Roast with Red Wine and Onion Gravy

Prep time 15 min.  

Cooking time 1 hr.

Serves 4

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Place the beef in the middle of a large metal baking tray with the layer of fat facing up. Place the potatoes, pumpkin, onion and garlic around it. Use paper towels to pat dry the fat layer of the beef. Drizzle olive oil over the meat and vegetables in the tray and massage all over. Season with salt and pepper (generous sprinkle of salt on the beef fat). Cover the beef fat in thyme leaves. Place in the oven on the middle shelf for 30 minutes. Turn all the vegetables over and rotate the tray. Put it back in the oven for another 25 minutes or until it is medium rare (around 60 degrees Celsius using a meat thermometer).

Once the meat is ready remove it from the tray and place it on a ceramic dish, cover with foil and rest for at least 10 minutes. Leave a gap in the foil so air can flow out. Continue to cook the roast vegetables until golden. Steam the broccolini in a pot on the stove.

To prepare the gravy, tip the resting meat juices from the dish into a jug then move the roast vegetables to the meat dish. Discard any excess fat from the baking tray then pour the meat juices into the tray. Put the tray on the stove on a moderate heat. Mix stock powder in half a cup of boiling water and add it to the pan. Mix flour in half a cup of cold water until lumps dissolve then pour it into the pan. Stir and simmer and once hot pour in red wine and the roasted onion. Reduce the gravy to your ideal consistency.

Serve roast beef and vegetables with generous lashings of gravy.