Peek-A-Boo Beef Wellington | Easy Deconstructed Beef Wellington | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Peekaboo Beef Wellington. That's right, what you see is what you get. And what you get are all the components to beef Wellington put together in a much easier way. And not only are we going to save a lot of time and effort, but by doing the components separately, I think we're going to get much better results. And the first component we will tackle is going to be our puff pastry. And what we'll do while this is still partially frozen is cut out two large circles and we will transfer those onto a parchment line baking sheet. And once that's been accomplished, we will take a fork and we will prick the dough all over, which in the business is called docking. And what this is going to do is hinder the rising since ultimately we want something that's nice and crispy and fairly thin. So we will go ahead and fork that pastry as shown. And once these pieces have been evenly spaced and properly poked, we will transfer that into a 400°ree oven for 15 minutes. At which point, it's going to look something like this. And what we'll do is give those a press and flip them over. And yes, our circles have turned into ovals, which is perfect because our beef tenderloin shape is closer to an oval than a circle. And that happens because of the way the dough is slightly smeared when the cutter goes through. But anyway, what we'll do once that's pressed and flipped is pop that back in the 400°ree oven for another 10 to 15 minutes or so, or until it looks like this. And what we'll do is transfer that onto a baking rack and let it cool completely. And by docking and pressing and cooking this to a nice deep dark golden brown. Once this cools, this buttery flaky pastry is going to be beautifully crispy and crunchy. Oh, and if you want after this is cooled, you can go ahead and trim off or break off that little bit of excess pastry around the bottom. But anyway, like I said, we'll let that cool and reserve it until later. And we can move on to check out the rest of the components with the star of the show being a beautiful beef tenderloin steak. And I think some between five and six ounces is perfect. And then the other major components will be a beautiful sauteed mushroom that will do with a little bit of shallot and fresh thyme. And then I also decided I wanted to add a nice slice of truffle brie, which isn't traditional, but truffles are traditional. And I thought that worked very, very well. And then of course, we're going to need a few slices of pate. And this one is pork and duck liver, but any smooth, creamy style pate will work. And what we'll do is transfer those last two things into the fridge. And then we'll go ahead and season up our steak very simply with some kosher salt and some freshly ground black pepper. And because of the larger flaky crystals, it always looks like we're using too much salt. But I'm using less than a half a teaspoon total, which is perfect for this weight of beef. But anyway, once that's seasoned, we can go ahead and set that aside. At which point, we can head to the stove where we have a little bit of olive oil and butter in a pan set over mediumigh heat. And we'll go ahead and transfer in our sliced mushrooms. And we'll add a pinch of salt. And we will settle those down into a nice even layer. And what's going to happen is moisture is going to come out of those mushrooms. And they're going to soften and kind of look sweaty. And then eventually they will start to brown. And once that happens, we will cook them stirring for a few minutes until they take on some nice color. And they're looking a little something like this. At which point we can transfer in our thinly sliced shallots. And we'll stir those in and cook those for a couple minutes or until they turn translucent. And yes, any kind of thinly sliced onion will be fine, but if you can find them, the shallot works really nice. And that's it. Once we're happy with how our mushrooms and shallots are looking, we will turn off the heat and toss in some freshly picked thyme leaves. And we will stir those in. And believe it or not, that is pretty much it for our mushroom component. And what we'll do at this point is transfer those into a bowl. And we'll set those aside until we need them. And then what we'll do is place that same pan back on the stove. And we'll spoon in a little bit of clarified butter, which is just melted butter with that white foamy stuff skimmed off. And we'll set our heat to medium high. And we'll let that butter get nice and hot, at which point we'll transfer in our tenderloin steak. And we'll sear that first side for about 3 minutes or so, which should be enough time to get some nice browning. And then I'm going to sear the second side about 3 minutes as well. And obviously any of the times I mention are going to be affected by the size and shape of your steak. And ultimately you're going to have to figure out when this is done. And then besides those two sides, I do like to pick it up and kind of sear the edges as well just to get rid of that raw appearance and add a touch of color. And then as far as my personal preference for dness when we're talking about beef tenderloin in general in this dish in particular, I'm shooting for something between rare and medium rare. by something like 120 to 125 internal temp. And not to brag, but I can kind of tell by feeling it, but of course you should probably check your work with a thermometer. I mean, you are after all the Irma ve of your internal attemp. And once we've decided that has cooked long enough, we'll remove that to a plate and we'll let it rest for about four or five minutes loosely covered with foil while we make a very easy, very fast pan sauce. And we'll do that by pouring in a little bit of cherry wine. And be careful, that can actually flame up. And we'll also add a little bit of cherry vinegar. And we'll let that boil on medium high for about 30 seconds or so, or until it reduces by what you think is about half. And once it looks like this, we'll transfer in some beef bone broth or some other kind of high quality beef broth. And we will season that simply with a pinch of salt plus a little bit of freshly ground black pepper. And what we'll do is wait for that to come to a boil. And then we'll give it a stir for no apparent reason. And then we'll let this boil for about 2 minutes or until our liquids have reduced down to about a/4 cup or so. At which point they're probably going to look a little something like this. And once that happens, we'll reduce our heat to low. And we'll add a little touch of cream plus a little bit of cold diced up butter. And we will emulsify that in either by stirring with the spoon or shaking the pan or both. And I've been doing these sauces for a long time and I'm still shocked and amazed by how in just a few minutes with a couple simple ingredients, we can produce such an amazingly beautiful and flavorful sauce. So, if you only learn one thing from this video, let it be this. And once our sauce is set, we can turn off the heat and plate up. And what we'll do is place our still warm steak down on one of our puff pastry pieces, which yes, I did trim the edges of to make it look a little neater. And then over the top of the meat, we'll do a few thin slices of the pate. And then we'll top that with our beautifully sauteed mushrooms, which we should probably keep in a warm oven with our puff pastry while we're cooking our steak. Or I guess you could just zap it in the microwave. But anyway, we'll pile those over the top. And once those are on, we'll top that with one thin slice of our truffle bree. And that's it. We can top all this with our beautiful pan sauce. And in real life, I'm just going to pour everything over. Right here, since I have to take some contractually obligated pictures, I just spooned over the amount I thought would look the best. And one sauce. We'll finish up with a pinch of chives. And then we'll top everything with our second piece of pastry. And that's it. what I'm calling peekab-boo beef Wellington is ready to enjoy. So, I cleaned up that drip and took a few pictures and then grabbed a fork knife so I could cut in. And by the way, take a good look at everything now since this is going to turn into a culinary crime scene very quickly. And to make things a little easier for me, I'm going to take off the top pastry first. Although, I do want that cheese to stay on top. And this really did look and smell so incredible. I was very much hoping I had nailed the dness. which as you can see I did. All right. Most cuts of steak I do like cooked a little bit more. But as I said for beef tenderloin I think something between rare and medium rare is perfect. And if we can we're going to try to get some of all the components in one bite. All right. The meat, the bree, the pate, the mushrooms, and of course the pastry. And of course the pastry. And that, my friends, tastes as good as any beef Wellington you've ever had or ever will have since it's basically the same ingredients. But because we're doing it in this deconstructed format, we're able to hopefully cook each element to perfection. All right. Even if we do a classic beef Wellington perfectly, which we won't, but even if we did, the pastry is never going to come out as perfect as this. And speaking of classic Wellington, as you might know, the mushroom component in that is basically a finely ground mushroom paste, which tastes fine, but I've never been a big fan of the texture. All right. For me, it's a little too baby foodish. And if you ask any infant, they will tell you mushroom baby food is the worst. So, I much much prefer the sauteed sliced mushrooms in this. But anyway, that's it. my take on a deconstructed beef Wellington, which I decided to call peekaboo since it is, but also because I've made fun of deconstructed recipes so many times over the years. But no matter what you call it, I like this version so much more. And I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always in joy.