Individual Beef Wellingtons

For New Year's Eve I decided to make some individual Beef Wellingtons. I don't prefer mushrooms, which is what most recipes called for, so I decided to try this recipe instead because it called for pate or cream cheese. I followed the recipe, making one with pate and one with an herb & garlic-flavored cream cheese.

I liked the taste of the cream cheese, but both the pate and the cream cheese versions had soggy bottoms!! Most of the other recipes called for the fillets to be seared on all sides and chilled before they were put into the pastry. I will do this next time, for sure. Also, the pate or mushrooms were all around the meat, some called for it to be spread onto the pastry, others called for you to spread around all sides of the meat. Some even called for bread crumbs to be added. I assume this will prevent the sogginess, but the searing could achieve this I suppose. Next time I might try the cream cheese, after searing the meat, and hope for a dry base.

Regarding the liver pate, it smelled just like wet dog food when I spread it on the meat. I was expecting not to like the flavor, and indeed I did prefer the flavor of the cream cheese version. However, it wasn't as bad as I expected!! I still have most of the little can (which was found in the canned fish section in the supermarket) and am going to see if I can find some other recipes to use it up. Or, perhaps I will give the rest to the neighbor's cat ...

2011 followup: I tried the cream cheese on both sides of the beef, as well as spreading it on the middle of the pastry. The bottom was still a bit soggy, but it seemed better than last year. The beef seemed to cook slower, though, and I ended up having to cook them longer. Don't know if the filets were thinner than last year or what. Even the pastry cooked up a bid different, not as shiny. I layered the leftovers and cut up some 2" squares and baked alongside the Beef Wellingtons as rolls.

2012 followup: I tried garlic- and herb-flavored soft rindless brie this year and was quite pleased. I seared the beef until the sides started to turn gray. I spread the cheese almost to the right and left edges of the puff pastry and folded over both sides. I trimmed off the ends a bit and folded up and over the base. Then I turned the packets over and placed the years on the top, using egg all over. I think I might go more light on the seasonings in this recipe, as it was a little too spicy for me. Success!! I saved the extra puff pastry to use later as little dinner rolls.

Individual Beef Wellington

2 sheets of frozen puff pastry
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. dried marjoram, crushed
2 beef tenderloin steaks (5-6 oz. each)
2 T liver pate or cream cheese or cheese spread of choice
1 egg white, beaten

1. Thaw puff pastry according to package directions, set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
3. In a small bowl stir together salt, pepper, garlic powder, and marjoram. Rub salt mixture over steaks, coating all sides.
4. Spread 1 Tablespoon liver pate, cream cheese, cheese spread of choice (or mushroom pate) over one side of each steak.
5. Place a steak, cream cheese side down, on the center of each pastry. Wrap pastry around the meat, trimming excess from ends. Seal with egg white.
6. Place seam side down in a greased, shallow baking pan. If desired, reroll trimmings to make cutouts. Brush with beaten egg white.
7. Bake uncovered for about 15 minutes or until pastry is golden and meat is medium rare.