Thyme roasted sirloin of beef

1 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
6 pounds Piece of boned and rolled sirloin
3 Fat cloves of garlic
3 Sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
The beef bones
1 Onion; chopped roughly
1 tablespoon Plain flour
300 millilitres Beef stock
1 Glass red wine

Directions

Wipe the beef with a clean damp cloth and let it stand at room temperature for an hour or so. Pre-heat the oven to its hottest setting - 250C/gas 8.

Cut the garlic into fine slivers and break the thyme into tiny sprigs. With the point of a knife make small deep cuts all over the surface of the beef.

Insert a sliver of garlic and a sprig of thyme in each cut, pushing them well into the joint with a knife. Season the beef with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat the roasting tin over a flame and seal the beef on all sides. Remove from the tin.

Put bones and roughly chopped onion in roasting tin, and using them as a trivet, sit the sirloin of beef on top, ready for roasting. Roast the skin side up in the hot over for 20 minutes until the beef has browned. Baste with any fat which has escaped. Turn down the oven temp to 220C/gas 6 and continue roasting for a further 50 minutes to 1 hour 10 minutes until beef is medium rare. You will have to test the beef as you go because I find the standard times generally given do not take account of the thickness of the sirloin. The larger the diameter of the piece the longer it will take. As a rule of thumb allow ten minutes per pound for medium beef.

Insert a skewer into the middle of the joint. Hold for a count of 10 then touch your top lip with the skewer point. If it is warm and the juices run deep pink, it is done. (For well done beef the skewer will be hot and the juices almost clear.)

Remove the joint from the roasting tin and set on a dish in a warm place for ½ hour to settle the joint. The juices will settle back into the meat and the muscle will relax, making the sirloin more tender to carve and eat.

Gravy: Pour off all but 2tbsp of the beef dripping, leaving behind the meaty juices and browned onion. Remove the bones and keep on one side.

Sprinkle the flour into the tin to absorb the beef juices.

Gradually add the red wine, scraping up all the meaty juices which have seeped from the beef. Gradually whisk in the stock and bring to the boil.

Pour in any juices which have seeped from the beef.

Add the bones back to the gravy and continue to bubble away to remove as much flavour as possible from the juice-encrusted bones. Check seasoning, strain into a gravy boat to serve.

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Carlton Food Network

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