Pot-roast beef with French onion gravy
By Jane Hornby
Silverside and topside are cheaper and leaner cuts of meat, well-suited to slow-cooking. The stock and juices make a great sauce when combined with caramelised onions
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Prep:15 mins
Cook:2 hrs 15 mins
- Serves 4
- Easy
Nutrition per serving
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kcal 487
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fat 17g
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saturates 5g
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carbs 19g
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sugars 15g
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fibre 5g
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protein 6g
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salt 1g
Ingredients
- 1kg silverside or topside of beef, with no added fat (see tip, below)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 8 young carrots, tops trimmed (but leave a little, if you like)
- 1 celery stick, finely chopped
- 200ml white wine
- 600ml rich beef stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 500g onions
- a few thyme sprigs
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 tsp light brown or light muscovado sugar
- 2 tsp plain flour
Tip
Choosing your meatIf you can, pick a flatter piece of meat rather than a taller, rounder one of the same weight. This will cook in less time, as the heat has less distance to travel, and more of the meat will be sitting in the cooking liquid for more of the time. If you’re scaling up the recipe to serve more than four, or you have a rounder cut of meat, the roast may take 3 hours.
Method
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Rub the meat with 1 tsp of the oil and plenty of seasoning. Heat a large flameproof casserole dish and brown the meat all over for about 10 mins. Meanwhile, add 2 tsp oil to a frying pan and fry the carrots and celery for 10 mins until turning golden.
Lift the beef onto a plate, splash the wine into the hot casserole and boil for 2 mins. Pour in the stock, return the beef, then tuck in the carrots, celery and bay leaves, trying not to submerge the carrots too much. Cover and cook in the oven for 2 hrs. (I like to turn the beef halfway through cooking.)
Meanwhile, thinly slice the onions. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and stir in the onions, thyme and some seasoning. Cover and cook gently for 20 mins until the onions are softened but not coloured. Remove the lid, turn up the heat, add the butter and sugar, then let the onions caramelise to a dark golden brown, stirring often. Remove the thyme sprigs, then set aside.
When the beef is ready, it will be tender and easy to pull apart at the edges. Remove it from the casserole and snip off the strings. Reheat the onion pan, stir in the flour and cook for 1 min. Whisk the floury onions into the beefy juices in the casserole, to make a thick onion gravy. Taste for seasoning. Add the beef and carrots back to the casserole, or slice the beef and bring to the table on a platter, with the carrots to the side and the gravy spooned over.
