I love to show and explain skills which I find at first made with difficulty but it seems that the proper technique, practice and tricks made the task easy and quite consistent over time. Cooking, in general is made perfect with practice just as with any other skill. However, I find that there are certain things that require helpful tips to guarantee acceptable or hopingly, superlative results.
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| Puff Pastry in Beef Wellington |
One dish that requires the right combination of skill, tricks and good practice is puff pastry or "Pate Feuilletee" (Pa-taye fah-ye-taye – as French speaker corrected me once...). Literally translated as "leaflike pastry" from the French word "feuillet" meaning leaf; it also means "pagelike pastry" from the French "feuille" for page - being multiple paper thin layer pastry. So one gets the idea. But this leaflike structure is the key to delicate desserts and entries owing to the richness of this crust. A prime example of this is the crisp multiple thin layered crust of the custard tarts made by Chinese dimsum restaurants (well known of these is by "Lord Stowe" in Macau. What is responsible for this is the thinness of the flour paste but how is this achieved and why it is very rich is owed to butter – loads of pure, rich, decadent butter.
When interspersed between the thin layers of flour paste and baked, these fat layers melt away and the air within the butter expands with the oven's high temperature. The leaves separate and form crunchy buttery thin layers.
How to create these layers is the key to making Pate Feuilletee. Now pay attention to the tips and the technique for this is the trick for a successful pastry. And of course, practice!
Pate Feuilletee ("Puff Pastry")
- 3 cups flour
- 1 ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter
- 2 sheets parchment paper
- And MORE flour
With butter cold but spreadable, whip the butter at medium then high speed. This phase of the process is important because the butter is made double in bulk. This creates the space in between the pastry leaves. Likewise, with air pockets, this traps air which will later expand with heat separating the leaves into its multiple layers. The more butter creates a richer product and when it melts, it "fries" the pastry.
In a bowl, combine salt and flour. Pour 1/3 of the water on the flour and using a rubber spatula and with a peripheral circular motion, incorporate the water in the flour. As soon as the flour becomes pasty and the dough is just beginning to hold but still floury, pour the next 1/3 of water and repeat the process. Do this again with the final 1/3 of water. The dough should hold but still with semblance of floury surface and somewhat with small bits of flour separating. This consistency is just right for the second part which is butter incorporation.
With a sheet of parchment paper on the table, dust the surface with about a small handful of flour. Place the flour pastry on top and roll into a rough square – does not have to be perfect. Spread the butter on top of this taking care to leave about 1 inch of the edges free of any fat.
"Fold" the four corners into the middle creating quarter triangular folds sealing the "envelope" of butter. To this add more flour and lay the second sheet of parchment paper on top. If the envelope of butter becomes warm that it is unmanageable to handle, chill it in the refrigerator for about five to ten minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and roll evenly using the rolling pin. Remove the parchment papers, and keeping in mind three portions, fold the outer two portions into the middle portion. Reposition the pastry, apply more flour to guarantee minimal sticking, and the whole pastry in between the parchment paper, roll it once again.
If you have some more whipped butter leftover, you may choose to incorporate that within the middle and second portions of the fold and seal with the third fold. Again, roll using the rolling pin with parchment papers at the sides.
At any time that the pastry becomes difficult to handle, refrigerate about five to ten minutes before rolling. Likewise, be sure you use parchment papers since this will minimize sticking of the pastry when it is time to roll and fold.
As you fold and roll the pastry several times, you are creating leaves of pastry interspersed with butter in between. Because the pastry leaves become thinner with each fold and roll, there is a tendency for the first leaf to break when the parchment paper is peeled off. Don’t worry. This is normal. But you may use a sharp fruit knife to "scrape" the pastry leaf from the paper.
To minimize sticking, be sure you flour your parchment paper each time before you roll.
Note that with each folding, you multiply the leaves by the base of 3. So the first fold is 3, second is 3x3, third is 3x3x3. And if one does the same procedure six times, it is 3x3x3x3x3x3=729. Do we really need this much leaves? No. And probably one can end at the fourth fold = 81 or fifth = 243. But you get the idea.
Once the folding and rolling is done, the puff pastry is ready.
And what more could puff pastry be great than in Beef Wellington? Recipe follows!
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| Beef Wellington...mmmm! |
Beef Wellington
- 2 pieces of beef tenderloin – cleaned, all outside ligaments removed
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 1 pound white mushrooms
- 1 stick butter
- Slices of foie gras
First, if you have not yet removed the ligaments and fat from the outsides of the beef tenderloin, please do so. This is a no-no in Beef Wellington because it is what makes the beef not tender at all if one wants the definition of tender to be in that word. But trim all that fat and ligaments and save them to be marinated for some other recipe like teriyaki. They are tender alright – but not for a delicate thing such as Beef Wellington.
Next, salt and pepper it to taste. Honest opinion? Err on the side of salting and peppering it more than usual. When its taste mixes with the pastry, it will be neutralized to just right.
Chop the mushrooms to very fine. If you do not have the skills and/or patience to do it, use a food processor. With butter sliced to pat sizes and the mushrooms chopped well, place all in a pot, simmer under low heat until all liquids have evaporated to a spreadable paste-like spread.
With high heat, sear the beef at all sides till rare. The higher the heat the better because this will caramelize the sides while the insides are raw which should be the case. Once that it done, set aside, rest then if possible, cool in refrigerator until well cold. DO NOT FREEZE!
With your prepared pastry as the base, place the refrigerated beef in the middle. Spread some of the mushrooms on the top and sides. Then, place and distribute slices of foie gras on the top. Wrap te pastry all over and seal at the sides.
Bake for 400 Fahrenheit oven for about thirty minutes. And broil at the final minutes for a delicate brown. The butter from the puff pastry will melt as the air incorporated in the butter as it was whipped earlier would expand, giving that high layered look baking and frying the thin flour paste to a crisp! For a more appetizing and more impressive look, brush with egg wash before broiling. The shine and the brownish crust would surely make the dish more attractive.
Rest for about ten minutes. Still warm, slice and spread a bit of chopped parsley leaves.
Serve with Merlot reduction sauce. Recipe follows.
Merlot sauce
It is nothing more than a an equal volume (NOT weight OR dry/wet cups) but equal dimensional volume of merlot to white sugar. So if you are using one cup to measure the Merlot, use the same looking cup to measure the sugar. With that, boil under low heat and simmer to one half the volume. Essentially it is reduced sweetened merlot. Good for Beef Wellington. And good for other things like dessert.
A drizzle is all what you need.
