Beef Wellington a classic recipe

My husband has wanted to make this classic for many year.   When we were first married, he had talked about making Beef Wellington with my Mom who had recited the recipe by memory to him, much to his surprise.    At a young age, my mom had worked in a Hospital kitchen in her hometown.  My Mom was an incredible cook, with recipes in her repertoire that were very French based, sauces, pastries, cream puffs, custards, desserts, etc.   Only in later years did I find out in talking to her sister, that the head of the kitchen was a Cordon Bleu trained chef, a Felician sister who ran the kitchen in the hospital.  The Felician Sisters who originated in Warsaw, Poland where from Chicago and ran the local hospital.  My Mom had fond memories of working in the hospital kitchen.   When the Felician sisters moved to Landgenburg Saskatchewan, they had had asked my Mom to join them.

My husband decide to do classic recipe for my birthday rather than go out for dinner.

The recipe he followed was very much like what my Mom had recited to him, minus the homemade pastry as Puff Pastry was used here instead. 

There are many recipes on the internet, but really use them only as a guide.   The pictures I have enclosed will help you with the method.



Beef Wellington

The Tenderloin Beef was 900 gm, almost 2 pounds. It was sautéed in a mixture of olive oil and butter. The meat was sautéed for about 3 - 5 minutes on all six sides, until just sealed.

Preheat oven to 425 F

Two shallots were finely chopped and sautéed in the same pan used for the meat.

The meat was covered in Dijon Mustard and set aside.  My mom used English mustard here.

Mushrooms, about 1 kg (2 lb) were finely chopped and sautéed with the shallots.

At the same time, a brown sauce was being made.  

Brown Sauce

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery, finely chopped
2 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
finely chopped thyme
1/4 c sherry plus 3 Tbsp
1 cup of homemade turkey stock
2 Tbsp butter

Method for the Brown Sauce

Chop up finely the celery, carrots, onion and herbs; parsley and thyme. 
Saute the veggies
Add the stock to the vegetables. Bouillon cubes can be used here
Add the sherry to the mixture
Simmer the sauce for 30 minutes until it reduces.
Strain mixture through a fine sieve. 
Add 3 Tbsp Sherry
Stir in butter 
Keep warm to serve over the tenderloin

Pate was sliced, about 1/4 inch and added on to the Puff Pastry that had been thawed in the refrigerator

Place the prepared meat on the bed of duxelles (mixture of shallot and mushrooms)

Wrap the bundle with the Puff Pastry and seal the edges

Egg wash the pastry before placing in the preheated oven

A 2015 cabernet wine from my hubby's favourite winery in the Okanagan Valley, Quails Gate

Reduce the oven temperature to 400 F

Bake for 40 minutes.

  

It was a very enjoyable evening as I photographed the preparation and sipped on white wine  as not a red wine drinker! This picture was staged for my husband's Facebook page! 

Enjoy the small things in life as they add up to make everything beautiful!

Blitz Torte

Years ago, I tasted a cake that meant "Cloud Cake" in German.  In serving this cake, the German lady stated she "never" shared her recipes!  This I can never understand as I love coming across a recipe that has been give to me.  I usually date and name the recipe with the person's name.  When I come across the recipe, this brings back memories of this person and when it was  given to me.  

Her Cloud Cake had layers of cake, meringue and a lemon filling.  The meringue was on top and the cake did look like a cloud cake.  In my search, I could not find this cloud cake, until recently when I came across a cake called "Blitz Torte" on a Instagram post.  Blitz Torte means Lightning Cake that not only looks beautiful with a meringue topping with toasted almonds but has different textures and flavors.  

I planned to do this for my husband and son's birthdays which are a day apart.  Since I was at a pastoral care conference all weekend, I didn't think I could make this cake with a meringue ahead of time. 


The cake was very quickly made and baked with a meringue layer on top in a springform pan.  The meringue had baking soda added to it which was different from other meringue recipes I have made.  The base was also more like a cookie base than cake. 

The recipe I followed was German Blitz Torte by Omar with modifications

Blitz Torte 

• Preheat Oven to 325
• Prepare 2- 8 inch springform pans with grease and flour.

Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 tsp baking soda
• handful of sliced almonds

Whisk egg whites until soft peaks, add sugar and baking soda gradually.  I probably would use less sugar next time.  

Cake

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 6 tbsp milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp almond flavouring

Cream sugar and butter until light, add egg yolks, gradually mix in flour and baking powder, stir in the milk and flavouring. 

Spread half of the mixture into the pan. There wasn't very much batter, so it is a thin layer.  

Then spread half of the meringue on top, making sure the meringue covers the base and touches the edge of the pan all around. Sprinkle sliced almonds on top of the meringue

Bake at 325 for 35 to 40  minutes.  I reduced the heat to 275 as the top was browning too quickly.

I used a instant chocolate pudding for the filling and my granddaughter decorated it with Raspberries. 

The two birthday boys were very pleased with the cake

Rubber Duck Cake

After posting pictures of the Rubber Ducky Cake I made for my grandchild for her second birthday on Facebook,

I realized what memories the cakes I had made for my children for their birthday had made for them and others.  

My grandchild likes ducks and I decided to do a rubbery ducky theme for her second birthday. 

The Betty Crocker site has easy directions for making a Rubber Ducky cake without using a performed pan.. 

I had made similar cakes for my children for their birthday parties and for school.  Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Tigger, Barbie doll, BatMan and monster cakes all come to mind.  These cakes are easy to make and are unique and remembered as seen by the Facebook comments.

The only thing to remember is all the kids want the eyes, so need to add extra candy to decorate the cake so each kid is happy

This cake was fun to make.  I am not sure that you had to use two different circular pans as it didn't seem to make a difference. I think the head could have been higher and larger, but it worked.. I used a circular bowl with the brim of 10 cm wide.

A trick my mom always used with layer cakes was to spread melted jelly on her cakes before assembling them.  I find it adds an extra layer of flavor to do this.

Buttercream icing was used as the icing.  Cream 1 cup of shortening ( 1/2 c of butter and 1/2 c of shortening can be used) and 1 tsp Vanilla with 2 T of milk, add your icing sugar gradually until light and fluffy.  I used about 3 cups of sugar and needed to add more milk to have an easy to spread icing.

I could not find the orange wedges, although I did find orange slices in the bulk food area of the grocery store.  I used Cheezies for the tail which was a hit with my granddaughter!