beef wellington with red wine mushroom sauce

last week Kim, Kris and i threw a lunch for a couple of friends. we wanted to make it semi-pretentious yet still be considered comfort food. somehow we came up with the idea of making individual beef wellingtons. now of course we had no business making a pate or using pate considering we were feeding fifteen guests and didn't feel like breaking the bank to feed others for free. filet mignon? nope! same thinking. howzabout some form of steak and a mushroom layer? oh and the thought of making flaky layered puff pastry from scratch was out of question also. Pillsbury to the rescue! nonetheless it came out pretty decent. we are in no way, shape or from "chefs" or even "cooks" so the meat itself came out a bit overdone for my liking but it still tasted pretty good. but what brought the dish all together was the red wine mushroom sauce!! it was quite rich and tasty, thankyouverymuch!!

unfortunately i didn't take pictures of the process of making the red wine mushroom sauce so instead i'll show you pictures from the easy process of putting together the wellingtons.

lay out some puff pastry and throw on some cooked mushrooms and onions

add a giant hunk of seared meat to that

wrap puff pastries around meat and brush with egg whites and you have sacks of soon-to-be-deliciousness

 bake at 400 degrees F for approx 15 min. crispy golden blurry goodness

dark photo, but you get the gist, right?

simple red wine and mushroom sauce

these directions make enough gravy for about five servings.

ingredients:

-2 tbs butter

-1/4 c onion, minced

-6 large mushrooms sliced (i used nearly a pack of button mushrooms)

-2 cloves garlic, minced

-3 tbs flour

-1/2 c red wine

-1 10.5oz can beef broth

-1 bay leaf

-1 tsp Worcestershire

-salt and pepper to taste

directions:

1. over medium heat melt 2 tbs butter in a saucepan

2. add mushrooms and onion and cook until onions are just about transparent

3. add garlic to saucepan and cook for another minute

4. stir in flour and mix so that the flour does not clump

5. add in wine, broth and bay leaf

6. stir until sauce bubbles and simmers

7. simmer until it reduces by about 1/2 the amount of liquid (this will take a while)

8. add salt, pepper and Worcestershire to taste