iatebrisbane.com

. I get really excited when something fits into a category that you never thought would. Schnitzels are a Scandinavian food! Who’d'a thunk it?! French Toast – really it should be called Finnish Toast! And beef wellington! What makes me even more excited is that I had already made this recipe before I realised it was a Scandinavian thing (my reasearch isn’t far reaching though – Falling Cloudberries has a recipe for Pork Wellington in the Finnish section! ) . What does not make me excited is when I cook something REALLY delicious and my photos are terrible. But I really don’t care – this is such a great recipe, I must share it with you.

I didn’t have any pate for the wellington, so I thought this mix would work instead - it sure did! It was so flavoursome and smooth.

Ingredients – Makes 2

1 large portobello mushroom, finely diced
1/2 brown onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic
a sprig of Thyme
handful almonds
salt and pepper

2 sheets of Puff Pastry

2 quite small beef rump steaks (less than 100g each)  – preferably organic

Method

1. Add a little butter or oil to a pan and add the onions and garlic. Cook on a medium-low heat until caramelised and brown. Add the mushrooms and cook until they sweat and most moisture evaporates.
2. In a food processor, or with stick blender, buzz the almonds until they become almond meal. Buzz it for a minute longer until it starts to get sticky (the oils are starting to be released)
3. Add the sticky almond meal to the pan, with about a 1 tbsp of water, salt and pepper, stir until it turns into a smooth paste then turn off the heat. Set it aside to cool.

4. Brush the steaks with a little oil and season.
5. In a very hot pan sear every side of the steaks, quite quickly – you don’t want to start cooking it. Just sealing the edges.  Take off the heat to rest.
6. Take the puff pastry sheet, cut out squares from each corner (like in that fuzzy out of focus photo down there)

7. smear the puff pastry with the mushroom mixture, top it with a steak then fold the edges of the pastry to seal.
8. Brush the whole top with egg wash.

9. Bake in the oven  at 180 degrees until the pastry is puffed and golden.

COMPETITION REMINDER!! We have a mixed case of 24 bottles of Apple and Pear Cider to give away from Punt Road Wines. To enter, all you have to do is write a comment on ANY post on iatebrisbane and add your suburb name in the comment. Open to Brisbane (and surrounds) entrants only (could you imagine the international shipping fees on a case of cider?!). Check out the details and the tricky little fine print here.