Tag: bacon

Beef Wellington Notes

Writ­ten 12/18/23

Non-Mushroom Duxelles

Dic­ing tofu and bacon
  • Diced onion and gar­lic
  • Diced bacon (used 4 slices)
  • Diced tofu (half car­ton)
  • Soy sauce, mild salt, pep­per, a dash of mus­tard, worces­ter­shire, red wine, veg­an oys­ter sauce, hoisin sauce
  • Any herbs you’d like (I used a pinch of herbs de provence)
  • Make in same skil­let as seared beef
  • Make sure it has time to cool

Beef

Brown­ing in cast iron skil­let
  • Make sure to use actu­al ten­der­loin (think pork ten­der­loin) or if using anoth­er cut then cut­ting it to about 10in x 3in
  • Can also use steaks or small bites of anoth­er cut
  • Set out 30min pri­or to sear­ing
  • Tie up if nec­es­sary
  • Soy sauce, red wine
  • Salt, pep­per, gar­lic pow­der, what­ev­er dry sea­son­ing on all sides, press­ing into meat
  • Let sit for a bit
  • Heat up skil­let, then brown all sides for about 1 min on each side
  • Set into sep­a­rate dish and smear mus­tard on it. Let sit to cool down

Puff Pastry/Compiling

Looks like mush­rooms! But they’re not!
  • Make sure Puff pas­try is thawed
  • Lay out plas­tic wrap and then puff pas­try on top
  • Roll it out to make it thin
  • Pack the dux­elles onto it, leav­ing a lit­tle side space
  • Then place the beef towards the bot­tom and use the plas­tic wrap to roll it up being care­ful not to make it too thick (or it will have trou­ble cook­ing prop­er­ly) by trim­ming excess
  • When it’s rolled up in the plas­tic wrap, smooth out the seams then put it in the fridge for about 20ish min­utes

Cooking

Used the left­over pas­try to make a quick apple turnover
  • Pre­heat oven to 425F
  • Unroll and place welling­ton on a foil lined bak­ing sheet
  • Care­ful­ly cut slits in the top. You can be cre­ative here or not
  • Use a wash (egg or veg­an) for the top
  • Sprin­kle salt over that
  • Bake about 20 to 35 min­utes to desired done­ness, 125F for medi­um rare
  • Puff pas­try should be a nice gold­en brown
  • Let sit for at least 10 min­utes
  • Cut into 1inch pieces

Notes

12/18/23: used eye round beef which was MUCH too large and would not cook through quick­ly. Puff pas­try was too thick and did­n’t cook through. End­ed burn­ing and smok­ing some­thing awful. Placed mon­i­tor­ing probe in the side which caused a leak in the welling­ton. Rec maybe just an instant read ther­mome­ter in the top for the future. Took 1 hour and a half because too large. Taste was good, done­ness typ­i­cal for Beef Welling­ton, dux­elle was good! Puff pas­try too burnt and undone to be eat­en. Bot­tom line: beef too big, too much pas­try and too thick. Would opt for a more ten­der meat cut and if large then cut small­er.

Breaded Chicken Rolls

writ­ten 07/08/2023, updat­ed 07/08/2023

Vari­a­tion with­out excess sauce or cheese

What

Chick­en breast rolls stuffed with sauce, bacon, and spinach, bread­ed with Kel­log­g’s Corn Flakes Crumbs. Can eas­i­ly be dairy-free with­out addi­tion of cheese. No eggs. No soy. Unless in sauce.

Fun for a fam­i­ly because each roll can be cus­tomized for each per­son in terms of sauce, sea­son­ings, and fill­ing

Ingredients

Main: Chick­en breasts (whole or sliced), Kel­logs’s Corn Flakes Crumbs (or what­ev­er bread­ing, like panko), fill­ing, sea­son­ing, sauce, phys­i­cal fas­ten­er

Your choic­es of what­ev­er you like:

Fill­ing: spinach, cheese slices, bacon, dried cran­ber­ries, onions, etc

Sea­son­ings: soy sauce, salt, pep­per, sug­ar, lemon juice, gar­lic pow­der, onion pow­der, etc

Sauce: A‑1, mus­tard, hot sauce, man­go, toma­to, etc

Fas­ten­ers: tooth­picks, cook­ing twine, etc

Time

45 min­utes prep + 30–45 min­utes bake = 1.5 hours total

Steps

I used 4 whole breasts, pic­tures below

  • Cook bacon
  • Sauté spinach and fla­vor light­ly with lemon, gar­lic, soy sauce, pep­per, and crum­bled bacon, if desired
  • Pre­pare and set out any sea­son­ings or sauces (your hands will be dirty)
  • Pre­pare bread­ing in dish and set aside
  • Line a bak­ing pan with bak­ing rack (you want air­flow under the chick­en)
  • Pre­pare a sheet of plas­tic wrap and set near­by
  • But­ter­fly the whole breasts (if using pre-cut breasts, skip ahead)
  • Lay plas­tic wrap on top of but­ter­flied chick­en
  • Using a meat ten­der­iz­er mal­let, pound until flat
    • Repeat for all chick­en
    • One by one, sea­son the chick­en on both sides
    • Pour sauce and rub it in
    • Lay­er cheese, bacon, and spinach
    • Top with more sauce, bacon, and cheese
    • Care­ful­ly fold in the sides, and then roll (Sauce and cheese will escape any holes or seams!)
    • Bind with phys­i­cal fas­ten­ers (I use tooth­picks)
    • Driz­zle oil (option­al)
    • Cov­er in Kel­log­g’s Crumbs/breading
    • Bake in oven between 350–400 degrees F for about 30–40 min­utes (depends on how much chick­en)
    • Remove fas­ten­ers
    • Slice, enjoy

Pictures

Saute spinach
Care­ful, don’t make it too salty
Bread­ing
Used pre-cooked bacon this time. Meh.
Bak­ing rack on lined pan
Meat ten­der­iz­er
4 whole breasts
Flat­ten­ing
Flat­tened
Soy sauce
Spices
Sauce, bacon, spinach
Wrapped, about to bread
Bak­ing

Notes

  • Sauce is imper­a­tive if you don’t want it to turn out dry
  • Fun to make for the fam­i­ly because every­one gets to choose their own sauce/flavor
  • Pre-cooked bacon is easy, but imparts lit­tle fla­vor
  • Bakes quick­ly since chick­en is thin and fill­ing is pre-cooked
  • Ther­mome­ters are not rec­om­mend­ed giv­en how thin the meat is, can be used as a gauge
  • Cut­ting open a test piece is the best option to test for done­ness
  • Cheese is not nec­es­sary, but makes it oh so good
  • Col­ored tooth­picks not rec­om­mend­ed, lol. Col­or comes off in chick­en.
  • Bite sized is fun to eat, but annoy­ing to pre­pare
  • Try not to cre­ate holes when but­ter­fly­ing
  • Try not to lose any sauce or cheese to holes dur­ing bak­ing. Makes it very dry