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Roast Beef


There isn't anything more English than Roast Beef for Sunday Dinner. The dish was so stereotypically English that the French have been using the word "rosbif" to describe their cross channel neighbours from at least the Napoleonic era.

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 Here is how I do it, without the Yorkshire pudding sadly. My wife has taken a gluten free approach to eating and as such,  I can't be bothered making it just for myself. But if company is coming... You'll need:
  • 3lb rib roast
  • 2 medium Onions
  • 2 Celery stalks
  • 2 Carrots
  • 3 Garlic cloves
  • Rosemary
  • Thyme
  • Sage
  • Balsamic Vinegar or Red Wine Or Guiness or a dark ale
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Olive Oil
  • Tablespoon of flour, corn starch or Arrowroot powder for thickener
  • Lard - Optional, read on...
Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Base for the Gravy:

 Roughly chop your onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. No precision here. Just get a large knife and start chopping. Then grease your roasting pan or dish and add the chopped veg. Add a dash or three of rosemary, thyme and sage, then salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. The mixture will catch the fat drippings from the meat and break down and roast away, giving you a wonderfully flavoured base to make gravy.

The Roast:

 Take your roast and inspect it. Depending on where you live and who you buy your meat from, you'll have some options for the next part.

 Canada implemented strict guidelines years ago to ensure that healthier beef was being raised as far as fat content was concerned. This lead to Canadian beef becoming incredibly lean and rich in protein but lacking in the fat that gives its flavour.

Another consideration is your butcher. Some leave a large chunk of fat on roasts, as it melts into the meat during cooking to aid in flavouring. However, a large number trim it off for aesthetic reasons.

 If you have a "fat free" roast, you can remedy this by using lard. Either smear the top of the roast with it, or cut some slabs and place on top of the roast. Despite how it sounds, it adds amazing flavour to the roast.

 If you were able to buy a roast with the fat side intact, as I did, get a very sharp knife and score a diagonal criss-cross pattern through the fat and slightly into the meat. This will allow the molten fat to run through the roast. Grab your salt of choice (I've switched from Sea Salt to Himalayan or Kosher Salt as I found Sea Salt to be a Migraine trigger) and set your pepper mill to coarse and season the roast.

 If you are a garlic fiend, you can insert slivers of garlic into cuts randomly made with a knife throughout the roast.

 Place your roast on top of the veg base in the middle of your roasting pan, fat side up. Then place the roasting pot on the middle rack of your oven. Cook for 90 minutes for medium at 350F. Baste the roast with the juices every 20 minutes.

 As soon as the beef is out of the oven, wrap it in foil and cover with a towel to keep the heat in. This will keep it warm as you prepare your gravy.

The Gravy:

 With a gloved hand, hold the roasting pan and smash up the veg with a potato masher and pay particular attention to the brown bits on the side of the pan. Mix the veg right into it!

 If you look at the accompanying photos, you'll see that the veg doesn't look all that roasted. Sometimes that happens when you have a very moist roast, or if you had too much veg in the base of the pan, which happened here. If so, don't worry. the veg will mush up enough. If you want a very rich gravy you can throw the veg into a blender.

 Once you've mashed the veg, transfer it to a medium sauce pan and add two cups of beef broth and one of the following: 1/2 cup of red wine, Guinness or Dark Ale or a couple of glugs of balsamic vinegar.

 Bring to a boil and mash/stir occasionally. Lower the heat and let reduce for 10-15 minutes. Strain into a bowl, rinse your sauce pan and then transfer the gravy back to it. You can keep the vegetable mush and eat it separately. My wife saves it as a lunchtime vegetable purée.

 Reboil and add your thickener or choice by first thinning it with cold water in a measuring cup, then spoon the hot gravy into the measuring cup. This stops the thickener from clumping. When you have a warmish mixture, pour it into the sauce plan, stirring rapidly.

 Take the pan off the heat, carve your roast, and serve.
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