Wednesday 7 May 2008

My First Roast Beef Dinner!

You might remember a couple of weeks ago I broke my store cupboard challenge when I saw the most amazing hunk of sirloin roasting joint at an amazingly low price!

I'm not really a meat, tatties and two veg kind of girl, so very rarely cook up a roast dinner. I made a turkey dinner at Christmas, and the last time before that was at least 3 years ago! Even then - I would only ever cook chicken - I liked being able to use the carcass for stock.

So this was a new venture for me... and definitely one I'll try again! I failed to take pictures of the roast dinner - it was tasty, but I can't help it - I'm just not that inspired by this type of food - it's the leftovers that really turn me on! Though I have to say, the gravy was astounding - I deglazed the pan with red wine and a bit of water, added some flour and a load of freshly ground black pepper. The meat juices, onions and garlic from the roasting process were still in the pan, so I squished and squeezed every bit of goodness out of them. I strained the whole thing through a sieve, and left it to separate so I could skim off the fat. After melting in a knob of butter... it was the richest tastiest gravy ever (if I do say so myself! I'm in a very modest mood today ;)

Meltingly Rare Roast Beef!

Preheat the oven to 240c.

Prepare the meat...
Pat the surface of the meat with paper towel to remove excess moisture.
Mix together a heaped tablespoon of flour, a tablespoon of smoked paprika and rub it all over the joint. Season the joint well with Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Prepare the pan...
Take 3 similarly sized onions, peel, and cut in half against the grain. Put a little spot of oil into the bottom of a roasting tin and lay the onions in in. We're going to use the onions as a roasting rack. All the juices from the meat are going to go into the onions, and help make the best gravy ever! Try to use as small a roasting tin as possible. Scatter 3 unpeeled garlic cloves around the onions.

Cook the joint...
Place the joint on top of the onions and put the whole thing into the pre-heated oven. Cook at the temperature for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180c. Cook for a further 35 minutes per kilo. This will give you beautifully rare beef. I'm not going to tell you how to make it any other way as I'm a rare beef fascist, and believe that anything other than rare is a waste of the beast's death ;)

Rest the joint...
Do NOT skip the step. If you skip this bit you'd be as well chowing down on a road side cafe 'top quality' rump steak.
The joint will need at least 40 minutes to rest - this is also the bit that finishes the cooking. Remove it from the oven, cover with foil and leave for 40 minutes. Now is probably a good time to prepare your potatoes, veg, yorkies, etc.

Rested and ready to go!

When the meat is rested, remove to a board. Use the pan, juices, onion and garlic to make the gravy, and carve the beef as you will!

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4 comments:

PG said...

I think I've only made one roast and I'm not even sure what type of meat I would buy for a roast. But, I do love them. Anything that I can eat horseradish with, I'm a fan of.

Looks great and sounds delicious.

glamah16 said...

Horseradish! Yes. I think the best part of roasts are the leftover and cocncotions you use them in.

Peter M said...

Good on ya, Kittie. This technique looks to be a winner. I'll have to try this in the fall...the BBQ won't let me make anything in the oven!

Deborah said...

I am so glad you serve it rare! I have to cook all the red meat in two batches in this house- the husband does not care for red. Awesome recip1