Prep time
45 minutes
Cook time
30 minutes
Serves
6
Difficulty
Hard, but worth it
Ingredients
🥩 750g beef fillet, centre cut
🍄 400g mushrooms, food processor ready
🥓 6 to 8 slices Parma ham
🥐 500g puff pastry, all butter
🥚 2 egg yolks, beaten for the wash
🌶️ 1 to 2 tbsp English mustard
🫒 A dash of olive oil
🌾 A dusting of flour
Beef Wellington
The dinner party showpiece. A trimmed beef fillet, seared hard and brushed with mustard, then wrapped in a tight layer of mushroom duxelles, sealed in Parma ham, and parcelled in golden puff pastry. Rest the meat, chill the wrap, and time the bake so the centre lands at a pink medium-rare while the pastry shatters at the touch of a fork.
"Sear the beef hard. If it does not sing in the pan, the Wellington never recovers.
"Gordon Ramsay's first rule
Chill the wrapped Wellington for at least 30 minutes before the egg wash and the bake. Cold pastry rises in clean layers, warm pastry slumps and weeps butter.
The fillet must be dry. Pat it with kitchen paper until it stops sticking to the towel, otherwise the sear steams instead of caramelising and the duxelles will not adhere.
