Making the classic Beef Wellington could be intimidating but it is a relatively easy dish to prepare and is well worth the effort. I have taken liberties with my version, actually two versions, by adding onion to one and spinach to the other. The version here uses onion but by simply replacing the onion in the recipe/technique below with spinach you get a completely different experience.

You will need:
Filet of beef approximately 1 1/2″ – 2″ thick 6 – 8 oz./serving.
Puff pastry – 12″ square piece 1/serving.
Sweet Onion such as Walla Walla or Vidalia – 1/4″ slice 1/person (be careful here as you want to keep the slabs of onion intact – you can pierce each with a toothpick to insure the rings stay together).
Shallot – diced fine approximately 1 TBS/serving.
White button or crimini mushrooms – approximately 3 oz./serving.
White wine, Sherry or Vermouth – approximately 1TBS/serving.
Shallot – approximately 1 TBS/serving.
Garlic approximately one small clove/serving.
Egg wash (combine egg with a little water and whip until combined).
Olive Oil/Butter – approximately 1TBS each/serving
Butcher’s twine.

Prepare the filets – Tie each filet, with a piece of twine placed at half the thickness of the beef, tight enough to give the filet some height and uniformity in circumference. In a sauté pan large enough to hold filets without crowding place approximately 1 TBS each of oil and butter. When oil/butter began to bubble sauté filets on both sides until a rich crust is formed. Remove from pan, set aside to cool completely. All you are doing with this step is searing the meat, it will cook through when baking the Wellingtons.

Prepare the mushrooms – (Mushroom Duxelles) – Place mushrooms, shallot and garlic in a food processor and chop until the mixture has a paste consistency. Using the same pan for the beef add more oil/butter if the pan is too dry bring up to temperature and add the mushroom mixture. Sauté mixture until it starts to dry out then add the White wine/sherry/vermouth. Continue to cook until the mixture is completely dry. Remove from pan, set aside to cool completely.

Prepare the Onion – in the same pan used for the beef and mushroom add a little oil/butter if the pan is too dry. Season both sides of onion with salt and pepper then place in heated pan. Sauté onions on both sides until golden brown. Carefully remove onion slabs from pan, set aside to cool completely.

Prepare the dough – It is not a difficult task to do this step. It is easier to give you a visual so I have included this visual aid.

Assembly and cooking – Separate all of the above items into portions equal to the amount of tenderloins used. Place a portion of the mushroom mixture in the center of the dough square spread until it matches the circumference of the steak, remove twine from tenderloin and place on top of the mushrooms, place one onion plank on top of beef, follow the instructions provided to fold dough over beef to form a package. Roast individual Beef Wellington(s) until the internal temperature reaches 130° for rare, 140° for medium. Serve with a vegetable and mashed potatoes.

If you decide to add cooked spinach instead of the onion simply replace it at the step indicated above.

NB You must make sure that all items are completely dry otherwise the dough will become gooey and you will not get a good crisp crust.

Not only for the holidays, a good baked ham works in so many ways. In some cases, ham tends to dry out on the inside due to the density and cooking time used, one way to insure that you get a nice, moist interior is rather simple. Approximately 90 minutes before you put the ham in the oven place it, with its packaging intact into a vessel large enough to hold the ham with an inch or two to spare. Run your tap, hot water, until it reaches maximum temperature, fill the vessel (with the ham in it) with hot tap water to at least one inch above the product. This technique raises the internal temperature enough so that the cooking time is reduced providing a moist finished product.

You will need:
Roasting Pan
One butt or shank ham* approximately six oz./person
Orange/Cognac Glaze

Set oven temperature to 250° F. Remove ham from water bath and open packaging. With a sharp knife cut grooves into fat/skin side of product just deep enough so that glaze seeps into product. The grooves should be about one inch apart to form a diamond pattern in the fat/skin. Spread one-half of the glaze over ham and place into roasting pan. Roast at 250° F for 20 minutes/pound. Three-quarters way through the roasting cycle spread the other one-half of the glaze over ham. At the end of the roasting period, remove from oven, tent with foil and let the ham rest for 10 minutes. Slice ham to desired thickness and serve.

I served this with Caramelized Sweet Potato/Carrot Medley

*Butt ham is meatier with less fat but is harder to carve due to complex bone structure. Shank ham is not as meaty and has more fat but is easier to carve due to a single bone as compared to the butt.

You will need:
Sweet Potato approximately 3 oz./person
Carrot approximately 3 oz./person
Pearl Onion approximately 3 oz./person
Butter approximately 1 TBS/serving
Brown sugar (either light or dark) approximately 1 TBS/serving
Ginger Powder approximately 1 tsp./serving
Salt/pepper

Cut sweet potato and carrot into large dice (about the same size as onions used) steam vegetables until just under fork tender. I used frozen pearl onions for this recipe if you use fresh you will need to blanch them until tender remove husks before proceeding. In a skillet large enough to hold all the vegetables place one TBS butter/serving and heat until butter foams, add pearl onions and sauté until just golden, add brown sugar and ginger along with steamed potato and carrot. If you need to add more butter do so at this stage to allow sugar to coat vegetables. Cook until potato and carrot are fork tender, serve.

My version of a classic French sauce that can be used on either chicken or a firm white fish such as cod. The preparation time is relatively short and can be frozen for future use.

You will need:

Cognac (I used Hennessey VS) 2 TBS
Orange Marmalade (I used Smuckers Simply Fruit) 1 cup
Honey/Dijon Mustard (I used Plochman’s) 2 TBS + 1 tsp
Habanero Pepper 1/2 with seeds (cut pepper in half lengthwise

In a small sauce pot add cognac and habanero pepper bring to a boil to cook off alcohol. Add marmalade and honey/mustard. Turn heat down so that glaze just simmers, put on lid and cook for 5 minutes. Remove habanero pepper. As an alternative you can omit the pepper or use milder Jalapeno pepper. The glaze can be made ahead and reheated when needed. Brush glaze on ham, pork or chicken and roast as you would normally. You can re-glaze the meat half way through cooking time to enhance the flavor.

You will need:

Beef Filet (approximately 4 oz. /person)
Small button mushrooms or medium/large cut into quarters
Pearl onion (I used frozen par-cooked) 4 or 5/per person
Carrot (I used bagged baby carrots) 4 or 5/per person
Red wine (I used a good Merlot instead of Burgundy) approximately 1/2 cup/person
Salt/Pepper
Beef broth (no salt) approximately 1/4 cup/person
Egg Noodles approximately 4 oz. /person
Fresh Thyme
Butter and Olive Oil

Cut filet(s) into one-inch pieces, set aside. Defrost pearl onions. Clean mushrooms, if using larger mushrooms quarter them at this point, set aside. Fill a small saucepot with water and carrots; cook until the carrots are fork tender. Put approximately 1 tablespoon each of oil and butter in a sauté pan heat until butter starts to bubble. Sauté beef cubes until just seared, do not crowd pan, sauté in batches if necessary remove as the beef browns and place in a bowl. Deglaze sauté pan with the wine scraping brown bits (fond in culinary terms) on bottom of pan. Add one or two twigs of thyme, there is no need to strip the leaves, as it will be remove later. Continue to cook wine and thyme until wine is reduced by half, remove thyme set aside in bowl.

Place approximately one tablespoon each of olive oil and butter in sauté pan Sauté mushrooms, carrots and onions until caramelized (salt and pepper the vegetables to taste). Put wine reduction, beef broth and vegetables in a sauce pot bring to a rolling simmer (at this time you should prepare noodles according to package directions). Add beef filet cubes with any accumulated juices to sauce pot turn off heat (the beef will warm through with the residual heat in the pot, caution do not overcook beef).
Place cooked noodles on a serving plate, ladle beef, the vegetables and stock over noodles. Garnish with chopped parsley.

I took the classic Veal Saltimbocca recipe and adapted it for chicken. Unlike other Saltimbocca preparations I finely diced the sage and put it between the chicken breast and the prosciutto. Make sure that the chicken breast is butterflied and pounded to approximately 1/4″ or it will be undercooked.

You will need:
Boneless, skinless chicken breast (1 per person)
Prosciutto (one or two thin slices per chicken breast)
Fresh Sage
Unsalted butter
Olive Oil
Dry white wine ( I used an unoaked chardonnay)
Tomato Paste
Salt & Pepper
Flour

Preparation:
Place chicken breast flat side down on a clean cutting board. With a sharp boning knife carefully butterfly the breast at it’s thickest part. Place chicken breast between two lightly oiled sheets of plastic wrap and pound until it is approximately 1/4″ thick, repeat with all breasts being used. Finally chop fresh sage, chop enough to dust all breasts. The amount of sage used depends on your particular taste but beware that you can overpower the chicken if you use too much. Lightly dust the breast with flour shaking off excess flour. Sprinkle chopped sage over one side of the breast and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place prosciutto slices over chopped sage (use enough to completely cover chicken breast.

In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the breasts heat butter and olive oil. When the oil/butter starts to foam gently place chicken, prosciutto side down, into sauté pan. Sear for approximately five minutes or until you notice a change in color of the chicken around the edges. Turn chicken over and sear on second side for another five minutes. Remove chicken from pan and hold, covered on a warm plate.

Pour off any excess fat from pan and add white wine to deglaze (use about one quarter cup of white per chicken breast). Put one table spoon of tomato paste/chicken breast and swirl/stir until tomato paste dissolves and colors the wine. Drop two or three tablespoons of cold butter into wine/tomato paste combination. This procedure is called mounting the sauce. When butter is completely dissolved return chicken and any juices to the pan. Heat thoroughly (about 5 minutes). If your chicken breast is thicker than 1/4″ it will take a little longer for the chicken to cook through. You can use a meat thermometer (it should read no less than 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

I serve this with thin spaghetti with olive oil and garlic.

*Alternately you can use veal instead of chicken. Ask your butcher for veal for scallopini and follow recipe.

This should not be construed as my personal opinion and I make no comment on the quality of the article or it’s contents.

You will need:
Fresh sweet corn or if not available frozen sweet corn.
Heavy cream.
Walla Walla or other sweet onion finely diced.
Oil oil.
Unsalted butter.
Kosher salt/fresh ground pepper.
One diver scallop per person.
Thinly sliced pancetta (one per scallop) NB: Pancetta is sold in roll form do not unroll simply have your purveyor slice thinly.

Put a little olive oil and butter in a sauté pan, heat until butter melts. Sauté onion until translucent add sweet corn and cook until corn just starts to caramelize. Add small amounts of heavy cream until corn starts to thicken. Process mixture in a food processor until smooth and creamy, set aside and keep warm.
Cook pancetta slices until crisp. Be careful it tends to burn easily. Set aside.
Put a little olive oil and butter in a sauté pan large enough to hold all the scallops. Heat until butter melts. Dry off the scallops, season with salt and pepper, put scallops in hot pan. Sauté scallops until done. This step depends on the size of your scallops. You should get a good sear on one side (make sure you get some color here) flip scallop to finish. Press down in the center of the scallop when you get a little resistance the scallop is done.
To plate pour some of the sweet corn coulis on an appetizer plate, if you have scallop shells use those. Place one scallop in the middle of the coulis and top with a pancetta disk. Garnish with a sprig of parsley.