Roast Beef with Fresh Horseradish

Grass-fed, properly matured, ready to roast...  It must be Sunday Lunch...

I've blogged elsewhere about roast beef and horseradish, but it is one of those meals that rightly comes round time and time again.  The ultimate cut of beef for roasting is the forerib from a good grass-fed animal that has been well hung and properly butchered.  You can tell so much from looking at it: slightly yellow fat means grass-fed (pure white indicates the animal was fed on grain and concentrated manufactured food; a deep purple flesh colour means it's been well hung (damp and bright red is always a bad sign); plenty of fat means it's a properly reared and matured animal and will give you a more succulent roast.

Season well, seal all over in a hot pan with a little oil or dripping.  Roast at 200°C for 15 minutes per pound.  Leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Horseradish is an interesting one.  Usually (even in my house!) it comes out of a jar, but every so often, it's  worth making your own.  Prepare yourself for sinus-clearing and tears - grating fresh onion has nothing on this.  I'm following Simon Hopkinson's recipe here for horseradish 'concentrate' then turning it into horesradish cream.  The concentrate lasts for a couple of weeks in a sealed jar in the fridge, though it will lose a little of its heat over time.

The concentrate can then be used for a number of other recipes - a personal favourite is to mix it with a spoonful of Dijon mustard, a dollop of crème fraîche and some freshly grated raw beetroot - makes a delicious relish for cold roast beef.

Horseradish concentrate
4oz fresh horesradish grated across the grain preferably on a microplane grater (see above)
1tsp salt
2tsp caster sugar
2tbsp water
juice of 1 lemon

Whizz everything together in a blender... that's it.  Be sure to grate the horseradish first - don't be tempted to let the blender do that bit for you!

Horseradish sauce
Simply whisk together equal quantities of the horseradish concentrate and double cream.  Only make enough for today's meal, as it won't last in the fridge, unlike the concentrate.

tags: beef  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit