Pot roasted English Rubbed Silverside of Beef

Monday morning dawns and every week, I remember that today I have to put together a menu plan for the rest of the week.

The first thing to consider is how much money we've got available to us.  Do we need to be a little circumspect, or is the full budgeted amount available?  What is happening in the evening across the week?  Do we have any late school pickups?  Is son & heir going to be out for any of the evenings, or alternatively, is he likely to bring a pal home who might need dinner?

All these things having been taken into consideration, I then start by thinking about dishes I've been wanting to make, plus dishes I've been lusting after - and the same goes for hubby.  If son & heir is around, we ask him too - but his reply is often just "pizza" - although he did suggest last week's Carbonara, which was a stroke of brilliance on his part.

Inevitably, however, we wind up sat there pondering FOR EVER on what to have for Sunday's dinner.

This last Sunday was a different kettle of beef (see what I did there?) altogether.  I knew immediately what I wanted to do - which was throw a lump of beef in the slow cooker and have hubby do the rest.  No, not really (although that was kind of how it happened).

All rubbed, snuggled down on its celery & onions - see you in 8 hours!

You see, just recently we investigated making Pulled Pork by using the slow cooker - and very successful it was too.  (Yes, I know I haven't blogged that one yet - but I will!).  I had been pondering on why it was that the Americans seem to have the monopoly on "doing stuff with a huge lump of meat and loads of different rubbed on flavours" and came to the conclusion that it would be interesting to try creating an English Rub for meat.

Now the sensible choice would have been to try the process with a piece of pork, as I'd already done an American version with some success.  No.  I don't work like that.  I like a bit more jeopardy in my life.  ~rolls eyes~  I'd begun the process by thinking about what an "English Rub" would consist of, when all of a sudden realised I was considering rubbing it onto beef.  Well, it just made sense!  What is more English than Roast Beef?  So, if you're looking to create an "English Rub", it just made sense to use beef rather than anything else.

Eight hours later ...... cor!

Thankfully, our local butcher is currently doing a special offer on Silverside of beef - which also just happens to be one of hubby's favourite cuts of beef.  Not mine, I have to say, as I like to have a little more fat running through the meat - and the lack of fat gave me cause for concern as to the success of the rub.  After all, it's the rendering down of the fat in the pulled pork that gives it a lot of its flavour.

Silverside does have some fat - but it is a line which runs along one side of the meat (like with a Sirloin Steak).  I figured that if I could arrange the meat with that fat uppermost, as it rendered it would drip down and through the meat.  So I crossed my fingers and went for it.

The rub that I settled upon - and which worked so well - was made up almost entirely with ingredients that are best friends with beef and was as follows :

3 small bay leaves & 2 teaspoonfuls of yellow mustard seeds, which I pulverised with half a teaspoonful of sea salt in my pestle and mortar.  That gave me the deep flavour of the bay, along with the slight warmth and earthy flavour of the mustard.

Next, was a teaspoonful of dried thyme - for its overall herby flavour, a half of a teaspoonful of mace - for its fragrance, two teaspoonful of ground black pepper - for its warmth and deep savouriness, two teaspoonful of creamed horseradish - for its spicy kick and traditional flavour, two teaspoonfuls of redcurrant jelly, for a balancing sweetness with a fruity tang and a Knorr beef stock pot, just to add a lovely background savouriness.

All these ingredients went into a large freezer bag, followed by the beef.  It's a great way of being able to massage all those flavours into the beef, without massaging them into your hands, too.

I didn't leave the beef to marinate in the mixture, as I reckoned that eight hours in the slow cooker was probably long enough for it to do any marinating it might want to.

I sliced up two onions and three sticks of celery and piled them into the bottom of the slow cooker and placed the beef on top.  No water was added at this stage - or at any stage up until the end of cooking.  Whatever liquid was in there, came directly from the vegetables and the beef - which is why, when the time came to remove the beef to rest, I was surprised to see a good half an inch of liquid in there - which was deliciously oniony and made quite outstanding gravy.

The beef had shrunk a bit and developed a crust on the outside of it.  However, under that crust the meat was softly moist and completely delicious.  A friend commented on Facebook to ask whether we could taste the meat still - and believe it or not, all those flavours had accentuated the beefiness of the meat, not swamped it.  This was why I wanted to make sure I had predominantly classic flavours that went with beef, so that nothing would clash.  The only joker in the pack was the redcurrant jelly, which provided that lovely sweetness and tang that went so well with the horseradish and mustard.

The beef would have pulled apart (in the way of pulled pork), but it could also be carved, so we went for that option as we were serving it alongside roast potatoes and parsnips with steamed vegetables.  It was very worthwhile serving it this way, as it made use of the juices in some amazing gravy.  I can quite imagine, however, that it would have been completely spanking in a substantial bread bun, with more horseradish and some watercress.

So there you are!  The next time you have a piece of Silverside and don't know what to do with it - remember the English Rub!


POT ROAST ENGLISH RUBBED SILVERSIDE OF BEEF   (serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

1kg beef silverside, raw and whole
2 large onions, peeled, halved and sliced thickly
3 sticks of celery, washed, trimmed and cut into three
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
3 small bay leaves
a large pinch of sea salt (for the pestle & mortar method)
1 tsp dried thyme
half a tsp ground mace
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp creamed horseradish
2 tsp redcurrant jelly
1 Knorr beef stock pot.

Method :

1.  Place the sliced onions and celery into the bottom of a slow cooker.

2.  Put the mustard seeds and bay leaves into a spice grinder and grind to a powder.  Alternatively (which was my choice) put them into a pestle & mortar along with the pinch of sea salt and grind until a rough powder.

3.  Take a large freezer bag and into it, put all the rub ingredients : the mustard/bay/salt mix (or add the salt, if you've used a spice grinder), thyme, mace, black pepper, horseradish, redcurrant and stock pot.  Twist the top of the bag and massage all the ingredients until well smooshed together.

4.  If your piece of beef has been tied, remove the ties and around a third of the fat.

5.  Add to the plastic bag and seal the top.  Massage the rub into the meat by squidging the bag and turning the meat over and over - until it is coated completely with the rub.

6.  Cut off the top of the bag and place the beef on top of the bed of onions and celery.

7.  Turn the slow cooker on to medium and cook for the next 8 hours.

8.  Once the cooking time is up, remove the beef from the accumulated juices (there will be quite a lot!) and put onto a place, cover with foil and leave in a warm place to rest.

9.  Drain the juices from the slow cooker into a saucepan.  Add a little water or beef stock if you need to increase the quantity and heat until simmering.  Add either Bisto Rich Roasted Beef Gravy granules if you are after a big flavoured gravy, or some plain flour mixed with a little water, if you are happy with the flavours as they are.  Stir through and once thickened, serve.

Slice the beef with a sharp knife and serve with roasted potatoes, roasted parsnips, steamed cabbage, carrots, peas and your lovely gravy.  A couple of Yorkshire Puddings generally go down fairly well, too!

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Beef Silverside & Mushroom Pie - a classic "leftovers" pie

We knew that, with just the three of us eating from a 1kg piece of Silverside, there would be plenty of leftovers.  So, rather than use the remainder in (albeit delicious) sandwiches, I thought we'd do something a bit more useful and make a pie.

There was a good five or six slices left - and the smaller offcuts - so I had plenty of beef and didn't need to pad the filling out with lots of veggies.  So for all that it is called a "Silverside & Mushroom Pie", it was in fact a beef, onion & mushroom pie.

Now anyone who has been following this blog for a while, will know that I've had something of a chequered history with pies.  The big problem, it would seem, is that I rarely get the sauce/gravy consistency right.  It is either too thin, or too thick.  Too much, or not enough.

I was determined, with this pie, to get it right.

As such, I'd made sure that hubby kept any leftover gravy and stock from braising the beef the day before - so I had a great base to start with.

I kicked off proceedings by cooking two sliced onions until they were soft and golden - just starting to caramelise and deliver that lovely fried onion flavour.  I then added the mushrooms and quickly cooked them - not completely - but enough that they obtained a hint of colour.

Next, in went yesterday's gravy and the gravy that the sliced meat had sat in (in the fridge) since the day previous - and tasted.  Mmmn, nice - but not robust enough.

So, I then added two bay leaves, a half an Oxo cube (which helped with the beefy flavour and added a little salt), a teaspoonful of Bovril to boost the beefy flavour even further, a good glug or three of Worcestershire Sauce (which always helps beef dishes along a bit) and a dessertspoonful of tomato ketchup (which delivers a mix of spices that it is very difficult to find elsewhere, plus a little sweetness).

I gave that lot time to blend together as the gravy simmered, then tasted again.  Oooh yes, now we're talking - but it needed to be thicker and could do with a good grind or three of black pepper.  Pepper duly added, I rummaged in the cupboard and found a jar of Bisto "best rich & roasted beef" gravy granules.  Ordinarily, I'd opt for some flour or cornflour to thicken a gravy, but something made me use the gravy granules.  You need to be careful about how much salt is in the gravy already, as gravy granules can really deliver an intense salty hit, if you're not careful.  In this case, just a couple of tablespoonfuls made all the difference to the gravy, making it glossy, thick and oh so flavoursome.  Thinking on, although I was a tad embarrassed at using gravy granules, it occurred to me that it was really no worse than using a stock cube, in the context with which I was using it.  After all, I'm not exactly just adding water, stirring and calling it gravy.

Once I had the gravy where I wanted it, I added the beef (which I'd chopped into bite sized pieces) and heated it all through while the oven warmed up and I got the pastry ready.

This really was a superb pie.  I think the closest I can get to it would be the Kate & Wills' Wedding Pie, but it would be close run thing to judge between them.

The beef was tender, the mushrooms delicious and the onions had just melted away into the gravy.  The gravy had all the benefit of the beef having been cooked in it, plus the effect of the red wine, which boosted its depth and flavour.  The consistency of the gravy was perfect in that it coated the ingredients but still had enough movement to ooze from the pie into the accompanying vegetables.

Goodness, just thinking back and remembering the flavours is making my tummy rumble - which is testimony to just how good the pie was, I think!

I won't set out a recipe for the pie, as the ingredients - particularly for the gravy - very much depend on what was used to cook the beef in to begin with.  However, I hope this blog post will act as inspiration for you to give a go to making a pie with the leftovers from your next piece of roast beef - if you have any, that is!

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Slow Cooker Braised Silverside of Beef

Multiple gorgeousnesses

You might remember I mentioned that our local butcher is selling silverside at a remarkably good price - £4.95 a kilo.  Well, we couldn't leave such a great offer in the shop, now could we?

Silverside comes from the back leg of the animal - above the leg and below the buttock, effectively.  The piece of silverside we brought home was a really nice-looking piece of beef, with fine lines of fat marbling through the meat that would ensure it stayed juicy when cooked.  For some strange reason, the butcher had attached extra fat to the joint of meat which we were quick to remove.  Well, for our purposes - we were braising in stock - we didn't need the extra fat and the dogs were happy to take it off our hands.

For all that we were keen to have a proper roast beef dinner that Sunday, I couldn't help but worry whether roasting the beef would render it tender enough.  I know that hubby and son & heir have textural issues with their food and tough meat is a guaranteed no-no for the both of them.  So this is why we opted for the guaranteed tenderiser of the slow cooker.

Hubby was in charge - as it was Sunday - and he put the beef into a lovely broth of assorted flavours that smelled awesome as the day progressed.

This photograph makes my teeth itch to get stuck in again!

When it came to serving time, between the smells from the gravy, the meat, the roasting vegetables and Yorkshire puddings, I was in a welter of anticipation.  I had my little pot of horseradish sauce and another of mustard, my knife and fork were in their blocks and ready for the off.  I felt like one of the Bisto kids!

Roast beef has to be my favourite Sunday meal.  Now okay, this beef wasn't "roasted" as tradition would dictate but boy oh boy, it was very close to it.  Succulent and robust, each slice just danced across your tongue accompanied by the tangy horseradish - just bliss.

So if your butcher is doing a special offer on silverside and you've got a slow cooker - don't hesitate, just get some!

SLOW COOKER BRAISED SILVERSIDE OF BEEF  (feeds 3 with plenty left for a pie the next day)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1kg piece of silverside of beef

100ml beef stock (from a cube or made with Bovril is fine)

100ml Shiraz red wine

2 bay leaves

1 large onion, coarsely sliced

2 garlic cloves, smashed, with skins left on

1 carrot cut lengthways and into chunks

a tsp of whole black peppercorns

a tsp of herbes de provence

half a tsp of Worcestershire sauce

half a tsp of Mushroom ketchup.

Method :

1.  Into the slow cooker , add all the ingredients except for the oil and the beef.  Turn the slow cooker on to high, to get them all heated through.

2.  Take a non-stick frying pan and on a high heat, heat the oil until sizzling.  Then seal the beef on all sides, leaving it long enough to get a crusty, caramelised surface that will help the "roasted" flavour.

3.  Place the beef carefully into the stock in the slow cooker.

4.  Pour any liquid fat out of the frying pan, then add a ladleful of the stock from the slow cooker to deglaze the pan.  Pour back into the slow cooker, add the lid and cook on high for some 5-6 hours.

5.  Once the cooking time is up, remove the beef and cover in tin foil.  Leave it to rest in a warm place for up to half an hour.

6.  In the meantime, drain the cooking liquor through a sieve into a saucepan to make the gravy.  Begin by bringing the liquid to a gentle boil and allow the liquid to reduce by a quarter - just enough to concentrate the flavours.  It is probably best to judge it by taste, as to how far you reduce the liquor.

7.  Once reduced sufficiently, slake a dessertspoonful of cornflour with a little water - just enough to make it mobile - and add, by degrees, to the gravy, stirring constantly.

8.  Once the gravy achieves the desired consistency, carve the meat and serve.

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