Saturday Night Feast: Secrets to a perfect Roast beef w/ sauce béarnaise and sugar roasted pearl onions

I remember how my mom would prepare a roast beef in the 80’ies with her cooking thermometer or totally avoid it because it was so difficult to get the nice pink center. I loved it then and I still love it now – and the best part is the leftovers for sandwiches or ‘Danish hash’.

Preparing the roast beef is easy. Pre-heat the oven to 435F and put in the roast for 15-20 for browning on a rack with matching pan. Take it out of the oven and let I sit for 20 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 385F. Put the roast beef back in for another 20 minutes. Take it out again and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Finally put it back in the oven for 20 minutes and take it out again and let it sit for 20 minutes before carving thinly and serving.

REAL Sauce Béarnaise:

4 oz (100 g) slowly melted butter
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon good vinegar – sherry vinegar, white wine vinegar or estragon vinegar
2 table spoons water
1-2 table spoons finely chopped charlottes.
1 handful of fresh, chopped tarragon
1 small handful of finely chopped chervil
Salt + fresh ground pepper

Melt the butter slowly in a casserole. Take another casserole and put in the vinegar, water, salt and egg yolks. From now on you will have to work the whisk all the time. The egg mix will start to foam a little but do not worry about that. Keep whisking as the mix heats up. The foam will disappear and the mixture becomes creamy. When you reach this point turn down the heat and add the charlottes. While whisking, add the melted butter slowly and make sure the butter ‘absorbs’ in the mixture. Add the chervil and tarragon. Adjust flavor with fresh ground pepper and perhaps salt.

Sugar roasted pearl onions:

For vegetables sugar roasted pearl onions are a nice thing. Get them frozen and thaw them out. Distribute sugar on a pan evenly so it covers the pan. Let it melt slowly so it stays clear. It’s almost impossible to keep some of the sugar from browning a little. Take a half stick of butter and put on the pan when the sugar is melted. Let the butter start browning a little before putting the onions in the pan. Keep turning them over till they have a nice golden brown surface. This takes about 10-15 minutes.

Steam baby carrots and string beans or hari coverts. When done stir in a quarter of a stick of butter, salt and pepper.

TIP: Boiled fingerling potatoes will be a great supplement for this.