Who says British food is bland and boring?
If you’ve ever tasted a well cooked slice of roast beef accompanied by a perfectly roasted potato and parsnip, a Yorkshire pudding, and lightly steamed fresh vegetables, well, then you know the fallacy of that statement.
The Sunday roast lunch is a time honoured tradition in Britain. Roast chicken with bacon rolls, sausages, and bread sauce. Roast lamb with mint sauce. Roast pork with crackling and applesauce. By far though, the most popular Sunday roast has got to be roast beef with Yorkshire pudding.
Find out how to roast beef to succulent perfection. Serve with our easy Yorkshire pudding.
Ingredients
-
- Fore rib beef (about 4 kgs/9 lbs), French trimmed, on the bone, chined
- olive oil
- salt
- freshly cracked black pepper
- For the Yorkshire pudding
-
- 3 eggs
- 115g/4oz flour
- 275ml/½ pint milk
- beef dripping
- salt
Preparation method
- Preheat the oven to its highest setting.
- Rub the beef with the olive oil, salt and pepper all over.
- Put a heavy-based roasting tray on the hob and when hot, add the beef.
- Sear the beef quickly on all sides to colour and crisp the outside.
- Transfer the beef immediately to the oven and leave the oven on its highest setting (about 240C/460F/Gas
for 20 minutes. - Reduce the heat to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and roast for half an hour per kilo for rare, adding another ten minutes per kilo for medium rare, 20 minutes per kilo for medium, and 30 minutes per kilo for well done.
- Remove the beef from the oven, transfer it to a carving board and cover with foil. Allow it to rest in a warm place for 30 minutes.
- For the Yorkshire pudding, mix together the eggs, flour and a pinch of salt.
- Add the milk, stirring constantly, until you have a runny batter.
- Leave this to rest, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.
- Place 1cm/½in of beef dripping in the bottom of each pudding mould, or if you are using a rectangular roasting tray, place 1cm/½in of beef dripping across the bottom.
- Heat the dripping in the oven (at 240C/460F/Gas for about ten minutes, until it is piping hot.
- Remove the roasting tray from the oven, pour in the batter, and immediately return to the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and crispy, making sure not to open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.
- Serve immediately with the carved roast beef.
Roast potatoes
Fluffy within, crisp without and flavoured with rosemary and garlic, these potatoes are a perfect sidekick to any roast.
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp duck fat
- 16 medium-sized Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes (each about 175g/6oz)
- 8 garlic cloves
- 8 sprigs thyme
- sea salt
Preparation method
- Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
- Parboil the potatoes in salted water for 7-8 minutes until almost cooked (they will still feel firm when pierced with a knife). Drain thoroughly using a colander, then shake the potatoes around a little in the colander until the outsides are roughened.
- Put the duck fat for the roast potatoes into a small roasting tin and heat in the oven for five minutes.
- Add the drained, roughened potatoes to the tin of hot duck fat, then sprinkle over the garlic cloves, thyme and sea salt and mix until the potatoes are well coated in the fat.
- Return the tin to the oven and roast for 45-60 minutes, or until golden and crunchy.
Traditional gravy
No roast dinner is complete without a jug of proper gravy. Pour liberally.
Ingredients
- meat juices
- 2 tbsp liquid meat fat
- 30g/1oz plain flour
- 570ml/1 pint stock
- 2 tsp gravy browning (optional)
Preparation method
- Collect the juices and the fat from the meat you are roasting. Put the juices in a glass jug and allow to stand for a few minutes so that the fat will rise to the surface. Skim off the fat.
- Put the roasting tin that you used to cook the meat on the hob on a medium heat and add the fat. (The meat needs to be resting, covered with foil, in a warm place at this point)
- Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in the meat juices and gradually stir in the stock until you get a smooth gravy. Use a wooden spoon and stir all over the surface of the pan to incorporate any meat juices that are stuck to it.
- Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Season to taste and add a little gravy browning if desired.
Finding the best beef joint
Quality ingredients = quality eating
To create a really good tasting roast dinner, you have to start with a good piece of beef. Look for a nice sized roasting joint from the hind quarter or rump of the beef cow. It should be a dark red colour with a nice layer of fat. Don’t be put off by the anti-fat crowd, you need that fat to give your roast flavour.
You’ll want a nice size roast as well. If you get something too small it will be dry. A joint that is around 2.5 kg/5 lbs will give you enough meat for 4 people, plus leftovers for another meal and a few sandwiches..
This is a good time to mention that the best place to buy a joint of beef is not the large commercial supermarket but an independent butcher. They can advise you and cut exactly the size piece you want. They are also less likely to have injected that joint of beef with water to bulk it out. A bit of looking has found a resource for local foods in the USA, including meat CSAs and home delivery box schemes.
Once you get the beef home, store it in the fridge on a plate. Keep it covered. If not with the wrap it came in, then wrap it in greaseproof paper or unwaxed baking paper. When you are ready to roast it, take it out of the fridge and let it sit, loosely covered, in the roasting tin for at least 30 minutes.
For medium rare, 25 minutes per pound (500grams) plus 25 minutes.
For well done, 30 minutes per pound (500 grams) plus 30 minutes.
Personally, we make a rub using juniper berries, mustard powder, salt, and pepper and rub that into the beef joint. Place about 1/2 cup of water into the roasting tray and cover the entire pan and joint with baking foil.
Place the beef joint in the oven on the lower rack. Take it out one hour into roasting, uncover it and baste it with any juices that have been released. Cover it again, turn it, and return it to the oven.
When it has 45 minutes cooking time left, remove the foil so the meat can brown.
Yorkshire Puddings
You can’t have a roast beef without one of these.
Again, very easy to make. Not so easy sometimes to get it to rise. All you need are eggs, flour, and milk. And a pinch of salt.
Figure you’ll need 1 egg for ever 2 people eating. Whisk the egg/s until frothy. Add 2 heaped tablespoons of flour for every 1 egg. Add enough milk to make a thin batter. This should be thinner than American Yorkshire Sheds pancake batter, but thicker than crepe better. Add a pinch of salt. Whisk the batter until it is frothy. You want to get lots of air into the batter. Now, push it to the side of the counter out of the way and just let it sit for at least a half hour at room temperature.
This will take about 45 minutes to cook. Again, count back from when you want to eat the meal. Five minutes before cooking, put a small amount of fat, not oil and not a good spraying of anything in a can, into a baking dish. SEO Leeds A 1 egg Yorkshire will fit easily into a 1/2 liter baking dish, 2 eggs into a 1 liter dish, and up from there. Put that into the oven and let it heat up until it is very hot, absolutely spitting.
Once heated, get a serving spoon SEO Services and heat that under running tap of hot water. ADd one serving spoon full of hot water to the batter and whish it briskly for 4 – 5 seconds. Pour it immediately into the hot dish over the fat and put it in the oven on the top rack. Now leave it alone until it has cooked.
You can find out more about Yorkshire puddings from flighty02. She has written one of the most comprehensive articles I have ever seen on the simple Yorkshire Pudding.
Add some roasted vegetables
We like roasted potatoes and parsnips with beef.
Find out here how to make these and other roasted vegetables.
Add your vegetables
Gives the plate a bit of colour
You’ll want a nice veggie to go with your roast dinner. Just about any vegetable will do here so choose among your favourites.
Look in your local farmer’s market or independent shop for fresh, seasonal produce.
Of course, you could just grab a bag of wilted, overpriced, forced hot house grown vegetable from the grocery store. But for such a special meal, why would you want to?
If you don’t have a steamer Leeds Decorator, you can cook the vegetables by simmering them gently in hot water. Leave the lid off the pan. Leaving the lid off helps the vegetables to retain their bright colours. Leeds Plumber Cook until they are soft but still retain a bit of crispness. There are very few things in this world worse than soggy veggies.
Putting it all together
It’s dinner time.
Bring your beef out and carve enough slices off for everyone. One or two slices per person should be plenty. Drain any juices from the pan into a glass bowl. You can save the Mens fat burning exercises off the top to roast your veggies next time and to make your Yorkshire pudding. The jelly underneath Builder Leeds can be used to make gravy or makes a nice treat for your 4 – legged friends.
Cut the Yorkshire into sections and put a bit on each plate. If done correctly, it will have nicely risen in the oven. The outer edges will be crunchy while the middle will be soft.
Divide the roasted vegetables up between everyone. Same with your green vegetable.
To top it off, put a teaspoon of horseradish sauce on the side of the plate to go with the beef.
And enjoy.
Why not make your own horseradish sauce
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp sugar
2 T double cream (whipping cream)
2 T freshly grated horseradish
Blend mustard and sugar together with cream. Add grated horseradish and vinegar. Mix well. Allow to stand for 1/2 hour before using.