The very English Roast Beef

Started early Afternoon

Has now landed in the oven and is being cooked for tea.  A bargain from Morrisons costing £14.99 which is still a lot of money, but not as expensive as some. It has been a few weeks since we had any Beef (in fact I think it was the Christmas Dinner joint) and I am very much looking forward to this. 

It is a piece of Topside and when cooking Beef, I always cook it on a lower temperature for me either Gas Mark 3 or 4.  The Beef is sat on thick slices of raw onion just to lower it off the roasting pan a little, some hot water is added, a sprinkling of mixed herbs and some white pepper.  The Beef is then covered with a foil lid. Because of the size of the joint, I have added in a pleat to allow for a bit extra adjustment if necessary.  I never get the foil on the same twice. I do check periodically to see how it is progressing.  Sometimes have to add a little more water.  You do not need a massive amount but you do need some.  The water creates a little steam which does not totally steam the beef, but keeps it moister and also serves double duty as the start for the gravy.  The meat juices fall into it and so you get the full goodness from the meat into the gravy.  

Once the joint is cooked I take the foil lid off and I then brown the meat off for about 20 minutes to half an hour, just to darken up the top of the joint.

In the meantime, whilst the Beef is cooking.  I start prepping the veg.  I start off with the Roasties.  We are having roasted wedges of onion (if you have them you could use shallots), roast parsnip and roast potatoes.  These are peeled and then popped into a saucepan - not the onion (I pop them in a suitable sized pan altogether) and bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.  They are then left to cool still kept in their cooking water.  Once the meat is cooked, they are then drained and the cooking water drained into a jug.  The Roasting pan will have the meat juices in the bottom of it and once the meat has been removed and left to stand (for the meat juices to soak back into the meat) some of this will be strained off and added to the cooking water.  The potatoes/roasting veg are then added back into the Roasting pan.  Sometimes you have to add in a little more fat or oil; sometimes not.  You can rough the potatoes up a little but there is no need to do this. I then sprinkle the potatoes/roasting veg with salt and put up to Gas Mark 5 to 6 to cook.  I do keep checking on these though as they will need turning and sometimes a little extra salt added.  The wedges of onion should help the roast potatoes and parsnips to colour up as they caramelise.  Usually takes about 45 minutes but sometimes longer.  The veggies are then put on in my three tier steamer.  Today we are having mashed potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, carrots, and peas with lots of gravy.

However, at this point the Yorkshire Pudding mix (which has been standing a good 30 minutes to 45 minutes) is then added to a tray of hot fat or a Patty tin for individual ones and popped into the oven Gas mark 6 to 7 to cook.  I have made individual ones today.

The roasting pan is then used on the top of the cooker (or you could use the saucepan) but my roasting tin is an enamel pan, to make use of those meat juices that are stuck on the bottom of the pan and get them into the stock, mixed herbs, Redcurrant jelly, white pepper, more mixed herbs, Marigold Bouillon and brought to a bubble before adding in the thickener.  I prefer Arrowroot, but use Cornflour, which is slaked and then added to the gravy juices to thicken.  Once the veggies are cooked through, cut the joint and 

This is how I make a Sunday lunch roast and I must say it has gone down very nicely.  As usual we have a duplicate meal to enjoy tomorrow and maybe some meat left over for some roast beef and horseradish sarnies.

Very tasty and now I am not hungry.  Has gone down very nicely and I like to get quite a few meals out of any chicken or joint of meat.

Hope everyone has had a good day and evening.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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