WHAT'S COOKING?

How about an eye of round roast cooked to perfection and all the tasty fixings? The beautiful aroma from this meal will draw your family to the table ready to feast.

Eye of round is a lesser priced beef roast that can be tasty and tender if prepared the right way. Give these recipes a try and, please, let me know what you think.

Eye of Round Roast with Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Sautéed Broccoli
Red Wine - Bolla Valpolicella

Roast
2 ¼ - 3 pound eye of round roast
2 TBL olive oil
1 cup beef stock

Remove meat from refrigerator 2-3 hours before cooking. Meat needs to be almost room temperature for this dish to work.

Preheat over to 325F

Heat olive oil over medium high heat until it shimmers. Using tongs or wooden spoons, brown the roast on all sides. Set a cooking rack in a roasting pan. (If you don’t have a rack, line the roaster with aluminum foil being sure to have it hang a little over pan sides.) Lay beef on rack or foil. Pour beef stock into bottom of the pan, not over the meat.

Topping
4 TBL mustard either yellow or Country Dijon
2 large garlic cloves pressed
¼ cup parsley chopped fresh or dry
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix above ingredients in a small bowl. Spread over the top and a little on the sides of the beef.

Roast in oven for 1 hour or until 140F on the meat thermometer. Don’t overcook or the meat will be tough. Check the liquid level and add more stock if it runs dry or the pan will burn. When meat is cooked, remove from oven, set on a cutting board and tent with foil to keep warm.

Sauce
¼ cup dry red wine
1 cup beef stock
1 TBL red current or seedless raspberry jelly
1 TBL butter

Time to deglaze the roasting pan. It’s very easy and requires little effort.

If you used the aluminum foil, carefully remove it from the pan and discard.

Place the pan over a burner set on medium. Add the red wine and scrape in all the browned bits clinging to the pan.

Turn the heat to medium high. Pour in the stock. Boil until sauce has reduced to about half while scraping in anything that clings to the side of the pan.

Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in butter. Keep sauce warm on very low heat while you carve the roast.

Carve into thin slice. Dribble sauce over meat to moisten. Serve extra sauce on the side.

If you have leftovers, freeze the meat and sauce separately. Next week, I’ll have a dynamite recipe to use them, so be sure to stop back.

Makes 4 servings or two with great leftovers

Mashed Potatoes
1 russet potato per person
Sour cream - a very large dollop
¼ cup milk set out to reach room temperature
3 TBS butter
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Peel and quarter potatoes. Fill a saucepan with enough water to cover the potatoes by an inch or so. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender. Drain pan.

Add sour cream, some of the milk, all of the butter, and the pepper to the pan. Mash the potatoes. Add small amounts of additional milk until you achieve the consistency you prefer.

Keep warm in the turned off oven while you assemble to meal.

Sautéed Broccoli
1 bunch broccoli
5 TBS olive oil
1 TBS butter
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Cut the flowerets off the broccoli. Save or freeze the remainder to make cream of broccoli soup.

In a heated medium frying pan, add the olive oil and butter. Heat until the oil shimmers. Add flowerets and stir them through the oil until they are coated on all sides. You may need a little more oil, but be careful not to drown the broccoli. Sauté until crisp tender, about 7 minutes.

Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

I'll be back Monday with Jennifer Loy and her new release SUNSET SIZZLE. Until then...

Bon Appétit!

Sloane Taylor
www.sloanetaylor.com