Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington.

This is definitely not a classic beef wellington. I developed this recipe with creativity and compromise in mind. Traditionally, beef wellington should be made with filet mignon or a full tenderloin. A tenderloin would be too large to cook well in a toaster oven. And the cost and availability of filet mignon lead me to consider possible substitutions. In this example, I used beef country ribs. If you aren’t familiar with country style ribs, they are cut from the rib end of a loin, in the case of pork, or chuck roll, in the case of beef. Country ribs usually have a lot of marbling and may need to be trimmed. They are also cut in a different direction as you can see from the picture. As far as cheap cuts of meat go, this one is probably the best substitute for filet as far as fork tenderness goes because of the grain direction. The most important thing to understand is that you can exchange the cut of meat. Just look for something that has some marbling,you know is not too tough and is single-portion sized. Examples of tough meats to avoid are skirt and hangar steaks. If you’re feeling really creative, you can even exchange the filet for fish or tofu if you’re vegetarian!

Once you’ve chosen your meat, the preparation is actually very simple.

Ingredients for 5 servings

1 tbsp butter or oil

5 pieces of chosen meat

1/2 onion – chopped

1 portion puff pastry dough – thawed

1 full batch spinach pesto 

The first step is to sear the meat. (If you are using fish, tofu or any other quick-cooking protein, skip this step) You can do this using a pan on your stove or in the pot of your rice cooker. Melt the butter and quickly sear each side of the meat using high heat.

Seared meat.

You only want to brown the outside of the meat. Do not cook it all the way through. This will help ensure it cooks through in the toaster oven, give it layers of texture and keep the meat moist. After it has browned on each side, remove the meat to a plate and let cool slightly. Reserve the remaining butter in the pan or rice cooker pot and use it to sauté the onions. When the onions have just begun to brown, remove from heat and fold them into the pesto.

Roll out the pastry puff. The dimensions will depend on the size and shape of the protein you have chosen to use. You will need to cut the dough into shapes that will cover the meat completely. For my example, I rolled out the dough to a rectangle of about 12″ x 15″ (31cm x 38cm) and slice it into 5 12″ x 3″ rectangles.

Spread the pesto along the center of each section of dough covering an area just larger than the meat. Place one piece of meat on the center of each piece of pastry.

Meat and pesto placement on pastry.

Now it’s time to wrap the individual beef wellingtons. Because we’ve gotten creative with our meat choice, we really can’t follow any traditional wrapping techniques. The only rule is to cover the filling entirely and seal the edges. The edges can be sealed simply by dipping your finger in water and then rubbing the water across the area that you want to stick together.

Wrapped beef wellington.

Once you have all of your beef wellingtons wrapped, place them on a toaster oven baking sheet with sealed edges facing down. Now it’s time to slice in steam vents. I cut a little criss-cross pattern on mine, but you can do anything you like on yours. These cuts are important though. Trapped steam will cause the puff pastry to become soggy inside or can lead to the top puffing up too high and over cooking.

Beef wellingtons ready for baking.

Now put them in the toaster oven set to about 300 F for 40 minutes. You will need to use top and bottom heat sources to cook this evenly. Depending on your toaster oven, you might need to switch back and forth between heat sources every five minutes, or set the heat to self-regulate. As always, to cook it as evenly as possible, rotate the baking sheet during the last 10 minutes of cooking. When they are evenly golden brown, remove them from the toaster oven and let them rest for 5 – 10 minutes before serving.

Golden brown beef wellington.

 

Cream Cheese Danish

Cream cheese danishes.

Cream cheese danishes.

 

These dainty breakfast treats are filling and much easier to make than you might think.

Ingredients for 3 servings

1 portion puff pastry dough

4 oz cream cheese

1 egg – separated

1 – 2 tbsp sugar depending on taste

Start by rolling out your puff pastry dough into a rough rectangle of about 18″ x 12″ (46cm x 31cm). You’ll be doing a bit of folding around the edges, so don’t worry about getting the dough to perfect proportions. Slice the dough into  six even sections.

Squares of pastry for danishes.

Begin folding in the edges to make a roughly circular rim. Start at one corner and work your way around.

Start folding and pinching at one corner.

Fold and pinch around the edge.

Continue until you have formed a roughly circular rim.

Form rims on remaining pastry squares. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese egg yolk, and sugar with a fork. It should be the consistency of a thick sauce. Spoon one sixth of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each danish circle. and put them on a foil-lined toaster oven baking sheet. Brush the egg white on the top of each pastry to help it brown more evenly.

Danishes ready to bake.

Puff pastry needs to bake evenly to puff up and become flaky. Use both top and bottom heating elements to cook your danishes and watch them carefully. I recommend cooking them for about 20 – 25 minutes, but this will depend on your toaster oven. If the tops of your danishes appear to be cooking too quickly, switch to the bottom heat source only until the last two or three minutes of baking. Usually a toaster oven will cook foods more quickly at either the front or back. So when you have about five minutes left, remove the  baking sheet and rotate it.

For a slightly faster method, you can smear the cream cheese filling diagonally across the pastry squares and then fold in opposite corners. Baking is done in the same way.

Alternative danish preparation.

Puff Pastry

Puff pastry dough.

Puff pastry is a flaky, buttery pastry that can be used in desserts, dinners and appetizers. Sadly, this wonderful pre-made frozen dough isn’t widely available in many countries. It takes a little time and some serious elbow grease, but it isn’t too fussy as far as pastry dough goes. The good news is that it freezes very well one batch can be used for four different recipes.

Ingredients for 1 batch or about 2 pounds

4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 – 1 1/2 cups very cold water

2 cups butter – room temperature

Stir the salt into the flour and make sure it is completely homogenized; you really don’t want salty spots in your pastry. At this point, some recipes will suggest that you cut the butter into the flour. I recommend that you only do that when you’re making pie crust. You won’t be able to achieve the same level of puffy flakiness if the butter is cut into the flour. Instead, we’re going to skip ahead to mixing in the water. Keep your water as cold as possible for the best possible results. Using your hands, stir in the water, starting with just 1 cup. After 1 cup is mixed in, there should still be some dry flour. Slowly add a just a little more and thoroughly mix it in. Keep doing this until all of the flour has formed into a ball and pulled away from the edges of the bowl. Make sure that you add the water slowly so that you don’t end up with too much and a wet sticky dough.

First stage of puff pastry dough.

Tightly wrap your dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. While the dough is chilling, start working on the butter. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface, put the two cups of butter on the middle, and then cover the butter with another sheet of plastic. At room temperature, you should be able to shape the butter with your hands. Press it into a rectangle about 12″ x 9″ (31 cm x 23 cm). Tuck the ends of the plastic wrap around the butter and place it in the refrigerator, keeping it as flat as possible, for at least 30 minutes.

Butter rectangle.

When your dough is thoroughly chilled, take it out of the fridge and roll it into a rectangle about 18″ x 12″ (46 cm x 31 cm). Unwrap you butter rectangle and place off center on the dough.

Butter placement.

Fold the uncovered portion over the butter.

First fold.

Now fold over once more and rotate 90 degrees. Gently roll out the dough to about 12″ x 9″.

Folded then rolled pastry.

Fold in thirds again. Now wrap it up and put in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, do it again. You’ll need to roll it out and fold it four times in total. If you’ve ever made croissants before, the technique is the same. Croissants just get rolled and folded seven times instead of four.

After you’ve rolled and folded the dough for the fourth time, cut the dough into four pieces.

Four portions of puff pastry.

You can see the layers that will help the pastry puff up and become flaky.

Puff pastry layers in side view.

 

Tightly wrap each piece in plastic and place in the freezer for future use, or roll out to use in something right away. They will keep in the freezer for up to two months. When you need frozen puff pastry to use in a recipe, let it thaw overnight in the refrigerator, not at room temperature, or it can become sticky.