Ingredients / serves 2

Mushroom duxelle
1tbsp butter
1tbsp olive oil
225g button mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
2 shallots, skin removed and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, skin removed and finely chopped
75ml Madeira or white wine
75ml single cream
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Wellington
1tbsp olive oil
100g baby spinach
500g packet of ready made puff pastry sheets, defrosted
2 x 100g fillet steaks, cut even in sizes
1 egg, cracked and whisked

Individual Beef Wellington

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add the butter and oil. Once the butter starts to foam, add the shallots and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the mushrooms are nice and tender. Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Add the Madeira and reduce by half. Add the cream and reduce until the sauce coats the mushrooms. Season at this point with salt and pepper.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a high heat for 4-5 minutes. Pat the beef fillet dry with kitchen paper and season well with salt and pepper. Add the oil to the pan and seal the beef fillet on all sides, do this quickly as you only want to seal the meat and give it some colour. This process should only take 1 minute. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool.

Place the spinach into the same frying pan and cook until the spinach has wilted. This should only take 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and set aside to drain and cool. Squeeze out excess moisture with a clean cloth.

Unravel the pastry sheets and place side by side. Cut 4 rounds out of the pastry approximately 2cm in diameter larger than the steak. Place 2 disks of the pastry on an oiled baking tray. Brush the edges of the pastry with egg wash. Add a spoon of mushroom duxelle and add some of the spinach.

Place the beef on top and then add some more spinach and another spoon of the mushroom duxelle. Top with a round of puff pastry.

Without stretching or lifting up the whole Wellington, just raise the sides of the bottom pastry and gently press the edges together, press to crimp the edges. Your Wellington will look like a flying saucer. Brush the top of the Wellington with the remaining egg wash. Leave the Wellingtons to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place the baking tray in the oven to heat up for 10 minutes. Place the Wellingtons onto the hot tray in the oven and bake them for 20-22 minutes. This will cook the beef to a medium.

This is the only way to eat Wellington. Any shorter the pastry is undercooked and any longer the beef is overcooked.