Beef Fillet with Orange, Chilli, Sichuan Pepper and Ginger – A Winner, For Sure.

Did I mention that I won Best Food and Drink Blog in the 2016 Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards? If I didn’t then, my bad. I should keep you better informed as to what’s gong on. If I did, then my bad too. I should be more humble about this stuff and not go celebrating and getting excited about what I do here. Speaking of the stuff I do here, I have been wrestling with doing something with beef and orange for a while now. Whenever I mentioned it to friends or family, I got a pretty frosty reception. So, I decided to use the period while my star is in the ascendency to prepare Beef Fillet with Orange, Chilli, Sichuan Pepper and Ginger.

The Ingredients (to serve 6)

• 1.5 kilo of prime Irish beef fillet
• I tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon of chilli oil
• Juice and zest of a medium orange
• 5cm piece of root ginger
• 2 fresh chilis

Gently run a sharp knife across the grain of the beef. I did this without applying any pressure. The idea is to create a textured outer to the beef. This allows the flavours permeate and also creates a nice outer crust when roasted.

Score! Score the meat that is. Unlike the awards, no pressure.

Slice the ginger and dice it pretty small. Cut the chillies as shown in the picture.

There is a bunch of flavour in this. It’s a winner.

Toast the peppercorns on a dry pan and then crush them in a mortar.

The peppercorns bring a numbing sensation to proceedings.

Juice and zest the orange. I used half a large juicy one in this case. It was very juicy so half was enough.

That’s a lot of juice. I didn’t want to overpower the other flavours.

Add the ingredients to a dish. Stir to incorporate.

You will forgive me a pouring shot? I love the colour of that chilli oil.

Add the beef and spoon the marinade over.

It certainly looks like a winner. Does it not?

Keep it in a cool place and repeat this process every 20 minutes. It’s best to prepare this a few hours before cooking. Heat your oven to its maximum temperature. Mine goes to 250ºC. Place the beef on a rack and cook. I used a meat probe and took the beef out when it hit 45ºC. I let it rest for 15 minutes before carving it.

This was pretty tasty, for sure.

The slices in the surface of the meat really helped the marinade ingredients stick to the beef. This added a delicious layer of flavour. Don’t be put off by the seemingly odd ingredients list. The ginger, orange and chilli work really well together. The peppercorns add an extra dimension and the entirety works brilliantly.

Trust my guidance on this one. This is a winner!

I served it with some nicely twirled noodles. I have been practising that for a while now and this is the first time I have made them hang together. They look nice in the photo, I think. I will leave you with one photo of the award. I am genuinely delighted and humbled to receive this. The Irish food blogging scene is vibrant and I could name a few blogs that perhaps should have won this instead of me. I could, but I won’t.

Thank you Littlewoods Ireland Blog Awards 2016.