Spice Crusted Roast Beef

Spice Crusted Roast Beef

Roast beef is a truly wonderful roast Sunday roast. There are several different joints you can get but these all depend on your taste but probably more importantly your budget, ask your local butcher for advice on this and please remember that more expensive doesn’t mean more flavoursome. This is a lovely way to bring a little heat to roast beef. Your lips will be tingling after it; the crust also protects the meat from drying out. My delicious homemade Yorkshire puddings are great with this.

Serves 4-6:

1.5kg roasting joint (of your choice)

1 small onion

1 carrot

2 sticks of celery

Small bunch of rosemary and thyme

1 bulb of garlic

2 tablespoons of black peppercorns

1 tablespoon of sea salt

2 tablespoons of caraway seeds

1 tablespoon of white cloves

5 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons of honey

Olive oil

Method

Take the beef joint out of the fridge about a half hour before u plan to start. Preheat oven up to max. Chop the vegetables roughly no need to peel them as they are for flavour purposes only.

Toss them into a suitable sized roasting tray along with the herbs and the garlic cloves. Drizzle with olive oil. Now drizzle olive oil over the roasting joint and rub it all over.

In a pestle and mortar crush all the spices together and pour them out onto a plate. Roll the beef in the spices coating it all over evenly and seal the joint on a hot pan all over. Place it on top of the prepared veg.

With the pan still on the heat; pour in the red wine vinegar and honey. Stir around and reduce by half. Pour the reduction over the beef.

Place the tray in the hot oven and turn heat down to 200°c and roast for 1 hour for medium beef. If you prefer it a little’ rarer’ or a little more ‘well done’ give or take 10-15 minutes accordingly. Take it out of the oven half way through and baste it.

When cooked to your liking remove from the roasting tray and place on a clean chopping board, cover with tin foil and a clean tea towel, allow to rest for 20 mins before carving.

Carving: Remove the string and with a long sharp carving knife cut in thin clean slices, holding it in place with a fork.