Mustard beef with minted potatoes and mushy peas

Friday and the last thing I felt like was cooking, but also really wanted a good hunk of meat to eat, luckily I had a nice piece of topside in the fridge, so pulled that out and got to work on a nice bit of roast beef. Topside isn't the most tender of cuts but it's very tasty (a good way to counter the toughness of the cut is to slice it very thinly)

For the Beef

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Ingredients
Beef (I used topside 900 grams)
Olive oil
Garlic
Salt & Pepper
Mustard (Dijon)
White wine vinegar
Bay leaves

Method
Season and brown beef in a very hot pan, I find it's quite good to be aggressive in the seasoning and browning for maximum flavour.
Mix together in a blender garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, white wine vinegar and enough olive oil to lubricate.

Coat browned beef in the above mixture and place on roasting pan and cook at 180C for about 20 minutes per 500 grams (I like mine quite rare, so adjust cooking time if you like you meat more well cooked.)A neat trick I like to do when roasting, is in the pan placing a bay leaf or two under the rack, in the oven they start to burn and smoke a little and add a nice subtle flavour to what you're roasting.

For the Potatoes

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Ingredients
Potatoes (new and small)
Mint
Butter
Garlic

Mise en place
Thinly slice mint and place in bowl with butter
Method
Place potatoes in a pot with a sprig of mint and crushed garlic, cover with water and bring to the boil, once boiling cook for 10-15 minutes.

Drain potatoes and place in bowl with butter and mint and stir until the butter melts and coats the potatoes.

For the Peas

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Ingredients
Peas (frozen is fine, fresh is good if you have them)
Bay leaf
Whole All spice
Worcester Sauce
White wine vinegar
Salt & Pepper

Method
In a pot put peas, bay leaf, all spice, vinegar (helps keep the peas green), salt and pepper.
Cover with water and bring to the boil, it's important not to over cook as the peas will go a horrible colour.
Drain peas, but keep a little of the liquid (a couple of tablespoons worth) to blend, either blend or mash the peas with Worcester sauce.
Serve all up, with a bit of mustard or horseradish on the side.