Roast Beef

With few exceptions, I nearly always do a roast for Sunday lunch. Today was beef, a topside joint. My usual method for beef is to pot roast it in the slow cooker - brown it off in a frying pan, and put it in the slow cooker on a bed of sliced carrots and onions with about an inch of liquid (water, stock or wine), cook on high for 4-5 hours. The juices make a lovely gravy and the meat is moist and tender.

But today I got up too late to have it ready in time for lunch, so thought I would try it in the microwave. I've only done it once before, many years ago, and that was a disaster as it was overcooked and dry, but I decided to have another go. 20 mins on high (turning the joint every 5 minutes), and 20 minutes standing time, and it was perfect (sorry, no idea of the weight, but it was a good sized piece of meat for a family of four or five), so I prepared the whole lunch in an hour after church ... I could make that a habit!