Читать книгу The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book - Elisa Beynon - Страница 45

1.2kg topside of beef

1 teaspoon mustard powder

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

For the gravy:

the meat juices

1 tablespoon flour

120ml red wine

350ml beef stock (fresh, or made from a good-quality liquid bouillon)

salt and pepper

I didn’t muck about much with the beef. I just rubbed the mustard powder over the outside of the joint and seasoned it. Then I poured the oil into a roasting tin, heated it on the hob and seared the beef in the hot fat until it was nicely browned all over. It then went in a hot oven preheated to 250°C/Gas Mark 9 for 15 minutes. After that I turned it down to 180°C/Gas Mark 4, cooking it for 18 minutes per 500g. At the end of the cooking time I took it out of the oven and left it in a warm place, covered in foil, to give it a good rest. It was brown at the ends (so suitable for the children) and pink to red in the middle (perfect for us adults).

Whilst the meat was resting, I made the gravy. To be honest, I find it difficult to give a recipe for this as I kind of feel my way in gravy-making; I believe that making gravy is a great way to learn how to cook instinctively. If you are nervous about making it on the stove right before you are ready to serve and while guests may well be hovering, take the meat out of its baking tray 20 minutes or so before the end of its cooking time, and return it to the oven in a clean tray, as most of the meat juices and stickiness will already be in the original tin. Get on with making the gravy using the roasting tin of juices.

How you make your gravy is up to you: you could just add some wine to the meat juices to make a little jus (don’t you just hate that word?), but I opted to go down a more old-fashioned route: in other words, I used flour. If this is how you want to do it, remove the meat from the original tin (to rest or to return to the oven) and put this tin, containing all the meat juices, on the hob and stir in the plain flour (it will look a bit gluey when you do this). Add the red wine, stirring constantly, and then the beef stock. (I used a beef liquid bouillon mixed with the cooking water from the vegetables.) Add salt and pepper and let it bubble away and reduce. Keep tasting it and add more stock or wine, if you think it needs it. When it is ready, pour it in a pan, ready to serve or reheat later. If you are making it a little in advance, add any extra meat juices from the new baking tin when you reheat the gravy.

I am a bit obsessive about gravy and constantly fret there won’t be enough, so when people go for seconds I am there, bossily waving the gravy boat in their faces, lest they forget to anoint their fresh portion with my lovingly made sauce.