If you wouldn't mind sharing the wellington recipe, it would be greatly appreciated, Ex. The only one I've got is from the Better Homes & Gardens cb, and those recipes usually suck unless you're doing something ridiculously easy.
And wellington ain't usually easy, unless your brother who "can't cook ****" knows a secret.
Which I want.
Here it goes.....
My Idiot Brother's Killer Beef Wellington
***Before you start on the food, preheat the oven to 425 Degrees***
1. Put a beef filet in a roasting pan (2-2.5 lb range), brush with 1 tbsp of olive oil and season the top with pepper.
2. For medium rare, roast for 15 minutes, or 20 minutes for medium.
3. Remove the beef, and stick it in the fridge for about 20 minutes to rest.
4. Take a half pound of porcini or shiitake mushrooms, and dice them until they have a bread crumb consistency. It's easier to use a food processor, but use the pulse option so you don't end up making a paste.
5. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil with 4 tbsp of real butter (margarine will screw it up badly) in a large pan and sautee the mushrooms on medium with a sprig of fresh thyme for 10 mins, and stir constantly so the mixture doesn't burn. Leave the sprig of thyme intact for this.
6. Add some salt and pepper to the mushroom mixture (measurement is to taste) and pour in 4-6 ounces of dry white wine. Cook the mixture for 10 minutes until most liquid has evaporated. You'll know when it's ready, because the mixture will start to hold its shape when you stir it. When it's ready, take out the thyme and throw it away.
7. Overlap two pieces of saran on a cutting board, lay 12 slices of prosciutto on top (slightly overlapping each other) in two rows.
8. Spread half of the mushroom mixture over the prosciutto, and put the beef on it and spread the rest of the mushroom mixture over it.
9. Use the saran wrap to pull the prosciutto around the beef, then roll it up like a sausage, and twist the ends of saran wrap while you go along to tighten it all up, then stick the whole thing in the fridge while you do the pastry part.
10. Use cake flour to dust a work area. Take the two sheets of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry and mend them together with a fork to make one big sheet. Cut out 1/3 of that sheet, and roll it out on the flour into a 7x12 inch strip, and put it on a non stick baking sheet.
11. Roll out the rest of the puff pastry to about 11x14 inches.
12. Unroll the beef from the saran wrap and put it in the middle of the smaller pastry.
13. Beat 2 egg yolks with 1 tsp of water and brush it around the edge of the pastry, and the top and sides of the wrapped beef.
14. Take a rolling pin, and carefully lift and drape the larger piece of pastry over the beef, and press it firmly into the sides.
15. Trim the connecting spots to a 2 inch rim, and seal the rim with the edge of a fork.
16. Spread more of the egg wash over the entire thing, and use the back of a butter knife to mark the wellington with diagonal lines, but make sure you aren't cutting into the pastry.
17. Stick it in the fridge to rest for anywhere from 30 minutes to an entire day.
18. Brush the Wellington with more egg wash and cook until golden. Usually 20 minutes is medium rare, and around 30 minutes for medium.
19. After cooking, let the wellington rest for 10 minutes, and cut into thick slices. If you do the slices too thin, the pastry will pull away from the beef. In my experience, you have to either use a very sharp knife like a J.A. Henckels knife (they sell them individually and by the set at Target - the one you want will be the larger $25ish kitchen knife) or a really good thin bread knife (not the thick ones that usually come in butcher blocks, because they will tear it apart).
20. Invite us all over for dinner, and we'll meticulously critique it to no end
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