Name: Mini beef wellingtons
Total time: 45 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 4 small beef fillet steaks, trimmed; olive oil; 1 shallot, finely chopped; butter; 200g chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped; a couple of sprigs thyme, leaves stripped and chopped; 300g puff pastry; 8 slices parma ham; 1 egg, beaten to glaze

4 small beef fillet steaks
trimmed
olive oil
1 shallot
finely chopped
butter
200g chestnut mushrooms
finely chopped
a couple of sprigs thyme
leaves stripped and chopped
300g puff pastry
8 slices parma ham
1 egg
beaten to glaze

Method

step 1
Heat a frying pan until very hot. Rub the steaks all over with olive oil and season well. Sear for a minute on each side, then remove from the pan and leave to cool completely.
step 2
Cook the shallot in a knob of butter until soft, add the mushrooms and thyme, then season and cook, stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will give out a bit of water, so keep cooking them until there is no moisture left in the pan. Leave to cool.
step 3
Roll out the pastry to 20p-thickness. Cut out 4 circles that are 2½cm larger than the fillets, and 4 more circles that are 3½cm larger. Sit the smaller circles on a baking sheet.
step 4
Sit the fillets on 2 overlapping pieces of ham and top each fillet with some of the mushroom mix.
step 5
Wrap each of the fillets up in the slices of ham.
step 6
Sit each fillet on the smaller pastry circles, then brush the edges with egg.
step 7
Drape over the larger circles and press to seal, making sure there are no air pockets.
step 8
Mark the edges with the back of a fork and glaze the outside with egg.
step 9
Score the top of the wellingtons. Chill for 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Bake the wellingtons for 12 minutes for medium rare, 15 minutes for medium.