Yesterday, my Mum and I put up and decorated the magnificent Maitland Family Christmas Tree! It’s a lot of fun, very exciting but also damn exhausting, which is why I prepared a dinner worthy of The Three Kings to reward us after!

The Mulled Beef is effectively Roast Beef but with a 24 hour marinade based on- you guessed it- mulled wine! The flavours permeate and complement the beef beautifully and make an unforgettably festive gravy to accompany the dish. The marinade keeps it a fairly straight-forward dish to put together. For anyone struggling to think of something new to cook 25th December that moves away from the traditional turkey, but still has overtones of Christmas with every bite then this is certainly a recipe for you to consider!

Ingredients

• A good beef roasting joint
• Port
• Brandy
• A splash of ruby ale (I chose Hob Goblin)
• 3 plumbs
• A friendly handful of cherries
• 1 red onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1 mulled wine sachet
• A few good sprigs of fresh rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• Beef stock pot (later)

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

You will need a large freezer bag…

1. Half and de-stone your cherries and plumbs and place them inside a large freezer bag

2. Peel your cloves of garlic and peel and half your onion, and stick that in the bag too

3. Now, fetch your lovely piece of beef. Rub it will oil, salt and pepper and place inside the bag

4. Sit the bag upright. Take a mulled wine sachet and place it on top of the beef inside the bag.

5. Stick the rosemary in there

6. Now pour 50ml of port, 50ml of brandy and a splash of the ruby ale into the bag, aiming for the mulled wine sachet as you do.

7. Now firmly seal the bag, ensuring is it completely drip-proof. Turn the bag a few times and move the contents inside around with your hand, ensuring the beef is completely covered with all the lovely flavoursome juices. You should have something that looks as attractive as this:

8. Place on the bottom shelf in the fridge for 24 hours, turning the bag on its head after 12 hours to ensure the marinade spreads evenly.

Now get that tree up and enjoy your day!

(There are certain traditions one should never be too old for…
Hiding inside the Christmas Tree box is one of them.)

Taa-daaaa!

Dinner Time

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170. You will roast your beef for 25 minutes per 450g, plus 25 minutes extra. This will give you the perfect medium beef. So for example, mine was 1400g so I roasted is for 1hr 40.

2. Carefully open your bag, remove the beef joint and place it to one side. Remove and discard of the mulled wine sachect. Pour the juices, fruit, etc inside a large roasting tin then place a wire rack on top.

3. Rub your beef with oil, salt and pepper. Stick a nice big sprig of fresh rosemary beneath the butchers string and place on top of the wire rack.

4. Get it in the oven!

5. To prepare for the gravy, very finely dice a red onion and place in a small saucepan on the lowest heat possible. Let them slowly soften for 20 minutes of so, then add a beef stock pot with a small amount of water.

Leave that be while your beef cooks.

6. When the beef has cooked, remove from the oven. Remove the butchers string and place it on a wooden board, then cover the top tightly with tin foil and leave to sit for 10-15 minutes.

7. This is the perfect opportunity to finish your gravy. Discard of the burnt up bits of rosemary and red onion halfs, but transfer the fruit, garlic and juices from your roasting tin to your beefy onion saucepan.

8. Boil the kettle and pour about 250ml of boiling water into the roasting tin.  Gently stir, then pour it into your small saucepan. Some fruits will have burnt to the edges of this tin, so this helps your get all the beef juices into your gravy but successfully leave the other bits behind.

9. Bring the contents of your sauce pan to a boil and stir. After two minutes, lower the heat and use a cornflour and cold water combination to thicken. Then return to the boil and add a splash of port. Done.

10. Serve with the veg of your choice, and from here have a very relaxing and mighty tasty Christmas!