Roast Beef With Henrietta's Brown Gravy

By Christy Rost

Ingredients:

1		3 1/2 - 4 pound beef bottom round roast
1 ¼		teaspoons coarse salt
½		teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5		cloves minced garlic

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place roast in a roasting pan and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Rub some of the garlic over the sides of the roast; sprinkle remaining garlic on top of roast and press down to help garlic adhere to beef.

Roast beef in preheated oven 25 minutes to brown bottom of meat and ensure dark, flavorful drippings for gravy. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

Roast meat additional 1 to 1 ½ hours until a meat thermometer registers 145 degrees for medium-rare, or 160 degrees for medium. Remove meat from oven, trasfer to a cutting board, and cover with foil to keep warm.

Spoon fat from roasting pan and reserve pan drippings for gravy. Alternately, pan juices may be poured over meat just before serving.

Henrietta's Brown Gravy:

		drippings from beef roast
3		cups reserved hot cooking water, used to boil potatoes for mashed potatoes
2		beef bouillon cubes
½		cup flour
		cold water to make a slurry
		freshly ground black pepper

To make gravy, remove beef roast from roasting pan, set aside on a cutting board, and cover with foil to keep warm.

Place roasting pan over burners of stove; turn heat to medium-low. Stir in hot cooking water from potatoes, or 3 cups water, scraping up brown bits from bottom of roasting pan. Add bouillon cubes, and cook several minutes until bouillon dissolves, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, place flour in a medium bowl. Whisk in enough cold water to create a smooth, creamy slurry the thickness of egg whites. Whisk slurry, a little at a time, into the beef broth mixture, stirring constantly until gravy begins to thicken. If mixture is too thick, stir in a little extra potato water or cold water. If gravy is too thin, mix together additional flour slurry and whisk into gravy.

Season gravy with black pepper and a pinch of salt, if needed. Reduce heat to low, and keep gravy hot, stirring occasionally until ready to serve. Transfer gravy to a pitcher or gravy boat.

Recipe makes 3 to 3 ½ cups beef gravy.