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During the tryouts for the top 24 in MasterChef Australia Gary Mehigan presented his version of Beef Wellington.  Many of the contestants struggled with this  classic dish that has been served for centuries.

With a name like Wellington it must be a very English dish.  However the original was almost a complete copy of the French classic Filet de Boeuf en Croûte.  So as well as beating Napoleon at Waterloo the English have annexed a portion of French culinary brilliance and taken this dish for their own.  Extensive Wikipedia searching fails to tell me if this dish was ever served to the Duke of Wellington or where this dish actually appeared in this form.  I guess this isn’t really important as we can enjoy it now.

Over the past few years I have seen many different interpretations of this dish.  At the Good Food Afaire at Castle Hill in 2008 I saw the matriarch of Australian home cooking Margaret Fulton cook Beef Wellington with her daughter Suzanne Gibbs.  It was a very simple interpretation which consisted of beef, some liverwurst wrapped in pastry then cooked in the oven until internal temperature of 65°C.  I found this recipe a little basic but I was very happy to see an icon of Australian cooking in person.

Earlier this year whilst enthroned in my TV watching position I saw Ben O’Donoghue share his interpretation of Beef Wellington on Best in Australia.  This was significantly more complex and included beef, a crepe, duxcelle of mushrooms wrapped in pastry with a red wine jus.  This looked great and I was keen to cook it immediately.  But I got lazy and didn’t :(

And then of course this classic appeared again on MasterChef where we saw the contestants melt under pressure.

My version is slightly different than the classic.  I am a little nervous about wrapping the meat and roasting as it may either come out blue or rubbery and not the perfect medium rare I was looking for.  Additionally if you have guests that like their meat cooked to different amounts of wellness there isn’t much scope to change things.  To combat this my version is deconstructed where each element is presented in a slightly different manner.  This is a very flexible dish and could be altered even more depending on taste.

Deconstructed Beef Wellington
Serves 4

Ingredients
Duxcelle
200g Button Mushrooms, thinly sliced
5g Dried Porcini Mushrooms, soaked in boiling water, drained and sliced
1 Garlic clove, halved
50g Butter
Sprig of thyme
Crepes
1 cup Plain flour
1 Egg
320ml Milk
1 tbsp Brandy
½ tspn Salt
2 Spinach leaves, shredded
20g Butter
Red Wine Reduction
1 Shallot, finely diced
1 Garlic clove, finely diced
1 tbsp Olive oil
Sprig of thyme
¼ cup Port
½ cup Red wine
1 cup Beef stock
30g Butter
4 Eye fillet steaks
1 Spinach, bunch
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Puff pastry sheets
1 Egg, beaten

Method
  1. Prepare mushroom duxcelle by sweating down ingredients in a small saucepan over a low heat until most of the moisture has evaporated.  Set aside to cool.
  2. Prepare crepe batter by mixing flour, egg, milk, brandy and salt in a food processor or blender.  Stand for 30 minutes.  In a crepe pan or shallow fry pan melt butter over a low heat.  When melted pour butter into crepe batter.  Stir through butter and shredded spinach.  Make crepes by pouring about 2-3 table spoons of batter into pan and swirl pan to allow mixture to spread.  Flip after one side is cooked (about a minute or two).  After another minute remove crepe from pan and reserve on a warm plate covered by a tea towel.  Repeat until all batter is used.
  3. Pre heat oven to 180°C.
  4. Cut eight 12cm circles of puff pastry.  Place four circles on a baking sheet.  Divide the mushroom duxcelle into four and spoon onto the centre of the pastry.  Place the remaining four circles of pastry over the mushrooms to form a pie.  Crimp the edges with a fork.  Glaze with egg wash and bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.
  5. Brush steaks with olive oil and cook for 4 minutes each side in a grill pan (or fry pan).  Remove from pan and bake for 4 minutes (for medium rare).  Allow meat to rest for 5 minutes in a warm place.
  6. Meanwhile in a small saucepan over a medium heat sauté shallots, garlic and thyme in olive oil until translucent.  Add port and red wine and allow to reduce to half its volume.  Add the beef stock and continue to reduce.  When the sauce reaches desired consistency strain the sauce.  Keep the sauce warm over a low heat.  Just before serving stir through butter.
  7. About a minute or two before serving heat a frypan over a medium heat.  Fry the spinach with one table spoon of olive oil until wilted.  Divide the spinach amongst four crepes and fold to desired shape.
  8. On each plate serve a filled crepe and a mushroom pie. Spread some Dijon mustard on the reverse side of each steak and place on top of the mushroom pie.  Spoon over red wine reduction.
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