Roast Beef
Dust the surface of the meat with a mixture of dry mustard powder, flour and freshly milled ground pepper. Then stud with fresh rosemary. Do not season with salt as it has a tendency to draw the moisture out of the beef.

Take a hot frying pan and cook the beef a little on all sides to caramelise, then place in the oven on top of the carrots, onions and garlic bulbs. Sprinkle with thyme twigs and Maldon sea salt and place in the oven (uncovered) at 180°C. Roast for 1½ hours.

Lift the beef from the roasting pan on to a warm plate and rest covered in foil for 30 minutes. This will catch the meat’s juices that will help make the gravy. Take the roast vegetables and place in an oven proof dish. Keep them in a warm place or pop back in the oven for 10 minutes prior to serving. Use the time the meat is resting to prepare the Yorkshire puddings.

For the gravy do not wash the roasting pan.

Warm the roasting pan gently over a low heat stirring the sediment with a wooden spoon. Pour in ½ a bottle of pinot noir and reduce the liquid by half. Then add the juices from the beef plate and a further litre of hot beef stock and reduce once more.

If you prefer your gravy on the thick side you can make a cold paste of 2 tsp of butter with two tsp of plain flour and whisk this into the gravy and simmer on a low heat for 8-10 minutes.


Yorkshire Pudding
15 minutes before the beef is ready to come out of the oven take a muffin tin and place it on a spare shelf in the oven to warm through.

Meanwhile sift the plain flour into a stainless steel bowl. Add the salt and mix it through the flour. Make a well in the centre of the mixture.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together. Then pour about a third of the liquid into the centre of the flour well and whisk vigorously until the moisture has been absorbed. Add another third of the liquid and so on.

Once you have a beautiful smooth batter place in the fridge and leave to rest.

After 15 minutes remove the beef from oven and let rest for 20 minutes then turn the oven up to 220 degrees. Take out the muffin tray and pour 1cm of warm duck fat into each of the moulds and place back in the oven until the fat is smoking.

Remove the muffin tray one more time and pour the batter mixture into each mould until three quarters full. Return to the oven and cook for 15 -20 minutes until crisp and golden brown. Serve whilst hot with medium rare beef.