Being the big meat eater that I am, it’s but natural that I dream of a delicious piece of steak every now and then or fantasize about that roast beef I had once upon a time in a hotel buffet, a prize I won from the radio. The last time I had that roast beef was last January 1, 2010 so yeah, I kind of missed it so I challenged myself to cook it at home because what is the big deal with roast beef but a block of beef meat, salt and pepper in an oven, right?

But as a matter of fact, I was intimidated. Who wants to waste a big block of meat in case my cooking fails? But heck, after more than 15 years of cooking, I’ve decided roast beef won’t be something I’d be scared of! *positive self-talk, people!*

So using my recent three days holiday, I marched to the butchery and got myself a block of meat, stared at it for a while and rolled up my sleeves.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilogram of beef meat – I used boneless rump roast cut
• salt, pepper, garlic powder (can be substituted with grated garlic or totally omitted if you hate garlic)
• olive oil

Procedure for roast beef:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Rub salt, pepper and garlic powder to meat and leave it on for three hours. I don’t know what’ll happen if you leave it for less but I left it for three hours and it tasted fab.

3. Heat a little olive oil in the frying pan and sear the block of meat, turning every side until brown.

3. When the meat is brown all over, transfer the block to a roasting pan and place inside the preheated oven.

Note: Do not throw the oil with the meaty goodness in the pan.

4. Roast for 20 minutes.

Note: Roasting for 20 minutes is perfect for people who loves their meat cooked medium rare. The center of the meat is tender but still pinkish. If you’re like my mother who looked at me like I am a dark ages cannibal, eating my meat semi-raw, you might want to up the roasting time. But then I can’t guarantee the tenderness if you cook the meat at a longer time.

4. Take out of the oven and serve with sauce/gravy.

Note: You can have any gravy of your preference – brown, thick one or anything to your liking. However, ours is soy sauce – lemon based. My ‘concoction’ is purely experimental at this point but it was delicious.

Sauce ingredients:

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup Kikkoman soy sauce
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp Japanese cooking wine (can be omitted)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp juice from grated ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, grated

Procedure for sauce:

1. Mix everything except the onions.

2. Using the frying pan with oil from the seared meat, saute the onions.

3. When the onions are translucent, add the liquid and bring to a boil.

4. Set aside and serve with the roast beef.

See how simple it is. Buy meat, season, sear and roast in the oven. I’m not sure if this is the ‘official’ way to cook roast beef but it is roast beef if you ask my tongue and the tongues of my husband and daughter, mouths full, raising their thumbs up, I say I have proudly made roast beef for the first time, with success!

It was even delicious sliced thinly, served as roast beef sandwich with cheese the next morning and the next.