Ultimate roast beef Christmas dinner

The menu

• Starters & nibbles

  Easy chicken liver pâté

• Main course

  Roast beef with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and gravy

• Side dishes

  Braised red cabbage with apples and sherry vinegar

• Desserts

  Poached pears with Stilton and walnuts

Menu ingredients

Serves 8

• Fruit and vegetables

  • handful of dried cranberries

  • 16 medium-sized Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes (each about 175g/6oz), peeled, cut into equal-sized pieces

  • 8 garlic cloves

  • 8 sprigs thyme

  • 1 medium onion, finely sliced

  • 2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and sliced

  • 1kg/2¼lb red cabbage, finely sliced

  • 4 pears

• Tins, packets and jars

  • spicy chutney

  • 350g/12oz plain flour

  • 4 tsp plain flour

• Cooking ingredients

  • coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

  • 8 fresh bay leaves

  • vegetable oil, for cooking

  • salt

  • 1 tbsp English mustard powder

  • freshly ground black pepper

  • sea salt, to taste

  • 100g/4oz sultanas or raisins

  • 200ml/7fl oz sherry vinegar

  • salt and freshly ground pepper

  • 2 x 18cm/6 inch cinnamon sticks

  • 2 cloves

  • 100ml/3½fl oz clear honey

  • 100g/3½oz toasted walnuts or pecans

• Drinks

  • 1 tbsp Armagnac or brandy

  • 350ml/12fl oz red wine

  • 1 x 75cl bottle good-quality port

• Dairy, eggs and chilled

  • 200g/7oz butter, melted

  • 50ml/2fl oz double cream

  • 4 large or 5 medium free-range eggs

  • 800ml/1 pint 7fl oz milk (you may not need all of it)

  • a drizzle of vegetable oil or 2 tsp duck fat

  • 5 tbsp duck fat

  • 50g/2oz butter

  • 100g/3½oz Stilton

• Meat, fish and poultry

  • 450g/1lb chicken livers, trimmed

  • 2.5kg/5½lb oven-ready rib of beef on the bone

• Other

  • hot toast

  • pan-roasting juices

By Mike Robinson