Horseradish Crusted Standing Beef Roast

When I first moved to the US, as a teenager in 1962, I discovered that American Jews – except for Passover – only ate horseradish with gefilte fish. Back in Uruguay, where I lived prior to immigrating to these shores, we would have horseradish with meat at almost any time we ate meat (daily!). In America that suddenly wasn’t cool… Arguing with Americans on this was futile… ahh, the American Jewish palate seemed so uneducated at that time. Fast forward 49 years… and we caught up with the rest of the world, we adapted all their seemingly strange foods and often improved them. When I came across this recipe, by Laura Frankel, it brought back some great memories and I knew i’d have to try it tonight.

Detail of photo from: theheritagecook.com

Serves 6-8

Something wonderful happens to horseradish when it is cooked. The pungent root vegetable so tearfully familiar during Pesach becomes sweet and savory once cooked and slathered all over gorgeous beef. The king of all meat cuts is a perfect celebratory gorgeous hunk of meat. It looks intimidating-but is actually really easy and can be done ahead of time and kept warm.

Ingredients

• 1 4-rib roast (about 9 pounds), cut from the small end or first cut with the chine bone cut off (ask your butcher to tie the bones on to the roast)
• 2 onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 red peppers, coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, coarsely chopped
• 3 plum tomatoes, cut in half
• 4 tablespoons fresh cracked black pepper
• 6 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 cup prepared white horseradish
• 2 bulbs of garlic, roasted and the soft garlic squeezed out
• 1 750 ml bottle dry red wine (I prefer Cabernet Sauvignon)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1. Lay the rib roast, bone side down, in a large heavy duty roasting pan. Scatter the vegetables around the roast. These will be the base for wine sauce later.
2. Season the roast with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Mix the horseradish and roasted garlic together.
3. Generously smear the mixture over the rib roast. Place the prepared roast in the pre-heated oven and roast for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature of the oven to 325 and roast for an additional 60 minutes.
4. Insert a meat thermometer into the the thickest part of the roast and when the temperature registers 115 (for rare-medium rare)-remove the roast. Loosely tent the meat with foil and allow to rest for 20 minutes. This will allow the final temperature to be around 125-130. The internal temperature will continue to rise in a process called carry-over cooking.
5. Remove the meat and place the roasting pan over a burner at medium heat. Add the wine and gently scrape up any brown bits with a wooden spoon. Continue cooking until the wine has reduced by ½. Strain out the vegetables and discard. Adjust seasoning with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
6. Remove the bones and slice the meat. Serve on a platter with wine sauce and sautéed mushrooms if desired.
7. To hold the meat for Shabbat-once the meat has reached the desired temperature, turn off the oven and remove the meat as in step 4. After the meat has rested and any carry over cooking is finished-return the meat back to the warm oven-allow the door to stand slightly open and the meat will stay warm for another 30 minutes or more.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS