BEEFY WILLY WELLINGTON

It's so easy to make, don't be scared of the wellington. Embrace it as if it were your old friend. Then feed it to your friends and family.

A full sixty minutes

Ingredients

A 30cm Long Fillet of Beef
A Roll of Puff Pastry
300g Mushrooms
2 Shallots
3 Cloves Garlic
Sprig of Thyme
Salt and Pepper
English Mustard
6-8 Slices of Parma Ham
Knob of Butter
An Egg

Ingredients

A 30cm Long Fillet of Beef
A Roll of Puff Pastry
300g Mushrooms
2 Shallots
3 Cloves Garlic
Sprig of Thyme
Salt and Pepper
English Mustard
6-8 Slices of Parma Ham
Knob of Butter
An Egg

Instructions

We must prepare a duxelles which is a mixture of mushrooms and shallots that encases our beefy bit. This involves super finely dicing (but preferably blitzing in a food processor) mushrooms, shallots, 2 peeled cloves of garlic, a few thyme leaves and some salt and pepper. When you've got a sort of horrid looking, weird grey paste that is exactly what you're looking for. You need to cook out all the moisture in a hot non-stick frying pan for about 10 minutes. When this is done it will be a little thicker and you can spread it on a plate to help it cool down.
Get your big bad beefy fillet out and onto a plate or chopping board. Season heavily with salt and pepper and place into a very hot frying pan to sear the outside of the fillet. You're colouring it, not cooking it. Don't forget the ends! Chuck in a bit of butter, some thyme and a smashed clove of garlic and roll the fillet around in there to absorb some lovely flavour from the melted, infused butter. After about a minute and a half set your beef aside and use one of those weird plastic paint brushes to spread English mustard over the entire fillet.
Create a wrapping station by laying down a sheet of cling film over your chopping board/work surface. Make a rectangle of parma ham, placing them next to eachother lengthways on top of the cling film. Spread your cooled duxelles over the ham. Pop your fillet on one side of the duxelles/parma ham and roll it over using the cling film so that the ham and mushroom mixture wrap around the beef. Try to keep it nice and tight. Make sure that the ends are covered and tucked. It doesn't have to be super tidy at the ends but tie up the cling film at both ends and put the weird sausage shape in the fridge to firm up a little bit, maybe 15 minutes.
When its a little firmer, roll out your puff pastry sheet and get rid of your cling film. The almost-wellington should hold its shape. Place it on the pastry and fold it over the top of the fillet so that it encases it. Press down the sides so that the pastry is fully covering the meat. Preheat your oven to 200ºC and pop your wellington back in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Get your wellington out and pop it on a tray on top of some baking paper, this will make it easier to take off and slice when cooked. Run a knife in diagonal lines across the top for decoration and give a good egg wash with some beaten egg. Sprinkle with a little salt and pop into the oven for 25-30 minutes.
Take your wellington out and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Serve with whatever veg you want. I recommend a good buttery mash with this lovely bit of grub.