Beef Wellington, and a very nice BC Merlot

Finally, finally, FINALLY found a Beef Wellington recipe I liked. Ok actually I took two recipes and combined them into one, but it certainly worked; last night, I finally conquered Beef Wellington. Well, sort of.

(**if anyone wants the recipe, I have put it into a Word document, just ask and I will send to you)

If there are any chefs out there who make Welly regularly, tell me how you get the puff pastry fully cooked and still have the Wellington cooked medium rare? I made individual ones yesterday and my wife's was perfect (medium to medium well) and my steak was cooked nicely (medium rare to medium) but the pastry was every so slightly underdone. Not inedibly so; in fact, it was damn good, but another 2-3 minutes cooking would have been perfect for the pastry, but would have overdone the meat.

Oh, and ironically, my wife was sick with a terrible cold, so she could barely taste the fabulous meal I placed in front of her. She felt fine the 2-3 other times I crafted her a Beef Wellington that most dogs wouldn't eat, of course.

Anyway.....back to the wine portion of this blog entry. I was planning on breaking out a big red to celebrate my beating the Welly Monster once and for all, but since Tracey wasn't feeling well and wouldn't enjoy the wine as much as she might, I decided to hit my local VQA wine store and pick up a good, but cheaper, Merlot. This was my pick:

Cedarcreek 2010 Merlot

It's fruity on the nose, filled with raspberry jam-like flavors on the palate, and it's delicious. At $19.95, it's an absolute steal and by far my favorite of the entry-level Merlots that I have tasted. It's a treat to enjoy now, but would undoubtedly age well for another year or two. If you don't have that kind of patience, decant it for an hour or so to fully open it up. It would pair very well with most steak dishes, and certainly went very well with the Beef Wellington (and a cup of it was in the sauce, which was also scrumptious).


Rating: 7/10