Buy good quality beef from your butcher.... sear well until golden in the flavoursome oil before wrapping in the salt crust. Searing and then 'locking' in the flavours in this crust gives you a mouth-watering tender succulent result.

Ingredients

250g rock salt
200g plain flour
2tbspn rosemary, finely chopped
2tbspn thyme, finely chopped
1 egg white
80ml water
olive oil for sealing
500g beef fillet
1 egg, whisked
freshly cracked pepper

Method

Place the salt, flour, half the rosemary and thyme, the egg white and water in the mixing bowl of the Stand Mixer, attach the dough hook.   Turn to speed 1 and mix until the dough comes together to form a stiff dough.

Roll the dough into a ball and wrap it tightly in some plastic wrap. Leave it in the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

Take the beef fillet and use a sharp knife to remove any sinew and season generously with pepper.

Set your oven to 230C.

Remove the dough from the fridge and discard the plastic. Take a sheet of baking paper around 40cm x 40cm and roll the dough out to 3mm thick on the paper.

Heat a heavy based fry pan over a high heat, add a good drizzle of olive oil to the pan, once the oil is hot seal the beef on all sides until browned all over. Add the rest of the rosemary and thyme and use some tongs to turn the beef and at the same time coating the beef with the herbs as evenly as possible. Once the beef is evenly browned on all sides remove it from the pan.

Place the beef in the middle of the salt dough cross. Fold the ends of the dough over the ends of the fillet and wrap over the other two ends, pinching closed any holes. Brush the top seam with the egg and place in the oven.

Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to rest for about five minutes before making an incision into the salt crust and carefully removing the beef and placing onto a chopping board.

Slice the beef around 1cm in thick and serve braised greens and salsa verde or fresh horseradish.