For this year’s New Year’s Day dinner, I wanted to try a more challenging dish to mark this special occasion.  My mom made us Beef Wellington for Christmas in 2008 so I wanted to try this dish on my own.  I had also seen a special on the Today Show where they made mini Beef Wellingtons for a NYE appetizer.  I definitely want to try to make these for a party sometime as I suspect they would be a huge hit.  Searching for a recipe, I found this one on the Food Network site by Paula Deen.  All of the commenters seemed to have enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to give this version a try:

Paula Deen’s Beef Wellington with Oyster Pate
Her recipe calls for a 1 1/2 to 2 pounds beef tenderloin, but the smallest one I was able to find was 3 pounds.  I knew it was going to be a bit rare given the extra size so I cooked it about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for.  It still ended up being rare, but fortunately, this is how the husband prefers his beef.  Paula Deen recommended using the extra pastry to decorate the top…I decided to monogram my Beef Wellington with a big B.  Look how pretty it turned out!

It tasted great!  I absolutely loved the oyster pate as well.  Paula drains the pate using cheesecloth, which I did not have on hand.  I just used a few paper towels instead…I thought the pate came out fine.  I would highly recommend this recipe for a special occasion dinner.  I served it with green olives as an appetizer and sauteed spinach on the side.

I hope you all had a nice new year’s dinner.  It is snowing a bit here in Boston today so I need to figure out a warm dish to make for dinner tonight.

-M