Alright so i’ve been wanting to start a British style homemade roast dinner playlist for quite a while, in fact, i’m not really sure why I haven’t. Here in the UK particularly on a Sunday it is a tradition to have a Sunday lunch or dinner – this can be beef, pork, lamb, chicken or a variety of other things including vegetarian options and some delicious sides like roast potatoes. Most of the roasts have their own unique spin much like turkey with cranberry sauce. We’ll start today with a beef roast dinner, which traditionally comes with yorkshire puddings and horseradish sauce, plus a gravy. Normally vegetables are served alongside but i’ll save that for other videos in the playlist. So lets split this into the 4 recipe parts.
Homemade Yorkshire puddings
The easiest things to make, and depending on the size tin you use can be enormous – toad in the hole uses the same batter with sausages! All you need to do is whisk together the flour, salt, eggs and milk in a large jug until lump free and little bubbles appear on the surface. When it comes to cooking them they go into a very hot oven warmed to 200cfan/220c/gas7. Pour a heaped teaspoonful of vegetable oil into the holes of a cupcake or muffin tray and warm the tray in the oven. If you are timing this right like we do in the video, the oven should be hot from your roast anyway, but it may have to get a little hotter. Pour the batter evenly into the warmed oil pockets in the tray, roughly half way up and bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen. Amazingly delicious! Time this right and it goes fantastic with beef typically, although my kids like it with anything!
Homemade Horseradish sauce
A little unusual to make as you can get this almost anywhere in the UK in supermarkets and smaller shops. But if you want to do it grate up around a tablespoon of freshly grated horseradish, you can add more for extra strength. Lightly whip up the cream in a bowl with a mixer until soft peaks form, stir in the horseradish, add vinegar and sugar to taste and season. Play around with this until you are happy with the taste. You want it tangy with a little heat and only a hint of sweetness if at all, but of course making it fresh you can make your own! Put in a container and keep in the fridge until serving.
Roast Beef and gravy
Alright so to make the beef there are a few variables – first of all it depends on the joint size and how you want to cook it – rare, medium, well done. This can change the cooking time drastically! Here’s a basic chart used in the video as a summary.
Effectively there is the initial 20 minute cook to sear the meat and keep the juices inside, do this regardless of the end result you are after. Then it goes to the weight of the joint. So for example my joint is 1.5kg and I want it well done, i’m cooking for 20 minutes, then lowering the oven and cooking it for another 1 hour and 50 minutes. It will make sense I promise once you know the weight of the joint.
So pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7 / 200cfan / 220c. Place the beef (after leaving it out at room temperature for 20 mins or so to relax it) onto a roasting tray. Do not cut the string off as this helps hold the shape. Brush generously in oil and then season well with salt and pepper. There are other toppings you can do with mustards etc but this is just a really nice roast, a sort of intro if you will so you can play around with it. Put in the oven for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to the timings in the table above. If it starts to darken too much place foil over the top as it cooks but a nice charred finish adds a little flavour.
Remove from the oven and allow the beef to rest on a separate tray, do this to make it more moist and let the juices spread evenly back through the joint that have gone to the centre during cooking. Place foil lightly over the top so that it does not sweat but it still keeps it warm. Leave it for 25 minutes or so. Meanwhile make the gravy, using a tablespoon of the oil from the tray the beef was cooked in, discarding the rest, warm the same tray on the hob and add in the onion and garlic. Push it around until lightly fried then carefully pour on the stock or 400ml of water and a stock cube stirring in. Warm this up until simmering away and you are ready to serve the gravy. Pour through a sieve very carefully into a jug and it is ready for serving on your roast right away! You can get more fancy with this adding wine, tomato puree amongst other things to really change the intensity of the flavour.
So that’s it! Serve the above with vegetables of your choice but other videos on this playlist will give you some inspiration. Enjoy!