This week’s cooking class with Chef Jackson York at Edom Bakery taught me that protein can be just as delectable as carbs! That’s big!  Most of us gravitate naturally to the ease and flavor of carbs…..pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, risotto, and so forth, are so delicious, so easy to prepare, and are quite comforting to us when we’re stressed.

However, when presented with the opportunity to make beef wellington on Tuesday night, I thought it might be fun to give beef a chance. 🙂   Who’d have thought one could be creative with beef?

Chef Jackson presented us with a large, gorgeous beef tenderloin.  He taught us how to trim it up and slice it into medallions, filets, and chateaubriand.

Then we began the process of making the beef wellington. We took the filets and seasoned and seared them, then let them cool.

We rolled squares of  puff pastry out on a floured surface  (of course, there must be SOME carbohydrate to make this extra-fabulous) to spread it just a bit, and then placed a nice bit of mushroom duxelles in the center. (recipe follows)

We placed the beef atop the duxelles, then wrapped the pastry around the beef, sealed the edges, flipped it over and then gave it an eggwash.  He showed us how to cut out shapes from another piece of the puff pastry to decorate the top of the wellingtons, but only I and Margaret, the two women in  the class, chose to follow suit.  It was pretty! 🙂

After the egg wash and decorating, the wellingtons are baked on parchment paper on a cookie sheet at 425 degrees F for about 15 minutes.   When they’re ready, the pastry will be puffed and golden brown.

Jackson created a  nice sauce to serve with the wellingtons from more of the duxelles and some heavy cream. I assure you, it was fabulous.  It can also be served with marchand de vin sauce or Bearnaise sauce.

The tenderloin inside was nicely medium rare and so very tender.  I’m not sure there is any better way to get protein into one’s diet than this.  Really fantastic!

Here is the recipe I promised:

Mushroom duxelles

1 TBS butter

2TBS minced shallots

1/2 tsp minced garlic

10 oz. of mushrooms, chopped

2 oz ham, diced

1 tsp thyme

3 oz white wine

salt and white pepper, to taste

2 oz heavy cream

Place all ingredients except cream into a saute pan and reduce to almost no liquid. Place in a food processor and blend, adding the heavy cream to make the paste. It should be quite thick, as you can observe in picture above of the duxelles in the processor jar.  I think it would be delicious used alone to fill small pastries for appetizers!  It has great flavor.

Jackson encouraged me to attend the Texas Chef’s Association’s local meeting at the bakery the next day to meet some of the local members.  I took him up on it, as did some of the teachers of culinary arts classes at high schools in our area.  It was fun to meet them and the local chefs!  There are many plans and changes in store for the chefs, and I admire the way they like to reach out to the community to help and teach and give back.  It’s inspiring!  Here are some of the pictures from the luncheon (you may recognize someone you know!):