Roasted beef with yorkshire pudding

A few weeks ago, we reconvened at MC's place for our regular cookout after resting for summer. It's been awhile since our last gathering and I have to admit that it was my fault to keep postponing our date. Thanks to MC and EW, after a long chain of emails exchange and my minimal contribution, we pinned down on what we wanted to make the day before. We went for something masculine, homey and satisfying - a recipe of roasted beef and yorkshire pudding by gordon ramsay. To be honest I had no idea of what yorkshire pudding is before I saw the recipe, they are english muffin like creature made with egg and milk and flour that go with meat dishes.. apparently these are traditional english food just like the american mushed potato..I felt so ignorant..

What makes a great steak?? A grill pan!! What a great investment to have a grill pan at home.... it heats up the steak at high temperature to seal in the juices and get you that perfect grill marks.

The making of the gravy sauce. Trust me, this is really delicious. Normally I don't like gravy too much since the sauce tends to be too thick and overpowering, but this gravy sauce is indeed a very good compliment to the steak. The ingredients are simple, comprising of thyme, garlic, onion, tomatoes and port wine, and as GR says: REDUCE.

We also have the tomato soup to go with the meal. A simple hearty vegetable soup that stimulates appetite.

It's our first time making yorkshire pudding..the key is to preheat a greased muffin pan at very high temperature, and then pour the thin batter into the sizzling hot pan and pop that back into the oven. Within 15min we got our delicious and chewy yorkshire pudding.

Our roasted beef was slightly overdone.. but the marinate and gravy made up for a slight misstep.

Probably is the age thing again, I really enjoy home cook dinner party with close friends rather than hanging out at karoke and getting drunk at pubs and clubs.... food is a great bonding factor for people, and I am grateful to have friends who enjoy food as much as I do.