Beef rib roast

Roast beef is something very English, very Australian so it's not the usual meal I cook for Cat and myself. We still love it and we roasted this little baby up for dinner. Juicy tender beef, served with roasted vegies, a dash of rich gravy and garlic butter asparagus. Yum!

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degC.



I opted to use a rib roast as my cut of beef. This cut has the works: juicy tender meat, fat marbled throughout for flavour and meaty ribs that keep the meat moist and are full of juices for gravy. Just rub a little salt and pepper all over the beef to season.

Roughly chop a couple of onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. On the stovetop, sweat the onions in a roasting dish with a knob of butter. Add in a few whole cloves of garlic, skin on, and fry for another couple of minutes.

Add in the vegies, season with some salt and pepper and mix well. Put in the oven to roast for about 30 minutes.

Place the cut of beef into the roasting dish, directly on top of the vegetables, and roast for 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 180 degC and roast for another 30 minutes.

The meat should come out medium-rare and the vegies should be soft and caramelised. The cut I used weighed a little over 1.1kg and as a rough guide, it should take about 45 minutes for every 1kg of meat at 180 degC. Don't like the guesswork? Then get yourself a meat thermometer and it should read 45 degC in the middle for medium-rare.

Once roasted, let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes before carving.

During this time, use any juices in the pan to create a gravy: cook a little plain flour in the fat, add the juices and de-glaze with a bit of white wine.

The garlic butter asparagus was easy. Literally just garlic, butter and asparagus in a frypan and de-glazed with a little bit of white wine again.

A rich tasty treat!

- Sai