Roast beef for everyone

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 1 ½ kg roast beef (shoulder or leg)
• 3 m.-sized onion(s)
• 2 stalk(s) leeks
• 3 large carrots
• 150 g celery
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp, heaped herbs de Provence
• 1 tsp, heaped savory
• ½ liter red wine (Merlot or Chianti)
• ½ liter beef broth
• 50 g butter or lard
• some olive oil
• some mustard
• some salt and pepper, black , freshly ground
• 1 dash of soy sauce

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 3 hours 15 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 45 minutes

Easy to prepare

A roasting pan and a hand blender or mixer are essential for preparation. First, cut the carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, and celery into small pieces (slightly smaller than 1 cm cubes, or oblong ones, mostly small), wash them, and leave them in a bowl. Let the roast warm up a bit so it’s close to room temperature (searing cold meat tends to be tough). Preheat the oven to 180°C (top/bottom heat). Mix a little mustard with a dash of soy sauce and brush the roast all over (I always do this with the back of a teaspoon). Season the greased roast generously with salt and pepper. Heat plenty of olive oil in a pan and sear the meat on all sides. Place the roast in a roasting pan and place it in the preheated oven to retain its temperature. Important: Cover the roast to prevent it from drying out. Leave the oil in the pan we used to brown the roast and add the vegetables. Lightly brown the vegetables, add a tablespoon of sugar, and mix gently. Let the sugar lightly toast (caramelize), then deglaze with the wine and allow the liquid to reduce slightly. Then add the herbs. Bring half a liter of water to a boil and add beef stock powder. Remove the roasting pan from the oven, add the vegetables and wine stock, and pour the boiling stock over the roast. Add a knob of butter or lard. Replace the lid on the roasting pan and return it to the oven. Cook for 3 hours, turning the roast every 40 minutes or basting it liberally with the stock. After three hours, it should be cooked through. Pierce it with a pointed object (a skewer or toothpick). If it goes in easily to the center, the roast is done. Otherwise, cook for another 20 minutes and test again. Remove the roast from the roasting pan, wrap it in aluminum foil, and return it to the turned-off oven to keep it warm. Purée the broth with the vegetables and season to taste (we’ve never needed to add any additional seasoning, except for a little cayenne pepper perhaps for extra heat). I recommend serving it with dumplings and red cabbage or Brussels sprouts. If you don’t have a blender or a mixer, you can strain the sauce through a sieve and thicken it with starch or flour mixed with cold water beforehand. Unfortunately, this will lose a lot of the flavor, as the vegetables aren’t in the sauce. It’s still delicious, though, as the roast imparts a lot of flavor.