When we were doing the Coffee Pork Ribs in the main post,  we realised that this would be just the thing for a busy executive! It takes almost no time at all to prepare – certainly no more than picking up the phone to book a table at a restaurant and while it’ll cost about as much as a dinner for one, it will feed a minimum of four people generously. Roast beef is someting we all grew up with and our parents grew up with it too. It’s a timeless classic – ask the butcher to cut a well hung entrecôte which is just perfect for this. Remove the roast from the fridge an hour before roasting as the meat must not be cold when it goes in the oven.

Ingredients

• 1.5 – 2kg  beef entrecôte or sirloin, well hung and prepared for roasting – you need the fat.
• 3 tbsp English mustard powder
• 15ml extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tbsp yellow mustard seeds, crushed
• 2 tbsp top quality espresso ground coffee
• 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tbsp runny honey
• Coarse sea salt to taste

Method

• With the tip of a knife, make about 8 incisions into the fat of beef.
• Blend the mustard powder to a paste wit about 2 tbsp cold water and the honey.
• Combine the mustard seeds, the coffee, the pepper, the zest, the rosemary and the coarse salt to create the crust ingredients.
• Spread the mustard paste all over the joint.
• Roll the joint in the crust ingredients and make sure that it is well covered.
• Allow to rest for an hour while you preheat the oven to 230 C.
• Prepare a roasting tin with a rack and brush the rack with olive oil, pour a little water in the bottom of the roasting tin so that you cover the bottom and the water is about one fifth up – you’ll need to replenish as you go.
• Place the roast on the rack and put the rack in the hot oven for about 20 mins and then reduce the oven temperature to 190 C to roast for a further 1 hour for a very rare roast and 1 hr and 30 minutes for a medium rare roast.
• Baste occasionally with any meat juices.
• Place the beef on a platter, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest in a warm place for 20 mins before carving.