Roast Dinner

Sun 1 July 2007

The new 'no smoking' rule appeared to dampen very few spirits at North's birthday party on Sunday afternoon, and even the rain couldn't stop the beer drinkers from being happy.

We weren't in for the long haul as we'd invested a whole £9 in a 1 kg piece of beef (topside) on Sunday morning. I'm not sure if this is expensive or not because I don't really absorb food prices and I don't do roasts that often.

Our piece of beef came from a Highlander, bred near Wakefield by the Gascoignes. Highlanders are the very pretty, shaggy cows. It turns out they also taste rather good.

Our piece of beef was given very simple treatment (cooking times as advised by Delia Smith): 20 minutes on 240C followed by half an hour (15 minutes per pound) or so at 190C. The end bits weren't quite as rare as I would have liked, but by the time we got through to the middle (for sandwiches the next day!) it was a pretty good colour. We served the beef with roast potatoes, roast onions, roast carrots and steamed beans. And Yorkshire pudding (which rose most impressively). Andy also added some hot water to some brown granules and called it gravy (yuck!), while I bemoaned the lack of horseradish sauce.

I'm always bemused by people who think roasts are tricky: the only trick is to not over cook whatever you're eating. Other than that, you don't really need to do anything other than turn the oven on.

The Highland Cattle Society has a list of breeders, and you can buy the meat in a variety of locations.

tagged with: beef, roast, "highland cattle"

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