Experimental Roast Beef Christmas Dinner

Happy 28th of December everyone!

I had to work on Christmas Day (it was quite nice - one of my colleagues cooked a big roast, some of the brass popped in with gifts of chocolate and we weren't too busy) so my other half and I are celebrating today.  We didn't fancy turkey so we went for a nice joint of beef instead.

We both like beef rare, and it should be tender, so I decided to experiment with slow-cooking it.  Research on the internet seemed to indicate that the best method is to cook the joint at 75C for about 4 hours with a meat thermometer stuck in it until the middle of the joint reached 55C.

Great - the only problem being, how do you roast your potatoes if the oven is at 75C?  Solution: slow cooker.  Unfortunately they tend not to have temperatures marked on the controls, just "low" or "high" so I did some experimenting with my oven thermometer (a must-have if you've lived in crappy rented homes with crappy ancient ovens in them) and discovered that even on Low my slow cooker reaches about 90C.  What about this "Warm" setting that I've never used, designed to keep the food warm without cooking it any more?  Perfect.  75C.

So: to prepare the meat, keep it out of the fridge for about 20 minutes to let it reach room temperature.  Season with plenty of salt and pepper and rub vegetable oil into it (don't use olive oil for this, it'll burn).

Now get a heavy-duty pan as hot as you can and sear the meat on all sides.  All those lovely crispy bits add flavour.  The smoke alarm will go off at this point.

When it's just nicely browned all over, transfer it to the slow cooker and leave for around four hours, or until the interior of the joint reaches 55C.  I bought the meat thermometer specifically for this, as I'm getting more and more interested in slow cooking, and it was only a fiver from Robert Dyas - money well spent, I think.

Yorkies were made to Felicity Cloake's recipe and turned out really well - normally my toad-in-the-whole never rises so I was very happy to see these beauties rear their heads in the oven!

Roast veg, of course, and gravy made in the vegetable roasting tray in the usual way using the juices from the bottom of the slow-cooker insert.

The meat turned out exactly as I'd hoped - pink all the way through except for the very edges, delicious and oh so tender - it just melts in the mouth.  Cooking in this way will turn out rare, no option for well-done, but who wants beef well-done anyway?

I made loads of veg, so there will be bubble-and-squeak with leftover cold beef tomorrow.  Lovely.