the ultimate Old Hall Farm roast beef
Chef’s note:
Rebecca Mayhew and her team at Old Hall Farm share a this great recipe for roast sirloin on the bone – a perfect New Year’s Day centrepiece or alternative to turkey on the main day itself.
For the absolute best roast beef, I’m a big fan of keeping the beef on the bone – you get SO much more flavour from the joint. Now granted, it takes a little longer to cook, but the best things come to those who wait and then you have the advantage of being able to use the bone to make stock – after everyone has picked the last of the beef off the bones that is! My favourite joint is sirloin on the bone with the fillet left intact – you’re then really getting two roasts in one and my brain likes this level of multi-tasking!
- 1 piece of sirloin on the bone (around 5/6kg and 12” long)
- 2 medium onions
- 2 carrots
- 1 leek
- 1 stick of celery
- 4 bulbs of garlic (roughly chopped)
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 3 tablespoons mild curry powder
- sea salt
- lots of freshly ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/gas mark 8.
Roughly chop the vegetables, leaving the skin on, and place them in a large roasting tin, sitting the sirloin on top.
Season well with the sea salt and pepper and sprinkle the curry powder over liberally. DON’T PANIC – you won’t end up with curried beef – the curry powder gives the most amazing umami flavour without even a hint of heat or spice.
Place the roasting tin on the middle shelf of the oven and roast for half an hour, then turn the temperature down to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Cook for approximately another hour if you like your beef rare, or one hour 30 minutes for medium beef. Don’t forget to remove the fillet after the first hour for a beautiful, rare fillet of beef.
When the beef is cooked to your liking, remove from the oven and leave it to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving – plenty of time to make your gravy. Don’t waste the roasted vegetables; these make an excellent side dish at the table.
If, like us, you’re having beef for Christmas, then I go the extra mile and use beef tallow for the roast potatoes – the extra benefits taste wise MORE than make up for the extra calories, and of course, using natural animal, not vegetable, fat is a far more healthy choice in any case.
Old Hall Farm is a cow with calf dairy and farm shop specialising in raw Jersey milk, milkshakes, cream, butter, yoghurt, and much more from our own grass-fed Jersey cows. Our ‘Jersey goddesses’ are allowed to keep their calves with them rather than weaning at birth, usually staying together for six-to-eight months but this can be longer depending on the pair.
The Mayhew family have farmed in Woodton since the mid-1940s, starting out with a small suckler cow herd, chickens for egg production, and pig rearing, as well as farming over 500 acres of arable land.
While on a family holiday in 2016, Stuart and Rebecca Mayhew spent time on a friend’s dairy unit in Scotland and fell in love with the idea of having their own herd of Jersey cattle. Their first cow, the original Jersey Goddess Freya, arrived in November 2016 and they haven’t looked back since. Everything we do is influenced by our love for Jersey cows. We use simple artisan processes for all of our products and believe in quality over quantity.
Our farm shop is open every day from 8am until 6pm. Old Hall Farm, Norwich Road, Woodton, NR35 2LP. Call 01508 333110 or e-mail moo@oldhallfarm.co.uk Visit www.oldhallfarm.co.uk to find out more.