Bourbon-glazed Beef with Ember Baked Potatoes

I haven't added a blog in a while as I had my i phone stolen in a supermarket. I won't say which one but now I know why, in the adverts they smile over there shoulder whilst patting they're back pocket, They are checking they haven't been robbed. Anyway I had a brilliant app called recpics which I stored all the recipes I wanted to try so its been back to the drawing board.

This recipe turned out to be a real winner. I pulled it out of a magazine ages ago and wasn't expecting it to be quite as good as it was. I made up the marinade in the morning-

In a dish mix a large pinch of chilli flakes
4 garlic cloves,
125ml tomato ketchup
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
1 tsp english mustard, powder or paste
4 tbsp of boubon
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

All I needed was a fillet of beef so after finding none in the supermarket I popped to my local butchers. They only had Welsh Black Beef. I picked a piece suitably sized and asked the price................

After being revived and having regained full consciousness I handed over my credit card. Added the beef to the marinade and hoped it was worth it. Marinade for between 2 and 24 hrs.

Before lighting the BBQ I prepared the potatoes by piercing them several times with a skewer then coated them very lightly in olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt then wrapped each one in a double layer of aluminium foil. I used potatoes about the size of a medium lemon so if you have large ones leave them cook longer.

The main cooking-
As soon as the BBQ coals were glowing red I put the potatoes directly onto the coals (avoiding anywhere that still had a slight flame).
This is where you have to decide how you like you beef cooked. The potatoes take 20 minutes then turn them and cook for another 20 minutes.
The beef after shaking the excess glaze off needs 7 minutes on each of the 4 sides for rare and a little longer for medium.
Don't forgot the meat will need a little time to rest
Don't forget the oven gloves and be careful lifting the grill with the beef on to turn the spuds.

I heated up the remaining glaze and served on the side with a cheeking brush of the beef during cooking

Making flavoured butter for the potatoes is an easy addition. Here are a few ideas
To 125g of softened unsalted butter add either -

75g of mature cheddar, 2 tbsp chives, 1 tbsp tomato puree
or
1 garlic clove crushed, 4 tbsp chopped herbs (parsley,tarragon,basil,chives or dill)
or
Roasted red peppers from a jar or deli finely chopped, 2 shakes of tabasco or black pepper

Time taken     1 hour + marinading
Effort     1.5/5
End result     4.5/5

RAINING?
I have added this section for my Scottish readers. 'Readers' might be a bit ambitious - Hi Derek x
Sear the fillet all over in a pan for 10 minutes then cook in the oven at 200C/180C fan/gas 6 for 10 mins rare; 15 mins medium rare, rest before carving. Alas it is to dangerous to recreate ember baked potatoes indoors.

I was a tad nervous about the potatoes as earlier this week whilst removing a baked potato from my oven it exploded. Not just popped, it very extremely exploded! No group has claimed responsibility. Do they spontaneously vegetabley combust? How much does this cost the NHS every year?

I made halloumi wrapped in red peppers as a vegetable side dish but I will post this separately as they were more suited to a vegetarian main dish and would serve beef with a nice green salad next time



-