Beef short rib wellington

The Goods:

1.5ish lbs beef short ribs*

2 cups braising liquid

1 medium shallot

4-5 crimini mushrooms

2 tbsp gorgonzola crumbles

1 sprig thyme

1 sprig parsley

Pastry Dough**

9 ounces flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 ounces cold butter

6 ounces milk

Remove the beef from the bones (if any). Shred the meat, taking care to remove any large portions of fat. Place in a bowl and set off to the side.

Weight out the dry ingredients for the dough. Weigh out the butter, then dice into very small cubes. Pinching off small portions of butter, incorporate it into the flour mixture so it is well distributed and the butter pieces are no bigger than peas. Add the milk and form the dough. Shape into a 4" by 6" rectangle, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Unwrap the dough and dust it with flour. Dust the working surface with flour. Roll the dough out to about three times its size. Fold in the thirds and roll it out again. Fold in thirds again, press down firmly, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for another hour***. Toll out the dough to a rectangle, cut in half to form two equal squares. These will be the two wellington crusts.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Add a spritz of olive oil and/or clarified butter to a sauté pan and set the heat to medium-high. Slice the mushrooms, dice the shallot, and finely chop the two herbs. Sauté the mushrooms for a few minutes, then add the shallots and reduce the heat to medium-low. Once the shallots have begun to sweat, add the herbs and braising liquid. Cook this mixture down until the consistency is viscous. Add a tablespoon of gorgonzola to each dough square. Divide the mushroom/shallot reduction evenly between the dough squares. Finally, add the shredded beef to each square. Fold them up by pinching opposite corners together. Place on a baking sheet (folded side down) and brush or drizzle some olive oil over each wellington****. Bake for 20 minutes or until the dough has browned on top and cooked through. Incidentally, someone eating this dish remarked that it kind of looked like a Hot Pocket. This was an incredibly prescient observation. So in summary, this was a beef short rib/mushroom/gorgonzola hot pocket. Definitely not haute cuisine, but as delicious as it sounds.

All photos by Gwen Tuxbury.

*Since my original preparation of beef short ribs, I've become enamored with them. Enough so that when a couple of weeks ago, while strolling through the local Whole Foods meat section, I saw beef short ribs on the bone and had to get them. I braised them just like the last time, but in the Keller-ian manner, allowed them to rest refrigerated in the braising liquid for three days. So this is where the this recipe picks up: three days after braising the short ribs and with several pints of incredibly useful braising liquid on hand.

**Once again, I have another concept from Michael Ruhlman's wonderful book Ratio. In this case, I'm quoting his biscuit dough recipe^ (3 parts flour : 1 part fat : 2 parts liquid). In reality, if one didn't feel highly ambitious, store-bought puff pastry dough would not only be considerably easier, but will certainly have a flakier crust.

^Why I selected biscuit dough instead of pie dough or puff pastry dough is something of a mystery. I think, in hindsight that is, that I was hoping to achieve maximum flakiness with minimum effort. Of course, I could have gotten even MORE flakiness with even LESS effort by using store-bought puff pastry dough. Logic and home cookery sometimes don't get along.

***If one is not pinched for time, this folding procedure can be repeated.

****Brushing egg wash here might be a neat thing to try.