Recipe - Roast Beef

Ingredients for 4 people:
ca. 800 g beef
450 g onion
70 g celery
200 ml Noilly Prat
2 tbsp diced bacon
mustard
1 juniper berry
1 bay leaf
5 pepper corns
sunflower oil
salt, pepper

Preparation:

Roast Beef

Salt and pepper meat on all sides then spread on a thin layer of mustard. Let the seasoned beef stand for a while.

raw beef

roast beef with mustard

Peel onions and dice coarsely. Wash celery and cut into finger-thick pieces.

Pre-heat a roasting pan on the stove until it is hot. Add some oil and sear meat on all sides. Take the meat out and lay aside on a plate.

Fry onions, celery, and bacon in the roasting pan, stirring constantly until they turn a light colour. Reduce the heat so that nothing burns.

Deglaze with Noilly Prat and scrape any residue from the bottom of the pan. Add roast beef, bay leaf, pepper corns, and juniper berry to the pan and let simmer on lowest possible heat. Be sure to put the lid on the roasting pan!

stew roast beef

When I cooked it, it took about 2 hours until the roast beef was tender. I turned the meat after an hour so it could simmer from the other side. If a lot of fluid evaporates, then just add a cup of water. You can check if the roast beef is done by applying finger pressure to the meat.

Take the meat out, wrap in aluminum foil and lay aside. Pour the remaining liquid through a strainer and then through cheesecloth or a very fine sieve to remove any bits of vegetable.

strain sauce

Reduce the sauce in a pot (simmer until the desired consistency and taste is attained), and season to taste with salt, pepper, and perhaps mustard.

Remove the aluminum foil from the meat, cut into slices, and keep warm in the sauce.

beef in sauce

The roast beef is done. Recommended side dishes are potatoes or potato purée and an excellent vegetable could be mushrooms, peas and carrots, or beans.

Note: This was the first time I made roast beef and I was surpised at how tender it was! The sauce was also delicious. The spiciness of the mustard and the sweetness of the Noilly Prat harmonized well together and were exactly to my taste. The recipe should yield four 1-inch thick slices of meat.

Recipes: beef • roast