Friday, January 22, 2010

Roast Beef

I have a confession to make. I have never made a roast - turkey or beef. I have roasted chickens; that I've done. And I've gone so far as to roast a turkey breast, but never the whole turkey, or the beef.

My family wasn't really a big beef-eating clan, before all the food issues smacked us in the face. Now? I'm grabbing whatever food I can get, and meat seems to be a big part of it.

So last night, for the first time in my life, I made a roast. My expectations were low. Nerves were high.

There is simply something about a great, big hunk of meat that is intimidating. The temperature worries, the bacteria worries, the odd smell of raw flesh that I worry is smelling 'off' because it always smells 'blech' to me anyway. I don't understand meat. Breads, I get. Which helps me not at all, now that I'm gluten free. But meat? It feels like it requires 'Alien Cooking for Dummies' to make it turn out well. It doesn't seem like a comprehensible food to me. The food's version of Apple Computers: pretty end product, but how it's all put together originally is a mystery.

I find meat a bit scary.

So imagine my surprise when my first attempt at roast beef turned out great! For my family, that is. Almost for me, too. I was staring at it, all pink and juicy looking, and it was really, really hard not to try a piece and risk the reaction. I had a slice on a fork and was thinking about finding a plate to put it on when my husband gave me the 'Don't be stupid' look and I put it back on the platter. And then scuffled across the kitchen pathetically to go eat my avocados and ground buffalo meat.

Man but it looked good, though. I'd show you a picture, but it was consumed down to small pieces already. Flattering, but hard to photograph!

The best part about this, though, was how easy it was. It took a long time to cook: almost three hours. With an hour out of the fridge beforehand for it to get up to room temperature. But I had about one minute of prep time, five minutes of clean-up, and no mid-roasting duties but the thermometer at the end. Considering how much time I spend on cooking these days, this was heaven!

I found this recipe at SimplyRecipes.com, here:
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/roast_beef/

I omitted the garlic slivers, because, as it has been noted, I am lazy. And everyone was going to be hungry soon, so I just rubbed it with olive oil, then sprinkled salt and pepper. Woo hoo, ready for the oven in no time!

I don't know if everyone else in the world is used to just slapping meat on the oven rack, but it was a new thing for me! When I took it off, I got a heavy washcloth, pulled out the rack with my hot pad, and just wiped off the mess from the rack immediately. It came off with no trouble at all; double word score for this roast beef!

The one thing I did note, however, was that rack placement was key. I had mine in the middle, and the top of the roast was more done than the bottom, so next time I'm scooting this sucker's rack down a peg.

In any case, enjoy the roast beef if you care to try this one. We most definitely did!

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