Day 26, Recipe 26: Sunday Roast Dinner

One of my favorite memories of being a kid, is sunday dinners. What is served at these dinners always varies, but it's always delicious- like a mini-holiday feast! The bf & I love to carry on this tradition, whether its pork tenderloin, roasted chicken or a beef roast, we'll prepare all the fixings & enjoy a great meal as we wind down from the weekend. I'm fortunate that he's the meat & potatoes kind of guy, because before he came along, I couldn't cook a cut of beef if my life depended on it- seriously, runs in the genes or something.

We found a cute little 2 lb sirlion tip roast at Metro yesterday for $10 (which is a really, really good price- we've paid upwards of $25 for our roasts before). It was the perfect size for us & we even had leftovers. Here's my marinade recipe, followed by my gravy sauce recipe.


2 lb               Beef roast (Sirlion Tip or other lean cut)
1 T               olive oil
1/4 C            red wine
2 T              Worcestershire sauce
1 T              montreal steak spice
5                 cloves of garlic, minced
1                 small onion, minced

Prepare the marinade in a small bowl (all items excluding the roast). Place roast into a shallow pan (you can also place it on top of a rack, if you have one). Drizzle the marinade over top of roast, brushing all sides. Place into fridge and allow to sit for 2 hours.
Remove roast from fridge and preheat oven to 325 degrees F- using a low heat is ideal for this cut of beef. We also prefer our roasts medium-rare so we can afford to cook at this low temperature and not have to wait for hours to eat.
Place roast into the oven & cook for approximately 30 minutes per pound. If you have a meat thermometer, it should read about 140 degrees for medium-rare. We don't, so we just eye it out.
After roast is cooked to desired doneness, allow to sit on a cutting board for 15-20 minutes. Then thinly slice & serve with prepared gravy, horseradish, etc.

Now, take the drippings from your roast pan and make some gravy! It's sooooo much better then using packaged gravy if you do it right. The more spices you use on your roast, the more flavorful the drippings will be resulting in a more rich gravy. I nailed it first try and I'll never look back to that little brown package. A little shinfo on making gravy- it's important to know how much fat/drippings you have. If you like a thick gravy, the ratio should be 1:1 for drippings:flour.

1 T                roasting pan drippings
1 T                flour
1/2 C             beef broth/chicken broth
1/4 C             red or white wine (use red for beef & pork, white for chicken)

If you have company or you just want a ton of gravy and you don't have enough fat, melt down some butter in it's place.
Start with the drippings in a pan over medium heat. Stir in flour until it is well mixed & begins to slightly bubble. Add 1/4 cup of wine in slowly, stirring to ensure all the bits from the bottom are mixed in. Now add broth 1/4 cup at a time, stirring well. As the gravy begins to thicken, reduce heat to low & simmer for about 10 minutes. The result? A thick, tasty homemade gravy!