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Nov. 22nd, 2012
Beef for Dinner
Nov. 22nd, 2012 09:46 pmMy first ever Beef Wellington went over fantastically. I butchered a full beef tenderloin this morning, so I had enough meat and other ingredients to make two. I decided to make one regular and one without the duxelles in case anyone had issues with mushrooms (I have at least one friend who's allergic and one who simply prefers not to eat them). There was a turkey roast made on the side as a just in case measure, but it wasn't touched. I'm glad it was made, but I'm also glad everyone filled their bellies on the beef. I also made stuffing and other sides as well.
My one hiccup was the actual cooking of the Wellingtons. Based on the recipe I was using, it was supposed to cook at 200-degrees for 35 minutes. I have a feeling the oven didn't register that low a temp because it's right next to the Warm setting. After the 35 minutes, I saw that the puff pastry was still completely uncooked. After another 30 minutes I finally turned the temperature dial up after realizing my mistake. By then I was getting impatient and turned it up slightly more than I probably should have and almost over cooked it. As it was, it turned out well-done when I would have preferred medium at most. A lot of liquid came out during the cooking process, and I wasn't thinking about removing them from the pan to cool, so the bottom of the pastries soaked up a bit of those juices. It wasn't a complete mess, and the juices still added more flavor back in, but I was able to learn a couple lessons from this go at it.
Also, a blender doesn't cut it when a food processor is what you're actually needing. Yeah, that was a sheer duh moment.
EDIT: *headdesk* I was following a Gordon Ramsay recipe, so 200 was in fact 200C not 200F. So I should have actually been cooking them at 400F, which sounds a heck of a lot saner. Yet another duh moment.
My one hiccup was the actual cooking of the Wellingtons. Based on the recipe I was using, it was supposed to cook at 200-degrees for 35 minutes. I have a feeling the oven didn't register that low a temp because it's right next to the Warm setting. After the 35 minutes, I saw that the puff pastry was still completely uncooked. After another 30 minutes I finally turned the temperature dial up after realizing my mistake. By then I was getting impatient and turned it up slightly more than I probably should have and almost over cooked it. As it was, it turned out well-done when I would have preferred medium at most. A lot of liquid came out during the cooking process, and I wasn't thinking about removing them from the pan to cool, so the bottom of the pastries soaked up a bit of those juices. It wasn't a complete mess, and the juices still added more flavor back in, but I was able to learn a couple lessons from this go at it.
Also, a blender doesn't cut it when a food processor is what you're actually needing. Yeah, that was a sheer duh moment.
EDIT: *headdesk* I was following a Gordon Ramsay recipe, so 200 was in fact 200C not 200F. So I should have actually been cooking them at 400F, which sounds a heck of a lot saner. Yet another duh moment.