The moment I spied that tender cut of medium rare beef enveloped in succulent bites of seasoned mushroom duxelles and Prosciutto wrapped in a tender flaky crust of puff pastry, I wanted it. I wanted it so badly I started checking local restaurant menus online, only to discover that the average price for a single serving of such a dish was more than I could stand. In fact, the cheapest I could find was $48. per Person. Yikes!
The price didn’t end my desire to try this amazing sounding dish, so I searched and searched until I found the following Chef Ramsay Beef Wellington recipe and managed to make my own Gourmet Beef Wellington for 6 people for less than 1/3 of what it costs for 1 Restaurant Serving.
You’ll Need:
3 Tbs Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper (freshly ground, of course)
Dijon or English Mustard
1-2 lb Beef Filet (depends on how many you’re feeding)
8 oz Fresh Mushrooms (I used baby bella’s)
Dab of Butter
Prosciutto
dash of Thyme
1 clove garlic
1 Puff Pastry(Homemade or store-bought, thawed)
2 egg yolks beaten with 1 Tbs water in a dish
Season the filet with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan until very hot. Sear the seasoned filet on all sides, pressing it up against the side of the pan to ensure an even sear on all sides.
Remove the meat from the pan and immediately brush with mustard, coating the entire filet. Do not let the meat cool first, the heat of the sear will pull in the flavors of the mustard.
Open the Prosciutto and lay the slices slightly overlapping each other on a sheet of plastic wrap.
Clean the mushrooms thoroughly & place in a food processor, pulse to chop finely. Add a clove of garlic and a dash of salt and pepper and a tablespoon of butter. Pulse again. Heat a dry frying pan (no oil or spray) over medium heat until quite hot, Immediately transfer the mushroom mixture (also known as duxelles) to the hot frying pan and cook several minutes until the moisture cooks away.
Spread the Duxelles out onto the Prosciutto slices and spread it evenly using the back of a spoon to create a fine layer. Place the seasoned beef onto the duxelles and roll the mushroom coated Prosciutto over the seasoned beef tightly, using the plastic wrap. Wrap the beef tightly into a barrel shape ensuring the beef is completely covered. Twist the ends of the plastic wrap and place it in a dish and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Roll out the Puff Pastry on a very lightly floured surface.
Carefully remove the plastic wrap from the Prosciutto wrapped filet and place it in the center of the rolled puff pastry.
Fold the pastry around the filet, wrapping it tightly, use the egg yolk to seal the pastry if needed. Wrap the entire filet in plastic wrap, seal the ends and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove the filet from the fridge, unwrap it and apply the egg yolk mixture to the pastry, covering it completely.
Using the back of a paring knife, gently score the pastry to give it a design, do NOT cut through the pastry dough. The point is to give it a design, you do not want the juices to escape during cooking. Sprinkle with Coarse Salt.
Bake at 400F for 28-30 minutes. ( for medium rare) Remove from the oven, let is rest 10 minutes WITHOUT Cutting it. Letting the meat rest lets the natural juices run back into the beef , cutting it prematurely causes the juice to pool and the meat to have a dry, tough texture.
(Bordelaise Sauce is optional)
The GroceryBudget101 Price Breakdown:
1 Puff Pastry, Homemade $1.42
1 1/2 lbs beef at $8lb = $12.
Fresh Mushrooms (baby bellas were the cheapest) $1.08
Prosciutto $3.48¢
Minced garlic 02¢
Mustard 05¢
Butter 18¢
Total cost of the Entire Dish = $18.23 Serves 6 easily, cost per serving $3.38 per person
Need a Video for a little help on seeing this recipe come together?
I haven’t had Beef Wellington in a gazillion years — my mother-in-law made it for dinner when we visited when DD was about seven months old. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed it until I read your post! My mother-in-law was a great planner and started me on the road to planning meals in advance when she visited to help me after having DD. She taught me so much and helped me to make things so much easier!
My DH thought that I was a fabulous cook, but I was really struggling to improve the food budget — he was a Frenchman and was accustomed to eating a certain way…sigh… For example: soup, salad, and a sandwich (good comfort food on winter days) was not a meal…giggle… I adapted, learned, and with the lessons learned in my multi-cultural youth and the lessons learned from my mother-in-law started me on my current path. The one thing that she did differently on the Beef Wellington from what you did was that she marinated the roast overnight in a combination of Italian dressing and Dijon mustard.
The rest follows suit!
:huh?:
hello…can we skip the bacon?? if not any substitution please???
I’m confused, this recipe doesn’t use bacon, it uses Prosciutto which is actually a dry cured ham that is sliced paper thin.
Prosciutto is cut from the Top of the Leg, bacon is from under the belly. They are cured 2 completely different ways too.
Prosciutto is brined salted then hung to cure for a very long/slow time.
Bacon is season, smoked and mass produced. Real Prosciutto comes from Italy, Bacon is produced just about everywhere.
They’re very different in flavors.