Marvin’s Five Episode 3: Earthy Beef Wellington 🤤

This week on Marvin’s Five Chef Marvin Gauci shows us how to prepare a Beef Wellington - FoodBlog style. Our key ingredients this week; beef fillet, a variety of mushrooms, some good old cured pork and a roll of pastry - all available from Arkadia through the Wolt app. 

From our Fino kitchen, Chef Gauci takes his 5 ingredients through a culinary journey for you, our viewers to enjoy with your family and friends - or dig into alone if that’s what you’re after! (And we won’t judge) 🤣

Recipe

A 5 ingredient Beef Welly in all it's glory 🙏

Ingredients

Apart from the basic ingredients of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and butter*. The following 5 ingredients will be needed for this dish. 

• 500g beef fillet, trimmed
• 320g mixed mushrooms (100g chestnut, 100g white button, 20g oyster)
• 5g thyme
• 50g guanciale, chopped
• 150g puff pastry, thawed
• *Please note that garlic and chili were not used in this Episode’s dish.

Method

1. Bring your pan up to high heat, ready to sear your fillet to pack in all the natural juices. Once your pan gets to a high temperature, add in some olive oil and allow it to warm up; this will only take a few minutes. 🔥

Make sure to sear you meat to keep in all those flavours.

2. While your oil heats up, prepare another pan to start cooking down your mushrooms. Finely chop all your mushrooms and add them to the pan to begin the cooking process. 🍄

Chop your assortment of mushrooms until fine

3. By this time, your oil should be hot enough to seal your beef. Place it on one side for a good 2 minutes and turn periodically until all sides are nicely browned. Throw in a few sprigs of thyme for that earthy flavour. The sealing process will ensure that your pastry does not go soggy and your fillet is a perfect medium-rare once you cut into the wellington. 👍

Make sure to sear every side of the fillet to ensure that real seal

4. As your meat browns, your mushrooms will start cooking off slowly too - add some salt to draw out all the moisture, this will create a drier mixture to add to the welington. You can also add some more thyme leaves here to bring more flavour to your dish. Cook down your mushrooms for about 5 minutes, or until you see that the moisture has dried out slightly. 🌿

Add salt to your mushrooms to draw out any moisture

5. When you’re happy with the consistency of your mixed mushrooms, remove half of them from your pan and add them to a bowl where they will be hand-blended to create a smooth paste. Set to the side for the next step. 

Blitz your mushroom mix to be added back to the pan

6. By this time, your meat should be sealed on all sides (don’t forget the ends), allow it to rest on a tray or board. 🥩

Leave your fillet to rest before putting into the oven

7. Your next step is to pack in some more flavour with none other than guanciale, thick-cut and cubed for the perfect bite. Add your cured pork cheeks to the mushroom pan and allow it to cook down. 🥓

In the meantime add that beautiful guanciale to the dish to add another layer of flavour

8. Once some of the fat has rendered from the guanciale, add in your pulsed mushroom mix, combine well and take off the heat. Your next step is to build the wellington.

Add the blitzed mushrooms back into the pan when the guanciale is becoming cripsy

9. Lay your rested seared fillet of beef on a tray and flatten it out slightly to create an even surface. Carefully place a generous serving of your mushroom and guanciale mixture onto the beef and flatten down gently. 

Dress that fillet with the beautiful mushroom mix. Be generous!

10. Unravel your puff pastry and gently place it on top of the mixture and beef, carefully tuck the pasty under the fillet, press down the dough to seal the wellington and cut off any extra pastry around the sides. Melt some butter and brush it onto the surface of your pastry for a nice golden finish. 🧈

Wrap up your filled with puff pastry, cover in butter and it's ready for the oven!

11. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 190°C for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and place on a chopping board. 🧑‍🍳

Let it sit in the oven for 25 minutes at 190°C

12. Trim the sides, cut a generous portion and enjoy with this week’s wine of choice - a Riserva Chianti, with a distinct flavour profile of fruit, spicy and balsamic notes. Perfect with this wholesome Beef Wellington with a FoodBlog twist. 🍷 

Beef Wellington's come in all shapes and sizes, but the flavour is what counts 🤤

And there you have it - an intimidating dish made easy with Chef Marvin Gauci on FoodBlog’s Marvin’s Five. Tune in next week for another 5-ingredient adventure. 🤩