INGREDIENTS

COOKING EQUIPMENT
1 roasting dish

COOKS NOTES

We used a sirloin joint, boned and rolled by our local butcher. We divided it into three portions (each for 2 people) and froze it for later use. The price of one portion was less than a pound ($2) above the Sainsbury's price. That little extra bought us a joint that was far, far, far better than a supermarket joint. That's the truth. We occasionally buy a supermarket beef joint for the sake of convenience. But it just doesn't compare to the quality meat from a local butcher.

Sirloin is probably the best quality joint but it's also the most expensive. Other joints which will make a very good roast beef include topside, rib beef, strip loin of beef. On the right is the joint we used, click it to enlarge the picture. Just enough fat to make the joint moist.

Click here for our Yorkshire Pudding recipe to accompany the roast beef.

METHOD
  

Set the oven to 230°C / 450°F / Gas Mark 8 for normal ovens or 210°C / 410°F for fan assisted ovens. Pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over the joint and rub it in with your hands. Sprinkle salt (rock salt is best) and pepper over the joint and rub that in. Sprinkle the flour over the top beef fat and pat it with your hands. This will crisp up the fat when it's cooked.

 

Put the baking tray on the hob, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and wait until it's sizzling. Add the beef and fry on all sides to seal off the joint. This will only take a couple of minutes. Take the tray off the hob, peel and roughly chop the onion. Sprinkle them under and immediately around the joint.

While the beef is cooking as described below, baste it twice during cooking. Basting involves taking the meat out of the oven (careful, the tin will be very hot), tipping the juices to one end and spooning them all over the meat. This helps to keep the joint moist when cooking.

Put the beef in the very hot pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 190°C / 375°F / Gas Mark 5 for conventional ovens, 170°C / 325°F for fan-assisted. Cook the beef for another 17 minutes per 450g (1lb). This will give you rare beef. For medium cooked beef add 15 minutes more, or for well done beef add 30 minutes more.

You can tell if the joint is cooked to your liking by sticking a skewer into the middle of the joint. If the juices are clear it's well done. Pink shows it's medium, and red shows it's rare.

When the beef is cooked, cover it with foil and let it stand. This will enhance its flavour and make carving easier. For a 450g (1 lb) joint, 20 minutes standing will be enough. For larger joints, let the meat stand for 40 minutes.

During the cooking process the onions will have toasted and they have delicious flavour when added to the gravy. If you don't want onions in your gravy just serve the roast to the table with the onions around the base of the beef. It looks great served that way.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE BEEF RECIPES