When Wellington Goes South

Hullo, fair readers - it's been a nice, long break for me. A little fishing, a little catching up with old friends, a little home repair, and a lot of watching TV have helped me recover from the end of exams nicely. Now, if only I weren't a terrible employee...

Regardless, I have time to cook again, and it was again time to experiment. As most of you were at LTTS's wedding, you're familiar with the Wellington concept - take seared beef tenderloin, top it off with a duxelles blend and some pate, wrap it in puff pastry and bake. Emeril has a good recipe if you want to go traditional. But I'm southern, so the typical formula was gonna need a little reworking.

First, take out a piece of puff pastry from the freezer. (You do have puff in your freezer, right?) Let it thaw on the counter for about 10 minutes, then carefully unfold it. Allow it to thaw for another 20-30 minutes.

Now for the good stuff. Again, thanks to Father to the Stars (I swear, I do cook with materials that don't come from him), I took a half venison tenderloin and seared it quickly in olive oil - no more than 1min on each side. Set this aside to cool completely. In the same pan, fry up about 1/3 lb. of bacon (about seven strips) until it's completely cooked, but flexible and not crispy. Set these aside as well. Now, to the same hot greasy pan, add 1tsp of minced garlic and 1 cup each of Cremini mushrooms and Vidalia onions, both finely chopped. Saute these in your grease until they are nice and soft, then remove them to a bowl to cool, keeping as much of the grease in the pan as possible.

After preheating our oven to 375, let's get back to the puff for a moment. Lightly flour your counter, and gently roll the puff out on both sides - the goal here is just to remove creases, not to thin the pastry out. Once your puff is in good shape and everything else has cooled, it's time to construct. Lay a thin stripe of your aromatic blend down the middle of the puff. Next comes the tenderloin, followed by the bacon. Do your best to wrap the bacon around the tenderloin to keep this tight. Finally, cover the meats with another stripe of 'shrooms and onions. In order to tightly wrap the puff around all this deliciousness, go about it like you are wrapping a present, tucking and tightening the puff at each stage.

Top this all off with a little bit of egg wash - one egg blended with a dash of water, lightly brushed onto the wrapped Wellington. Don't have a pastry brush? Neither do I. Either use a spatula to carefully apply the wash, or dab a paper towel in the egg wash and apply thusly. Get the whole thing onto a greased cookie sheet, then throw it in your 375 oven for 30-35 minutes, until the puff is golden brown. The meat should be at around 140 inside, a nice rare-medium rare.

You'll note that I kept the grease in the pan - that's because we're making gravy. Add about 1/2 of flour to your still-hot bacon grease, whisking briskly to make a roux. (I find it helpful to add the flour in two stages to keep it from clumping.) After a few minutes of whisking, add 1 cup of beef broth and continue to blend. Finally, add a few splashes (to your taste) of whatever red wine you have lying around. The wine is key - it helps even out the flavors from all the different things we've cooked in the pan. Whisk for another minute, then take it off the heat - it'll thicken as it cools.

When the Southern Wellington is done, let it rest for 10 minutes before cutting so that the juices don't all run out. Serve with your meaty wine gravy, as well as some steamed asparagus or broccoli. Maybe next time, I'll try making a potato cake to go with it, but, hey, I'm just getting back into the kitchen. :)