De-coding Beef Wellington

It was one of my firstinterview questions, what is Beef Wellington? How did I answer with out evenseeing the actual recipe being prepared, Is still a mystery, the credit shouldbe definitely given to my teachers at college, Yet; I vaguely remember myProfessor skipping the same on a practical class. There was just one thing tobe more precisely sure off, It’s the components of the recipe, Puff pastry,Duxelle or otherwise known as chopped mushrooms cooked with shallots & redwine until all its juices are absorbed, some may use Blanched Spinach leavesand over all a Beef Tenderloin, As it paned out, It wasn’t the Question raisedby the interviewer, thus the journey of working on a Cruise at Twenty startedoff for me,

Memorable were the early daysthat I did take the accounts of the every cyclic menu which came my way,

And alas! There was BeefWellington, I was not the one who prepared it, As my initial assignment was toprepare soups, eventually I had made up some time during my busy schedule to getmyself towards the Roast section and educate myself on the whereabouts of thismaster piece, It was a seared tenderloin which was just seasoned off the grill,allowed to rest (which would tenderize the same), Sparingly cooled which wouldenable it aide on  stabbing Duxelle androlling  over a 5mm thick Puff Dough, alignedwere grease trays dusted with flour, The trick is plain and simple now cook thecrust and be sure at what stages you are cooking, plus or minus three minuetseach side would give one the different stages of cooking, Yet, there couldnever be any compromise on the crust,And we served with with a dab of Parsnip & Yam Mash, crispy ginger chips and blanched Broccoli, 

 I tried the same with Fillet Mignonduring the later parts of my career, I guess it was on a Thanksgiving Weekend,and there were raves about the same on the local newspaper, interestingly; I supplementedthe duxelle with Chopped Truffles mixed with mashed potato.

And Now for the De-Coding, whythe name Wellington???

Beef Wellington hasbeen a British dinner party classic for many years and one of the mostdelicious ways to serve a fillet of beef. But where does the nameBeef Wellington come from and is it really as British as we think itis?

Some say it was thought up asthe British answer to the French ‘filet de boeuf en croûte’. Other theoriesfocus on the look of the pastry as it comes out of the oven and say it gets itsname because it looks like a Wellington boot! The most popular andperhaps most likely story is that Beef Wellington is after the FirstDuke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley after the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

A BBC cooking show says thatthe dish has nothing to do with that splendid hero, the Duke of Wellington; itwas invented for a civic reception in Wellington, Newzeland,

If I had to de-code it itssimple, were not Newzeland & Australia colonies of the Queen?

And still the flags of bothcountries have an United kingdomflag on its farther corners!!!

Down Under would have beenhome for bushwhacker’s couple centuries ago and were not the settlers all from Europe?

 And, If all that turns out in the negativemode, It was French who paved way to form Puff Pastry, And I could be veryconfident on saying, The same could not have traveled over thousands of milesto exclaim Eureka!!!Eureka!!! At Wellington of Newzeland.