Monday, July 28, 2014

Mini beef wellingtons

For years, Jeff's been mentioning how much he loves beef Wellington and every time I looked up a recipe, it just seemed overwhelming to me. Mushroom duxelles, beef tenderloin, moisture barrier, phyllo pastry dough or something, some more meat blah blah blah. Well, years later, I thought about how everything can be made in little bite sized pockets and started researching. It's till time consuming, but it was SO WORTH IT!!!


What I had:
  • 1/2 lb beef tenderloin, cut into bite sized pieces (I had about 1/2 inch squares)
  • 1/2 lb mixed mushrooms, chopped finely (I had shiitake and portobella)
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • sea salt
  • 1/4 cup Port wine
  • 1/8 cup heavy cream
  • prosciutto - as many strips as the number of bite sized beef pieces
  • stone ground mustard (I had a horseradish one and it worked great)
  • Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets
What I did:
  • Preheat oven at 400
  • Sauteed the shallots and garlic in 2 tablespoons of garlic pepper olive oil, till fragrant
  • Put the mushrooms in and let them cook till soft, sprinkled 1/2 tbsp sea salt
  • Poured the Port to deglaze the pan, which was useless since nothing sticks to my pan, so I used it for flavor
  • Added the heavy cream and just let it cook for 5 minutes or so
  • Used a blender stick to puree some - left some chunky mushrooms for texture
  • Browned the beef pieces on all sides on high heat - about 2-3 minutes total and put them aside
  • Unrolled a pastry sheet and cut into 9 squares
  • Laid a slice of prosciutto across the square
  • Placed a tablespoon of the mushroom mixture in the center
  • Topped that with 1 teaspoon of the mustard
  • Topped that with a piece of beef
  • Rolled the prosciutto over the beef
  • Folded the corners of the dough into the center and closed the seams together. Important: be heavy handed with this step. I wasn't and some of the pockets opened up
  • Baked for 20 minutes
  • Burned my tongue on the first one because I didn't wait long enough
I made 18, they were all gone by the time we went to bed last night.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Spinach Pesto over Salmon


What I had:
  • 2 lbs wild salmon filets
  • lemon pepper seasoning
  • 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, unsalted
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • juice from one lemon
  • 1/4 tbsp sea salt
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup packed spinach leaves
  • black pepper to taste
  • 1/4 cup your favorite olive oil - I used spicy garlic infused olive oil
What I did:
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  • Sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning liberally over the filets
  • Bake for 22 minutes
  • While fish is in the oven, put everything else except oil into a food processor and pulse till combined and finely ground
  • Pour the olive oil and pulse till everything is nicely mixed
  • Throw a dollop over the fish and enjoy with your favorite vegetables on the side
That plate above was devoured by Oli, and anything he will eat right along with us is a huge hit in my books.