Hazelnut, Thyme and Lemon Wrapped Beef Fillet. Am I pushing my luck?

“Only a fool would mess with such a beautiful piece of beef.”

“Pepper it, salt it, fry it.”

“Are you sure you want to experiment with that? It must have cost more than the national debt!”

My expected guests were all of similar minds “Don’t mess with the beef.” seemed to be the unanimous theme. Like the late Margaret Thatcher, I was not for turning. Unlike the late MT, I was not wearing a blue dress. I was cogitating a new recipe for beef fillet.

For the record, I never wear a blue dress. I don’t even know why I mentioned it. I’m a man for goodness sake. Now back to the beef.

Here’s the ingredients:

• A single piece of beef fillet suitable to serve six (about a kilo and a half)
• 400 grammes of hazelnuts
• A couple of hands-full of Panko breadcrumbs.
• A tablespoon of mixed peppercorns
• A tablespoon or so of thyme leaves
• Zest of a lemon
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• A couple of tablespoons of olive oil

First, get the nuts out of their shells. I used a vice grips and a lot of swearing. Fry the nuts in a dry pan until their beautiful nutty aroma gets up your nostrils.

These turn a nice colour and give off a lovely aroma.

Let the nuts cool for a bit and then wrap them in a tea towel. Rub them together to remove most of the dark brown husk.

The nuts are ready. Am I nuts to be doing this to the beef?

Chop the nuts in a blender until coarse. Chop the garlic. Crush the peppercorns. Put them and the other dry ingredients into a bowl.

The mixture is very aromatic. Hopefully it won’t destroy the beef.

Add enough of the olive oil to bind the mixture. Be careful to not overdo this step. Spread the mixture on a piece of cling film.

The mixture looks good enough to eat. Good thing I made too much.

Roll the beef in the mixture, wrapping it as you go.

My fate, like the beef’s is sealed at this stage.

Pop it into the fridge for 20 minutes to firm it up a bit. It will be very difficult to get into the oven dish. Get it into the oven dish. Go carefully.

Beef in the oven dish read to cook. Note that some mixture slipped off. Darnation!

Roast at 200º C for 30 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Beat that for beautiful beef.

I served it with roast sweet potatoes and a beetroot purée. Ask me sometime to tell you the story of the beetroot purée and the blender that came in half. That’s another story.

Beautiful beef, extra coating sweet potato and beetroot. Awesomely delicious.

Yes, I pushed my luck. The acid test? Everybody had extra crumb coating mixture. I had a hit on my hands. Luck pushed and a new beef fillet recipe on the books. Perhaps I could sell the recipe and buy that blue dress?

Perhaps not.