Got Beef? (Individual Beef Wellingtons with Red Wine & Beef Gravy)

Beef Wellington; generally an expensive meal, a show piece, a dinner party staple and a nightmare to cook! A full beef Wellington runs the risk of a soggy bottom, too rare in the middle, too overcooked on the ends, the judgement of not making your own puff pastry and if you do make it, will it be flaky?! Ultimately it's often a very expensive, time consuming and a relatively complicated dish to have as a regular meal!

However, if you fancy cooking a nice and impressive meal, my recipe for individual beef Wellingtons could be a good start. 

My two steaks came from the Tesco Finest range and cost £11.00 for the two (cheaper than 1 fillet steak at a restaurant)!

The pastry is not puff, but it's light, thin, simple and easy to make and work with and in my experience of using it, has never caused a soggy bottom! I prefer it to puff and hopefully you will too.

Finally, the recipe may seem to have a lot of steps or ingredients, but this is purely for the full dish - if you are running low on time, you can buy a pre-made gravy, or prep the whole thing in advance and leave in the fridge until ready to cook (just remove from the fridge for at least 30 mins before cooking). Don't be put off by what seems like a long list - the prep and cooking should take a maximum of 90 minutes for a novice or 45-60 for someone who knows their way around the kitchen.

Ingredients
For the pastry
  • 400g plain flour
  • 200g unsalted butter
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • 2 tbsp lukewarm water
For the filling
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 180g/6oz fillet steaks
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 150g chestnut mushrooms, finely diced
  • 30g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in water for 10 mins, drained and finely diced
  • 1 tsp mixed herbs
  • 80g Gorgonzola cheese
  • 4 slices Parma ham
For the pastry glaze
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tbsp milk
For the sauce
  • 30g unsalted butter
  • 1 shallot, finely diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • Handful of fresh thyme, finely chopped
  • 250ml red wine
  • 200 good quality, thick beef stock
  • Pinch of ground black pepper

Method
For the pastry
  • In a bowl, rub together the flour and butter, or mix in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
  • Gradually add the egg and water until the pastry starts to combine together.
  • Remove from bowl/processor, place on a floured work surface and knead until the dough has combined. 
  • Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
  • Once chilled, remove from the fridge and cut into four, roughly even pieces.
  • On a floured surface, roll all four pieces of pastry to a 2-3mm thickness, in a rough oval shape (around the depth of a £1.00 coin). Place back in the fridge until needed.
For the Wellington 
  • In a frying pan, heat 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, and then sear the fillet at a high heat, on each side for around two minutes. Remove and set aside.
  • Reduce to a low heat, add the rest of the oil and add both types of mushrooms, garlic and mixed herbs to the pan. Fry for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Put the mixture in a bowl to one side but keep the frying pan for later.
  • Remove your pastry from the fridge, and place two slices of Parma ham vertically across one piece of pastry (see picture).
  • Take each fillet, dry any excess juice with kitchen roll, and then place in the centre of the pastry, in the same direction as the Parma ham.
  • Place half of the mushroom mixture on top of the fillet, and then half of the Gorgonzola cheese on top of the mushrooms.
  • Wrap the Parma ham over the top of the fillet.
  • Using a pastry brush, brush the beaten egg along the exposed pastry.
  • Take a second piece of pastry and lay on top of the fillet, trimming any excess pastry and then pinching the two pieces of pastry together to secure.

  • Repeat this process with the second fillet.
  • Using any excess pastry, decorate the top of the Wellington, if desired.
  • Mix the remainder of the beaten egg and milk together, and brush over the whole Wellington.
  • Place on a non-stick baking tray, or alternatively on some greaseproof paper, on a tray.


  • Put in the oven for 20-25 mins, or until the pastry is a golden brown colour.
  • Remove from the oven. Using a sharp knife, cut the Wellingtons in half. Allow 5 mins to rest before serving.

For the gravy





  • Using the frying pan from earlier, melt the butter on a medium heat.
  • Once melted, add the shallot, garlic, thyme and pepper. Stirring frequently, fry for around 10 minutes or until the shallot has softened and become translucent.
  • Add the red wine to the pan, bring to a simmer and leave for a further 10 mins (stirring occasionally to prevent the shallot mixture from sticking), or until the liquid has reduced by half.
  • Add the beef stock and bring back to a simmer and allow the gravy to reduce for a further 10 mins, or longer, depending on your preferred consistency.
Beef Wellington!

Tips, Tricks and Hints
  • Keep all the ingredients except the pastry at room temperature when preparing, cooking or building the Wellington - this ensures even cooking and prevents less steam build up inside the pastry, preventing a soggy bottom.
  • Don't season as normal; you'll notice this dish has no salt in the recipe, and the butter is unsalted. This is because the Gorgonzola, Parma ham and stock all have plenty of salt in them! 
  • Any decorative pastry should be as thin as possible to ensure no uneven cooking.
  • The cooking time is for medium-rare, which is how this dish should be served, but should you want medium, medium-well or well done, add 90 seconds to the cooking time for each increase in cooking or decrease by 90 seconds for rare.
  • YOU MUST REST THE WELLINGTON! I cannot stress this enough; cut the Wellington in half, even better if you can place on a wire rack to allow the juices to not soak back into the pastry and then serve. Particularly if you want a prettier presentation or you're funny about the red juices from steak, the resting prevents these juices from going all over the plate.