Beef Wellington a success!

This Saturday I returned to the kitchen armed with my Jamie Oliver cookbook. (In my last post I mentioned the title as Ministry of food...which is fine if you are in the UK-In North America you will find it as Jamie's food revolution.) Now as I promised I tried the Ground beef wellington, and now am pleased to announce that it was a big success.

The one thing about this recipe is it takes time. I have a little experience in the kitchen and for me it took approximately 1 hour of prep, and 1 hour to cook. So if time is an issue than wait till a day that you can dedicate 2 hours. Good news is that while the wellington is in the oven you can make the mashed potatoes and veggies if you wish. It doesn't take much maintenance once in the oven.

I made a couple amendments that I found easier than described in the book. The recipe asks for you to sauté the veggies (including frozen peas) then completely cool. I thought to add the frozen peas after to the bowl of veggies, and found that the heat from the veggies was enough to cook the peas and it cooled within minutes. Another time saver was that President's Choice had pre-rolled puff pastry, so I didn't need to mess about with rolling.

So this is Jamie's recipe for Ground beef wellington(with my instructions which are close but not verbatim):

1 onion

1 carrot

1 stalk of celery

4 sprigs fresh rosemary removed from the stem and chopped fine

2 cloves of garlic

large handful of frozen peas

1 lb of ground beef

1 lg egg (preferably organic/free range) beaten

2 sheets of puff pastry

2 portabella mushrooms (I used 4 cremini and it was fine)

Salt and pepper

Dice the celery, onions, carrots and mushrooms into small (1/4 inch) cubes and sauté together for approximately for 8 minutes until softened, adding garlic and rosemary a couple minutes in. Place in a bowl and mix in frozen peas. While that cools, mix a good pinch of salt and pepper, half the beaten egg, and ground beef in another bowl. With Clean hands, mix together with cooled veggies. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

On a well floured surface, place the two sheets of puff pastry out. If using pre-rolled make sure its about 12"x16" roughly, and if using unrolled make sure to use plenty of flour to roll to those dimensions as it can be sticky or tear. Centre the beef mixture and brush edges with some of remaining egg. Roll around beef and seal the edges, then brush with remainder of egg. Place on a floured cookie sheet (use one with a lip because it will drip a bit), and cook for 1 hour or until golden brown.

Serve with mash potatoes and gravy and you have a great comfort meal. Enjoy!

Hope you like this as much as we did, and don't plan for leftovers it disappears too fast.

Bon apetit!