Making Beef Wellington for Valentine’s Day with Lidl

Do you get on board with Valentine’s Day? I have mixed feelings – on one hand, I love a bit of romance (who doesn’t?) and it’s a nice excuse to show someone you care. But on the other hand, you know…. ENFORCED FUN.

But I usually quell my inner cynic for the sake of buying a Valentine’s card and Mr P or I will usually make a semi-fancy meal and open a bottle of fizz. Or two. I’m the first to admit that I’m no Delia in the kitchen. I’m the queen of taking something out of a packet and popping it in the oven. Hey, don’t judge me. Supermarkets make it so easy to be lazy when it comes to cooking.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I spent the day in the kitchen with Lidl chef Kevin Love. Now, Kevin knows a thing or two about cooking – he’s worked with Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay and even has a Michelin star of his own. When I first met him, I quizzed him on his background and how he came to work as a chef for Lidl. My jaw dropped to the floor as he reeled off all the impressive stuff he’s done (he was the head chef at The Hinds Head in Bray – that’s Heston’s pub in case you didn’t know.)

Kevin wanted to show me how to make a special dish for Mr P on Valentine’s Day that wouldn’t take hours to prepare and cook (because who has time for that?) and we went with Beef Wellington.

It was a really fun day, filming in a gorgeous town house in North London with the Mumsnet video team, and I discovered that with a bit of guidance (OK a lot…) I could make something pretty darned tasty. Kevin gave lots of tips (like don’t put pepper on the steak before you sear it – it’ll burn) and at the end of the shoot, we all tucked in to taste what we’d made. It was SO TASTY!

You can watch a video of us making Beef Wellington – and get the recipe – over on the Mumsnet YouTube channel and check out the outtakes from the shoot, below (I was SO embarrassed when I scored the pastry with the sharp side of the knife, in one take. Such a silly thing to do!)

Thanks to Mumsnet and Lidl for working with Not Another Mummy Blog. For details of how I work with brands, see my Work With Me page. You can check out a previous Lidl/Mumsnet campaign I worked on, over here!