Jamie Oliver's Best Roast Beef

Ingredients

• 1 (5 1/2 lb)  sirloin beef, French trimmed

• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 3 red onions, halved
• 2 heads garlic, plus
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 7 lbs roasting potatoes, peeled
• 3 fresh rosemary sprigs
• 2 inches piece gingerroot, peeled and diced

• 1/2 (750 ml) bottle robust red wine

Directions

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C), and heat a large thick-bottomed roasting tray on the stovetop.

2. 2

   Rub the beef generously with salt, then add a little olive oil to the tray and lightly color the meat for a couple of minutes on all sides.

3. 3

   Lay the onions and bulbs of garlic in the tray with the beef on top of them, then cook in the pre-heated oven for a total of 1 1/2 hours.

4. 4

   While the beef is roasting, parboil your potatoes in salted boiling water for around 10 minutes and drain in a colander. Toss about to chuff them up, this will make them really crispy.

5. 5

   After 30 minutes, take the tray out and toss in your potatoes and rosemary. With a garlic press or grater, squeeze or grate the cloves of garlic and ginger over everything in the tray.

6. 6

   Shake the tray and whack it back in the oven for the final hour. Remove the potatoes to a dish to keep warm, place the beef on a plate, covered with foil, to rest, and get your greens and Yorkshire puddings on.

7. 7

   Remove most of the fat from your roasting tray and you should be left with caramelized onions and sticky beef goodness.

8. 8

   Add 1 teaspoon of flour to the tray and mash everything together. Heat the tray on the stovetop and when hot, add the red wine. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until your gravy is really tasty and coats back of a spoon. Add any juice from the beef and feel free to add some water or stock to thin the gravy if you like.

9. 9

   Pour through a coarse sieve and push it through with a spoon, pushing it through with a spoon, and serve in a warmed gravy jug.