Thursday night - Roast beef edition

Came home and put a bottom round roast in the oven (on sale at Publix for $2-something/lb.). Took a nap and then got a Mexican pita pocket at Chicken Kitchen by the Starbucks. Ate that outside at Starbucks after getting a tea. Good sandwich -- lots of chopped chicken breast, plus shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and sour cream--worth the $8, I guess. (I only got it since Starbucks had run out of turkey and Swiss.) But the pita busted open half-way through and I ended up eating a lot of it with a fork, which was OK.

Bottom round roasts are really a great deal (esp. when on sale). Here's a comparison between an 85 g. hamburger (ground sirloin -- 10% fat) and an 85 g. serving of bottom round roast beef.

Calories: 196 for the hamburger, 144 for the roast beef

Fat calories: 92 for the hamburger, 41 for the roast beef

Cholesterol: 25% for the hamburger, 20% for the roast beef

Protein: 25 g. for both

(Source)

(Ground sirloin usually costs a lot more, even when it's on sale vs. the cost of the roast on sale.)

And nothing could be easier to prepare than a roast beef. I preheat the oven to 325 F. Then coat the roast with salt, pepper and garlic power. Then throw it in the oven for however long it takes to get it to the doneness you prefer (approx. 1/2 hr. per pound). I use a digital thermometer to test for doneness. You can go out and run errands while the roast is in the oven. (It probably uses more electricity than frying a hamburger, but there are multiple servings in a roast.)

I also made a great gravy tonight just from what was stuck to the bottom of the roasting pan (the "fond"). First I put water in the pan to soften it up for a while, then heat it up and scrape the bottom of the pan with a fork or whisk to dissolve it, then thicken with gravy flour (Wondra). (I always coat the roasting pan with non-stick spray before roasting.)

Sometimes I also embed fresh garlic inside the roast [see photo]--just make a channel with a sharp steak knife and push the garlic down inside the roast with your finger. I use half cloves.