Mushroom-Sauced Roast Beef

My father's mother was not a famously amazing cook. She wasn't horrible, but she wasn't incredible. She was mostly somewhere in the middle.

As I spent a lot of time at my grandmother's when I was growing up, I certainly ate a lot of stuff she cooked, but the stuff that stays with me the most was the holiday stuff. Typically on Jewish holidays we'd get brisket. I am not a fan of brisket.

But sometimes, every so often, she'd do a roast beef instead. I don't know what the reasons were for one or the other, but I have a clear preference. I also have a clear memory of perhaps the last time she made roast beef, and her accidentally spilling the bowl of roast potatoes all over everyone. Oh, Nanny, we miss you.

I never asked Nanny how she made her roast beef--I didn't develop any aptitude or interest for the kitchen until after she was gone--but fortunately one day I hit upon the Mushroom-Sauced Roast Beef recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and it's close enough IMO to fit the bill. It's also ridiculously simple.

It also comes with a nice recipe for gravy, which it turns out is really easy to make. I understand the convenience of buying it in a can, but making it from scratch isn't hard, so that's the way I go. I recently made the roast for Josh's parents when they came to visit a couple of weekends ago.

Did I remember to take a picture of the roast beef? No I did not. I did take some pictures of his parents, though. So here's one of those:

A traditional Christmas.

In absence of any proper photos of the roast beef how I make it, I will purloin some from the net. Basically, you want to wind up with a thickly-sliced Sunday roast sort of thing, like so:

Mmm beef.

Except the gravy is also thicker, and, as the name implies, mushroomy. Like so:

Except probably thicker and more luscious, 

as I cadged this pic from Weight Watchers.  

BH&G recommends serving it with mashed potatoes, which I often do, much to Josh's potato-hating chagrin. I'll let you figure out how to make mashed potatoes for yourself. But as for the roast beef and gravy, here you go. We miss you, Nanny.

The most Nanny-esque Mushroom-Sauced Roast Beef I Can Find

The beef:
1 2-3 lb beef eye of round roast
2 tbsp Dijon-style mustard
1/2 tsp coarsely ground pepper

The gravy
3 cups quartered fresh mushrooms
4 green onions (AKA scallions), bias-sliced into 1/2" pieces (or, you know, just sliced however)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp margarine or butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp dried thyme or marjoram, crushed (I prefer marjoram - thyme can have such a strong taste)
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1/4 cup light cream or milk

Trim fat from meat. Or, forget to trim fat from meat.

Mix mustard and pepper. Rub onto meat.

Place meat on rack in a shallow roasting pan, or else just into a shallow roasting pan because you have no rack. Racks are for pussies. Or for people who know more about it than me. Whatever.

Insert a meat thermometer, which means fussing around your 300 meat thermometers to find the one that works. Roast in a 325 degree oven 'til thermometer registers 140 degrees for medium rare, which should be 1 1/2 to 2 hours, but initially seems much quicker because the top of the thermometer is touching the hot rack. Change around thermometers again. Note: If you are crazy and want medium do until 155 degrees (1 3/4 to 2 1/4 hrs).

Cover with foil; let stand for 15 minutes before carving, during which time the meat's temp should rise about 5 degrees and the meat itself should get kinda cool, which makes me sad because somehow it always feels like it should be warmer when I serve it.

Meanwhile, for sauce, in a medium saucepan cook mushrooms, green onions, and garlic in hot margarine 'til green onions are tender.

Stir in flour and thyme/marjoram, which makes it kinda roux-like. Yup, you just said roux. Boo-ya.

Gradually stir in beef broth. Cook and stir over medium heat 'til thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 1 minute more.

Stir in light cream/milk. Cook and stir 'til heated through. Wonder why the BH&G peeps like the word "'til" so much.

Remove meat thermometer and thinly slice meat across the grain and arrange on a serving platter. Or have Josh do this part. When Josh asks what metal thing is in the middle of the meat, realize that the metal covering at the tip of the thermometer has come out, again. Well, better than the thermometer breaking for mercury-infused meat.

Pour some sauce atop meat, or don't do that at all. Pass remaining sauce. Makes 8-10 servings. Enjoiiiii.