Roast for a celebratory feast
Beef strip loin served with red-wine sauce is a sumptuous centrepiece to a festive meal
If you need a meaty entrée to be the focal point of a festive meal, a roast strip loin is a fine option. It’s not hard to prepare, it’s boneless and easy to carve, the meat is tender and succulent, and things get even better when you serve it with a sumptuous sauce.
Beef strip loin comes from the short loin of the animal, located near the tenderloin, and is commonly cut into strip loin steaks, also called New York steaks. But these days, butcher shops and supermarkets with inhouse butchers are also cutting strip loin into larger pieces and tying them into roasts.
If you don’t see one on display where you shop, simply ask the butcher to cut a roast for you. You could also call ahead and order one.
For this recipe, which serves six to eight, I bought a four-pound roast. When shrinkage of the roast during cooking is factored in, it should provide about six or a bit more ounces (about 175 grams) of meat per serving if you wanted it to serve eight. The portions of meat will be larger, of course, if the roast only serves six. Either way, it’s a good amount of meat, as you’ll also be serving the roast with side dishes.
Strip loin roasts can vary in thickness, depending on what end of the loin they were cut from, and that will affect cooking time. That’s why, in my recipe, I have given approximate cooking times and instruct you to use an instantread meat thermometer to accurately gauge doneness.
Through research and personal experience, I recommend you cook the meat to 120 F for rare, 125 F to 130 F for medium-rare and 135 F to 140 F for medium. Remember that the meat will continue to cook and rise in temperature when out of the oven and resting before you carve it. Just so you know, the roast in today’s photo was taken out of my oven when its temperature was 127 F in the very centre.
I served the roast with my version of marchand de vin sauce. Marchand de vin is French for “wine merchant.” So, not surprisingly, this sauce contains red wine. That wine, and the beef stock also in the sauce, are simmered and reduced until concentrated in flavour. When thickened with beurre manié (butter/flour mixture), you end with a rich and divine sauce that goes great with roast strip loin.
Note: For side-dish ideas to serve with the roast, check out my column next Wednesday. In it, I will be offering a range of holiday side-dish recipes to serve with roasts, such as beef, pork or turkey.