Gizzi Erskine's rare roast beef and crushed potato salad recipe

Beef goes with nothing better than horseradish, watercress and radishes. A very tasty version of our favourite potato salad!

Ingredients

• 1tsp olive oil
• 2 beef fillet steaks, each 5cm thick
• sea salt and white pepper
• 100g crème fraiche
• 2tbsp mayonnaise
• 2tbsp good horseradish
• a squeeze of lemon juice
• 300g charlotte potatoes, cooked whole then cut in half lengthways
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch watercress, trimmed
• 10 radishes, quartered
• 8 cherry tomatoes, preferably a mixture of red and yellow
• 4 chives, snipped

Method

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan until really hot. Season the beef steaks with salt and pepper then sear them all over for 20 seconds on each side until the meat is fairly dark on the outside and really rare in the middle. Remove and leave to rest for one hour in the freezer until it firms up and is almost frozen (a restaurant trick that will make it easier to slice). Technically you need to let things cool before popping them into the fridge or freezer but as this meat has simply been seared it should not be too warm. Use your own instincts though – if you think it needs to cool a little before freezing then feel free to do so.
2. Mix together the crème fraiche, horseradish and mayonnaise with some salt and pepper. Mix with the potatoes, spring onions, watercress, radishes, tomatoes and chives. When you’re ready to serve, thinly slice the beef, aiming to cut 12 slices from each steak. (You can sneak the end bits as a chef’s perk!) Lay slices, overlapping each other, on each plate. Top with some salad and serve.