Sunday comes around and we all get into roasting-mode. But a change is as good as a rest they say, and I’m suggesting cooking your topside gently. Braising it, to be precise; for best results, a decent beef stock is required and some red wine, and you’ll have a produced a fantastic sauce in the process.

I would recommend a robust vegetable accompaniment like savoy cabbage, or cavolo nero, which you could cook with generous lardons of back bacon, and have caramelised roasted carrots and parsnip too.

Ingredients - serves 4

800g beef topside
a little olive oil or butter
50g bacon trimmings
1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 stick of celery, 1 white of leek
1 clove garlic, skin on
1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato purée
300ml red wine
300ml beef or chicken stock
sprig of thyme, bay leaf, parsley
salt, pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C
Season the beef with salt and pepper and brown it in a little oil or butter in a sauté pan, remove and place in a deep roasting tray. Now coarsely chop the vegetables into dice and add to the sauté pan together with the clove of garlic, bacon trimmings, chopped tomatoes and tomato purée - cook for several minutes until softened. Add the beef stock, turn up the heat and reduce the sauce until thick and syrupy, pour it over the beef.

Now deglaze the sauté pan with the red wine, making sure that you have scraped all residues of the meat and sauce into the wine before pouring that over the beef too. Tie together the thyme, bay leaf and parsley into a 'bouquet garni' and add this to the sauce around the beef then cover all with lid or foil and braise for about 1 and a half hours - turning the meat occasionally. By this time the meat should be tender. Place the beef on a warm dish and strain the sauce through a sieve - discarding the vegetables and herbs. Reduce the sauce if necessary, and add a touch of arrowroot or cornstarch, made into a paste with some cold water, if you wish the sauce to be thicker. Check the seasoning.

Carve into thick slices and serve with the sauce and seasonal vegetables.