Roast with redcurrant jelly

My parents' garden always had (and still has) a number of different trees and bushes. Amongst the latter there is one or two redcurrant bush(es). Going through the garden as a child, picking fruits and berries and eating them taught me that redcurrants are notably more sour than the majority of other things found in my parents garden. Oddly enough, I remember it as if I didn't like them all that much - which is mainly odd because I loved a host other strongly sour things I could lay my hands on in that garden, such unripe apples and unripe gooseberries.

My mother would prepare redcurrants in a couple of different ways, but all of them were used as sides to meat dishes - something I found particularly odd as a child and which I have only grown to appreciate much later in life.

When my parents visited me last summer, they brought me a small jar of redcurrant jelly - the making of which would justify a post all of it's own if I ever get around it - which has been sitting in my kitchen pantry waiting for me to cook a proper roast to serve it with..

Ingredients:
- oil
- 1 small roast (beef)
- salt and pepper
- several small onions
- raw peanuts
- potatoes
- lettuce
- grape tomatoes
- mushrooms
dressing:
- grainy mustard
- oil
- red wine vinegar

The roast was seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared on all sides in a little oil on a hot pan.

An oven proof tray was filled with a layer of halved small onions, added enough water to almost cover the onions, and the pan-seared roast was placed on top before roasting in the oven at 200 C (400 F) for an hour.

While roasting the beef, raw peanuts were roasted in a large pan and then set aside in a small bowl (and I guess at least half of them disappeared as snacks while the rest of the meal finished).

The potatoes were boiled till tender in lightly salted water.

A simple salad was made from lettuce and grape tomatoes - a dressing was stirred from grainy mustard, red wine vinegar and oil.

A few minutes before it was time to take the roast out of the oven, rinsed and sliced mushrooms were roasted in a pan - when the roast came out of the oven, it was placed on a cutting board to rest for some minutes before slicing it and the water and onions were mixed with the roasted mushrooms.


Served with redcurrant jelly, now that I'm old enough to appreciate this combination..