I was looking in the refrigerator and found some mushrooms I had purchased a week ago. I don't remember why I bought the mushrooms so I improvised. Also, I was craving fresh noodles.
The Fixins'
3 or 4 C of mushrooms, cut into quarters 1/2 onion, 1/2" dice 1/2 C carrots, sliced thin 1 C cabbage, shredded 9 oz fresh noodles 8 oz thinly sliced pork, marinaded with a little soy, garlic, green onions and a little corn starch
The mushrooms were washed and quartered. There was about 3 cups. I purposely left them chunky so they would add some texture.
The cabbage, carrots and onion.
The noodles were cooked in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drained and rinsed.
Before pan-frying, I gave the noodles a coating of soy sauce (about 1 tablespoon), some green onions (2 small, chopped), about 1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, a dash of garlic powder and 1/2 Tablespoon of oyster sauce. The noodles were mixed and tossed in a hot pan with oil.
I like pan-frying the noodles. The noodles crispy up slightly which adds a little extra flavor.
The noodles were set aside.
On medium-high heat, the pork was sauteed about 5 minutes before the mushrooms were added. Afterwards the rest of the veggies were added and cooked about 3 to 5 minutes.
Finally the noodles were added back to the mixture and incorporated.
The Final Dish
The stir fried noodles were plated and topped with a spoonful of chili paste.
The dish was flavorful and the noodles were dry and flavorful. Just the way I like it. If you like your noodles and stir fry a little saucy, you can add some chicken broth and a little corn starch to form a sauce.
What am I going to make for dinner? I wanted to try something different, unique and special.
I've decided to do Beef Wellington. Beef Wellington is a beef tenderloin, layered with sauteed mushrooms (the fancy name is mushroom duxelles), pate and wrapped in puff pastry.
I enjoy watching reality cooking shows and one common dish seen on Gordon Ramsay's show is Beef Wellington.
Gordon Ramsay making Beef Wellington
I've had Salmon en Croute, salmon in puff pastry, but not Beef Wellington. My curiosity has motivated me to try making the dish, but on a smaller scale.
My version of Beef Wellington Steak
1 beef Filet Mignon about 1.5 inches thick - 6 to 8 ounces Salt and Pepper
8 ounces of mushrooms, finely chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped (about the size of a 1/4 onion) 2 pinches thyme Salt and pepper
2 slices Prosciutto. My original goal was to make the Beef Wellington with pate, but pate is difficult to find so I used Ramsay's video as a guide.
1 Sheet Puff Pastry
Step 1. Salt and pepper the steak
Step 2: Chop the mushrooms and shallot
Step 3: Brown the steak on both sides about 2 minutes per side. The main reason for browning is to develop some flavor. Note that the steak is not thoroughly cooked. Afterwards, the steak was placed in the refrigerator to cool down.
Step 4: While the steak is cooling down, the mushrooms were sauteed with a little oil and butter. Salt and pepper plus the thyme was added at this time. The head was medium-low. We're sweating the mixture and drying it out, not browning. Also, looking at many recipes for mushroom duxelle some call for red wine/Madeira while others called for cream.
The mixture after cooking. The taste is nice. A little red wine in the saute would have been nice too.
Step 5: The prosciutto and mushroom mixture are laid out on plastic wrap.
Step 6: The cooled steak is wrapped with the ham and mushroom mixture. Again refrigerated to ensure the product is cool
Step 7: Setting up the steak on the puff pastry
Step 8: Trimming the puff pastry leaving about 1" overlap. The puff pastry was unwrapped and a little egg wash was brushed along the edges to help glue the edges together.
Step 9: Wrapped like a Christmas present (I'm terrible at wrapping) and ready for baking.
Step 10: Baked 425F for about 25 minutes. The Wellington was allowed to rest on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.
Cut in half... The beef filet is cooked to medium. Just the way I like it. I lucked out. :-)
The Final Dish The steak is enough for two. Served with smashed red potatoes infused with garlic and horseradish with a couple spoonfuls of beef jus. The cabbage is steamed and lightly sauteed and topped fried prosciutto.
Overall the dish was nice. The puff pastry will become soggy if allowed to rest too long which this dish was on the verge. I've read on different websites that you can put a layer of bread or a pancake between the puff pastry and the meat mixture. This would seem like too much breading for my liking.
The prosciutto I used turned out to be smoked which overpowered some mushroom mixture.
The mushroom mixture was good. A splash of red wine would have improved it especially when served with beef.
Would I order this dish in a restaurant? Probably not. I like the steak to be simple with a good sauce. Although a sauce can be made for this dish, it just seems that the sauce would want to ruin the puff pastry.
