Looks nice Robbie, few things:
Did you make the clarified butter yourself? I've tried a few times, and can never seem to get rid of enough milk - it just seems to take for ever. I've heard you can use a coffee filter to make your life easier. Any tips? When I can find it, I use ghee instead. I love bearnaise sauce, but have given up trying to make it because of the issues I have with clarified butter and can't find it in any of my local supermarkets and the jarred version just isn't the same I'm sure you'll appreciate.
Your roux is awfully brown, mad.
You ever done a Beef Wellington? I'm going to do one next month using foie gras and truffles. Any tips? Probably going to serve it with black & red caviar. (Yeah, that's right.
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Yes I made the clarified butter myself. I heated it (unsalted as mentioned, you can season later if required) up gently until some of the solids started rising to the surface then skimmed these bits with...a skimmer (that's not meant to sound sarcastic!). Make sure not to overcook the butter. If it goes brown, start again.
Then I poured the top layer of melted butter into a glass bowl and passed the last dregs through some cheese cloth. The time before this I used a cafetiere and some filter paper, but cleaning the cafetiere was a pain so I changed tack this time.
I've never tried Ghee but I have heard of it. Even though it costs more, Ghee probably works out the same because, for me at least, there's ~25% wastage when clarifying butter.
I've heard you can also use the tactic of putting it in the fridge and cut off the top layer when it's solid, but I haven't tried this.
Yes the roux is brown, as mentioned this reduces its thickening properties but creates a lovely smooth texture with more flavour than a blond roux. I've not cooked a proper beef Wellington before so I can't help you there, though it looks like you have a pro giving you tips!
Can't stop laughing at this. Imagine asking for a bouquet garni of 1-2-3 bay rosemary parsley.
1-2-3? what the...
You don't ask for this, you get it yourself! Makanouchi is correct, 1-2-3 is the ratio of bay - rosemary - parsley in a classic bouquet garni.
Do you just discard the trivet vegetables after sieving the juices? The roasted carrots looked good.
Yep I chucked the veg away. Not sure if I'd want to eat them as they were mushy by that stage.
Also how do you guys find the time to take pictures at each stage of the cooking process? I'm determined to give it a go sometime to post on here & a blog but often I'm too busy prepping, stirring, adding things and worrying about timings to remember to do it.
As mentioned, do as much prep as possible beforehand. This helps immensely even if you're not documenting it! Also make sure your dishwasher is empty. The pictures take two seconds literally so I just leave the camera on on the side and grab it when I need to.
I watched Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Dinners today and he did a roast dinner in about 26 mins...it looked better than this. And he cheated too, he literally fried the beer and potatoes, so strictly speaking it wasn't a roast as the only thing went into the oven was the yorkshire puddings.
Still, that doesn't look that great, the veg looked over cooked, the beef looked over cooked too.
How did it taste?
Well there's a few reasons why it looked better than this...not least the fact that he's a talented professional chef with a production team behind him
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It tasted really very good, the beef was full of flavour and the gravy and potatoes were spot on. The veg wasn't over cooked but the beef was, which is criminal really. I got it out of the oven when the beef was registering just below rare and left it to rest in a warm place (in the microwave which was warm from the grill having been on earlier) and obviously it carried on cooking more than I intended. It was pinker than it looked in the photos though.
haha i would have gone to a carvery for the price of the meat but thats just me...
Every single time? So you're never going to cook a decent bit of beef in your life as you will go to the carvery instead? Each to their own, I guess
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