Olde Timey Classic: Beef Wellington

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I based my beef Wellington off Gordon Ramsay's. His major innovation was to use a mushroom duxelle instead of a traditional pate. My innovation was to change the cut of meat from a fillet of beef which can run you up to $50, to a top rump. Incredibly, I picked up a 1.89kg slab of top rump for a measly $8, which was good as I had to feed NINE people in one sitting. I manged to feed everyone comfortably...for $8. This has to be some sort of record.

Making this thing is a little tricky, but is a sure way to please a dinner party. And the satisfaction of cutting into the pastry to reveal a perfectly rare steak inside is like the feeling a kid gets digging into a kinder egg times a thousand.

Go Get:

Top rump of Beef

400g of 'shrooms. I used a mixture of wild and chessnut purchased from the awesome Borough Street Market.

16 slices of prosciutto.

Splash of white wine.

1lb of Puff pastry.

2 Beaten eggs.

English mustard.

Flour for dusting.

The Action:

1. Be sure to trim off the excess fat on the beef using a sharp knife. Season with salt and pepper seal the beef on all sides in a frying pan with a little butter. As this is a large piece of meat, you might want to do this for 15 minutes. Turn your oven on.

2. Put your mushrooms into a blender and blend until in small chunks, not a smoothie.

3. Fry the mushrooms without using any oil or butter. Add some white wine and cook until all the water has been evaporated. This may take up to 15 mins.

4. Lay some clingfilm down on your countertop, and arrange the prosciutto slices into a sheet so each slice is overlapping. Spread your mushrooms evenly on top. Cover the beef all over with a nice coat of mustard. Roll your beef up like a cigarette and secure by twisting the ends of the clingfilm. Refrigerate for 20 mins.

5. Roll out your pastry and connect the different sheets by overlapping and pressing down with the back of a spoon. Unwrap your beef-mushroom-ham ball and place in the middle of your puff pastry. Spread the egg wash on the pastry either side of the beef and cover with pastry.

6. Score the pastry using the back of a knife and glaze using more egg wash. Season with salt and pepper and stick in the oven. It takes around 45 mins for a rare center, and 55 for medium-rare.

7. To serve, cut into inch thick slices. Be sure to use a really sharp knife or you risk making the whole thing collapse into a messy heap.

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A Hearty Soup for a Depressing, Frigid January.

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It's that time of the year again-the dead of winter. Now That I live in Texas, January has become a bearable even pleasant month. This however, was not the case when I was living in Nottingham as a student. Winter jackets had to be worn at all times and it was weird not to see your own breath in the morning. As a response, I came up with a cheap and delicious Lentil and Bacon soup recipe to warm you up and kick those winter woes. It serves 5-6 and costs next to nothing per serving.

Go Get:

4-5 Rashers of bacon.

1/4 pack of Red Lentils.

2 Carrots.

3 Sticks Celery.

1 Large Onion.

1. Can of Dices tomatoes.

Half a Butternut squash.

3 Cloves of Garlic.

800ml of Chicken stock.

The Action:

1. Fry the bacon until cooked through and remove from the pan. Saute the rest of the chopped up vegetables on a high heat in the bacon juices until golden brown, or for around 15 minutes.

2. Add the lentils, can of tomatoes, half of the stock and the cumin to the pot. Simmer for 45 mins.

3. Throw the soup mixture into a blender and blend til smooth. Add more stock to get to the right consistency. Season with salt & pepper to taste and serve garnished with a celery leaf and olive oil. Pair the soup with some crusty bread and you've got yourself a meal.

What I learned from Christmas: Some Non-Turkey Recipes

Posting Christmas recipes so soon after the feast itself would be pointless, as I can imagine that no-one feels the need to eat Turkey in the near future. Plus, Turkey is expensive and I am still sleeping on an air mattress.

This post will center on some simple recipes for entertaining your friends or family. Think less of eating alone in a one bedreem hell hole, and more of a spirited dinner party or as it usually devolves into, a piss-up.

And what embodies party food more than canapes? Here's two I made on Christmas day that cost virtually nothing.

Scotch Quail Eggs

Scotch eggs are the ultimate British picnic food. You know when food is 'ultimately British" when you describe what exactly it is to your American friend and they recoil in disgust.

Go Get:

12 Quail eggs
800g Sausage meat
Flour
Breadcrumbs
2 Regular Eggs

The Action:

1. Boil the quail eggs for 3 minutes, drain and place under cold running water. And then Peel.
2. flatten out a chunk of sausage meat with your hands and roll around the quails egg. Roll around in your hands until perfectly round.
3. Dust the ball in seasoned flour, dip in egg wash, and roll it around in the breadcrumbs.
4. Deep fry until golden brown. If You've done it right, the yolk will still be slightly runny.

Egg Bacon Bites

I used the Hairy Biker's recipe for this one. All you need is a sheet of puff pastry, a few rashers of bacon, two eggs, mayonnaise, four cherry tomatoes and four hard boiled quails eggs.

The Action:

1. Place the sheet of puff pastry over your cupcake baking tin and cut into squares and press into each cupcake space. Stab the bottom of each pastry base with a fork. Place in the oven and bake for 20 mins.

2. Hardboil your quails eggs and hen eggs. Make an egg mayonnaise by combining the hen's eggs and a few dollops of mayonnaise. Fill your pastry cases with the egg mayonnaise. Fry the bacon until crispy and cut into pieces.

3. Cut the quail's egg and the cherry tomatoes in half and arrange on your canape. Season with salt and pepper, and finish by sticking the bacon in vertically.

And there you have it. Two really easy ways to impress your guests with small, sophisticated nibbles.