Simple Roast Beef and Mini Yorkshire Puddings

Simple Roast Beef:

1. Ideally, remove your beef from the fridge 30 mins to 1 hour before cooking. Pre-heat your oven to Preheat the oven to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F. 
2. Get your beef out of its packaging and stand it on a board. Drizzle the beef with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Rub the oil, salt and pepper all over the beef.
3. When the oven reaches 220C, put the beef in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes turn the oven down to 200C / 180C fan / gas mark 6 / 400F and cook for a further 50 minutes.
4. When the beef is ready, remove it from the oven and put it on a plate or a board. (I usually use a clean roasting tin, or sometimes even a pizza tray!)
5. Rest for 10 minutes (more if you can) and then carve and serve.

Mini Yorkshire Puddings:

1. Put the flour. milk, egg and salt in a bowl and whisk together using a hand whisk (or an electric one, if you prefer). 
2. Ten minutes before the beef is due out of the oven, get a cupcake tray and put a drizzle of olive oil in each little compartment. Put the tray into the oven to heat the oil.
3. When the beef comes out of the oven, turn the heat back up to up to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F and get the bun tray out of the oven. 2/3 fill each hole with the Yorkshire pudding batter and return the tray to the oven.
4. Cook for 12 minutes until puffy and golden. N.B. Don’t open the oven door while they are cooking!

Easy Beef Gravy:

1. When you have put the Yorkshire puddings in the oven, it’s time to make the gravy.
2. Start by crumbling the stock cube into a jug and adding the plain flour. Mix to a smooth paste using a small amount of cold water and then add 400ml boiling water to the jug, stirring constantly.
3. Remove the fat from the tin you roasted the beef in and put the tray on the hob over a low heat. Pour in the jug of beef gravy and stir to incorporate the bits on the bottom of the tin.
4. Add the juices from the resting beef and then cook the gravy on a low heat for about 5 minutes. Strain into a clean saucepan, using a sieve. Reheat the gravy just before serving.

Veg for roast beef:

1. Obviously you can do whatever veg you like, but if you want to do the same as me and want timings, this is what I do…
2. I prep all the veg straight after I have put the beef in the oven. I peel and chop 2 carrot and half a small swede into roughly 1cm cubes. I slice half a savoy cabbage into roughly 1cm strips and I cut the broccoli into small florets – or quite often I use tenderstem broccoli so there is no prep at all.
3. I put the carrot and swede in a sauce pan and the green veg in a steamer that fits on top. If you don’t have a steamer you can boil the green veg in a separate saucepan instead.
4. I put the carrot and swede on to boil for 15 minutes just before I take the beef out of the oven and I pop the steamer on top 7 minutes before the carrot and swede is ready.
5. When the veg is cooked, I quickly mash the carrot and swede with a little butter salt and pepper, and then serve.