Mini Beef Wellingtons

My oldest daughter’s favorite birthday meal is Mini Beef Wellingtons with mashed potatoes, mushroom sauce and asparagus with Hollandaise.  It’s not a difficult meal to prepare, but time-consuming.  I make the pate and mushroom sauce the day before and cook the beef early in the day of the dinner to allow time for it to cool for easier handling.  I used to buy a beef tenderloin but found it easier to simply buy the filet mignons wrapped in bacon that my store handles.

MINI BEEF WELLINGTONS

• Five 6 oz. portions of filet mignon
• Sprinkling of salt and pepper
• 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed (Pepperidge Farm)
• 2 Tblsp. milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

Allowing time for the meat to cool well enough to handle, place the filet mignons in a baking pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cover and bake @ 300 degrees F for approximately one hour, depending on how  you like your meat (my family likes it well done, especially in this dish).  Allow to cool.  My filet mignon comes wrapped in a slice of bacon.  Remove the bacon.  Cut meat into 18 small portions.

Set oven to 350 degrees F

Cut the 2 sheets of puff pastry into 9 sections each.  Place one section on a floured board and roll thin (like pie crust).  Place one portion of meat in the center of the pastry.  Top with about a teaspoon of Chicken Liver Pate (recipe below), bring up edges of pastry to cover the meat and  seal.  Place on an ungreased baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining sections of pastry and beef/pate.  Brush the tops of the pastry with milk and bake @ 350 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

Serve hot with Beef Mushroom Sauce (recipe follows).

Makes 18 mini Beef Wellingtons

CHICKEN LIVER PATE

• 1/4 lb. chicken livers
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1 slice bacon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 of a hard-boiled egg
• 1/2 Tblsp. butter, melted
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• Grating of black pepper
• 1 tsp. dry sherry

Rinse and drain chicken livers and cook in broth over moderately low heat for about 15 minutes until no pink shows in the livers.  Drain and set aside.

Cook bacon for 5-7 minutes until crisp and golden brown.  Remove bacon and in the remaining fat cook onions for about 7 minutes until soft but not brown.

Combine the cooked chicken livers, bacon, onions, egg, butter, salt, pepper and sherry in a mixer or food  processor and blend until fairly smooth.

Refrigerate until ready to use.  Makes about one-half cup of pate.

Adapted from Redbook Cookbook.  First made to use with Beef Wellington in 1989.

BEEF MUSHROOM SAUCE

• 8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tblsp. butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups beef broth, divided
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 1/2 tsp. salt (depending on saltiness of broth)
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper

In a small skillet, saute the mushrooms in butter until they are just beginning to brown.  Set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour and 1/2 cup of beef broth.  Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, place remaining one cup of beef broth, wine.  When mixture is hot, whisk in the flour/broth mixture.  Bring to a boil and let cook for 2 minutes, whisking.  Stir in mushrooms, salt and pepper.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce to pour over the Wellingtons and/or potatoes.

Asparagus is good with this meal and we like this Mock Hollandaise Sauce.

For dessert, a big frosted cake from our favorite Cincinnati bakery,Servatii’s.

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A Good Way to Keep Herbs

One of my Mother’s Day gifts this year was a cute little 7-part bud vase which is perfect for displaying small flowers and buds.  When my herb garden started producing, I thought it might be nice to have an assortment of fresh herbs on hand and that maybe I’d be more inclined to use them daily if they were available right on my kitchen counter.  The bud vase was perfect for this use.  In the picture, I have basil, lemon thyme, rosemary, peppermint, chives, sage and apple mint and I can replace any I use as I’m passing by the garden.

These cute vases (approximately 6″ tall)  are reasonably priced on QVC, Item #H00007.

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Grandparents’ Day….and Hollandaise Sauce

My two youngest grandchildren, known here as Jellyfish (age 9) and Dolphin (age 5) have always been encouraged by their mother to remember me on Grandparents’ Day.  Yesterday I received a mug with their pictures to join 9 others in my collection.

As soon as they were able to draw, write or color, they have also given me something they made themselves.  This year, Jellyfish spent many hours printing and coloring detailed information sheets about dinosaurs.

Dolphin also drew a dinosaur and made a special card.

Both of them made up a booklet, “My Grandmother”, with lines to fill in with information on where I live, what I like and what we like to do together.  The page about my real name turned out fine with Jellyfish’s “Lillian” but a little odd with Dolphin’s “Owl”.

I like to have Sunday dinner at home, so as usual I fixed dinner for everybody.  Along with roast beef, mashed potatoes,carrots and homemade yeast rolls,  I steamed some asparaus and served it with this delicious Mock Hollandaise Sauce which is much friendlier fat and cholesterol-wise.

MOCK HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

• One 3 oz. package low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel)

• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• dash salt
• 1/4 cup melted low-fat margarine

Blend together by hand or in a food processor.  To warm, heat in microwave oven for about 30-45 seconds.

Yield:  One cup of sauce

I have a note in my recipe binder:  “From Southern Sideboards cookbook.  Made for Mother’s Day 1994 to serve with our homegrown asparagus.  Very rich and smooth – easy to heat up.”

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Amish Graham Nuts Cereal

This recipe is based on one from a wonderful book, Cooking from Quilt Country by Marcia Adams. Wholesome ingredients like whole wheat flour and buttermilk go into an easy mixture that bakes into crunchy cereal.

HOMEMADE GRAHAM NUTS

• 3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.  Add the buttermilk and vanilla, mixing well.

Pour out into an oiled 10-1/2×15-1/2″ flat baking pan and spread evenly.  Dampening your palms with water is an easy way to get the dough spread out evenly.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the batter is firm, medium-brown in color and shrinks slightly from the sides of the pan.  Loosen from the pan and allow to cool on a rack for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.  Break up the pieces of cereal and pulse in a food processor until coarse crumbs are formed.  Divide the crumbs between two 10-1/2×15-1/2″ jellyroll pans that are lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on degree of crispness you like.  An hour made the cereal just right for my taste and so it didn’t get soggy in milk.

Let cool, then store in an airtight container.  Since there are no preservatives in the cereal, I would suggest refrigerating or freezing the cereal if you don’t plan to use it within two weeks or so.

Serve as a cold cereal with milk and a bit of brown sugar if desired (I didn’t think it needed additional sugar).  A few raisins amd/or walnuts are a nice addition.

Note:  The original recipe called for baking in a 12×16″ flat pan.  I didn’t have that size and added some time to the baking to compensate and also to get the degree of crispness I wanted.

Yield:  Approximately 11 cups of cereal.

This beautiful book, Cooking from Quilt Country, published in 1989, not only has great homemade Amish/Mennonite-inspired recipes but loads of color pictures and information on the Amish and Mennonite people and their culture.  I found my copy in an antique shop, but I notice the book is also available, new and used, at Amazon and on eBay.

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