Beef Wellington Pot Pie by Tom

Beef Wellington Pot Pie with Brussels Sprouts

Updated 2019
This is a reprise of Colleen's Christmas Dinner Recipes:  Short Rib Wellington.  So all credit goes to Colleen :-)

It sounded awfully good when I read it on Barbara's blog, so I thought that maybe we should make it for dinner the night David came over to celebrate Christmas with us.  Because he had to both work and travel on Christmas Day, we celebrated a few days before Christmas with David.  And because it is tradition to serve a nice meal to David on Christmas Day, we thought what better way than to prepare the meal Colleen intended to serve her family.

This was not that hard to make and was very good.  This is an excellent special occasion meal, or really good and hearty for some of our cold winter nights. 
 -- Tom

Beef Wellington Pot Pie
(a Williams-Sonoma recipe)

Serves 8

2# boneless beef short ribs cut into ~1" cubes - trim off the fat as much as possible
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces prosciutto, diced - easiest if you find it pre-cut in a package
3/4# cremini mushrooms, washed and cut into quarters
1 stick unsalted butter, sliced into 8-10 pats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup hearty red wine like a Cabernet or red table wine
1 1/2 tablespoons beef demi-glace
3 cups beef stock
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups pearl onions - I used frozen
2 cups crinkle cut carrots - I used frozen
1 sheet puff pastry - 10"-12" square
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 egg plus one tsp water lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Lightly season the beef with the Kosher salt and pepper.  This will take about 10 minutes and can be done in batches depending on the size of your Dutch oven.

Remove the browned beef and place in a large bowl.

Now saute the prosciutto until crisp.  Transfer that to your bowl as well once finished.

Next saute the cremini mushrooms until tender, which will take about 8-10 minutes.

Transfer the mushrooms to the large bowl.

Pour off any excess fat and liquid.  Turn down the heat to medium and melt the butter.  Stir in the flour and cook while stirring for 2-3 minutes.  You are making the roue at this point.

Whisk in the red wine and the demi-glace, and cook for one additional minute.

Now slowly whisk in the beef stock and bring the mixture to a simmer.

Add in all of the contents from the bowl (beef, prosciutto, and mushrooms), the thyme, the bay leaf, and the vegetables.  Season with some additional Kosher salt and pepper to taste.

Now cover the Dutch oven and put it into your preheated 325 degree oven.  Let it cook for about 2 1/2 hours.  The beef will become incredibly tender during this cooking process.

Colleen recommended transferring the cooked mixture to a 9"x13" baking dish for the final step.  This was an excellent recommendation and much easier to deal with than trying to place the puff pastry on the hot Dutch oven.  So here goes:

Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

On a floured board, roll out the puff pastry to fit over the top of the baking dish.  Brush the top of the puff pastry with the egg wash.  Cut some diagonal lines into the puff pastry and place over the top of the mixture in the baking dish.  Sprinkle the cut parsley over the top of the puff pastry, and transfer the baking dish into the 400 degree oven.  

Bake until golden brown, which will take 20-25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes.

I served this dish with steamed Brussels sprouts.

To finish off our meal, Barbara worked very hard on the pictured pudding. ;-)

Prepackaged chocolate jello pudding, which we had leftover from the grandkids visiting earlier.  Whipped cream in the can (also leftover), plus sprinkles.  Served on a festive Christmas holiday plate.  Easy and remarkably good!

So thanks Colleen for providing a really good recipe.  I will make this again!

    ---Tom