Perfect Roast Beef w/ Tomato Gravy

This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver's website, www.jamieoliver.com. I changed it up just a bit, but pretty much followed the recipe to a tee. Jamie's my favorite, so I don't mess around too much with his recipes. Anyway, I made this meal last night from ingredients that I bought at Kirkgate Market Leeds.


Perfect Roast Beef

• 1 kg quality topside of beef
• 1 medium onion        
• 2 carrots     
• 1 red chilli
• 3 bay leaves       
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 small bunch fresh thyme        
• olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 pint cream sherry

To prepare your beef:
Take your beef out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/ gas 9. There's no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them. Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled.

Pile all the veg, garlic and herbs into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil. Drizzle the beef with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper and fresh thyme leaves, rubbing it all over the meat. Place the beef on top of the vegetables and add the sherry to pan.

To cook your beef:
Place the roasting tray in the preheated oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook for 1 hour for medium beef. If you prefer it medium-rare, take it out 5 to 10 minutes earlier. For well done, leave it in for another 10 to 15 minutes.

When the beef is cooked to your liking, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the beef to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so. Cover it with a layer of tinfoil and put aside while you make your gravy. Slice the beef thinly for best results.

Tomato Gravy

1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup cream sherry
2 Tbsp. English mustard (I used Colemans)
Juices from beef dish

Add all the ingredients in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer 10 minutes. Pour over sliced beef.

Jamie's Italian - Leeds

 

 

This past Monday, on one of my exploring Leeds expeditions, I looked across the street and saw a sign that read Jamie's Italian. Of course I ran across the street to see if it was actually what I thought it was and to my surprise it was. A Jamie Oliver restaurant!! Jamie Oliver has been one of my favorite chefs for years, from the early Naked Chef series to his wonderful Jamie at Home. When I met Dan at the train station that night I promptly walked him up the street to see the place. We would eat there the following evening.
When you first walk in, there is a little shop with some of Jamie's items on sale. You walk up a short flight of steps to the get your table. We were seated immediately and the place was pretty busy. The interior is a blend of modern and rustic with a small bar and a large kitchen open to the dining room. We had a very good waitress named Nejra, who had a great personality. The food came out slowly , but it was all worth it. We started with a special appetizer (4 pounds .50), a 3 cheese fried gnocchi with an arrabbiatta dipping sauce that was served on a plank. Great presentation for a great starter! The gnocchi were crispy on the outside and pillowy on the inside. We followed that up with the simple green salad (3 pounds .25) that came with a nice yogurt dressing on the side that was really good topped off with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

 

For dinner I had the pumpkin tortellini (10 pounds .25), which had to be one of the best meals I have ever eaten! The flavors of this dish worked so well together, fried sage leaves, pumpkin, red chilies, amaretto cookie crumbles and butter! Dan had the equally amazing lasagna ( 10 pounds .75), which featured an amazing Bolognese sauce and pumpkin. We ordered lemon meringue pie for dessert ( 4 pounds .95). It was served with a pistachio brittle and candied grapefruit peel. The pie was perfect, a great way to end the meal.
We both started our meals with beer, Dan opted for the Liberta, which is Jamie's brew and it was good. I ordered the Messina, an Italian beer that I had never heard of and I liked it as well. We both ordered the house wine with our meals, Dan the red, me the white. They were both good as well. We will be back, often.

 

They are located at 35 Park Row LS1 5JL 0113-3225-400 www.jamiesitalian.com . Also check out Jamie's nice website www.jamieoliver.com .