Recipe developer Becki Evans welcomes Autumn with her ultimate perfectly pink roast beef recipe and all the trimmings.
The darker evenings are creeping in, there’s that autumnal chill in the air, and it’s about time someone announced that it’s officially roast dinner season! And what better way to introduce myself to you all, than with one of the dishes I love to cook the most! Allow me to introduce you to my ultimate roast dinner line-up, and why beef sits firmly at the top of the hierarchy. A perfectly pink, tender roast beef that is, with all the trimmings!
I’m a traditional kinda girl, and if there’s one thing we’ll eat on repeat every week in my house, it’s a Sunday roast! Come rain or shine (literally throughout the summer too – no joke) I’m making a roast dinner.
There are definitely a few key elements in making what I like to think of as the ‘perfect’ roast, and I’ll take you through each of these in the coming weeks, but most importantly we have to begin with the star of the show – the meat.
I personally LOVE a beef joint. It doesn’t have to be an expensive sirloin cut from the butchers, this method will guarantee a tender joint of beef to cover all price points. In fact for this recipe, I used a ‘Beef Roasting Joint’ from Aldi, which cost £13.85 for just over 1kg (plenty to serve 4-5 people).
The key to this perfectly pink meat roast beef recipe, is cooking at a low temperature, using a meat thermometer (I love a MEATER), then resting for as long as possible. It makes sense too that you fill your meat tray with goodies to make the easiest and tastiest homemade gravy as well; you’d be mad not to.
Roast Beef Recipe – Feeds 4
Equipment:
Medium sized roasting tray
Meat thermometer (I use a MEATER Pro)
Large saucepan
Masher
Whisk
Sieve
Resting board / chopping board to rest the beef
Gravy jug (preferrably with an oil seperator but a normal jug is find if not)
Sharp carving knife
Ingredients:
For the beef:
1.2kg Beef Roasting Joint (standard ‘Roasting Joint, Topside or Sirloin work best)
Salt and pepper for seasoning
For the gravy:
1 large onion, quartered
40g mushrooms, halved
2 cloves garlice, crushed
1 large salad tomato, quartered
1 slice of smoked bacon
1 beef stock cube
100ml red wine (I use NOUGHTY dealcoholised red)
1tbsp plain flour
Beef gravy granules to thicken (if required)
Method:
- Pre-heat your oven to 140 degrees celsuis (fan).
- Prep your beef joint. Ensure it’s removed from the fridge a couple of hours before cooking, to bring it to room temp. Then simply coat it in a generous helping of salt and cracked black pepper, and sit to one side.
- In a roasting tray, add all of your ‘gravy’ ingredients above (apart from the flour and gravy granules – you’ll use those later).
- Insert your meat thermometer into the beef, then sit the joint on top of your gravy ingredients, ideally keeping it laid as flat as possible.
- Pop the tray into the oven, no need to cover with foil. If you’re using a MEATER, set up your cook. You’re wanting the beef to hit an internal temperature of 45 degrees celsius (it sounds low but don’t panic!) before removing it to rest. If you *don’t* have a cook-in thermometer, check the internal temp after 35 mins of cooking, then continue to check every 10 mins after that. It doesn’t take too long, so keep an eye on it!
- Once at temp, remove the beef from the oven, take it out of the tray, wrap in tin foil and pop on a plate to one side for at least 30 mins (ideal while you prep and cook the rest of the dinner).
- With all the leftover bits in the tray, carefully transfer to a large saucepan and pop on a medium heat.
- Add your plain flour and give it a good stir, then using the masher, slowly mash down all the ingredients to smush them together.
- Once the flour has cooked out (give it a good few mins stirring), carefully transfer the saucepan of goodies into a sieve, sat on top of a large gravy jug. You’ll need to use the back of a spoon to push against the ingredients, really mash it down through the sieve so you get allllll the flavour down into the jug.
- Once in your jug you have 2 options. You can transfer back into the pan and gently simmer to thicken the gravy to your desired texture. OR if you’re pushed for time, simply add a teaspoon of meat or beef gravy granules to thicken to your desired consistency (the thicker the better for me)!
- Once the beef has rested, you can do one of two things. You can carve and serve with it perfectly blushing pink, or if you like it ever so slightly more ‘medium’ you can finish it off with a final sear in the pan to get some nice colour on the outside. Totally your preference, I personally like it pink, so would slice into thick slices, lay on top of the rest of the plated roasties and veggies (has to be the star of the show of course) then coat in lashings of your thick, homemade gravy.
Roast dinner perfection!
A Sunday roast for me, is the optimum way to round off your week and set you up for the new week ahead. The kind of dinner that warms you up, fills your soul, and leaves you eyeing up the sofa for a post-dinner nap. Any excuse to indulge in carbs and company, this can easily be made for your own little family, or for that wow-factor when you have guests over and you want to show off!
Carving the beef feels like starring in your own Sunday special of MasterChef (minus the stressful background music). I won’t lie, the small panic of “is it pink enough” feels a little like when they’re waiting for a soufflé to rise, but fear not, this works every time, I’ve got you with this roast beef recipe!
This is the first in a series of recipes on how to cook the perfect roast dinner from Becki.
Article and Images by Becki Evans
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