PEPPERED BEEF BLADE ROAST & TRIMMINGS
Slow braised peppered beef blade roast, my Jamaican twist on a classic roast.
Unfiltered Flavours+! Issue #9 Braised beef in a banging peppered glaze, served with a swede and carrot puree, sautéed savoy cabbage & Cavolo, Yorkshire puddings and roasties. This is definitely a treat for these cold autumn Sundays.
One thing about me? I LOVE a roast dinner. It’s all I’ve known my whole life. Growing up in a Jamaican household I always got the best of both worlds when it came to food. Sunday dinner is a tradition for me, it was the one day of the week when I knew I was going to get a super filling hearty meal that would put me to sleep.
As much as I love a roast dinner, I absolutely hate cooking them. So just know whenever you see me make a roast, I’ve pulled out all the stops.
Flavours & ingredients
when it gets to winter I really appreciate a slow cooked piece of beef. I’m really tapped into my roots and love adding a little bit of my Jamaican flare here and there. So that’s exactly what I did with this one. Peppered steak is something I grew up eating a lot. It’s not something I eat regularly now, but the flavours are so nostalgic!! So with that being said, we’re using some non traditional ingredients like Green seasoning (a herb based seasoning), scotch bonnet, ginger, spring onions and even ketchup
A lot of people always ask me, why do you use ketchup? My answer is, back in the day that’s what my nana used and I imagine it’s because tomato paste wasn’t a thing in Jamaica and if it was it would been expensive. Ketchup is basically a sweeter tomato paste and I still use it til this day. As for green seasoning, it’s a common seasoning used across the whole of the Caribbean and it varies from island to island and person to person. Green seasoning is made from different green herbs and aromatics. You can use it in curries, seafood, meat. Anything savoury! I’ve included the ingredients for my green seasoning with beef roast recipe. All you do is chop the everything up and whack it in a blender, proper simple. This will keep for a few weeks in the fridge, but if you put it into an ice tray and pop the cubes into a ziplock bag? They’ll keep for months!
Today Im using a less popular cut BUT the flavours and tenderness of the meat is crazy. This recipe uses a feather blade steak AKA flat iron. I got this from Philip warren butchers and the quality is just insane. When this arrived it was actually way too big for my pot, so I cut it down to around 1.6kg and used the rest for steaks. This cut works for slow cooking or a good steak. When you get a cut of meat it’s all about the marbling/intramuscular fat. This is going to give you great flavour and great texture. With the feather blade it’s somewhat similar to a chuck roast so that’s your next best bet if you want to replicate this. The Feather Blade Steak is cut from the shoulder blade muscle. It’s called feather blade because it has a seam that runs through the centre of the steak. During slow cooking the gelatinous seam then breaks down which gives the steak a rich depth of flavour. Now this isn’t a cut you’ll find in your supermarket, but any decent butcher will be able to get this for you!
A good roast dinner needs a few other things…roast potatoes, a good bit of veg and maybe a mash and an exceptional gravy! I opted for carrot and swede puree, I love it. When done right it’s delicious, but it’s not for everyone. When eating beef, there has to be a Yorkshire pudding on my plate and it HAS to be beef dripping Yorkshire pudding.
Technique & equipment
No roast dinner is complete without a gravy, you need something for Yorkshire pudding to mop up. Now this glaze is basically a demi glace. It’s thicker and richer than a gravy and with the combination of Jamaican flavours a little goes a long way.
For the glaze you need a really good gelatinous beef stock! Stock cubes aren’t going to cut it with this one. So it needs to be either home made or picked up from your butchers/market. If the stock has no jiggle to it when cold, just know you’ll never be able to get the glaze right. To put it this way, if you boil water it’s never going to thicken and that’s the same with a watery stock. You won’t be able to reduce your sauce down and achieve that luxuriousness.
When it comes to prepping your veg, keep it nice and chunky. This means the glaze will have a nice shine to it. When you strain the cooking juices, you may be tempted to press the juices out, but dont! Let it hang and naturally do its thing, these are the crucial steps to achieving the perfect glaze.
Yorkshire puddings….Now I know some people don’t measure or weigh out their ingredients for Yorkshire puddings, but I do. It’s the only way you’ll get consistent results. Over the years I’ve used this tray and that tray but the best tray is this Yorkshire pudding tray. I’m telling you, the rise you get from this tray is restaurant quality
The rest of this meal is pretty easy and fool proof. A tip I have for roast potatoes is just making sure you’re using a dark roasting tray. Dark trays = more colour. That’s going to get you these really crispy, golden roast potatoes. ALWAYS use an oil with a neutral oil/fat with a HIGH smoke point. With a good tray, I find roast potatoes can be done in around 50 mins or less once they hit the oven!
Lastly, whenever I cook meat like beef especially larger joints I like to let it sit in the fridge uncovered for a day. It drys out the surface and makes it much better for searing and locking in flavours. The wonderful thing about this recipe is that when the meat is eventually cooked, you’re able to reheat it in a pan with the glaze and it taste even better! So you can easily make this 1-2 days before needing it.
Ingredients and Method
Peppered beef roast:
Ingredients
1.6kg beef blade roast
1 red pepper, large chunks
1 green pepper, large chunks