Beet Wellington
From the Cookbook
Plan Ahead
Serves 8
This is as dramatic a dish as any beef Wellington. On New Year’s Eve, carved at the table to reveal the striking crimson-coloured beets within, it makes for a truly memorable meal and the meaty mushrooms, rich red wine and zingy goats’ cheese really punch up the umami flavours.
Serves:
8Ingredients
4 raw, unpeeled beetroot, all roughly the same size and shape, scrubbed and halved around the middle
1 tablespoon balsamic or red wine vinegar
Olive oil, for drizzling and oiling
2 × 320g sheets of ready rolled all-butter puff pastry, defrosted if frozen
A little plain flour, for dusting
100g unsalted butter
4 shallots, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
250g chestnut mushrooms, diced into 5mm pieces
175ml full-bodied red wine
200g spinach, washed and dried
150g soft goats’ cheese
1 beaten egg, to glaze
1 teaspoon black onion (nigella) seeds (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- 1
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas Mark 6. Toss the halved beetroot in a shallow roasting tin with the vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and cover the tin tightly with foil. Roast on the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour or until a sharp knife passes through the beetroot easily. Remove from the oven, lift away the foil and set aside.
- 2
Unroll a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Trim the pastry to a rectangle measuring 30cm × 15cm × 3mm. Place the pastry on a lightly oiled baking sheet and top with a second baking sheet, also lightly oiled. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside, keeping the oven on.
- 3
Melt the butter in a large frying pan and sauté the shallots over a medium heat for 6 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Remove one-third of the shallot mixture to a bowl and reserve. Stir the mushrooms into the remaining shallot mixture in the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 8 minutes until the mushrooms are golden and have released all their liquid and it has evaporated. Pour in the red wine, turn the heat up to high and cook until it has all been absorbed. Lift the mushrooms onto a plate with a slotted spoon to drain off some of the butter.
- 4
Add the spinach to the pan and cook over a medium heat until wilted. Scrape the spinach into a sieve and leave until cool enough to handle, then squeeze out as much water as you can. Transfer to the bowl with the reserved shallot mixture and stir to combine, then crumble in the goats’ cheese and stir again.
- 5
To assemble, arrange the spinach and goats’ cheese down the centre of the baked pastry sheet, leaving a 3cm border either side of the mixture. Place the beetroot on top of the spinach (you may not need all the beetroot, depending on their size). Pile the mushrooms on top of the beetroot. You will have quite a mound now!
- 6
Unroll the second pastry sheet and make sure it measures about 35 × 20cm, rolling it out on a lightly floured surface as necessary. Drape it over the filling, tucking the edges underneath the cooked pastry base. Brush with beaten egg to glaze and chill in the freezer for 20 minutes. Brush with beaten egg again and decorate with pastry shapes (brush these with beaten egg too) or with a sprinkling of black onion seeds. Bake for 45–50 minutes until golden brown and flaky. Serve hot with onion gravy.
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