Ahh, the Beef Wellington, staple meal of Hell’s Kitchen. If I had a dollar for every wellington that was sliced open to Chef Ramsay’s screams of “RAW!!! It’s BLOODY RAW!!!” then I’d be a rich girl.

Phill and I watch Hell’s Kitchen and after one particular episode, we were discussing how it could be possible that the Beef Wellingtons always seem to be messed up, one way or another. So we decided to try it ourselves. It can’t be that hard, right?

I (sort of) followed the recipe on Mike’s Table (his looked amazing – mine, not so much!). Nevertheless, for a girl whose specialty is mashed potatoes and fish fingers, I was impressed with the results! My beef cut was the only cut left at the supermarket and I figured it looked good enough to pass as tenderloin. Or maybe tenderloin’s fatter, chunkier cousin. Either way, it’s a virgin, so I was very gentle.

The first step was to make a duxelle (or in Phill’s words: a messy mush) with garlic, shallots and mushrooms. My shallots were the wrong shallots I think, because mine were green and Mike’s were not. I think that comes down to an Australian thing – I think I was supposed to use French shallots, which look like onions. Oopsie. Anyway, this mixture is sautéd in a pan for about 10 minutes until the onions go mushy. I added a little apple cidar to this instead of white wine, as I have allergies.

The beef is then sprinkled with salt and pepper and seared in a hot pan for about 2 minutes per side, since we wanted a more medium than rare result. The searing was good fun – I don’t think I’ve ever had a pan up that high, asides from boiling water. The sizzling sounded very impressive. This task, of course, was delegated to a very happy Phill.

Next, I deviated from Mike’s recipe by laying down some clingwrap and placing nine thin slices of pancetta across it, overlapping. This is the first time I’ve used pancetta, or any sort of thinly-sliced “gourmet” meats from the deli, so when I was buying it I felt rather cheffy. I remember having to slice it upon request when I used to work in a deli – we used to waste so many slices trying to get it to the customer’s exact thinness, and they were always so picky. I’ve never tried it before so I had no idea what to expect with the taste, except that it would be salty.

Then, delicately, I spooned the mushroom duxelle over the pancetta slices in preparation for the meat. This mixture smelled absolutely delicious. I could have eaten it straight from the bowl! I think the thing that got me was the aroma of the butter – you have to use real butter for this, not margarine or substitute. The flavour was just amazing.

Looking at the mushrooms now, I could have let it cook down for longer, but I was impatient and hungry, and I don’t mess around when I’m hungry! Phill and I rubbed mustard over the seared meat (probably a little too much because I found the mustard was too prominent in the finished product) and placed the meat on the duxelle. We took a deep breath, then slowly rolled the meat up so it was wrapped in the pancetta. The wrapping process was easier than we thought it would be – everything seemed to come together and the pancetta stuck quite well.

We manuvered the meat over onto a piece of thawed puff pastry. I used store-bought because I didn’t have enough time to make my own, but next time I try this recipe I will definitely make my own. The store bought pastry was too small, so we had to place another sheet over the top and then sort of tuck it in at the bottom. Chef Ramsay would be screaming at us at this point, and probably about to send us into the fridge for a talk.

I cooked it in a 200 degree celcius oven (fan forced) for thirty minutes, which gave us a firm result that was still tender and pink in the middle. We let it rest for ten minutes for the juices to settle (I learnt this from Jamie Oliver. I know everyone knows to do this, but I was sheltered, okay?)

Here is the finished product:

Not too bad for a first attempt, right?

I then proceeded to massacre it with a bread knife (wrong choice obviously). In retrospect, it may have cut easier if I’d remembered to score the top, but alas I forgot! I started panicking a little when quite a lot of pink juices came out, thinking it was too underdone, but it quickly balanced out. While I don’t do blood, I’ve repented for my years of eating overdone meat by starting to experience medium and medium-rare (OMG so much better!).

I served the Beef Wellington with mashed potato, veggies and a drizzle of red wine sauce, and we had the left-overs for lunch the next day. There’s something about next-day puff pastry that is absolutely delicious, don’t you think?

While my attempt at Beef Wellington would definitely get me kicked off Hell’s Kitchen, in my kitchen it was a roaring success.

Edit: For some reason, this post didn’t appear in my feed. Very strange. Very delicious. Mmmm.