Day one hundred fourteen

Our plate today

How to prepare a perfect roast beef

Today was the first day of the last menu cycle. For our team it suppose to be the easiest menu, however we had a really busy day.

We prepared:
Roast Beef
Sauce Marchand de Vin
Potatoes au Gratin
Tomatoes filled with Duxelle
Endive a la Meuniere
Minestrone soup

In addition we had skills evaluation test and everyone made chicken consomme. Mine was under-seasoned the chef said more salt (such a surprise:-).  Will put more salt on practical.

For the main menu I coked Sauce Marchand de Vin and the roast beef together with
my team mate. The sauce was easy: shallot, peppercorns, and vine combined and reduced. Then I add demi-glace (sauce based on Espagnole and brown veal stock) and simmer it until reduced to the desired consistency. Sauce was strained and monte with butter.

Consomme at the beginning

Consomme is almost ready

For the roast beef we made a number of mistakes. Based on these mistakes we now know how it should be done to be perfect. First, for roast do not do small pieces. We had a big sirloin and two relatively small pieces from yesterday. Instead cooking them as is, we decided to make them approximately even size and we cut sirloin for four pieces. But they were very close in size. We used convection oven and did not make an adjustment for the convection (hot air is circulated inside the oven all the time). We started at 400 F and 15 minutes later lower temperature to 350 F. 75 minutes from the beginning of roasting I checked temperature and meat was overcooked... Our problem was than convection oven provides heat approximately 30 F more than standard oven. It was allright, a little bit dry, but with the sauce it was not so bad.

Based on our experience, the perfect roast should be seasoned first, then go to the oven at 400 F, depending on the size of your roast 10-20 minutes later decrease temperature to 325 F. One hour from the beginning start to check temperature (for the small roast 2-3 pounds, for the bigger one start at 90 minutes mark).  Be careful not to overcook it. It should be 135 F internal temperature for the medium (resting and carry over cooking will increase temperature by 5-15 F).