Category: French

Beef Wellington

Beef Wellington - Poor Man's Gourmet Kitchen -Beef Wellington… Let’s Talk “Turkey”!

The Beef Wellington is a dish that is dressed to impress any mouth watering steak lover.  If you’ve got the time and/or the patience to knock out one of these grass fed puff pastry’s, then I have a fairly inexpensive recipe you can use!  Using the Filet for the filling is ideal if you don’t mind shelling out $20+ per pound with your local butcher, but for $7 per pound I think we can settle for the Tenderloin.  Already that dumps 2/3 off the regular price of this recipe and that’s what Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen is all about!

If you haven’t ever had a Beef Wellington and you don’t really know what it consists of, it breaks down like this.  The Beef is first seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared on all sides.  Afterwords it is smeared with an English Mustard and Horse Raddish to give it more flavor and heat.  Then it’s wrapped in Prosciutto, coated with a Mushroom Duxelles then layered and wrapped with a Puff Pastry and baked to a golden brown.  Your internal temperature will depend on how rare you like your beef; at 425 degrees, you should reach an internal temp of 125 degrees within 35 to 40 minutes.  This temperature is considered to be Medium Rare so adjust the time accordingly.

So if you’re looking for one of those “knock your socks off” types of recipes for a special occasion, I’d say this is the one for you.  The Beef Wellington!

Beef Wellington Ingredients:

Beef Tenderloin
Prosciutto
Mushrooms
Scallions
Parsley
Bell Pepper
Mint Jelly
Mustard/Horseradish
Puff Pastry
Egg Wash
Salt and Pepper

 

The Ultimate Omelette

Stove - Poor Man's Gourmet KitchenWhat’s for Breakfast… Omelette?

Do you know what’s in your refrigerator?  Well if it’s anything like mine, it’s either plum full or it’s getting pretty bare.  Either way, I always make sure we never go without milk or eggs.  Any real cook knows what I’m talking about and anyone who doesn’t, knows what I’m sayin’! Staying the weekends at my house provides two things; sleeping in and big breakfasts, or brunch depending on how long I take to get out of bed. Sometimes the best morning meal can consist of last nights leftovers; especially if there’s any meat, onion, or bell peppers.  Any kind of pepper will do in this case.  So reach into that refrigerator and grab your favorite cheese and head over to the stove with some butter and eggs, because we’re making Omelettes today.

Omelette Ingredients:

2 to 3 eggs
1/2 cup cheese (your favorite, I use mild cheddar and pepper jack)
1 Tbs for ea. of the following
Tomato
Bell Pepper/Jalapeno
Scallions
Bacon
Basil
Mushroom

Add butter to a medium hot 6 inch non stick pan.
Scramble and add the eggs, then cover with a lid for 1 min.
Uncover and add all of the remaining ingredients to one half of the Omelette, topping everything off with cheese.
With a spatula, very carefully fold the omelette in half starting from the opposite side of the ingredients, then top with more cheese.

Quick and Easy Menudo

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How I found this Menudo

Menudo I’m told, is traditionally prepared on Sunday morning’s for breakfast.  I haven’t researched it, I’m just going by the word of a friend of mine that’s inspired some of my authentic Mexican recipes.  It might not be a Sunday morning delicacy for most but apparently it is at his house.  Regardless,  this is a dish I’ve grown to love.

It was first introduced to me by a coworker in a Denver Refinery I was working in. The company that had the maintenance contract at the time employed several Mexican men that ate excellent authentic Mexican food from day to day, thanks to the preparation of their Mexican wives(go figure).  Anyway, one specific gentleman made a little extra money on the side selling burritos at work that his wife prepared every morning before he’d leave.  Those of us that usually skipped breakfast in the morning, knew that we could rely on him vending out burritos from the big blue cooler he toted in day after day.  Burrito’s filled with eggs, chorizo and chili’s, or potatoes and pork with beans.  Thursday’s were my favorite day to buy because those days she made Chili Relleno’s with beans, rice and goat cheese wrapped in a tortilla!  Mmm Mmmm, those were the goods.  So, getting back to the point, this same guy’s wife dropped off a huge grocery paper bag full of Bolillo’s (bread) and a pot full of Menudo.

He invited me to try it, but I really had no idea what I was getting into and with a name like Menudo, I had to ask what it was.  Well, a chili base soup with Tripe and Hominy didn’t sound too bad but honestly, I don’t think at the time I realized what Tripe was.  He told me to get a bowl and make sure I grabbed some bread.  So I did, and at first glance I was really skeptical.  Then at first chew I thought, rubbery not dreamy.  Then the after taste kicked in and I wanted more, end of story.  I’ve been getting it at restaurants ever since.  I believe Menudo is one of those recipes.  It’s a hit and miss and you either like it or you don’t.

I guess the moral of the story is, don’t be so quick to judge and give everything a chance at least once.  Also make your decisions based on the experience of the cook.  I have found that most of my “bad experiences” came from cooks that didn’t know how to prepare a dish even half as well as they thought they did.  And when I was willing to give the recipe a second chance with someone else cooking that absolutely without a doubt knew their recipe, I usually found the light.

MenudoMaking Menudo

Now as far as this dish goes, the easiest and fastest way I know how to whip out Menudo the very moment I’m craving it, without any preparation or the 6 plus hours of cooking time is to have it already to go on the shelf.  Now you can purchase this fine recipe in a can these days and it’s pretty comparable to a fresh batch made from scratch.  To be clear this is NOT a recipe video, just a Quick and Easy way to knock out a 6 hour soup, Menudo, in 10 minutes.