Saturday, January 24, 2009

Roasted Fillet of Beef Rolled in Herbs & Porcini, & Wrapped In Prosciutto

This is one of my favourite, never-fail, always a success, 'go-to' company meals. It's a bit time consuming to put together, but it can all be done ahead of time and popped into the oven as company is arriving. Scale it up and feed a crowd impressively! I'm posting the picture from the book because I forgot (the two times I made it in the last month) to take a picture of the finished product....and so it goes.

I first made it years ago, after finding it in the one cookbook Colin owned when we were dating. I think it was also the only book he actually owned, and the only reason he owned it was that he's received a Chapters gift card as an apology from his ISP, for all the service problems he'd had. And that's what I think of everytime I make it! Anyways, it's a Jaime Oliver recipe- Roasted Fillet of Beef Rolled in Herbs & Porcini, & Wrapped In Prosciutto- from The Naked Chef Takes Off. It's delicious. It's fool-proof.

Roasted Fillet of Beef Rolled in Herbs & Porcini, & Wrapped In Prosciutto

As far as roasted meat goes, this is extremely fast and simple, yet decadently rich. One of the tricks, whether you buy it in a deli or a supermarket, is to ask them to slice your prosciutto and lay it side by side on a piece of waxed paper. Serves 4.

12-18 slices prosciutto or Parma ham
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 good handful of dried porcini, soaked in around 285ml boiling water
3 good sized pats of butter
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
900g/2lb fillet of beef (preferably from the middle, left whole)
1 good handful of fresh rosemary and thyme, leaves picked and chopped
2 glasses of red wine

Preheat your oven and an appropriately sized roasting pan to 230°C/450°F/gas 8. (If I make it ahead, I skip pre-heating the pan, but make sure to bring the meat and pan to room temperature before roasting).

Make sure there are no gaps in between the laid-out slices of prosciutto. Chop one of the garlic cloves and fry with the soaked porcini in 1 pat of butter for a minute. Then add half of the soaking water (make sure it is grit-free). Simmer slowly and reduce for around 5 minutes before stirring in a squeeze of lemon, the remaining 2 pats of butter and seasoning. Rub your tasty and moist mushrooms over half of the laid-out prosciutto. Season your fillet of beef with salt & pepper, and roll it in the herbs. Place it on the mushroomy end of the prosciutto and slowly roll up the meat. Once the beef is rolled up, pull off the paper and push in the ends of the prosciutto to neaten. Lightly secure with 4 pieces of string (I use Food Loops, which are so handy!).

Place the fillet in the hot roasting tray with a couple of cloves of garlic and cook for 25-30 minutes (rare), 40 minutes (medium), 50 minutes (well-done) or 60 minutes (cremated!). Half-way through, add the wine to the pan. When the meat is done, remove it to a chopping board and leave it to rest for 5 minutes. Pour any juices back into the roasting tray. Simmer the juices on the stovetop, scraping all the goodness from the sides of the pan, and mash up the garlic cloves. Remove from the heat and serve as a light red wine gravy.

Slice the fillet as thick or as thin as you like and serve with some potatoes or some gorgeous greens.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!

Chris said...

this is a great help, thankyou :). just out of interest you mention about preparing it before but not preheating the pan. If i make it in the morning for that same evening do i take it out the fridge later on and wait for it to be room temp before putting it in the oven. How will this affect the cooking times if the tray is not preheated? encase you couldnt tell im a bit of an amatuer. many thanks

BEATRICE said...

Hello Chris- I'd assemble ahead of time, place on a tray or sheet pan, take out and bring to room temp approx 30 minutes before roasting. Preheat the pan as directed and just put the room temp roast in the hot pan when ready. Or, you can do as I've written and just bring both pan and roast to room temp- I have not noticed any effect on cooking times. Placing the roast in the hot pan just serves to sear the bottom and presumably brown it which in turn will give your sauce a bit more flavour.

Chris said...

Thankyou ever so much, this has been massively helpful!! One last question, i have a fan assisted oven, do you know what temperature i should have it on as i take it the temperatures given are for non fan assisted ovens. Thanks again