Roast Beef Fillets in Prosciutto with Garlic Roasted Tatatouille and Almond Rice Salad

This is an impressive buffet spread. Cook the ratatouille and rice before you start roasting the beef.Once cooked, carve the beef into thin slices and set out on two platters so that guests can help themselves. Serve on a buffet with the warm roasted vegetable ratatouille and the almond rice salad.

Serves: 8
Difficulty: medium
Prep time:
Cooking time: 2 hours

(2 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)

Ingredients

fillets

2 X 1,5 kg beef fillets

30 ml (2 tbsp) freshly ground black pepper

salt

30 ml (2 tbsp) olive oil or canola oil

125 ml (1/2 cup) Dijon mustard

20 slicesbacon strips or Prosciutto ham

Rice salad

4 cups Spekko Long Grain Parboiled Rice

250 ml (1 cup) chopped almonds

250 ml (1cup) currants

250 ml (1 cup) coarsely chopped fresh parsley

250 ml (1 cup) coarsely chopped fresh coriander

125 ml (1/2 cup) fresh lemon juice

45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

Roasted vegetable ratatouille

3 large brinjals, ends trimmed, cut into chunks

500 g baby marrow, ends trimmed, cut into rounds

500 g yellow patty pans, ends trimmed, halved, thickly sliced

3 large red peppers, halved, deseeded, thickly sliced

1 bunch carrots, scrubbed, ends trimmed, halved lengthways, cut into thick chunks

3 red onions, halved, cut into thin wedges

1 head garlic, unpeeled

45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

250 g ripe cherry tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

30 ml (2 tbsp) warm water

Method

Prepare the ratatouille and rice salad before you roast the beef.
To make the rice salad, cook the rice according to the instructions on the pack. Transfer to a large heatproof bowl.
Lightly toast the almonds in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the almonds, currants, parsley and coriander to the rice and gently toss to combine.
Whisk together the lemon juice and oil in a small bowl. Season with pepper. Add dressing to the rice and toss to coat.
To make the ratatouille: Preheat oven to 200 °C.
Place the eggplant, baby marrow, patty pans, pepper, carrot, onion, garlic and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large roasting pan. Season with pepper and toss to combine. Cook in preheated oven, turning occasionally, for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle with the tomato. Cook, turning occasionally, for a further 15 minutes or until tomato softens. Remove from oven.
Remove the garlic cloves from the roasting pan. Squeeze the pulp from the skin into a small bowl and use a fork to mash until smooth. Add the vinegar, water and the remaining oil, and whisk to combine. Drizzle the ratatouille with garlic mixture and toss to coat.
To prepare the beef: Pre-heat oven to 180 °C.
Season the fillets generously with the pepper and salt. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or roasting tray until very hot and starting to smoke. Then, one at a time, sear the fillets until brown on all sides – about 6 minutes per fillet. Leave the beef to cool slightly. Meanwhile, lay the prosciutto so that it’s overlapping on two large sheets of baking paper.
Heat oven to 180 degrees C. Brush the beef all over with mustard and place on the prosciutto. Wrap the prosciutto around the beef and secure with string. If using bacon: once the fillet is wrapped with the bacon sear all sides again in frying pan to render the fat and brown. Then follow next step.
Sit the fillets next to each other on a roasting tray and roast for 40 minutes for medium or 50 minutes for well done. Leave the beef to cool in the roasting tray. Dab the fillets with kitchen paper to remove any excess juices.

From the Spekko kitchen

The recipe provides around 250 g of meat per portion.
To ensure portion sizes, plate the food and then serve