I’ve made a beef roast or two in my time. My repertoire ranges from a quick yet elegant tenderloin to an extremely slow roasted brisket, braised in a tangy liquidy base.
This weekend I was in the mood for a slow roasted cut of beef. Not a stringier brisket, and yet not a fattier prime rib. I headed to the local butcher shop, Kens, in Monona, in search of the perfect cut of meat. I found a five pound sirloin tip roast and knew that would do the job.
My idea was to roast it like a prime rib - put it in a blazingly hot oven for a short period of time to sear it, then drop it all the way down to around 225 degrees and let it go for a few hours. In preparation, I did a little bit of searching to see who else in the blogosphere was making their roast beef in that manner. I found Elise, who is always doing something interesting. While the method wasn’t quite what I had in mind, she did add an element which I would not have if I had not found her entry. She put the beef roast directly on the oven rack.
Well, ok, I could add that to the mix easily enough.
And so I pulled the roast beef out of the fridge and let it warm up at room temperature on the counter for about 45 minutes. I turned the oven on to 500 degrees and let it heat up well in advance.
I cut slits into the roast and studded it with garlic - a trick which I have resorted to often, with good results. Then I rubbed the roast with rosemary, Penzey’s smoky sea salt, pepper, cumin, and a Penzey’s roast beef seasoning. It was popped into the very hot oven, which was left at 500 degrees for about 20 minutes. I had placed a pan on the rack immediately underneath the roast to catch the drippings. In that pan I placed beef broth, onions, and garlic.
Then I dropped the temperature to 200 degrees and let it go. Using my temperature probe, I monitored the progress. After about 3 hours, it began to get up to around 120 degrees. I had planned on leaving it in for at least 4 hours, and so I turned the oven off completely, without opening the oven door. This held the oven temperature nicely, and the roast ever so slowly inched its way up to 131 degrees.
As I estimated that my roasted root vegetables would be done shortly, I again turned the oven up high, to about 450 degrees. The roast temperature rose to 135 degrees. At that point I pulled it, let it sit a very short amount of time, the sliced it. I had made a pan gravy from the drippings, broth, onions and garlic that had simmered in the drippings pan, adding some red wine as a finish.
This was perfectly done, melt in your mouth tender, with the best flavor I have ever tasted out of a beef roast, bar none. This will be repeated, there is no question.
Served alongside roasted root veggies - turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions, with some cauliflower thrown in for good measure.
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I start with a base of good quality Italian Sausage, crumbled. Into that goes diced pancetta, onions and garlic. This is browned, and the richness of this sauce starts right at the beginning with the addition of cream to the meat as finishes browning. Allow the meat to absorb the cream completely. Follow this by adding red wine and allowing the sauce to simmer.
Add coarsely chopped tomato once the sauce begins to simmer. The key to this sauce is that it is not a tomato sauce. It is a sauce with tomatoes in it. This is an important distinction, so keep it in mind as you add the tomato. Let the sauce simmer for up to two hours, adding cream as you go to maintain desired consistancy.
