Why does Gordon Ramsay keep yelling?

So puff pastry week got a little sidetracked (had my first real order for cakepops this week which kept me busy!) but I'm back. I knew when I decided to do puff pastry week, I didn't want to limit it to sweet items....I wanted to at least try one real dish. I immediately knew what I wanted to do for my savory dish and it would finally answer my question....why does Gordon Ramsay keep yelling at the contestants on Hell's Kitchen?


If you have never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, I'll give you a quick summary: Contestants have to cook a dinner service under Chef Gordon Ramsay. Contestants must cook quality food quickly, all while Ramsay is screaming his head off. You would think none of the contestants have ever cooked anything in their lives the way he yells and smashes food on the counter. Every season, Ramsay has a few staple dishes that are always on his menu, one being Beef Wellington. So what is Beef Wellington? From what I could see on TV, it's beef tenderloin wrapped in puff pastry. What's so darn hard about that? Apparently everything because you always hear variations of Ramsay yelling after they bring it up to the pass: "IT'S RAAAAW you donkey!!!" I mean, most of it is already prepped before dinner service and all they have to do is throw it in the oven. I wanted to find out if I could do it...me, who maybe has one pinkie bone of natural cooking ability (as previously written, the family cooking gene skipped right over me) but then again, this is baking right.....sorta?


I did some research on beef Wellington recipes and found there is actually more to it. Like most recipes, there are so many variations. Some have pate or ham (similar to prosciutto) but I didn't want to get too complicated my first time around, especially since I know a lot of my friends and husband are such picky eaters. I did decide to stick to the ingredients that seemed to be a constant of a Wellington: tenderloin, puff pastry, mushrooms, mustard, and pepper. So here we go:


Beef Wellington

1 beef tenderloin (1.3lbs was more than enough for 2. I couldn't find a plain ol' tenderloin but I did find a pre-marinated tenderloin....garlic and black pepper)

Ground black pepper
1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/2 tablespoon butter 

1 tablespoon mustard (I used spicy brown)1 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1 medium onion, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 425°F.  Place the beef into a lightly greased roasting pan. Season with the black pepper, if desired.  Roast for 10 minutes. (see notes below: what I learned) Cover the pan and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Reheat the oven to 425°F.  Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork or whisk.

Heat the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and onion and cook until the mushrooms are tender and all the liquid is evaporated, stirring often.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a rectangle 4 inches longer and 6 inches wider than the beef. Brush the pastry sheet with the egg mixture. Spoon the mushroom mixture onto the pastry sheet to within 1-inch of the edges. Brush mustard onto beef. Place the beef in the center of the mushroom mixture.  Fold the pastry over the beef and press to seal.  Place seam-side down onto a baking sheet.  Tuck the ends under to seal.  Brush the pastry with the egg mixture. Sprinkle coarse sea salt on top of puff pastry (optional).

Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown .

 Source: Adapted from www.puffpastry.com



Round one of cooking the tenderloin



Sauteed onions and mushrooms in butter






Mustard coated beef on the mushroom mixture & puff pastry




Wrapped in puff pastry, pre-baking




After baking




Inside (its well done...oops!)



So what did I learn about making my first beef Wellington?


1) There is a lot of prep to this dish and it isn't just "wrap beef in pastry."
2) Instead of roasting it before going into the fridge, I would pan-sear it instead (as suggested on other recipes). One of the biggest problems that I noticed when I watch Hell's Kitchen is that the contestants always have a problem cooking it to order and I can see why. By roasting it, if your tenderloin is small, it will cook pretty fast. If you sear it, it will only brown the outside and leave the inside pretty pink and give you some room when you are cooking it inside the puff pastry. The other issue is that since it's wrapped in puff pastry, its not like you can poke at the beef and check if it's medium rare or well done. No wonder they get yelled at....cooking times could mess this up real bad.
3) I made two separate ones because the hubby is one of those picky eaters and he likes everything plain. His did not have mushrooms or mustard but he said it was really good (he might be bias though...hehe). He also took a bite of the one with mustard (no mushroom bits) and he said he liked that as well...."it can go either way." Like I always say, adjust to your taste.


I'd probably get yelled at by Ramsay too. This is courtesy of the Mister who thought it would be funny to play in the background as I experimented:
http://www.gordonramsayswearsatyou.com/ (Warning: no bleeps here!)
LoL oh well....I never claimed to be a chef or plan on going on Hell's Kitchen but I think I did very well for Lil Ms. Sueshine playing chef in her kitchen tonight  ;)


<3 Lil Ms. Sueshine