Little Wellies

Remember Little Willie rhymes?

Little Willy was a chemist.
Little Willy is no more.
What he thought was H2O
Was really H2SO4.

Well, tonight I served Little Wellies.

Little Wellie was a dinner.
Little Wellie is no more.
Because the Remler family ate it.

If any of my readers can come up with a rhyming Little Welly verse, please submit it. I'm having trouble thinking of an eating word that rhymes with more.

While you sharpen your pencils, I'll explain where this meal came from.

I used to make a Beef Wellington during the holidays. I used a recipe I found on Martha Stewart's website. Because I was out of class for the month of December, I enjoyed taking the time to make the dish, but I eventually stopped for several reasons.

First of all, it takes two days to make, and it was hard to find the right size cut of meat. It's hard to find a 2-3 pound beef tenderloin. When Publix does have it for sale, it's usually a ten pound piece. So either the butcher has to cut it up, or I have to keep my eye on the meat counter for an end piece. Either way, that was a little bit of a pain.

And if the tenderloin is a pain to find, duck pate is even harder (These were the days before Savannah had a Fresh Market. I might be able to find all the necessary ingredients there). And then once I got a 2-3 pound beef tenderloin and duck pate, I had to sear the meat on all sides, even the ends, and then tie it up into a loaf shape. Then I had to refrigerate it over night before I could do anything else with it.

Then the next day, I had to coat the beef with a chopped mushroom mixture and duck pate and then cover it with a large piece of phyllo dough before putting it in the oven. The preparation wasn't so much of a pain, but transferring the Wellington from the foil-lined roasting pan onto a lovely, holiday-style platter was a bear. Then, after all that trouble, we'd cut open the Wellington and enjoy it, but the roast looked like a slaughtered football. Tasty but messy.

And Beef Wellington doesn't really keep well for leftovers. The meat does fine, but the dough can't really survive the juices and the refrigeration.

Several months ago, I had a hankering for Beef Wellington, but not much of a hankering for the effort. So I started thinking, what if I got little steaks and cooked them in individual phyllo doughs to make little Beef Wellingtons? How would that taste?

Turns out, it tasted just fine. Both my boys like it, and Stephen did too.

Then I forgot about them (Little Wellies, not my family), and the meal didn't occur to me again until New Year's when I started making a list of all the meals I knew how to cook to determine how long I could go without repeating a dinner.

So tonight's choice was Little Wellies. They're easy to make. I bought some mock tender steaks at the Publix (I have no idea what cut of meat that is. But they look kind of like filet mignon only with a smaller price tag). This morning, I seasoned them with salt, pepper and garlic powder; then I seared them for one minute on each side. I did not try to sear the edges. Then I put them on a plate and put them back in the refrigerator until dinner time.

At dinner time, I chopped some mushrooms and 1 Vidalia onion into small pieces and put them in a small skillet with a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. I sauteed the mushrooms and onions until they were soft and the liquid had absorbed.

All the while, I was pre-heating the oven to 400.

Once the mushroom and onion mixture was ready, I placed 1/4 of the mixture onto each piece of dough. Then I put a steak on each piece of dough and covered the meat, pinching the edges of the dough so that the steak was snugly wrapped in its only doughy blanket.

And that's when I realized I was using the wrong kind of dough! I had not bought phyllo dough yesterday. I had bought pie crust! Little Nancy was an idiot. . .

Well, by that time, it was too late to do anything but spray the pie crust with some cooking spray and put the Little Wellies in the oven for about 15 minutes until the crust was golden brown.

They were fine. Only they didn't taste like Beef Wellington. They tasted like beef pie. But beef pie's not so bad. Stephen and Davis added salt (I'm noticing Davis adds salt to everything I cook). Lawson liked the dough better than the meat. My verdict? I've had worse meals than beef pie.

Still, at some point I think I will repeat this recipe because I didn't cook it right this time. With phyllo dough, my Little Wellies will be worthy of a full poetic tribute.