| Brian Turner's roast beef and yorkshire pudding
Brian Turner, a 'Ready Steady Cook' regular and leading UK chef, is a champion of the great British foods. Here, he reveals how to amaze your friends with a British standard Whatever the reason for the undeniable quality of our beef, Britain wouldn't be so great without its roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I remember we cooked 25-pound sirloins on the bone at Simpson's in the Strand, and then we took them into the dining room to be carved in front of the guests Batter puddings are traditional all over the British Isles, and Yorkshire pudding is the most famous, originally cooked in the tray of dripping under the meat as it turned on the spit. Why it became so associated with Yorkshire, I don't know. Perhaps it was because of the renowned meanness of my fellow countrymen: the pudding was served first, before the meat, in order to fill people up so that they would then eat less meat! To me its main purpose is to soak up the meat juices and the gravy. Roast beef
1 x 4.5kg (10 lb) rib of beef (5 ribs)
Yorkshire pudding
For the Yorkshire pudding batter, sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat well with half the liquid until all the lumps have disappeared. Add the rest of the liquid and the vinegar, and allow to stand. Meanwhile, preheat the oven well to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Prepare the meat by cutting down the backbone towards the rib bones with the knife angled towards the back bone. Take a chopper and then break the backbones near the bottom of the cut (this is called chining). Lift up the fat from the back and take out the rubbery sinew. Tie the beef with string to keep its shape. Put the joint into a roasting tray and season well. Roast in the preheated oven for 30 minutes and then reduce the heat to 190C/375F/Gas 5 for a further 1 1/2 hours. This will give you blood-red beef in the middle. The way to test this is by using a meat thermometer to test to 55C/130F or, as I prefer, by plunging a metal skewer through the middle of the beef, holding it there for 10 seconds and then running it either across the wrist or under the bottom lip. If the skewer is cold the meat is not ready; if warm, it's medium; and if hot, then the meat is well done. When cooked, put the meat in a warm place to rest for 20-30 minutes before carving and serving. Meanwhile, put the oven up again to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Heat some of the excess dripping from the roast in a suitably-sized ovenproof pan or roasting tray. Whisk up the Yorkshire pudding batter, then pour into the tray and immediately place in the oven. Close the door quickly, and bake for 25 minutes. Turn the pan round and cook on for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile carve and portion the beef on to hot plates, and make a gravy using the juices left in the roasting. As soon as the Yorkshire pudding is ready, serve, with mustard and horseradish sauce, or indeed some horseradish mustard which I found once in Scotland. Tip: The bigger the joint, the better the meat, and it should always be cooked on the bone. The meat should have a good covering of fat, be dark red in colour (which shows it has been hung properly), and have a good marbling of fat throughout. Sprinkling some English mustard powder over the top of the meat halfway through cooking gives a nice heat. This Yorkshire pudding recipe works not by weight, but by volume. Use any size of cup, but measure each ingredient with the same cup. I'm not sure why the vinegar is there, but that's what my Gran did. It seems to work, so why change it? Yorkshire pudding is very versatile. It can be eaten by itself, with onions and gravy, or can be used in a sweet context as well - not surprising, as the batter is virtually the same as that for popovers and pancakes. In Yorkshire we eat it with sugar and jam, and that's after the pudding and the meat! |