TASSOGRAPHY

Every time I go back to the UK, I always ask my Dad to cook Roast Beef. Ever since my University days, I’ve been able to cook damn good roast chicken, but I always avoided even attempting to do beef. When we visited in March, Lisa got hooked as well, so it was finally time to bite the bullet and learn how to do it.

Since we got back we’ve had it three times, and each time it was excellent! So I thought I’d share my dad’s recipe:

• Start with a 4 lb\2 kilos rib roast. That’s quite a large piece of meat but anything significantly smaller will dry out. It’s also important to make sure it has a decent amount of fat and is well marbled. A lot of the fat will burn off but it’s important because it will tenderise the meat and keep it moist.
• Preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit\200 Centigrade.
• Rub the entire piece with two table spoons of Goose Fat, though you can also use dripping (from a previous roast) or butter.
• Liberally coat with sea salt, fresh ground pepper & garlic powder. We love rosemary so we also coated it with a few chopped up sprigs.
• Place on a rack and place in the lower third of the oven.
• Cook for one and a half hours for rare, adding 10 minutes if you prefer medium. This is the part that scared me, at about one hour you’ll start to worrying about burning the meat, but ignore your fears! You may also want to baste the meat a few times with the dripping in the bottom of the tray if the cut is on the lean side.
• Remove from the oven and let it stand for 20-30 minutes. Again this is something that always worries me, but I’m always amazed how hot the meat is after this amount of rest time.

And that’s it - very simple but unbelievably tasty.  Best served with gravy and horseradish.

(Ready for the oven)	(Resting for 20 minutes)