First off, I'd like to greet everyone a Happy New Year! Its a Dragon Year and they say its the best year to launch new enterprises and projects.

One of the resolutions I have for this year is to update my recipe list again. I didn't really learn any new dishes in the last few months. It was  pretty mundane lifestyle until mid December when my mom arrived from overseas. She bought a new oven and we used it to cook a few classic dishes.

We had roast beef and lasagna as our main dishes for our New Year's eve meal. The lasagna was the more work intensive of the two so I will make a longer post for that within the month. I am grateful that there a few other blog worthy events and recipes coming. Creating content isn't as easy once you've ran out of your initial stock of experience and recipes.

Anyway, on to the recipe.

Ingredients :
A hunk of sirloin around 1 kg.
A tablespoon each of  dried thyme, rosemary and ground black pepper.
Around 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of rock salt.
1 whole garlic bulb, medium sized.
3 tablespoons of flour (for the gravy)
Half a kilogram of potatoes, small sizes or cut into wedges
4 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil (optional)

Procedure for Roast :
- Purchase beef at least a day before cooking it.
- Pat beef dry with paper towels then rub it with the thyme, rosemary and pepper
- Store in a plastic bag or ziploc bag in keep in the chiller or coldest part of the fridge but do not freeze it.
- Take out the beef from the refrigerator an hour before you will bake it.
- Pierce beef with a long  knife and insert peeled garlic cloves into the holes.
- Space the holes evenly around the beef and use up all the garlic.
- Coat with salt and additional spices if preferred.
- Preheat oven to 400 deg C.
- Place beef in roasting tray fatty side down.
- Roast for about 20 minutes. Add 10 minutes for every additional 1/2kg

- Take out roast and turn it over. Slather potatoes in butter and place around the roast before returning it to the oven.
- Roast for another 20 minutes. Add 10 minutes for every additional 1/2kg
- Check roast's internal temperature with a meat thermometer. You can turn the heat off if the internal temperature of the meat reaches 60-70 degrees C.
- Take tray out and cover it with aluminum foil. Let the meat rest this way for 15 minutes.
- Slice beef into thin portions. Only slice enough for consumption.
- Store left over roast in an airtight container.

Procedure for Gravy :
- Collect all the juices from the roasting tray, strain out any large bits.
- Dissolve flour in 1/2 cup of cold water
- In a pan, mix butter and the juice from the roast.
- Once the butter melts, add the flour and water mix
- You may add more spice or salt if you like.
- Simmer on low heat and stir continuously until the sauce reaches desired consistency.

It's easier to slice the beef once it has cooled down a bit. The thinner slices the better. The potatoes absorbed some of the flavors of the roasting beef and it made a great side dish to the roast.

The trickiest part of the roasting process is figuring out if the interior of the meat is cooked. It is much easier to gauge this if you have a meat thermometer. If you don't have one, you will have to rely on the cooking time for the beef.  1 kg usually takes an hour to cook. Add 10 minutes for every 500 grams over 1 kilo.  It's quite easy to overcook the roast and end up with a hard lump of beef. 
Use a fork to test the beef. It should  be easy to push down the fork into the roast and juices should  come out. It's better to have it slightly rare and tender than well done and dried out.  You can always slice a bit of the beef  and cook it separately in an oven toaster or pan if you want it well done.

Until next time!