a sheet of plastic wrap over the dough and roll out with a rolling pin until it is the right size. Remove the plastic and run a table knife down the center of the dough, then the same on each side making 4 pieces.

Assembly:

Working on wax paper makes this much easier. Be quick to keep the pastry cool.

In middle of each piece of dough, place a slice of Smoked Gouda and then a Tbs of the mushroom duxelles. Go ahead a divide it evenly between the four.

Spread the Dijon mustard on a patty and place it, mustard side down on the mushrooms. Continue with the other three.

Brush the exposed pastry with the egg wash. Fold it up and over to seal. Now invert (seam side down) and space on the baking pan. Brush egg wash over the sides and top of each. Cut the center of the top with a big X for steam to escape. This will keep the pastry from getting soggy.

Bake until starting to turn golden brown, 16 to 19 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

For this meal, slave chose to serve steamed asparagus and a side of tropical mixed fruit, drained, drizzled with a tsp of Maple syrup and heated in microwave. Serve with a cup of no fat unflavored yogurt that has a ½ tsp of cinnamon mixed in to act as a topping.

Slave understands that this might sound difficult. However as a cooking slave, you just prepare ahead of time. If you fail to plan: you plan to fail!

Confession: the day it made this, slave was feeling very sorry for itself and very far away from its Master. Yet He understood and publicly posted this:

“@Dan63301 I may rarely taste your food, but you impress with your offerings” ... “YOU be proud 1st slave!”

Forever His,

socialslave