By Adam Liaw
The “Sunday roast” has been an Australian institution for as long as most of us can remember.
There are several theories about its origins, but the most likely lies in the religious practices of the different denominations of English Christianity.
Since at least the 18th century, English Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists abstained from eating meat on Fridays, giving rise to the related tradition of eating fish on Fridays.
Anglicans and English Catholics also often ate very plainly or fasted until the conclusion of Sunday services.
After all that fish and plain eating, it seems like the one thing they could all agree on was a big, celebratory feast of roasted meat after church on a Sunday.
The modern Aussie Sunday roast is still a work in progress. What we choose to eat, and when we choose to eat it, is a direct reflection on how we live.
Beef may be the original Sunday roasting meat, but today in Australia we could argue that the slow-cooked lamb shoulder has replaced beef, lamb leg, pork shoulder or chook as the Sunday roast of choice.
Still, I find myself coming back to the classic roast beef whenever I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. Slices of medium rare roast beef, airy Yorkshire puddings slicked with rich gravy, the sweet burst of peas and a sharp bite of mustard or horseradish.
Whatever your preference, the Sunday roast has a place in our culture that’s about much more than cooking.
It’s a chance to bring your family or friends together, to sit around a table once a week and take some time to be with each other.
A Sunday roast doesn’t even really need to be a roast at all. The important part is that it punctuates our week and our lives, lest it all blend in an endless procession of work, home, takeaway, paperwork, school pick-ups and laundry.
I love the occasion of a Sunday roast because it’s a little celebration. And the older I get, the more I’m convinced that we should take great pride in celebrating the little things.
The smaller the things we choose to celebrate, the more a part of our life they become.
Roast beef with rich port gravy
If you want to go for a full-blown roast, it’s hard to go past beef. I think rump or topside are your best options (a Scotch-rib roast is also delicious, but pricey) and a rich gravy and fluffy Yorkshire puddings are absolute musts.
Serves 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Resting time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 kg beef rump or topside roast
- salt and black pepper, to season
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 brown onions, cut into eighths
- 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled but bruised
- 2 carrots, halved lengthways and cut into 5 cm thick pieces
- 1 celery stalk, cut into 5 cm thick pieces
- 10 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped
- 2 dried bay leaves handful of parsley stalks, torn
- 25 g butter, melted, plus 15 g extra, cold and cubed
- 4 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Vegemite
- 500 ml beef stock
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 80 ml port
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 3 cups frozen peas, cooked to serve
- Yorkshire puddings, to serve
- Exceptionally good roast potatoes, to serve
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C or 180°C fan-forced. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Add the vegetable oil to a heavy roasting tin. Place the tin over two burners or elements on your stovetop on a medium heat. Cook the beef, turning, until browned on all sides, then turn off the heat. Add the onions, garlic, carrot, celery and herbs, manoeuvring them under the beef so that the beef sits on top. Pour 1 cup (250 ml) water into the tin, and spoon half the melted butter on top of the beef.
- Place the beef in the oven and cook for 20 minutes per 500 g for medium–rare, basting with the other half of the melted butter halfway through cooking. Remove the beef to a warm plate to rest for 30 minutes. Place the roasting tin back over two burners on your stovetop on a medium heat. If there is a lot more than about 4 tablespoons (80 ml) of fat in the base of the pan (this will depend on how fatty the roast is) remove a little with a spoon.
- Stir the flour and the Vegemite into the fat and vegetables and continue stirring for around 2–3 minutes until the fat-flour mixture (called a ‘roux’) is well browned. Stir in the stock, a little at a time, as well as any resting juices from the beef. Add a little extra stock or water if the gravy looks too thick (it will thicken more as it cools off the stove).
- Stir through the dark soy sauce and the port, bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then pass the gravy through a sieve into a small saucepan to remove the vegetables and any remaining lumps. Whisk through the cold butter until the gravy is glossy and add the vinegar just before serving. Slice the beef and serve with the peas, gravy, Yorkshire puddings and potatoes.
Tip: I often rest a roast, or steaks, in the microwave, turned off. It saves on having to cover the meat with foil, and the closed environment of the microwave is just the right size to let the resting roast keep itself warm without steaming too much.
This is an edited extract from 7 Days of Dinner by Adam Liaw (Hardie Grant
Books, RRP $45), which is available in stores nationally.