Elk Tenderloin Recipe – Wellingtons

My wife saw a show on the Food Network where the chef prepared a dish that’s known as Beef Wellington. It’s a tenderloin, lightly seared, then coated with a mushroom/herb mixture and wrapped in puff pastry. Throw it in the oven for 25 minutes and you’ve got a meal fit for a king.

I went through a few different recipes online and came up with my own variation. They turn out amazing everytime.

Ingredient List

- 4 Elk/Moose/Deer Tenderloins Cut About 1.5-2″ thick.
- Several Cloves Of Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper
- Fresh Tyme
- Fresh Rosemary
- 6-10 White Mushrooms
- 2 Large Portabella Mushrooms
- 10+ average sized Shitake Mushrooms
- 1 Bunch of Green Onions
- Butter
- 1 egg
- rock salt (optional)
- 1 package puff pastry (2 squares you roll out)
- 1 package “hunter” gravy (optional)

Step #1 Prep The Tenderloins.

Pour about 1 tablesoon of olive oil onto a plate, then crush the garlic, chop sprinkle some rosemary and then sprinkle some salt and crush a bunch of pepper over it to taste. Stir the pasty mixture around some and then coat your tenderloins with it.

Sear your tenderloins on each side for 1 or 2 minutes or until they are nice and brown and the paste we made has cooked into a sort of crust. Remove the steaks from heat, place on a plate and into the fridge to cool… We are done with them for now.

Step #2 Prepare The Mushroom Mixture.

Take all of your mushrooms and dice them really fine, I like to use a braun food processor for this as it’s nice and fast. Once you’ve got the mushrooms diced place them in a bowl and set aside.

Now you need to cut up your Green Onions, Crush another Clove or Two of Garlic, and Finely chop up some more of your rosemary and tyme. Melt some butter in a pan and stir fry the whole works…

Cook it until the mixture is really soft and most of the moisture has been cooked off.

Step #3 The Puff Pastry

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and roll out your puff pastry into a rectangle… and cut in half. You’ll need your pieces of pastry to be large enough to wrap completely around the tenderloin.

Step #4 Wrap Up The Tenderloins

Now that we’ve got the pastry ready we can now spread out the mushroom mixture about 1/8-1/4″ thick on the pastry and then top with your tenderloin. Wrap it all up tightly and then use a basting brush to put an egg wash over the pastry to seal it… Lastly I sprinkly some rock salt on top and then lightly scribe a few lines across the top with a knife for a fancy look once it’s cooked.

** Important Trick. After making these a few times this is critical. Before placing my Wellingtons onto a baking pan I first cover a cookie cooling rack with tinfoil and poke a bunch of little holes in it. I then place this onto the cookie sheet so that the wellington isn’t cooking in a bunch of juices.

Once you’ve got them ready to go into the oven throw them in your oven for 25-30 minutes on 350-275 degrees until they are done to your liking. Use a meat thermometer for accurate temps. I serve this dish with mashed potatoes and asparagus in a dill sauce.

Enjoy….

Carl

2009 Black Bear With A Bow

For Christmas this year I was the lucky recipient of a Bowtech Flatliner Archery Package. It was something I’d been just throwing on the list for years without ever really caring if I got one or not… Well… I am kicking myself in the ass that I didn’t get into years ago!

After practicing, practing and practicing for the last few months I am fairly confident that I can take a killing shot within 20 yards. Being on the Island, Black Bear seems like a logical first choice.

I’ve got a trail cam setup on a trail I picked up a few bears last year on and have been scouting most of April but haven’t seen a thing until last night.

Coming around the corner on the logging road behind my house I saw a large black object clearly out of place in a large, dead douglas fir tree. It was a black bear cub. He dropped out right away and met up another cub. I hopped off the bike a little leary as I had not located the sow yet. She was right there at the base of the tree just out of sight.

When I focused the camera in for a pic I realized there was actually 3 cubs! Good for her.

Sow And Three Cubs - Vancouver Island Black Bears

2008 Elk Hunt 6pnt Bull.

After hiking out of the mountains ramless we loaded up our gear and headed back south for the long drive to Fort St. John. We arrived late afternoon, and after discussing it with my dad decided we’d better go pick up some tags and try to get a bull in the 3pnt or better season on private land.

We stopped by the landowners house on the way out and got permission, She told me a party had just left the day before with 2 six point bulls and that another party was due to show up tomorrow, Since I was only hunting for the one evening (we had to drive back to the Island the next day) She gave us permission to go giver a try.

The area we had permission on ecompasses 9 sections of private land sowed in alfalfa and clover along with several hundred acres of standing timber. Right alongside a major watershed as well, so it’s right on a travel corridor.

We headed out there about 5pm and on the 45 minute drive to get there I was a little dejected at the pressure the area had received and was skeptical if we’d come across a legal bull on our micro hunt.

We got to the lower field where it was decided that one of us would sit in the lower field (where the elk commonly feed) and the others would head up to the other fields so we could cover more ground. Fine, I volunteered, got out of the truck and began the slow walk through the spruce timber toward the opening of the alfalfa field.

This a big alfalfa field a few hundred acres in size, but bordering alongside is a creek running through a shallow and wide ravine that the elk, moose and deer seem to travel along frequently. Along the edge of the field on the corner we walk in from is a small ditch just enough for a guy to sit down in without too much worry of being spotted.

I snuck my way into the ditch alongside the field, and got into position… Slowly raised up the swaro’s hanging around my neck and scanned the field from my left to my right… Nothing… Nothing… Woah!!! In the closest corner of the field (the one I looked in last) was a 6 point Bull… About 200 yards away staring right at me. SHIT I thought… I am totally busted… I didn’t dare move but I could see out of the corner of my eye 2 cows not too far off to his right that were now in the frame as well. It took him about a minute to settle down and he went back to feeding, the moment he put his down I flew out of the ditch and into the timber as fast and silently as I could and then jacked a shell into the chamber. I snuck about 15 yards into the timber and then just slowly closed the distance between me and the bull while hidden behind the trees.

He must have sensed me because at about 75 yards he put his head up again and was looking in my direction. I was standing in between two spruce trees, barely exposed. It was a perfect broadside shot but there was nothing to rest on without getting busted for moving, so I raised the .270 and brought the crosshairs onto his rump and slowly crept along his body until I had him pegged, BOOM… He fell down hard right away, then got back up and hobbled over to the edge of the field and dissapeared. I radioed my Dad and told him to bring the truck back because our Elk hunt was now over… He didn’t believe me at first!

I waited until they got to me with the truck which was about 10 minutes and then went looking for my Bull. We found about 100 yards from where I’d hit him. He just made it to the edge of the field and collapsed in the low lying timber and brush along the edge.

My .270 was loaded for sheep shooting a Federal Vitalshock 130 grain so I might have been a little undergunned but it worked out well.

Start to finish my first 6 point bull took me about 10 minutes of Elk hunting!