- 2 months ago
No need to fear Beef Wellingtons anymore with this recipe! In this video, Chef John shows you how to make Peek-a-Boo Beef Wellington, a deconstructed version of the classic baked steak dish, featuring a beautifully seared steak, a sautéed mushroom-shallot mixture, and golden flaky puff pastry. This version keeps the puff pastry fluffy, and truffle brie and pate round out the creamy and savory flavors. Drizzle your pan sauce over everything and enjoy!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Peek-A-Boo Beef Wellington.
00:08That's right, what you see is what you get.
00:11And what you get are all the components to Beef Wellington put together in a much easier way.
00:17And not only are we going to save a lot of time and effort, but by doing the components separately,
00:22I think we're going to get much better results.
00:25And the first component we will tackle is going to be our puff pastry.
00:28And what we'll do while this is still partially frozen is cut out two large circles,
00:34and we will transfer those onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
00:37And once that's been accomplished, we will take a fork, and we will prick the dough all over,
00:42which in the business is called docking.
00:45And what this is going to do is hinder the rising,
00:48since ultimately we want something that's nice and crispy and fairly thin.
00:52So we will go ahead and fork that pastry as shown.
00:54And once these pieces have been evenly spaced and properly poked,
00:59we will transfer that into a 400-degree oven for 15 minutes,
01:03at which point it's going to look something like this.
01:06And what we'll do is give those a press and flip them over.
01:10And yes, our circles have turned into ovals,
01:13which is perfect because our beef tenderloin shape is closer to an oval than a circle.
01:17And that happens because of the way the dough is slightly smeared when the cutter goes through.
01:22But anyway, what we'll do once that's pressed and flipped is pop that back in the 400-degree oven
01:27for another 10 to 15 minutes or so,
01:30or until it looks like this.
01:32And what we'll do is transfer that onto a baking rack and let it cool completely.
01:37And by docking and pressing and cooking this to a nice deep dark golden brown,
01:41once this cools, this buttery flaky pastry is going to be beautifully crispy and crunchy.
01:45Oh, and if you want, after this is cooled,
01:48you can go ahead and trim off or break off that little bit of excess pastry around the bottom.
01:53But anyway, like I said, we'll let that cool and reserve it until later.
01:57And we can move on to check out the rest of the components,
02:00with the star of the show being a beautiful beef tenderloin steak.
02:04And I think something between 5 and 6 ounces is perfect.
02:07And then the other major components will be a beautiful sautéed mushroom
02:10that we'll do with a little bit of shallot and fresh thyme.
02:14And then I also decided I wanted to add a nice slice of truffled brie,
02:18which isn't traditional, but truffles are traditional.
02:21And I thought that worked very, very well.
02:24And then, of course, we're going to need a few slices of pâté.
02:27And this one is pork and duck liver.
02:29But any smooth, creamy-style pâté will work.
02:32And what we'll do is transfer those last two things into the fridge.
02:35And then we'll go ahead and season up our steak very simply with some kosher salt
02:40and some freshly ground black pepper.
02:43And because of the larger flaky crystals, it always looks like we're using too much salt.
02:48But I'm using less than a half a teaspoon total, which is perfect for this weight of beef.
02:53But anyway, once that's seasoned, we can go ahead and set that aside.
02:58At which point we can head to the stove,
03:01where we have a little bit of olive oil and butter in a pan, set over medium-high heat.
03:05And we'll go ahead and transfer in our sliced mushrooms.
03:08And we'll add a pinch of salt.
03:10And we will settle those down into a nice even layer.
03:12And what's going to happen is moisture is going to come out of those mushrooms.
03:17And they're going to soften and kind of look sweaty.
03:20And then eventually they will start to brown.
03:22And once that happens, we will cook them stirring for a few minutes.
03:26Until they take on some nice color.
03:28And they're looking a little something like this.
03:30At which point we can transfer in our thinly sliced shallots.
03:34And we'll stir those in.
03:35And cook those for a couple minutes.
03:37Or until they turn translucent.
03:39And yes, any kind of thinly sliced onion will be fine.
03:42But if you can find them, the shallot works really nice.
03:46And that's it.
03:47Once we're happy with how our mushrooms and shallots are looking,
03:50we will turn off the heat.
03:51And toss in some freshly picked thyme leaves.
03:54And we will stir those in.
03:56And believe it or not, that is pretty much it for our mushroom component.
04:00And what we'll do at this point is transfer those into a bowl.
04:03And we'll set those aside until we need them.
04:06And then what we'll do is place that same pan back on the stove.
04:09And we'll spoon in a little bit of clarified butter.
04:11Which is just melted butter with that white foamy stuff skimmed off.
04:16And we'll set our heat to medium high.
04:18And we'll let that butter get nice and hot.
04:20At which point we'll transfer in our tenderloin steak.
04:23And we'll sear that first side for about three minutes or so.
04:26Which should be enough time to get some nice browning.
04:29And then I'm going to sear the second side about three minutes as well.
04:32And obviously any of the times I mentioned are going to be affected by the size and shape of your steak.
04:38And ultimately you're going to have to figure out when this is done.
04:41And then besides those two sides, I do like to pick it up and kind of sear the edges as well.
04:47Just to get rid of that raw appearance.
04:49And add a touch of color.
04:52And then as far as my personal preference for doneness.
04:54When we're talking about beef tenderloin in general.
04:57In this dish in particular.
04:59I'm shooting for something between rare and medium rare.
05:02Or something like 120 to 125 internal temp.
05:06And not to brag, but I can kind of tell by feeling it.
05:09But of course you should probably check your work with a thermometer.
05:13I mean you are after all the Irma Vep.
05:15Of your internal temp.
05:17And once we've decided that has cooked long enough.
05:19We'll remove that to a plate.
05:21And we'll let it rest for about four or five minutes.
05:24Loosely covered with foil.
05:25While we make a very easy, very fast pan sauce.
05:29And we'll do that by pouring in a little bit of sherry wine.
05:32And be careful that can actually flame up.
05:35And we'll also add a little bit of sherry vinegar.
05:37And we'll let that boil on medium high for about 30 seconds or so.
05:40Or until it reduces by what you think is about half.
05:44And once it looks like this.
05:46We'll transfer in some beef bone broth.
05:48Or some other kind of high quality beef broth.
05:51And we will season that simply with a pinch of salt.
05:54Plus a little bit of freshly ground black pepper.
05:57And what we'll do is wait for that to come to a boil.
05:59And then we'll give it a stir for no apparent reason.
06:02And then we'll let this boil for about two minutes.
06:05Or until our liquids have reduced down to about a quarter cup or so.
06:08At which point they're probably going to look a little something like this.
06:13And once that happens, we'll reduce our heat to low.
06:16And we'll add a little touch of cream.
06:19Plus a little bit of cold diced up butter.
06:21And we will emulsify that in.
06:23Either by stirring with the spoon.
06:25Or shaking the pan.
06:26Or both.
06:27And I've been doing these sauces for a long time.
06:30And I'm still shocked and amazed.
06:32By how in just a few minutes.
06:34With a couple simple ingredients.
06:36We can produce such an amazingly beautiful and flavorful sauce.
06:39So if you only learn one thing from this video.
06:42Let it be this.
06:44And once our sauce is set.
06:45We can turn off the heat and play it up.
06:48And what we'll do is place our still warm steak down.
06:51On one of our puff pastry pieces.
06:53Which yes, I did trim the edges of.
06:56To make it look a little neater.
06:58And then over the top of the meat.
06:59We'll do a few thin slices of the pâté.
07:02And then we'll top that with our beautifully sautéed mushrooms.
07:05Which we should probably keep in a warm oven.
07:07With our puff pastry while we're cooking our steak.
07:10Or I guess you can just zap it in the microwave.
07:13But anyway, we'll pile those over the top.
07:16And once those are on.
07:17We'll top that with one thin slice of our truffle brie.
07:20And that's it.
07:21We can top all this with our beautiful pan sauce.
07:24And in real life.
07:25I'm just going to pour everything over.
07:27Right here, since I have to take some contractually obligated pictures.
07:31I just spooned over the amount I thought would look the best.
07:34And once sauced.
07:35We'll finish up with a pinch of chives.
07:38And then we'll top everything with our second piece of pastry.
07:41And that's it.
07:42What I'm calling peek-a-boo beef wellington.
07:44Is ready to enjoy.
07:46So I cleaned up that drip.
07:48And took a few pictures.
07:49And then grabbed a fork and knife so I could cut in.
07:52And by the way, take a good look at everything now.
07:54Since this is going to turn into a culinary crime scene.
07:57Very quickly.
07:58And to make things a little easier for me.
08:00I'm going to take off the top pastry first.
08:03Although I do want that cheese to stay on top.
08:05And this really did look and smell so incredible.
08:08I was very much hoping I had nailed the doneness.
08:11Which, as you can see, I did.
08:15Alright, most cuts of steak I do like cooked a little bit more.
08:18But as I said, for beef tenderloin, I think something between rare and medium rare is perfect.
08:22And if we can, we're going to try to get some of all the components in one bite.
08:29Alright, the meat, the brie, the pâté, the mushrooms, and of course the pastry.
08:33And of course the pastry.
08:35And that, my friends, tastes as good as any beef wellington you've ever had, or ever will have.
08:41Since it's basically the same ingredients.
08:43But because we're doing it in this deconstructed format, we're able to hopefully cook each element to perfection.
08:49Alright, 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.
08:59And speaking of classic wellington, as you might know, the mushroom component in that is basically a finely ground mushroom paste.
09:07Which tastes fine, but I've never been a big fan of the texture.
09:11Alright, for me it's a little too baby food-ish.
09:13And if you ask any infant, they will tell you, mushroom baby food is the worst.
09:19So I much, much prefer the sautéed sliced mushrooms in this.
09:23But anyway, that's it.
09:25My take on a deconstructed beef wellington.
09:28Which I decided to call peekaboo.
09:30Since it is.
09:32But also because I've made fun of deconstructed recipes so many times over the years.
09:36But no matter what you call it, I like this version so much more.
09:40And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
09:43So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts.
09:46A printable written recipe and much more info as usual.
09:51And as always, enjoy.
09:55ances I take part in the description below for the comment.
10:03I'll see you next time right now.
10:09Bye.
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