Well, it seems as if autumn’s already begun to stake its claim on Wellington (did summer even arrive? I must have missed it). While your course-related costs haven’t quite run out and your flatmates are all still talking to each other, why not get together and have a good home-style roast with all the trimmings?
For four people:
▴ 1kg roast beef
▴ 3 onions
▴ 2 carrots
▴ half a bulb of garlic
▴ some fresh herbs, if you’ve got them, or use dried—thyme, marjoram and oregano are good with beef
▴ roughly 1 kg potatoes
▴ 1 cup flour
▴ 200ml milk
▴ 4 eggs
ROAST BEEF:
Cut the onion into wedges and roughly chop the carrots into large chunks. Crush but don’t peel the garlic cloves. Put all of this, along with the herbs, into a roasting dish. Lightly rub the beef with oil, season, and place on top of the vegetables. Roast at 220oC for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180oC and roast for another 40 minutes (20 minutes per 500g) if you like it rare, or 60 minutes (30 minutes per 500g) if you prefer it medium. Once it’s done, place the beef onto a board or plate and cover with tin foil. Rest for half an hour—it’ll keep warm under the foil, but beef isn’t meant to be served piping hot!
POTATOES:
While the beef is cooking, peel and chop the potatoes, and boil in a large pot of salted water for about ten minutes, or until a knife will cut into one. Get another roasting dish and pour enough oil into it that the bottom is just covered; heat this in the oven. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain the water from the pot. Holding the lid on firmly, shake the pot until the edges are a bit fluffed up. This makes them much crispier. Put the potatoes into the hot oil (be careful!) and put back into the oven—once the beef is done, turn the heat back up to 220oC. They’ll take about 30-40 minutes to cook.
YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS:
Put a drizzle of oil into each section of a 12-hole muffin tin. Place into the oven to heat. In a bowl, whisk the flour and eggs together until smooth. Add the milk to the batter and season with salt and pepper. Pull the muffin tin carefully out of the oven and pour the batter evenly into the muffin tins. Once the puddings are back in the oven, don’t open the door! Bake for 15 minutes or until puffed up and golden.
Carve the meat against the grain. Put the carrots and onion back into the oven for 5 minutes or so to warm them back up, then serve with the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. I’ll confess I’m usually pretty lazy with the gravy and just use packet stuff (also most gravy recipes use a bottle of red wine, and I quite like to have leftovers!). Squeeze the garlic from the cloves and mix into with the gravy on your plate—delicious!