Beef Wellington

No I haven't gone up in the world, I haven't bought a massive lump of beef fillet and I haven't had a very posh dinner party. A few months ago I was in M&S and came across a pack of two 'flat iron steaks' which they were offering for a measly £4. "What are these?", I asked my phone's browser, and read that this was a 'new' cut of beef that had been 'discovered' by researchers at universities in Nebraska and Florida. General consensus on the web was that they're tender like fillet and tasty like rump. Obviously I bought a pack and tried them out. They were amazing! As good a steak as any I've had from the more traditional prime steak cuts. And you can still get two for £4! Sainsbury's have also just cottoned on, selling packs that work out at £9.99 a kilo. The Sainsbury's ones don't look quite as good as the M&S ones, lacking the distinctive marbling and clearly not aged for as long, but it was to Sainsbury's that I had to turn for my flat irons this weekend as there were none in M&S. If lots of people are catching on and buying these steaks it leads me to suspect they might not stay this cheap for long. But only time will tell.

The fairly uniform thickness and rectangular shape of these steaks got me thinking that they'd be good for making little individual beef wellingtons. I'd never even eaten a wellington before, let alone cooked one, so when I gave it a whirl on New Year's Day it was quite an occasion. It went so well that I thought you might enjoy having a go yourself, so I made them again yesterday for t'blog. Two beef wellingtons for less than a tenner, anyone?

Sorry I forgot to take a photo until I was some considerable way into it! 

Beef Wellington

Serves 2 (extremely generously)

2 flat iron steaks
1 or 2 dried morels, or a couple of tablespoons of dried porcini mushrooms
A shallot
A clove of garlic
4 or five white mushrooms from your Local Greens bag
Butter
A teaspoon of whole grain mustard
A dash of red wine
2-3 tablespoons of double cream
A little oil or lard
150g baby spinach
1x375g pack of ready rolled puff pastry
An egg

For the gravy:

Beef bones
An onion
Half a carrot
1-2 teaspoons of plain flour
A dash of red wine

Begin by getting those beef bones into the oven. You're going to make a stock, but you want to roast the bones first to get maximum flavour out of them. Roast for about 45 minutes at gas mark 6, turning once or twice. Then put them into a pan with the onion and carrot, just cover with water and put on to boil. Simmer for an hour or two (or longer if you've got the time), then remove the bones and veg and boil the stock hard for as long as it takes to reduce it down to about half a pint. Oh, and don't wash the roasting tin yet. 

In a bowl pour boiling water over the dried mushrooms (just enough to cover them, plus a touch more) and leave to hydrate for half an hour. When you remove the mushrooms, squeeze as much stock as you can out of them back into the bowl. Finely chop the shallot and cook gently in a little butter until softening and becoming golden. Finely chop both sets of mushrooms (and I mean really finely) and add to the shallot with the garlic, also finely chopped. Cook gently for as long as you like - you can't overcook a mushroom. Add the mushroom stock to the pan and turn the heat up to reduce it down until it's almost disappeared. Add a dash of red wine and allow that to reduce also. Add the cream and stir to combine and thicken. Finish by adding the mustard and seasoning well with salt and black pepper. You have just made a duxelles. 

Get a frying pan really hot with some oil or lard (not butter as it will burn) and sear the steaks until good and brown - just a minute each side. The pan needs to be extremely hot so that you can sear the outsides quickly without actually starting to cook them inside. Season a little and leave to cool. Don't wash the pan. 

Rinse the spinach and put in a covered pan with no more water than is sticking to the leaves. Bring to the boil to wilt it; then squeeze out as much water as possible. Put it back in the pan, add just a very small knob of butter and a bit of s & p, and separate the leaves from each other a little.

Spread the pastry out, leaving it on the grease-proof paper it comes with, and cut in half width-ways. Spread spinach over one half of each sheet, leaving a good gap at the edges; make a rectangle of spinach the same size as your steaks. Put the steaks on top of the spinach, then spread the duxelles over the steaks. Pile it on, don't be shy. Then fold the other half of the pastry over the steaks to make what is essentially a pasty. Trim off any excess pastry and then crimp the edges with the tines of a fork to seal. Brush all over with egg. Prick each one three times with the fork. I don't know if this is necessary but it feels right. Put on a baking sheet, still with the paper under, and put in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 6 for 20 minutes. By this time the pastry should be golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for five minutes. 

While that's going on you can make the gravy. Put the roasting tin on the hob and warm it up. There will probably not be much fat, so add a little knob of butter before adding the flour. Whisk to remove lumps. Meanwhile heat up the pan you fried the steaks in and deglaze with a splash of red wine. Pour this into the roasting and keep whisking. Then add the beef stock and whisk it in, then simmer for a few minutes. Taste and season.

I served it with a grated carrot and beetroot medley, dressed simply with olive oil and lightly seasoned, and a swede fondant which was completely unnecessary but very delicious. Really, all that's required by way of accompaniment is some green salad leaves and a belting red wine. 

If you were serving it as part of a three course menu you would only need to serve half a wellington per person. When you cut it in half, you'll see that the steak is still perfectly pink, and when you eat it you'll notice that it has a buttery texture and a deeply beefy flavour. The pastry on top will be crisp, underneath will be soft with spinach and beef juice, and the duxelles will add another layer of flavour. It tastes like the most ridiculous luxury, but at a fraction of the price you would expect to pay for such a dish. Can you tell I'm quite proud of it? You could call it my new signature dish! 

It's fairly complex I suppose, but you can break it up by making individual elements ahead of time. Then it's just a construction job at the end. 



Later today I'm going to tackle the marrow that came out those beef bones - a first attempt at cooking bone marrow. Wish me luck.