From Donal Skehan’s “HomeCooked”, we bring you his Mini Beef Wellington Recipe.

The perfect beef Wellington can be a tricky business, especially when serving to a group who are picky about how their meat is cooked. The solution is mini beef Wellingtons, individually wrapped so your guests can have them cooked exactly how they like.

Mini Beef Wellington

Serves 6

Ingredients

6 thick beef fillet steaks with a good marbling of fat
Sea salt and ground black pepper 1 tbsp olive oil
English mustard, for brushing the meat Plain flour, for dusting
500g puff pastry
1 large egg, beaten

For the Filling

10g dried porcini mushrooms 1 tbsp butter
3 shallots, peeled and finely chopped 300g chestnut mushrooms, finely
chopped
3 thyme sprigs 100ml brandy 100ml single cream

Method

To make the filling, first soak the porcini mushrooms in boiling water for 10-15 minutes until they are plump and tender. Drain, reserving the soaking liquid, and chop finely.

Melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat until foaming. Add the shallots and fry for 6 minutes until softened. Stir in the porcini and the
chestnut mushrooms together with the thyme and cook for a further 6 minutes until tender. Pour in the mushroom soaking liquid, brandy and cream and simmer until the liquid has reduced and the mixture thickened. Put the filling into a clean bowl and cool completely.

Season the steaks with sea salt and ground black pepper. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper and then place it back over a high heat with a little oil and brown the steaks, in batches if necessary, for about 1minute on each side. Remove from the heat and rest for at least 30 minutes until completely cool. When cooled, brush each one with mustard.

Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F), Gas Mark 7. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the puff pastry into a large rectangle measuring about 45 x 30cm and about 3mm thick. Divide the rectangle into six squares, each one big enough to wrap all the way around each fillet.

Divide the mushroom mixture among the six squares and spread over the pastry, leaving 1cm uncovered all the way around. Place the beef fillet on top. Brush the pastry edges with the egg, then lift the pastry edges over the beef and turn over tucking in the edges neatly. Place the parcels on a baking tray, seam-side down.

Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes for medium rare or to your liking. Remove from the oven to rest for 5 minutes before serving on warmed plates with steamed greens.

Homecooked

In this stunning new book to accompany the 12-part primetime TV series, award-winning food writer Donal Skehan shows how easy and satisfying it is to serve great food every day. Homecooked includes new takes on well-loved family classics, such as Stuffed Pork with Apple and Ginger Sauce, One-pot Whole Chicken and Failsafe Bread 101, plus original and inspiring new ideas like Blackened Salmon with Green Goddess Avocado Salad, Blue Cheese Beef Sliders and Mikado Coconut Cream Cake.

Donal Skehan is the award-winning author of Good Mood Food and Kitchen Hero: Bringing Cooking Back Home, which tied into his first 13-part primetime RTÉ television series, also aired on Good Food Channel in the UK . He is also the presenter of BBC1’s Junior Masterchef, along with John Torode. Kitchen Hero: HomeCooked is Donal’s fourth cookbook, and accompanies his third RTÉ Television series. Donal lives in Dublin, Ireland. www.donalskehan.com