Ingredients:
Wellington
- 500g puff pastry (pre-rolled puff pastry will work fine)
- 500g chestnut mushrooms – washed and dried
- 2 glove of garlic
- 10g picked thyme leaves
- 80ml madeira
- 1 shallot (finely diced)
- 150ml double cream
- fallow deer short saddle loin
- sliced Parma ham x 5
- 2 egg yolks
- 10g finely chopped chives
- 50g flour
- 100ml milk
- Salt & pepper
Method
Wellington
- Firstly, you want to season your short saddle generously with maldon salt and white pepper. Now sear in a hot pan with a little rape seed oil and foaming butter to brown the loin all over, this will take a couple minutes to do. We are not trying to cook it, we are locking in the juices and creating one of the many layers of flavour. set this aside to cool.
- Bring a pan of hot water to the boil and blanch the spinach for 10 seconds then refresh in ice cold water. Once cold squeeze the water from the spinach and lay out onto a cloth to the size of an A4 page. roll this between two towels to get rid of all moisture. carefully place the loin at the bottom of the spinach and roll the spinach around the loin using the cloths to keep tight around the spinach. set aside to set and rest. Brush the loin with English mustard and then carefully wrap the loin in the spinach.
- To make the mushroom Duxelle, take the mushrooms and chop finely with a knife or put into the food processer and give a very quick pulse. If pulsed squeeze the mushrooms in a cloth to remove as much water as possible. Heat a heavy based pan until hot and add 50ml of rape seed oil then the mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Cook until the mixture has a beautiful golden colour and dry. Next deglaze with the madeira, cook unto dry then finally add the cream and cook down until the mixture is a thick mushroom paste. Season and leave to cool.
- Next to make the pancakes, beat the egg and milk together followed by the sieved flour. Season with salt and add chopped chives. Gently cook four 8-inch pancakes as thin as possible. Leve the pancakes to cool.
- To assemble the wellington firstly lay out some clingfilm onto your work top. Lay the pancake onto the clingfilm, smother the pancake in the mushroom duxelle. Next place the parma ham slices down, finally carefully unwrap the loin and place in the centre and you’re ready to roll. With the cling film roll the pancake over the top on the loin and over into a cylinder. Roll tight with cling film and set in the freezer whilst you roll the pastry.
- Roll the puff pastry out on a well-floured surface until its around 4mm thick and 14 inches squared.
- Take the wellington roll out the freezer and place in the centre of the pastry, brush the pastry with egg yolk. Roll the top of the pastry over the top of the wellington and over the other side until the puff pastry meets, overlap by 1cm and cut with a sharp knife. Press the join firmly.
- Keeping the join side down on the work surface press the pastry together on either end to form a tight fit around the pigeon. Cut the loose pastry away leaving an inch. Pinch the edges together and wrap the spare pastry underneath the wellington.
- Glaze with egg yolk and set aside in the fridge. Chill for at least an hour before cooking, prick a hole in the top of the welly with a cocktail stick rotating the stick to givr a hole of about ½ a cm. Cook on a pre heated flat tray in an oven of 200c degrees for 15 minutes then drop the oven to 180oc for 10 minutes. the core temperature needs to reach a core of 28oc before coming out the oven. then rest for 25 minutes. the core temp should hit around 55oc.
- Flast in a hot oven for 5 minutes before carving!