Learning as you go in the kitchen

The dishes that are supposed to be difficult to master in the kitchen usually have a reputation that is well-deserved. Of course some just require a little time investment to master the basics, like croissants or demi-glaze.

Then there are the techniques experienced cooks speak of as being difficult because they are indeed difficult, and no matter how much experience and practice you think you’re bringing to the game, the first attempt is likely to be a mess.

That was the case for me last weekend with my first go at a beef Wellington. It’s a dish that isn’t that hard in terms of the individual steps, but getting it right at the end is a challenge. You may know how to make a finely minced mushroom paste or a pastry shell, but this is a recipe requiring patience, time and no lazy shortcuts through the entire process.

Beef Wellington is a tenderloin, wrapped up in a cooked mushroom and shallot mixture, then in prosciutto, and finally sealed in a case of puff pastry. How hard can it be?

Plenty hard, especially if you get cocky and skip steps because you didn’t read the recipe all the way through before starting: a dumb mistake on my part. I should know better by now than to just read the ingredients list and head to the store.

As a result of this, I have the hard-earned map of the quicksand parts of this recipe for next time. Beef Wellington is obviously a special-occasion dish because it’s a lot of work, and the protein isn’t normally cheap.

I did it because I wanted to try it and found beef tenderloin at a price that made the overall meal cheaper than a modest bar food dinner out for two. You really can eat well and cheaply.

Firstly you need to buy the tenderloin (about 14 ounces for two) a day early. It is very important the cylinder of beef hold its shape throughout and not slog around all floppy like.

You must get it home, pat it dry and tie it up tightly into a neat shape. It then spends at least 24 hours in the fridge to encourage it to stay that way. I skipped all this and brought it straight home from the butcher in time to start cooking, so it stayed floppy-like and fought me at every step.

I’ve made puff pastry many times and am pretty good at it. I normally make a quick version with sticks of cold butter laid out on top of the pastry but this time did the full classic version, creating a “brick” of smooth butter instead. It’s more time-consuming but much easier to work with and handle. So that part came out fine because I’ve had plenty of practice to get it right.

I followed Gordon Ramsay’s Wellington recipe, which is supposed to be one of the best versions out there. Still, I take issue with instructions to sear the beef for 60 seconds before assembly, then bake the whole business for 15 minutes at the end. You get a pale, completely raw product if you do this. Next time I’ll follow the Tyler Florence version, which sears the beef for longer and bakes the whole thing for 45 minutes.

I now know you can’t be a wimp about wrapping things in the pastry tightly. You need a tight, compact package all the way through. Otherwise you get what I ended up with: an underdone package with big air gaps. Nonetheless it was delicious, and I’ll try again. Learning as you go is one of the best parts of cooking.