I’m sure everyone has heard of the wonderful dish, Beef Wellington. It’s filet mignon topped with mushrooms and shallots, wrapped in a puff pastry, and baked to a golden perfection. Once finished, you get this beautiful flaky crust with a perfectly cooked piece of filet inside…if cooked right. My brother has been making them quite often, recently, and I wanted to try my hand at it. The night I decided to give it a go, I gathered my ingredients and realized that I didn’t have filet mignon on hand, but I did have pork tenderloin and thought to myself, why not? Everyone knows how amazing pork is with apples, so I decided to toss in some fresh chopped apples to the mix, as well.
Start by seasoning the tenderloin with Sylva’s Kitchen Fault Line Seasoning. Next, sear the tenderloin on all sides in a hot skillet with a little olive oil, searing it for a total of about 8-10 minutes. Once seared on all sides, remove the tenderloin from the skillet and let it cool to room temperature. While the tenderloin is cooling, place mushrooms, shallots, and apples in the food processor and process until everything is finely chopped. Heat a skillet with olive oil and butter and cook the mushroom mixture until all the liquid has been absorbed. Once that’s done, let the mixture cool to room temperature. While the majority of the mixture is cooling, take about a cup of the mushroom mixture and place it in a sauce pan with four cups of combined chicken and beef broth and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then, strain the solids out of the broth—this is what you’ll use to make the gravy to serve with the Wellington. The mushroom mixture gives it a fantastic flavor!
Now, it’s time to prepare the Wellington. Take room temperature puff pastry and lay it out flat. Depending on the size of the tenderloin, you may need to press it out a little so that it will wrap all the way around the meat. Next, place the mushroom mixture down the middle of the pastry, essentially in the shape of the tenderloin, but not all the way to the edge of the pastry as you want to be able to seal the edges of the pastry around the tenderloin. Place the tenderloin on top of the mushroom mixture, brush the edges of the pastry with an egg wash, and wrap everything up, tucking in the sides so they won’t come open in the oven. Place the Wellington seam-side down in a baking dish and brush the entire thing with the egg wash to give it a beautiful golden color. Bake it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.
While the Wellington is cooking, it’s time to make the gravy! Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a pan, then stir in 3 tablespoons of flour. Let the mixture cook until a light golden brown and then whisk in the broth you prepared earlier and simmer until thickened. Once the Wellington is done baking, remove it from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes, then slice and serve. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as my family and I do. Enjoy!
