our sunday lunch

One of the highlights of the week is when we sit down to our Sunday Lunch. For a lunch where you don't have to sweat for hours over the stove, yet still produce a traditional cooked meal, you can't beat a beef casserole. A piece of chuck steak, vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and gravy is so easy to prepare and cook.

Here's what we used today:

A piece of chuck steak.

Runner beans from the garden.

New potatoes from the garden

carrots from the store

parsnip from the store

One large old potato to roast.

Yorkshire puddings from the store. They only take four minutes to cook.

A small onion

Salt and pepper.

Brown the beef in oil on top of the stove.

Add the beef and the sliced onion to an oven proof dish and cover with water. Sprinkle in the salt and pepper.

Turn the oven on to full heat. While it's heating up, prepare the vegetables. Chop the old potato into large chunks, dice the carrot and slice the beans. Peel the parsnip and chop into large pieces.

When the oven is at temperature, cover the beef and place it in the middle of the oven.

After half an hour at this temperature, reduce the setting to gas mark 3 or 135C, 325F.

Cook for two hours.

Place all the vegetables in the steamer or simmer on top of the stove, adding salt to give them taste.

When the old potato and parsnip have simmered for ten minutes remove them from the pan and leave the other vegetables cooking until soft. When the vegetables are done, keep them warm.

When the casserole is finished, remove it then allow it to rest on the side, keeping it warm. Crank up the oven to full heat again. Place the partly cooked old potato and parsnip in a tray and sprinkle with oil. Put the tray in the oven at full heat. Baste the veggies once or twice so they turn crispy on the outside but are fluffy on the inside. When done, take them out and put the Yorkshire puddings in. Cook them while you make the gravy.

Take the roast veggies out of the tray and add a tablespoon of flour to the tray, scraping all the good bits off the bottom. Stir the flour into a paste, on a low heat then add water to form the gravy, stirring all the while, adding salt to taste and cook until the gravy is bubbling and tastes gorgeous. Assemble the meal and wait for the compliments to flow.