I’ve always been a fan of America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated, and Cook’s Country. I follow them on Facebook and Twitter and I have several of the cookbooks. I also recently started receiving Cook’s Country magazine through a subscription and I have to say that I really like it. The recipes are great with easy-to-follow steps and give you all sorts of great cooking tips when it comes to techniques, pantry items, and equipment. For this week, I decided to make some of the Cook’s Country recipes I’ve been trying lately. First is the carne asada dinner I did last week. Luckily, I chose one of the coldest days to try it and be able to use the oven.
Roast beef and
grandma’s sauce
1 (4
to 5 pounds) top round boneless roast
Salt and pepper
1
tablespoon vegetable oil
4 tablespoons butter
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces 1 onion,
peeled and sliced 1
/2 inch 1
celery rib, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1
teaspoon tomato paste
2
cans of meat broth
1
1/2 cups water
Dry the roast with paper towels and rub with 2 teaspoons of salt. Wrap the roast in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
Set an oven rack to the medium position and heat the oven to 225 degrees. Dry the roast with paper towels and rub with 2 teaspoons of pepper. Heat the oil in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat until steaming. Brown the roast everywhere, about 8 to 12 minutes; Transfer the roast to a plate.
Pour all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan. Add the butter to the pan and melt over medium heat. Cook the carrots, onion, and celery until lightly browned, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the flour and tomato paste and cook until the flour is golden brown and the pasta begins to darken, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, push the vegetables into the center of the pan. Place the roast on top of the vegetables and transfer the pan to the oven. Cook roast until meat registers 125 degrees (for medium rare), about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours. Transfer the roast to a cutting board, store with aluminum foil and let the meat stand for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, taking into account that the handle of the pan will still be quite hot, return the pan with vegetables over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are deep browned, about 5 minutes. Slowly beat the broth and water, scraping the golden pieces, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until sauce thickens, about 10 to 15 minutes. Strain the sauce through a fine-mesh strainer into a serving bowl. Discard vegetables. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
Finely cut the roast transversely against the grain and serve with the sauce.
Cooking roast beef in this method made things much easier. You do a slow roast and everything is done in a single pan, making cleaning even easier. Salting meat helps a lot to extract some of the moisture from the meat. Also, instead of flouring the meat beforehand and burning it, adding the flour to the vegetables helps you remove that pasty flavor that a roast can get from raw flour and still allows you to make a rich, dark sauce. You could certainly use water instead of the meat broth when making the sauce, but the broth really helps add another layer of flavor to the sauce, so I would use it. Of course, you also have options with leftovers, like making things like open roast beef sandwiches, French sauce sandwiches, or Philadelphia cheese steaks. I served the roast beef with mashed potatoes and some fresh corn on the cob and broccoli.
That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe from Cook’s Country. This time I will be making the recipe for meatballs and marinara that appears in one of the issues I just received. Be sure to check that out tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!
