SPLURGE FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

 

Splurge for New Year’s eve

           As 2022 comes to its final days I’m going to make an exception to the ‘Thrifty’ aim of this column and celebrate our New Year’s eve with an elegant dinner menu featuring Beef Wellington. It is a dish I first made many years ago for a New Year’s day dinner for my family, when I still had enough energy to make an elaborate dinner after a late New Year’s eve night.

          Beef Wellington is a beef roast that has been aptly named “decadent meat with an amazing presentation”. Historically it is reputed to have been created to celebrate the Duke of Wellington’s decisive victory against Napoleon at Waterloo in 1816.  So, is it a dish created by English cuisine? I had always wondered about that since it is a tenderloin roast, topped with pâté or duxelles (finely chopped mushrooms sautéed with shallots and garlic), all wrapped in pastry and frankly sounds French. A bit more history, apparently it existed in Britan as a French adaptation, but since Wellington was fond of it, after Waterloo (in which France lost) the British chefs took the opportunity to give it a new identity, hence “Beef Wellington”.

          My recipe has been adapted from “The New York Times Menu Cookbook” by Craig Clairborne (1966). My substitutions include frozen puff pastry from the deli, and I have omitted the 3-4 fresh truffles. It requires a bit of timing, but it is not too difficult for the amazingly delicious results.

                                                      Beef Wellington

          Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rub 2 ½ to 3 lb. tenderloin with 2 tblsp. cognac, salt and pepper. Wrap with 6 slices of bacon, securing ends with toothpicks. Place meat on a roasting rack in a roasting pan and roast 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the bacon. Cool to room temperature. Set frozen puff pastry 1-2 sheets, depending on the size of the tenderloin, to thaw 40 minutes. Beat 1 egg in a small bowl with 1 tsp. water.

          Spread 6-8 oz. pâté (made with truffles if available) over to top and sides of the beef. Roll out the pastry to one quarter inch thick (14x10 inches). Place the meat, pâté side down in the middle of the pastry and wrap the pasty around the meat like an envelope, sealing the ends with the egg wash. Trim any excess to cut in decorative shapes for the top. Transfer the pastry wrapped meat to a baking sheet, seam side down. Brush all over with the egg wash. Decorate with shapes of the leftover pastry and brush again with the egg. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes until the crust is golden.

          Serve sliced warm, with Madeira sauce, or in a cold buffet.

                                             Madeira sauce

Sauté 1/3 cup chopped shallots in 2 tblsp. butter to golden, stir in 2 tblsp. flour, add ½ cup Madeira, 1 ½ cups beef broth, 1 tblsp. Worcestershire sauce and cook to desired thickness with stirring. Strain (optional), heat, stir in 1 tblsp. butter and when it melts, turn off the heat and stir in 3 tblsp. Madeira. Serve with the meat.

Beef Wellington is nicely accompanied by a potato and mushroom gratin baked with chicken broth and topped with a sprinkle of cheese. For a green accent serve cooked string beans tossed with slivered almonds toasted in a tablespoon of butter or steamed asparagus with Hollandaise sauce.

 

                              Potato-Shitake Gratin

Sauté 6 oz. sliced Shitake mushrooms and ½ chopped onion in 1 tblsp. olive oil and 2 tblsp. butter without turning for 3 minutes, turn and cook an additional 3 minutes, Sprinkle all with ½ tsp. salt and 2 tblsp. lemon juice and set aside.

Peel and slice 4-6 yellow potatoes in ¼ inch slices and parboil in salted water for 2 minutes. Spray a deep pie plate or an 8x8 baking dish with baking spray and layer ½ of the potatoes in the dish. Cover with the cooked mushrooms, 4 oz. shredded Gruyere        cheese and the rest of the potatoes and pour in ¾ cups chicken broth. Dot with 2 tblsp. butter, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, uncover, sprinkle with 2 tblsp. shredded Gruyere cheese and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the top is browned in spots. Serve warm with the meat.

Desert might seem superfluous after such a meal, but it is nice to sit afterwards with a glass of port and dipping some biscotti reminisce about the year past.

 

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)