Post by chrisg on May 4, 2014 13:21:01 GMT 10
I'd sort of forgotten about the discussion of this cut until I was in our local Farmer Jack's last week and saw some very small girellos. So I bought one and then had to have a think about what to do with it 
What I came up with was fun, and tasty.
I don't really know what the girello cut is, but have bought and cooked a few with very variable results, it's just a very lean looking piece of beef, that can be rather tasteless.
I've had good results slicing one into thick steaks and doing them tornedos style wrapped in bacon, less so as a simple roast.
I had had better results with a wellington, so decided to try to improve on that, always a problem with a beef roast and no one but me in the house eats beef.
To reduce the leaness I marinaded it first overnight in a buttery mix with a deal of pepper, no salt, would just toughen it, and a healthy amount of tarragon. Just melted it together and added some olive oil for sufficient volume.
It being rather warm here the marinade stayed liquid as I turned the beef in it every 30 minutes or so for a couple of hours and the beef took quite a bit of it up.
(I could probably have injected it but the new injector is in the mail somewhere )
Once it looked well soaked I wrapped it up tight in Gladwrap and popped it in the fridge over night.
Next day it was well covered in the buttery marinade and ready for prep.
First made up some bread dough, nothing fancy just what would have made a medium/small loaf.
Seared the beef on all sides in a butter and rice bran oil mix then let it rest.
Meanwhile I processed some mushrooms, celery, tomato, onion and garlic plus half a red and half a green capsicum that were in the fridge and cooked that mixture through in the searing pan.
With that sitting to cool I knocked back and stretched out the dough as if for a pizza base but the final shape was rectangular and left to rest and rise under a dry tea towel.
Now to assemble.
Slathered the dough in liverwurst, I was out of fresh pate and this was sort of an experiment so didn't go overboard on making that as well.
Took the cooked and cooled onion, celery etc mix and spread it over the liverwurst, that went way off a normal wellington that would be pate to the meat and mushrooms on top but the mixture had picked up most all of the butter and oil mix and I wanted that on the meat surface to be absorbed.
Now wrap the dough around the meat, moving quickly to have the meat covered on all sides by the spreadings on the dough, seal the edges, turn it over. Some pretty bits on top made from remaining dough, a good brushing in melted butter and lastly a healthy grate of fresh black pepper.
Onto a shallow baking tray and straight into a very hot BBQ, my Weber Q, sitting well up into the hood on a couple of bricks.
Cooked it at high heat for ten minutes then dropped the temperate down to 180C and let it cook a further 20 minutes.
Check. The "bread" had plumped up nicely and formed a nice brown crust.
Loosely wrapped some foil over it and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
I'd had some potatoes roasting separately, and some broccoli and carrot steaming plus a somewhat rich gravy that was really more a Madeira glaze simmering away.
Time to slice and serve, I forgot the camera so no pic but I think I'll be doing this again.
I really was surprised by how good it was.
The thing with a wellington is that once it is covered by the dough, be it what I did or just puff pastry, it is not going to cook much more than the original searing but a combination of a thicker dough and the steam I'd guess from the processed veg had conspired in this small piece of meat to heat it through to basically rare with a crust, utterly delicious - too good to eat alone.
A mate quickly came over to solve that dilemma - even my wife had a piece
What worked was that the meat had good flavor and texture and the liverwurst had soaked into the dough to produce a delicious wrapping.
I do not think it would work as well with a bigger cut and if I can't find one this small next time I'll do some individual ones but that would be for a dinner party
Looking back it sounds like a lot of work and a lot of butter but really it wasn't. The work was spread out and relaxing and on checking I'd only used about 75gms of butter total.
I had to go check what weight the beef was, 460gms in a long almost cylindrical piece.
I think it justifies buying girello, small one, if seen, and some of the technique would readily adapt to a more common wellington using a fillet which was near on twice the price
It's a strange cut, always looks glorious but way too lean.
More a report on some kitchen fun than a recipe but some tips may be in there
Cheers
What I came up with was fun, and tasty.
I don't really know what the girello cut is, but have bought and cooked a few with very variable results, it's just a very lean looking piece of beef, that can be rather tasteless.
I've had good results slicing one into thick steaks and doing them tornedos style wrapped in bacon, less so as a simple roast.
I had had better results with a wellington, so decided to try to improve on that, always a problem with a beef roast and no one but me in the house eats beef.
To reduce the leaness I marinaded it first overnight in a buttery mix with a deal of pepper, no salt, would just toughen it, and a healthy amount of tarragon. Just melted it together and added some olive oil for sufficient volume.
It being rather warm here the marinade stayed liquid as I turned the beef in it every 30 minutes or so for a couple of hours and the beef took quite a bit of it up.
(I could probably have injected it but the new injector is in the mail somewhere
)Once it looked well soaked I wrapped it up tight in Gladwrap and popped it in the fridge over night.
Next day it was well covered in the buttery marinade and ready for prep.
First made up some bread dough, nothing fancy just what would have made a medium/small loaf.
Seared the beef on all sides in a butter and rice bran oil mix then let it rest.
Meanwhile I processed some mushrooms, celery, tomato, onion and garlic plus half a red and half a green capsicum that were in the fridge and cooked that mixture through in the searing pan.
With that sitting to cool I knocked back and stretched out the dough as if for a pizza base but the final shape was rectangular and left to rest and rise under a dry tea towel.
Now to assemble.
Slathered the dough in liverwurst, I was out of fresh pate and this was sort of an experiment so didn't go overboard on making that as well.
Took the cooked and cooled onion, celery etc mix and spread it over the liverwurst, that went way off a normal wellington that would be pate to the meat and mushrooms on top but the mixture had picked up most all of the butter and oil mix and I wanted that on the meat surface to be absorbed.
Now wrap the dough around the meat, moving quickly to have the meat covered on all sides by the spreadings on the dough, seal the edges, turn it over. Some pretty bits on top made from remaining dough, a good brushing in melted butter and lastly a healthy grate of fresh black pepper.
Onto a shallow baking tray and straight into a very hot BBQ, my Weber Q, sitting well up into the hood on a couple of bricks.
Cooked it at high heat for ten minutes then dropped the temperate down to 180C and let it cook a further 20 minutes.
Check. The "bread" had plumped up nicely and formed a nice brown crust.
Loosely wrapped some foil over it and let it rest for about 15 minutes.
I'd had some potatoes roasting separately, and some broccoli and carrot steaming plus a somewhat rich gravy that was really more a Madeira glaze simmering away.
Time to slice and serve, I forgot the camera so no pic but I think I'll be doing this again.
I really was surprised by how good it was.
The thing with a wellington is that once it is covered by the dough, be it what I did or just puff pastry, it is not going to cook much more than the original searing but a combination of a thicker dough and the steam I'd guess from the processed veg had conspired in this small piece of meat to heat it through to basically rare with a crust, utterly delicious - too good to eat alone.
A mate quickly came over to solve that dilemma - even my wife had a piece
What worked was that the meat had good flavor and texture and the liverwurst had soaked into the dough to produce a delicious wrapping.
I do not think it would work as well with a bigger cut and if I can't find one this small next time I'll do some individual ones but that would be for a dinner party
Looking back it sounds like a lot of work and a lot of butter but really it wasn't. The work was spread out and relaxing and on checking I'd only used about 75gms of butter total.
I had to go check what weight the beef was, 460gms in a long almost cylindrical piece.
I think it justifies buying girello, small one, if seen, and some of the technique would readily adapt to a more common wellington using a fillet which was near on twice the price
It's a strange cut, always looks glorious but way too lean.
More a report on some kitchen fun than a recipe but some tips may be in there
Cheers
