Mario’s Classic Sunday’s Roast Beef
It is important to have the piece of beef at room temperature at least 1 hour before roasting for better results. Check the full podcast Under the grill on all platforms
Ingredients
- 1 kg Striploin beef
- Salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp. oil
- Roasted Potatoes:
- 8 potatoes
- 2 tbsp goose/duck fat/oil
- Salt and pepper
Carrots and peas
- 4 carrots sliced
- 25 g butter
- 300 ml vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp honey
- 150 peas
- Salt and pepper
Gravy:
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 100 ml red wine
- 300 ml beef stock
- 1 tbsp butter optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180-200˚C.
- Weight your joint to calculate the time of cooking (10-15 minutes to colour + 15minutes per
- 500g)
- Rub the beef with some oil and season well with salt and pepper.
- Place the beef on a roasting tray with a bulb of garlic, carrot and onion as a raft.
- Alternatively, place the beef on a small rack in the roasting tray.
- Place in the roasting oven ( 180-190˚C) in the middle shelf. The higher the beef will be the
- more it will roast quickly on the surface.
- Roast (for our 1 kg weight) for about 40-45 minutes, or check with a meat thermometer to reach your preferred core temperature. The beef at this stage should be medium/ mediumrare. For well-done, leave it an extra 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, on stovetop , in a saucepan, bring to the boil the potatoes. Simmer for a further 5 – 7 minutes or so.
- Place the fat on a roasting tray (or you can use any space around the roasting joint) and place the tray in the oven for a few minutes to melt the fat. Strain the potatoes and give them a little shake to fluff them up. Add the potatoes to the hot fat and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes.
- Prepare the vegetables. Place the carrots, in a saucepan and just cover with enough vegetables stock. Add 25g of butter, a tbsp honey and seasoning. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and continue to simmer for 15 minutes or until the carrots are cooked to your liking.
- Once ready to serve toss in the peas , and simmer a further 3-5 minutes to warm up into the mixture.
- Keep warm aside.
- At this stage, remove the beef from the oven, place on a carving board and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes, covered with a loose layer of tin foil.
- Using the roasting tray to make the gravy, drain excess fat and place the roasting tray on the cooker, on a medium to low heat.
- Stir over the flour until the mixture becomes dry and lumpy in consistency.
- Add in the red wine and beef stock slowly.
- Once boiling for a minute, remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan. Simmer once more until it reach the desired coating consistency. Remove from the heat and stir in some butter if desired to had extra flavour to the gravy. Transfer into a sauceboat
- Now, carve the beef and serve with the vegetables, roast potatoes and gravy. Enjoy
Mario’s Chocolate Fudge Cake
Ingredients
- 125 g flour
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 100 g caster sugar
- 7 g baking powder
- 1 egg
- 45 ml sunflower oil or melted butter
- 100 ml milk
- 25 ml coffee espresso cooled
Buttercream icing
- 90 g chocolate
- 1.5 tbsp water warm
- 90 g butter
- 125 g icing sugar
To decorate;
- 100 g dark chocolate curls
Instructions
- Grease and line with parchment paper a 12-15cm diameter round cake tin. Preheat the oven to 160˚C.
- In a bowl, beat the egg with the caster sugar until light and fluffy.
- Stir in the oil, milk, and cold coffee. Sieve and Fold in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder. Stir until combined into a stiff mixture.
- Pour the mixture in the tin and place in the oven.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out neatly. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Prepare the buttercream.
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl, over a bain-marie ( saucepan with simmering water). Once, melted, stir in the warm water. And keep aside.
- In a bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then fold in the melted chocolate mixture next, beat in the icing sugar until fully combined light and fluffy.
- Slice the cake sideway to have 2 layers of cake and spread half of the buttercream equally over both layers.
- Place one layer on top of the other to create the cake and spread the rest of the buttercream around the sides and top to cover the cake with the buttercream icing.
- Sprinkle chocolate curls around and set aside for 2 hours to settle the flavours.
- Serve the cake within 2-3 days for best flavour and texture.