Roast beef with red wine plum sauce

A traditional beef roast with tangy plum sauce

Serves

6 - 8

Prep Time

30 mins

Cook Time

3 hrs

There’s nothing simpler than rubbing a piece of meat with seasoning and popping it in the oven to roast, letting the oven do all the work. This is a great way to cook a family-size piece of beef with minimal fuss. The red wine plum sauce is yet another of Christall's sauces made with jam, and balanced with red onion, mustard and a dash of red wine vinegar. It’s the perfect accompaniment for a roast dinner.

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Ingredients

For the beef

1.5kg Quality Mark whole beef rump
or whole scotch fillet
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic heads
sliced in half, crossways
2 red onions
quartered
3 carrots
peeled and chopped
½ pumpkin
peeled and chopped
2 kumara
peeled and chopped
3 large potatoes
peeled and chopped

For the seasoning

1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp dried thyme
or sage
1 Tbsp kawakawa
finely chopped, or oregano
1 Tbsp salt

For the plum sauce

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 red onion
diced
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
or black
½ cup Plum jam
2 plum
fresh or canned, pitted and chopped
1 cup red wine
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
to taste

Method

For the beef

Remove the beef from the fridge 30 minutes before you cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.

Mix the seasoning ingredients together in a small bowl and preheat the oven to 180°C.

Pat the meat dry, and rub all over with the seasoning, or salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a large skillet or frying pan over a high heat, and sear the beef for 4–5 minutes, browning on all sides.

Place the garlic and red onion in the centre of a roasting dish as a bed for the beef to sit on. Arrange veges for roasting around the outside. Drizzle with olive oil.

Place the beef on top of the veges and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes for very rare, or up to 2½ hours if you prefer it well done.

Cook time depends on both your preferred ‘doneness’, and the shape of the beef, e.g. a long and narrow piece of eye fillet will take less time than a rounder, thicker rump, so keep an eye on it. For the optimum cook time I definitely recommend using a digital meat thermometer - see below for recommended internal temperatures.

If you’re cooking vegetables in with the roast beef, turn them over after about 45 minutes, adding a drizzle of oil if they look too dry. If you’re cooking the beef so that it’s well done, you may need to remove the vegetables earlier so that they don’t overcook.

If you’re cooking the beef so that it’s rare, and the vegetables still need more cooking time, you can cook the vegetables further after you remove the beef to rest.

When the roast beef is done to your liking, remove from the oven and transfer to a clean dish, cover with tinfoil, or baking paper and a tea towel, and leave to rest for at least 20 minutes before carving.

For the red wine plum sauce

Heat the olive oil in a skillet or frying pan over a medium–low heat.

Add the red onions and cook gently for 5 minutes until softened but not browned.

Add the sugar, mustard seeds, plum jam, chopped plums and red wine and simmer for 15–20 minutes until sauce has reduced and slightly thickened.

Add red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper to taste.