The Classic Steak Wellington and Getting the Temperature Perfect

Beef Wellington is classic English dish first made for the Duke of Wellington in the early 1800’s. The Beef Wellington is a complex dish consisting of many ingredients including filet mignon, puff pastry, mushrooms, onions, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and chicken liver. It is usually served with mashed or baked potatoes and green beans. This version, known as Steak Wellington, uses the mushroom and chicken liver pate, and the seasonings, but the main difference is that I used a nicely marbled beef steak instead of a C hateau Briand (filet mignon roast for two). The cooking process and the assembly is the same. Ingredients:

• Beef Steak
• Mushrooms 8 oz container
• Onion 1 medium white onion diced
• Chicken Liver 8 oz
• Tsp salt
• Tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp thyme
• Minced garlic 2 tbsp
• Puff pastry dough 1 sheet
• Whole butter 4 tbsp divided into 2 parts

First, we need to prep the steak. We need to make sure that we trim any connective tissue off of the steak. The connective tissue will constrict during the cooking process and make the steak tough. Then we need to season it with salt and pepper, you won’t need to heavily season the steak, you will be covering it with a highly seasoned mushroom and chicken liver pate known as a mushroom duxelles. Once you have the steak seasoned you are going to take one tablespoon of butter and melt it in a sauté pan and pan sear the steak on all sides, then set aside until you are ready to assemble the wellington. Second – we are going to prepare the duxelles. Take your button mushrooms and roughly chop them and place them in a blender, then take your medium white onion and dice it, add that to the blender. Then add the minced garlic. Blend this until it is finely chopped, next take your chicken liver and rinse it and remove the connecting veins, then add it to the blender and pulse blend it until it is smooth. Then take the pan you seared the steak in, add another tablespoon of butter and melt it, and then add the duxelles mixture and cook it until all the liquid is evaporated, au sec. then if you want, you can flambe with an ounce of cooking sherry. (This is optional.) Once you get your duxelles made, let it cool and then prepare to assemble the wellington. To assemble it, lay your puff pastry sheet out on a flat surface, then spread a layer of duxelles in the center, place the steak on top of it, and then spread a layer of duxelles over the steak. Now you will fold the puff pastry by first bringing the ends over the steak and duxelles and then fold the sides to the center and pinch it to seal it completely. Once you have it sealed, butter a baking pan and set the wellington seam down on the buttered surface, then egg wash the pasty with a beaten egg being sure to egg wash all the exposed surface. Preheat your oven to 425⁰F (218⁰C) and cook it for between 30 and 50 minutes until when you insert your ChefsTemp Finaltouch X10 it reaches between 130-135⁰F (54-57⁰C), then pull it from the oven and let it rest for at least 5 minutes and the wellington is ready to serve.

How to Make a Twice Baked Potato?

Twice Baked Potatoes are an amazing dish that you can put practically any ingredients in that you like. For this recipe I did the classic Twice Baked Potato. Ingredients:

• 1 large Russet Baking potato
• 1 tsp of cooking oil
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp whole butter
• 2 tbsp sour cream

First, we need to bake our potato. Coat the with the cooking oil, sprinkle with the kosher salt, and place into a preheated 425⁰F (218⁰C) oven and bake for one hour. Remove potato from the oven and using a sharp knife, cut the potato lengthwise about one third of the way down and remove the top, using a tablespoon scrap out most of the potato from the inside of the potato into a bowl and from the part you trimmed off. Add the butter and sour cream and mix it thoroughly to the consistency of mashed potatoes. Then put the filling back into the potato and brush the top with melted butter. Return it to the oven and bake it until the tips get crispy and turn brown. Plate it and it is ready to eat. Sauteed asparagus:

• One bunch of trimmed asparagus
• 1 tbsp butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Take one bunch of trimmed asparagus and drop it into a pot of boiling salted water just until the asparagus changes color. Then remove it from the pot and drop it into some cold water or ice water, this will give it a bright dark green color and slightly soften the asparagus. Once the asparagus has cooled take a sauté pan, melt one tablespoon of butter and add the asparagus, toss it around, and season with salt and pepper, cook the asparagus until it starts taking on a beautiful color from being caramelized in the melted butter. Remove from the pan and take it to the plate. Beef Wellington is a true culinary classic. This dish is so flavorful, and so robust it leaves your tastebuds buzzing. Chef Gordon Ramsay has made the wellington one of the centerpiece items of every restaurant he owns and uses it in Hell’s Kitchen as a measure of a chef’s ability to cook as a way of weeding out the competition. This dish is remarkable, it is also not difficult to prepare it only takes a little planning and to stay on top of the temperature of the steak as it cooks. Once done, it is amazing.

In Summary

Use your ChefsTemp Finaltouch X10 to monitor and track the cooking of your wellington. Make sure you get the meat to 130⁰F (54⁰C) in the center and you are going to enjoy a great meal. You can stick a meat temperature chart magnet on the refrigerator or grill, to check the target temperature at any time.