Ground Beef Wellington

This is my 2nd recipe from Jamie Oliver's cookbook, "Jamie's Food Revolution". All I can say is YUM!! Basically sauteed veggies and rosemary, a little egg and ground beef wrapped in delectable puff pastry. I have such a weakness for pastry. I got lazy and didn't make anything else to go with it, but a salad and some boiled or mashed potatoes would go nicely.

Warning: This does not reheat well....the meat isn't nearly as nice and the pastry gets a big soggy. It does make a huge amount so unless you are cooking for 4-6 people, I would make individual ones and freeze whatever you don't need. Also, cut back a bit on the rosemary unless you love it! Derry loved it...gave it 5 stars out of 5, but did say you would have to be in the mood for a hearty meal.

Ingredients:

(serves 4-6)

1 medium onion
1 large carrot

1 stalk of celery
1 potato
2 garlic cloves
2 portabella mushrooms
4 sprigs fresh rosemary removed from the stem and chopped fine

olive oil

very large handful of frozen peas

1 lb of ground beef, organic if possible

1 large egg (preferably organic/free range), beaten
flour, for dusting

2 sheets of puff pastry, defrosted if frozen

Sea salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Peel and chop the onion, carrot, celery, and potato into 1/4 inch-sized-dice. Finely grate the garlic. Clean and rough;y chop the mushrooms so they are about the same size as the other veggies. Place all the veggies into a large frying pan on a medium heat with 2 lugs of olive oil. Pick the rosemary leaves off the woody stalks, finely chop them and add them to the pan. Saute for 8 minutes or until the vegetables soften an color slightly. Put vegetables in a large bowl and add peas. Mix well and allow to cool completely. Crack the egg into a cup and beat it up. Add the ground beef to the bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper and half the beaten egg. With clean hands, mix well.

Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and lay the puff pastry sheets one on top of the other. Roll out the pastry so its roughly a rectangle 12x16 inches. Dust with flour as you go. Turn the pastry do the long edge is in front of you and place the ground beef mixture along this edge.









Mold it into an even, long sausage shape. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little of the beaten egg. Roll the beef up in the pastry until completely covered. Squeeze the ends together. Dust a cookie sheet with flour and place your Wellington on top. Brush all over with the beaten egg.









Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour until golden.