Beef Wellington

About 2 months ago Ryan saw a recipe in the Wall Street Journal for Beef Wellington.  We decided to try and make it for our Christmas Day Dinner.  The recipe was adapted from Tyler Florence's show 'Tyler's Ultimate'.  He uses mustard instead of truffle butter.  We were fortunate enough to have my mom staying with us for the holiday and partake in this extravagant meal.

Friday
Step 1:  I made the duxelles, a finely chopped and then sauteed mixture or mushrooms, garlic, shallots, and thyme.  Thank goodness for the food processor, otherwise I would have been chopping those mushrooms all day.

Step 2: Making the 'veal stock' for the mushroom gravy.  I couldn't find any veal bones at the grocery store, so ours was doctored up beef stock.  I still chopped the carrot, onion, and celery and roasted them and then simmered it all in (no salt added) beef stock and red wine.  We keep a container of leftover red wine in our freezer for times when recipes call for it, but we don't want to open a bottle.

Mom and I also made brownies

Saturday

Step 3:  Ryan seared the Beef tenderloin.  (Our cut of meat was not quite what the recipe called for and it still had the silver skin on it.  I highly recommend you get it cut off if you attempt this recipe).

Step 4: We shingled the prosciutto onto cling wrap, and spread the duxelles on-top.  The beef was then slathered in black truffle butter and rolled up inside the prosciutto.  This was then set to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile... I was also making roasted potatoes.

Step 5:  The beef came out of the fridge and was wrapped in puff pastry.  We thought we might not have enough, but with a coaxing we stretched it out.  The whole thing went into the oven for 45 minutes and came out looking and smelling incredible.

Step 6:  I finished making the mushroom gravy by sauteing mushrooms and shallots in the pan used to sear the beef.  I added the stock I made Friday and simmered it for 10 minutes.  I'm not a huge gravy fan, but after one bite decided I could eat this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  I might even embrace our current southern situation and try it over biscuits...  I could drink it, it's that good.

We topped our dinner off with steamed green beans, which were tasty on their own, but even better with a little gravy on them.  Overall this is probably the finest meal we have ever created, and one of the best I've ever eaten.  I thought about figuring the calorie content, but decided I would drive myself nuts trying.  According to FitDay.com a serving of Beef Wellington has 354 calories, 22g fat, 11g carb, and 25g protein.  But they do not give a recipe so it's hard to say how that compares to ours.

This was a good instance of how cooking at home can save you money.  Overall, this meal cost between $75-$100 to prepare. (I added in a few cents here and there for all the oil, salt, pepper, potatoes, green beans...)  Per person that is $12.50-$16.60 figuring that it serves 6 people. in an upscale restaurant this could easily have cost $21 or more.  Ryan found a restaurant in NYC that will serve a three course meal for $75, but adds $8 if you want the Beef Wellington.

We all agreed that we would make Beef Wellington again, but not for quite some time.