BEST ROAST BEEF

Ingredients
1 x 2.5kg/5½lb fore-rib, wing rib or sirloin of beef,
French trimmed
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
3 red onions, halved
2 bulbs of garlic
3kg/7lb roasting potatoes, peeled
3 rosemary twigs
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled & diced
½ bottle of robust red wine

Method
1 Pre-heat oven to 230C/450F/Gas 8, and heat a
large thick-bottomed roasting tray on the hob.
2 Rub your beef generously with salt, then add a
little olive oil to the tray and lightly colour the meat
for a couple of minutes on all sides.
3 Lay your onions and bulbs of garlic in the tray
with the beef on top of them, then cook in the preheated
oven for a total of 1½ hours.
4 While the beef is starting, parboil your potatoes in
salted boiling water for around 10 minutes and
drain in a colander. Toss about to chuff them up
this will make them really crispy.
5 After 30 minutes, take the tray out and toss in
your potatoes, parsnips and rosemary. With a garlic
press or grater, squeeze or grate the garlic and
ginger over everything in the tray.
6 Shake the tray and whack it back in the oven for
the final hour. Remove the potatoes and parsnips to
a dish to keep warm, place the beef on a plate,
covered with foil, to rest, and get your greens and
Yorkshire puddings on.
7 Remove most of the fat from your roasting tray
and you should be left with caramelized onions and
sticky beef goodness. Add a teaspoon of flour to the
tray and mash everything together.
8 Heat the tray on the hob and when hot, add the
red wine. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring every
couple of minutes, until your gravy is really tasty
and coats the back of a spoon. Add any juice from
the beef and feel free to add some water or stock
to thin the gravy if you like.
9 Pour through a coarse sieve and push it through
with a spoon and serve in a warmed gravy jug.