Beef Wellington with festive red wine gravy

Heat the oven to 220°C. Place the beef fillet on a roasting tray, brush with 15ml (1 tbsp) of the olive oil and season with pepper. Roast for 15 minutes for medium-rare or 20 minutes for medium. When the beef is cooked to your liking, remove from the oven to cool, then chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

While the beef is cooling, chop the mushrooms as finely as possible so they have the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. You can use a food processor to do this, but make sure you pulse-chop the mushrooms so that they don’t become a slurry.

Heat 30ml (2 tbsp) of olive oil and the butter in a large pan. Fry the mushrooms on medium heat with the thyme, stirring often, until you have a soft mixture, about 10 minutes. Season the mushroom mixture, add the wine and cook until the wine has been absorbed, about 10 minutes. The mixture should hold its shape when stirred. Remove the mushroom duxelles from the pan to cool and discard the thyme.

Overlap two pieces of plastic wrap on a large chopping board. Lay the prosciutto on the plastic wrap, slightly overlapping, in a double row. Spread half the duxelles over the prosciutto, then place the fillet on top and spread with the remaining duxelles. Use the edges of the plastic wrap to draw the prosciutto around the fillet, and roll it into a sausage shape, twisting the ends of plastic wrap to tighten it as you go. Chill the fillet while you roll out the pastry.

Dust a clean work surface with a little flour. Roll out one-third of the 500g pack of puff pastry to form an 18cm x 30cm strip and place on a non-stick baking tray. Roll out the remainder of the 500g pack of puff pastry to about 28cm x 36cm.

Unwrap the fillet from the plastic wrap and place it in the centre of the smaller strip of pastry. Whisk the 2 egg yolks and water. Brush the edges of the pastry and the top and sides of the wrapped fillet. Using a rolling pin, carefully lift and drape the larger piece of pastry over the fillet, pressing well into the sides. Trim the joins to a 4cm rim. Seal the rim with the edge of a fork or spoon handle.

Glaze all over with more egg yolk and, using the back of a knife, mark the beef Wellington with long diagonal lines, taking care not to cut into the pastry. Chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours.

Heat the oven to 200°C. Brush the Wellington with a little more egg yolk and cook until golden and crisp – 20 – 25 minutes for medium-rare beef, 30 minutes for medium. Allow to stand for 10 minutes before serving in thick slices.

Serve with red wine gravy.