Sous Vide Beef Wellington
In our house, a special dinner night always includes Beef Wellington. Over the years, I’ve tried whole tenderloins of beef wrapped in pastry and individual steaks wrapped in pastry—some like the beef well done, others like it rare. What none of us like is an overcooked Beef Wellington, and the Anova Precision Cooker keeps these steaks from never overcooking and drying out.
I used two 1-inch thick steaks for this recipe. Note that you may have to cook a little longer if your steaks are thicker. The garnish of a layer of mushrooms duxelles (cooked puree of mushroom) and the cap of puff pastry dough make this an easy dish to complete at the final moment, should you have little time available. Have all your side dishes hot and ready to go, and when you finish the searing process, garnish and serve.
This makes for a special dinner that's easy to put onto the table.
Active time: 5 minutes steak prep plus about 25 minutes to make duxelles and cook off puff pastry.
Cooking Time: 1 ½ to 2 hours
Temperature: 130ºF/54.4ºC
Finishing Step: Sear in skillet (2 minutes per side) and top with mushroom duxelles and cooked puff pastry
Ingredients:
- 2 6-ounce filet mignon (tenderloin) steaks, about 1 inch thick
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon butter
- 5 ounces white mushrooms
- ¼ small onion
- 2 teaspoons butter
- ¼ cup sherry
- 2 fresh sage leaves, chopped
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 2 rounds puff pastry dough (cut from sheet of puff pastry (find in freezer section; thaw 1 sheet) to about the size of each steak)
- 1 egg
To finish:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Sage leaves for garnish
Directions:
Heat water using Anova Precision Cooker to 130ºF/54.4ºC. Place steaks in zip-close bag. Season with salt and pepper to taste and top each steak with ¼ teaspoon butter. Seal in zip-close bag, using water displacement method to create vacuum seal. Place in hot water and set timer for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
About 30 minutes before steaks are ready to be taken out of cooking water, heat oven to 450ºF. Place puff pastry rounds on parchment paper-lined cooking sheet. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water and brush each dough round with egg wash. Place in oven bake to golden brown. Turn oven off and leave pastry in oven to stay hot.
As soon as pastry is in oven, puree cleaned white mushrooms with onion in bowl of food processor. Chop to nearly a paste. Heat 2 teaspoons butter in skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms (paste is called duxelles) to skillet and cook until liquid starts to come from mushrooms. Add sherry and cook until all liquid in skillet has evaporated. Remove from heat. Stir in chopped sage and season to taste. Cover to keep warm.
When steaks are done, remove from water and remove from plastic bag. Heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium-high heat in cast-iron skillet. Sear steaks 2 minutes per side until nicely browned.
To plate, place steaks on serving plate. Top each with thick layer of cooked mushroom duxelles followed with warm puff pastry rounds and serve immediately, garnished with sage leaves if desired.
