The day before, or at least a few hours before cooking, put all the ingredients in a large
sandwich bag (pick and finely chop the rosemary first).
Squeeze out the air then spend a few minutes massaging all the flavours into the
meat. Put
in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
About 1½ hours before you’re ready to cook, remove the beef
from the fridge and place in a
cool corner of the kitchen to come up slowly to room temperature.
Preheat your barbecue. Put a few knobs of chilled butter
into a bowl of cold water and take
those outside with you when you’re ready to cook.
This next bit is going to be down to you and your intuition. What works for me every time
is taking the fillet out of the bag, quickly patting it
with kitchen paper then rolling it in olive
oil
and putting it on the hottest part of the barbecue to give it colour.
Rub it with a chilled
knob of butter as you cook it for about
8 to 10 minutes, turning every minute.
Once it looks good, move the fillet to a cooler
part of the barbecue to finish cooking to your
liking. Another 4 to 5 minutes, turning every minute,
should give you medium-done meat. If
you like it medium rare, cook it for less, or more for well done. It’s better to err on the side
of under-done. That way, the worst-case scenario is that you take
the fillet off, slice into it
and find that it’s under-cooked, then have to put it back.
When you’re happy, put it on a platter, rub it again with butter
so it really shines, then
drizzle over more Worcestershire sauce, extra
virgin olive oil, and thyme and rosemary
flowers, if you have them.
Let the meat rest for a few minutes, before slicing at the table.
Season from a height then
quickly rub the slices in the juices before you let everyone grab some.
To cook