Peppered roast beef with Café de Paris sauce
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Peppered roast beef with Café de Paris sauce
Café de Paris butter is traditionally served with steak, but this creamier version is a perfect match for succulent roast beef, with big-hitting ingredients such as capers, anchovies and mustard. Serve with Yorkshire puddings for mopping up the sauce
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Abigail Spooner
Abi is our Head of Food. She loves the precision and creativity of baking, turning fridge odds-and-ends into a weeknight pasta, and is always bookmarking new restaurants to try. She's happiest hosting friends around a table overflowing with food (and insisting everyone has seconds) or planning holidays around what to eat.
Abigail Spooner
Abi is our Head of Food. She loves the precision and creativity of baking, turning fridge odds-and-ends into a weeknight pasta, and is always bookmarking new restaurants to try. She's happiest hosting friends around a table overflowing with food (and insisting everyone has seconds) or planning holidays around what to eat.
Ingredients
- about 1.5kg Taste the Difference Topside Beef Roasting Joint
- 2 tbsp mixed peppercorns
- 1 tbsp sea salt flakes
- 4 tsp olive oil
- 2 red onions, cut into wedges
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp golden granulated sugar
For the Café de Paris sauce
- 110g unsalted butter
- 3 echalion shallots, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1½ tsp mild curry powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 6 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- 1½ tbsp non pareilles capers
- 1½ tbsp worcestershire sauce*
- 1½ tsp dijon mustard
- 150ml double cream
- 4-6 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
Step by step
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Leave the beef at room temperature for about 1 hour before roasting. Meanwhile, put the peppercorns in a food bag and seal, then bash with a rolling pin until coarsely crushed (or use a large pestle and mortar). Combine with the sea salt, then spread out on a plate.
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Preheat the oven to 240°C, fan 220°C, gas 8. Pat the beef dry with kitchen roll, then rub with 2 teaspoons of the oil (leave the strings in place) and roll in the peppercorn mixture until coated. Toss the red onion wedges in the remaining oil and put in a roasting tin. Sit the beef on top and roast for 20 minutes, so the beef forms an outer crust. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 and continue roasting for 40 minutes for medium-rare (see ‘Kitchen tip’).
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Meanwhile, put the dijon mustard and golden granulated sugar in a small bowl and stir to combine. Then 20 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the beef from the oven and spoon over the mustard glaze, taking care not to dislodge the peppercorn crust. Return to the oven for the final 20 minutes. If you have a cook’s thermometer, the beef is ready when it reads 55°C for medium-rare, 60°C for medium or 70°C for well-done. Once it’s cooked to your liking, loosely cover with foil and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
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While the beef rests, make the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat, add the shallots, garlic, curry powder, cayenne pepper and anchovies, then cook for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and the shallots are soft. Stir in the capers, worcestershire sauce and some black pepper, then cook for a further minute. Reduce the heat to very low and whisk in the mustard, followed by the cream, thyme and about 3 tablespoons of the beef resting juices. Warm through, then keep over a low heat until ready to serve.
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Snip the strings off the beef, carve into thin slices and serve with the red onions and Café de Paris sauce.
*Use Henderson’s Relish, not worcestershire sauce, if gluten-free.
Weigh your joint of beef and calculate the total roasting time (including the time at the high oven temperature) as 20 minutes per 500g for medium-rare, 25 minutes per 500g for medium or 30 minutes per 500g for well-done.
