Hey EVERybody!
I want to share with you my story of my first time cooking a roast beef in Russia for New Years Eve 2019.
In case you don’t know, New Year is kind of a big deal in Russia. Take the Christmas mood and stress, multiply it by 15 and add about 27 traditions and superstitions and another 32 rules then you have Russian New Year.
BUT – to be fair you can also multiply the fun by a Million – it’s a really great Party and I very much enjoyed that one.
I will probably post more about all the good which was necessary for this evening but the star of the evening was our idea to cook a roast beef.
A little Reading, a Little YouTube – how difficult can it be?
Let me tell you – in case you never done it, just read this blog and it will save you a lot of time!
BASICS
Pretty straight forward, buy
- 2 middle sized charlottes
- a bunch of nice green celery stalks
- one thumb size piece of ginger
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 carrots
- 6 cocktail tomatoes
- herbs such as thyme and rosemary
- oh … and BEEF 🙂
Just literally chop the vegetables in pieces, not too big but also no need to be pernickety about it. just cut the Ginger a bit smaller and the garlic you don’t even have to bother peeling, just smash him and throw it with everything else in the roaster.
BEEF
NO, I am not ready yet I explain the rest first.
ROSTER
So as I mentioned I made this all in my fiancées apartment in Moscow so I still had to organise a couple of things needed for the dish. Well after looking for hours and hours let me tell you even the cheapest roaster with the worst reviews (which we ended up buying cause we so much wanted to go home already) does a perfect trick so do not worry a single second about your roaster as I promise you – it will just be fine!!
HERBS
Yeah – I didn’t find any thyme. I have looked in about 10 stores (more to that in a bit) and I didn’t find any. I don’t want to say Moscow doesn’t have any, I have seen it many times but it’s one of the things which you cannot get anymore once you need it.
I bought something like Ysop instead which I remembered from my gardening times and worked just as fine.
OVEN AND COOKING TIME
So the oven should be heated up to 230 degrees C. When you put the roaster in you can turn it down to 190 to 200 degrees. I used 3D heating, but it also works with just circulating air.
The time really depends on how big your beef is, I recommend about 35 minutes for about 1 kg.
In my case the vegetables were not fully soft yet maybe that’s a hint.
BEEF
Oh my god i so much got confused which beef to buy. Did you ever look at descriptions and pictures of parts of a cow? As I don’t have a Master in the science of cooking i thought to my self – let’s go to the supermarket tell the nice Person behind these meat fridges what our plan is and get a nice piece of beef.
I didn’t realise that in 10 supermarkets the person who sells the meat apparently never heard about the roast beef thing. I got very angry in supermarket number 4 – sorry for that again, I was laughing in supermarket number 7 so my embarrassed fiancee had to drag me out there – which was fine – I had the foreigner bonus anyway and everybody probably just thought – these Germans!! (I am Austrian by the way).
I want to be honest with you – in supermarket number 10 I might or might not have cried a little!
So anyway you’ll find a lot of ideas which part of meat is good for roast etc etc. The part you really look for is called top sirloin. and it should be Minimum a piece of 800 Gram. Ideally it will say if it’s packed – for Roast Beef – which we ended up buying. Yes i know could have thought about that in supermarket number 2 at least – but again – I am Austrian!
As it becomes more and More a thing to try to use local products let me tell you this. Get in your car (or even better on your bike – just in case Greta is reading as well – go to your local butcher and tell him you want a nice prepared piece of meat for roast beef – about a kilo heavy.
Local industry happy
Your guests happy
Climate and Greta happy
You happy cause you don’t have to go through the embarrassment of crying in a supermarket 😉
And jokes aside EVERCOOK very much supports the idea of using local products I am just not good enough yet to optimise that for myself.
BEEF COOKING
So fellow readers now it does in fact go back to the easy part. Hot pan, bit of olive oil, salt the meat generously and put it in there. I d say 3 minutes each side. Don’t get afraid it feels long but it will be alright.
Add pepper to it in the pan and after the first two sides a table spoon of butter and some of the herbs and garlic.
Take a spoon and pour the melted butter oil and herbs over the beaf for the last 3 minutes EVER and EVER again.
Finished? Put it on the vegetables, and get some of the tomatoes on top of it for extra juiciness.
FINISHING
I was very insecure if it’s finished or not but stick to my recommended time and you should be fine. Take the roaster our and out Mr Beef on a plate, cover him with tin foil and LEAVE HIM ALONE for at least 15 minutes.
GRAVY
Put the roaster on the cooking panel, add 2 Or 3 table spoons of flower to the vegetables. Stir and add 2 glasses of red wine and about 400 ml of beef stock.
Yes – again I have to admit – I used the powdered one – I am just a hobby cook and good luck finding freshish stock in Moscow – I have cried enough already 🙂
Cook until vegetables are soft enough to crush, so so and seven it into a pot where you can reduce it to your liking.
I will tell you in another entry of my versions of side dishes such as
Rucola Parmesan and Pinenut cream
Horseradish sauce – needs to include link
I hope you enjoyed my experience about my first roast beef and will try it tomorrow with much less hassle so you are all prepared for your Next party
Yours
EVERCOOK
Evercook Food Blog 