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Yes, another Heston recipe, maybe I am a bit obsessed but it’s only coz his recipes are so awesome. (More of my Heston experience/recipes here)

This is really a very, very easy recipe, it takes a long time but requires very little involvement and the results are fantastic. Melt in the mouth beef, packed full of flavour and a wonderful, rich sauce.

I can’t describe how wonderful it is, the meat just falls apart, no knife required & the taste is astonishingly good considering how little effort goes into it.

Prep time = 1 week (optional) if you want to dry age your beef in the fridge to concentrate the flavour.

Otherwise, it’ll take 10 hours from start to finish.

• 4 hours (at least) before cooking – You need take it out of the fridge so that it comes to room temperature.
• 6 hours before serving – start cooking (~5 hours cooking & 1 hour of resting).

After that, it’s a pretty simple process (unless you decide to make the stock for the gravy yourself which I did).

You will find Heston’s recipe on the guardian news website. Below is what I did with the extra step of aging.

Ingredients:

• 3-bone rib of beef on the bone (mine weighed 1.5kg)
• Salt & pepper to season
• Oil for frying
• 2L beef stock
• 250g finely sliced shallots (I used onions)
• 150ml white wine (I used Oyster Bay Chardonnay for that oaky character)
• 100g Dijon mustard
• 10ml sherry vinegar
• 15ml lemon juice
• 20g finely chopped parsley leaves
• 20g finely chopped chives
• 10g finely chopped tarragon

Method:

1. One week before you want to start cooking, take the ribs out of plastic and put it on a wire mesh over a tray so that air can circulate all around & underneath it Comment: I improvised with bamboo skewers on a plate
2. Leave your meat uncovered in the fridge & don’t pack too many things around it otherwise air won’t be able to circulate
3. Hey presto, the outside looks dark & hard just like aged meat chunks. Your meat needs to come to room temperature before you roast it so take it out at least 4 hours priorComment: Look at how the colouring has changed after the aging process
4. Season the meat with salt & pepper
5. Pre-heat oven to 60°C
6. Heat oil in a large pan on high heat until smoking then sear beef on as many sides as you can get. I kept turning every 30 seconds & fried for prob 3 mins total. You want it quick so that you’re just crisping up the outside, not cooking the insides.Comment: Next time I will sear the fatty side for a bit longer as browner = tastier
7. Bung it in the oven for 5 hours or until the insides hit 55°C for medium rare (obviously, if you want it more well done, keep it in longer/cook it on higher temperature). Let the meat rest for 1 hour.Comment: Obviously, using a different plate & skewers to when I aged the meat
8. While the meat rests, time to make the gravy & any accompaniments
9. Bring your stock to the boil & reduce until it’s the thickness you want for your gravy
10. While that is reducing, in a separate saucepan, melt the butter & cook the onions/shallots until light brown in colour. Add wine & reduce by 3/4 on high heat – make sure to scrap the pan of all the caramelised bits on the bottom – pure flavour that is
11. Take off heat, add mustard & mix it completely, then combine with reduced stock
12. Add the sherry vinegar & lemon & mix well
13. Add the herbs & season
    Comment: I didn’t add marrow to the sauce, I figured there was some in the stock anyway
14. Carve your beef, pour over your gravy & serve with your favourite accompaniments

Some choice cuts right here

It just melts, and the gravy is so tasty, I’ve now developed an appreciate of tarragon. I was just going to lump on the chive mash but my brother decided to quenelle it to make it look fancier.

The gravy was rich, butter and sweet with a wonderful infusion of herbs.

I will most definitely make this again.

This entry was posted on March 31, 2012 at 1:14 pm and is filed under .My personal ratings, 1 - Laudable :D, Cuisine, English, Main, Meat, Modern, Recipe Difficulty, Recipes, Savouries, Simple with tags cooking, food blog, heston blumenthal, recipe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.