Simple roasted beef

this roasted beef looked all done but its actually medium well and still have a touch of pink in the middle...which is purrrrrrrrrrrrfect!!!

this dish was one of those movie inspired dish...mmm namely the desperate housewife where argh can't remember the red head character's name this is annoying...oh yeah Bree, the 'perfect' housewife cooked a 'perfect' dinner (this was i think the 1st season where she still cook the restaurant worthy food)...

so my mom and i instantly had that craving so we immediately went to the market (pasar tani) that afternoon to look for a prime beef and some other ingredients to accompany the roast beef.
it was a simple recipe and also very satisfying dish. we didn't even have left overs, it was that good!

so here's the recipe:


Roast beef
a log of prime beef - if you are not familiar with the parts of beef, ask your butcher. its mmm how can i explain it one of those beef that is near the ribs its the best part. (correct me if i'm wrong though)
carrots
parsnip
celery sticks

seasoning:
salt - generous amount
freshly cracked black pepper as much as you like, personally the more the better.


side dish:
corn on cob
your fave garden veges
potatoes wedges season with salt and paprika


for this roasted beef you'd need to season it generously. why?
1. because its a big chunk of beef, any less you'll end up with bland roast
2. because we didn't marinate it, marinating is not necessary here.

as for the balck pepper you don't need to put it too much at first coz we'll need to season it with black pepper again later just before serving.

pre heat oven at 200c.
cut carrot, parsnip in big chunks, potatoes in wedges and line them in a buttered casserole dish together with celery sticks. then top it with the beautifully seasoned beef. roast it for 15 minutes.
reason being is that i wanted to some sort sear the beef and have that gorgeous browning effect around the beef and have that very tasty beefy outer crust. at this point you'd need to keep a special eye coz you might want to rotate it every now and then for even browning.

after 15minutes turn the heat down to 160-170c and let it roast for a further 1.5-2 hours depending on your desired done-ness. i like my beef medium well so with my oven it only take about 1.5hr.

once the beef out the no 1 cardinal rule of roasting beef is that YOU NEED TO LET IT REST for at least 15-20 minutes or so. why? because if you don't you'll end up with somewhat dried roast...so for this purpose you'll need to let it rest on a wire rack. this is important because this step will help the roast beef retain all the juice in side. if you notice when you roast beef and let it sit on a plate or tray and later on you see that your roast beef is in a pool of its own juice? this is what we want to avoid and what we want is to keep as much as moisture left in the beef as possible....

i hope you understand my explanation coz i feel like i'm talking gibberish... anyway let the roast sit on the wire rack and cover it with aluminum foil. after the 15-20 minutes rub it again with freshly cracked black pepper for extra kick and slice it and serve it. simple as that.

i need to also point out here is that the veges from the casserole dish is very flavorful and its abit too salty to eat it on its own so you'll need to incorporate it with your gravy.

to make the gravy just heat a knob of butter in the sauce pan mean while pour in hot water (about 2cups or so) in the casserole dish to loosen all of those flavors and pour it in the sauce pan. then add in about 1-2tbsp of corn starch to thicken the sauce, season it with salt and pepper to taste.

as for the side dish:
garden vegetables : just blanch it in hot water then set aside.
then heat a knob of butter and saute chopped garlic until almost brown then dump in all of the garden veges and toss it then season it with salt and pepper to taste. then ready to serve.

corn?...this is to easy for me to write this down, common go figure!


mmmm i just realized that i've forgot to take my gravy picture...sorry...but i do hope that you'll give this recipe a try and i can promise you this that this is and easy dish that will impress anyone who have a taste of it!