Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you so very much for all of your visits over this past year. It certainly has been a year for the record books! Whatever you are up to today, be you on your own or in a small gathering of family such as we are doing here, may your day be blessed with the spirit of Peace and filled with joy. May you get to eat something which fills your belly with contentment and pleasure.
I am looking forward to sharing another year of good food and recipes with you in the coming days. In the meantime, be blessed and have a wonderful day!
🎄 Marie 🎄
My technique involves rubbing a delicious mixture of maple and mustard into a very well seasoned piece of meat. Don't be afraid to use a generous amount of salt when you are roasting your meat. As it cooks the fat from the meat will largely wash a lot of the salt away.
Salt means flavour. So do be generous. Be generous with the pepper as well. Trust me on this. If you like you can stab down into the roast at intervals and add slivers of garlic, but it really isn't necessary.
You will find your roast to be perfect with just the liquid massage and the seasoning. The fact is this salt and pepper are not going to penetrate your roast. They will merely give you a tasty coating for your finished meat.
Don't be repeatedly stabbing your roast after you start to cook it. this will cause those delicious juices to escape and your plan here is to keep them in the meat. You can stick a meat thermometer into it near the end of the cook time to check the internal temperature, but no more than that.
It is really important to let your meat rest for a period of time after it is finished roasting. Take it out of the oven and loosely tent it with some aluminium foil. Leave it to rest while you finish up making a gravy.
Carving your roast before it has properly rested means that your roast will lose a lot of its flavourful juices. You want it to sit and as it rests, re-absorb some of that juicy flavour. About 30 minutes does the job wonderfully.
When you roast a piece of meat in a hot oven, that causes many of the juices to move to the outer edges of the meat, basting it. The meat also contracts in the heat of the oven causing it to force the juices out to the outer edges.
Slicing into the meat right away causes all of those flavour filled juices to escape and spill out onto your cutting board. You really don't want to lose them.
Perfectly Cooked Roast Beef
Ingredients
- 8 to 10 pound wing, rib or strip loin roast of beef
- 2 TBS prepared English Mustard
- 1 TBS maple syrup
- 4 TBS water
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 TBS of beef dripping
Instructions
- I think it's best to cook meat always from room temperature so plan ahead and take your meat out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you plan on cooking it. Pre-heat your oven to 250*C/480*F.
- Mix together the water, mustard and maple syrup. Massage this mixture into the meat on all sides. This concoction will help to flavour and colour your meat. (Trust me here.) After you have massaged most of it in, or as much as you can, season your meat liberally all over with the salt and pepper. The fat will largely wash off a large portion of it so more is better. Always season just prior to cooking it as well, to prevent the salt from drawing out the blood and juices.
- Heat a heavy based roasting tray over high heat with the dripping inside. (If you have no dripping a knob of butter will do.) Once the fat is hot, lower the beef into it to commence the browning process, lightly browning it on all sides.
- Lower the oven temperature to 220*C/425*F. Roast the beef in it for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and baste with the pan juices. Lower the temperature to 180*C/350*F. Return the beef to the oven and roast for a further 15 minutes per pound of beef, plys an extra 15 minutes. The end result will be a perfectly cooked joint, pink in the middle without being overdone.
- Once the meat is cooked allow a further 30 minutes resting time in a turned off oven or a warm place.
- This resting time is very important. This helps the juices and the temperature of your meat to stabilize and relax, which helps to make the meat much more succulent and easier to carve. When you cut into hot meat alot of the delicious juices escape, and we really don't want that.
- I often roast my meat on a bed of root vegetables . . . chunky carrots, parsnips, onions. This helps to raise the meat above the fat in the roasting tin and prevents it from frying instead of roasting, not to mention it gives a lovely flaour to the juices and the gravy!
- To make a delicious gravy, add some liquid to the pan, once the meat has been removed and set aside to warm. (leave the vegetables in the pan) Your liquid can be some beef stock, or even a bit of red wine. It's your choice. Cook and stir, scraping up from the bottom to get all your brown bits etc. Strain this into a saucepan, removing all the solids. Skim any fat off of the top.
- I then shake some flour together with some water in a jar until it's smooth and I strain this back into the pan juices in the saucepan. I then cook it over medium heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Leave to cook over low heat for at least five minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place in a gravy boat and pass with the meat.
This method of roasting beef can be used for any kind of beef roast. Here is an example of me having used it for a bottom round roast. (As well as in the recipe illustration, where you can see it sliced.)
Now that you have your roast done to perfection you may want to think about some tasty side dishes. Myself, I love a nice salad, some fluffy mashed potatoes and a bowl of horseradish sauce.
I did a post several years ago called Potatoes 101. In it I shared how to cook one of my favourite vegetables several ways, including mashed, roasted, boiled, Dauphinoise, chipped etc.
You can access that post by clicking HERE.
We also enjoy Yorkshire Puddings with our roast beef. Crisp and light with perfect little pockets for holding all of that delicious gravy.
These turn out perfect every time and we love them. You can find that recipe HERE. It is my late Father In Law's recipe. He was an army cook and they are excellent.
Other than that some delicious vegetables which we enjoy with Roast Beef are Carrots, Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans, Aspagarus, etc. I also love mashed or boiled turnips.
You don't really need dinner rolls as you have the Yorkshire Puddings, but my Old Fashioned Pull Apart Rolls are awfully nice. Just saying.
Above all have fun and don't stress overly much about it. Just enjoy and look forward to being able to feed your family a fabulously tasty dinner at the end of it all.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Stuffed Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (180g) butter, softened
- 3.4 cup (150g) granulated sugar (plus more for rolling)
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup (60ml) light cornsyrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 medium free range egg
- 2 1/2 cups (310g) all purpose flour
- a variety of bite sized chocolate candies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Line a few large baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.
- Put some granulated sugar for rolling into a bowl. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter, both sugars, the corn syrup, soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl until light and fluffy and everything is well mixed together. Beat in the egg.
- Gradually beat in the flour until well incorporated. Taking tablespoons of dough, wrap it around each chocolate candy to completely enclose the chocolate. Roll in the bowl of sugar and place onto the baking sheet, leaving two to three inches in between each.
- Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden and set. Leave to cool on the baking sheets for abou 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
These have the perfect texture. They are short and buttery. They melt in your mouth. That is everything a good shortbread should be.
You would expect nothing less from one of Leona's recipes. I have shared them on here before. You might like Leona's Peanut Butter Balls. They have been a favourite in my home for over 40 years now! I will probably be making some this week.
In the meantime, enjoy these lush and rich crisp Whipped Shortbreads. Prepare to fall in love.
Whipped Shortbreads
Ingredients
- 240g of butter (1 cup) room temperature
- 210g of plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 70g icing sugar (1/2 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several baking sheets with baking parchment. Set aside.
- Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 10 minutes until light and fluffy. Drop by the teaspoon onto the baking sheets. (Leave about 2 inches of space in between each to allow for spreading.) Sprinkle the tops with a varieity or sprinkles or coloured sugars, or chopped green and red cherries.
- Bake for about 17 minutes until the bottoms are coloured light brown. Allow to cool on the baking sheets. Store in an airtight container.
notes:
My sister doubled the recipe, chilled the dough overnight and then scooped out with a cookie scoop. She flattened half of them slightly with the bottom of a glass and decorated with a piece of candied cherry. The other half she flattened slightly with a fork, sprinkling half with sprinkles and leaving half plain for Dan.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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