Bottom Round Roast with Garlic and Tangy Gravy

I used to think roasts were just for weekends, but last week when I was trying to come up with a meal my daughter could cook or at least start while my husband and I were working, I realized this roast was perfect. It takes little preparation, can cook unattended for 1 hour and 15 minutes and can be easily timed to be almost ready when I get home.  This is a perfect “Cooking Around the Carpool” recipe. You can put it in the oven, along with some potatoes and it will be ready when you get back from the basketball carpool, or the dance class carpool, or the swim team carpool – you know - running around town!

Slices of this roast can be served at room temperature or after 20 seconds or so in the microwave, so feeding your later arrivers is easy, too.

My mother always served Eye of the Round Roast or Top of the Round Roast, but I discovered I like Bottom Round better. Any of these roasts will be good in this recipe.  And if you have a few minutes to open a can or jar of beef gravy, I am including a way to sweeten up and make tangy a can or jar of gravy. Hot gravy is a great thing to serve with room temperature roast, since it can heat up the roast just by pouring it on and then you don’t run the risk of over cooking the beef when you reheat it.

Ingredients

1  3-4 lb Bottom Round Roast

3 tsp of garlic – I like to use the jarred, minced garlic for this recipe, but you can use minced, fresh cloves

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

2 tsp thyme

Gravy

1  12 oz. can or jar of beef gravy

1 ½ tsp of dry mustard

¼ cup of currant jelly

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, combine garlic, salt, pepper and thyme.

3. Place the roast on a rack in a baking dish so the grease and fat drain off the roast.

4. Rub the garlic mixture all over the roast excluding the bottom.

5. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the roast going about half way through the roast.  You want the bottom of the thermometer to be in the center of the roast.

Cook for 20 minutes a pound. A 3.5 lb roast takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes for a rare roast, but watch the thermometer reading.  After you cook it for 20 minutes a pound, take it out of the oven, let it sit for 1 minute and then check the thermometer reading.  The temperature on the thermometer will go down a little after 1 minute and give you a more accurate reading. The temperature should read 135-140 for a rare roast.

6. While the roast is cooking, prepare the gravy. Empty a can or jar of gravy into a small sauce pan. Mix the mustard with a teaspoon of water to dissolve it, and then add to the gravy. Add the jelly to the gravy and heat thoroughly, melting the jelly.

To serve, cut the roast into very thin slices.

To reheat – do this very slowly! In the microwave heat a slice at half power for 20 seconds at a time so it doesn’t cook more. There is nothing worse than ruining a good slice of rare beef by reheating it too much and causing it to overcook.