Salt Packed Cold Roast Beef With Bread Crumb Salsa Recipes

SALT-PACKED COLD ROAST BEEF WITH BREAD-CRUMB SALSA

Steps:

• Heat a large, heavy cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 5 whole minutes and make sure the hood is on. Rub the fillet with 1 tablespoon oil, then sprinkle and coat evenly with black pepper. Brown the meat thoroughly on every side and the cut ends so that you have formed a nice crust universally around the fillet, creating a barrier for the coming salt crust. (This takes 7 to 8 minutes to brown correctly.) Remove the meat from the pan and let cool on a wire rack set in a sheet pan to have a cool and mostly dry piece of meat.
• Mix the salt with the water to form what looks like bright white wet sand. Spread a thin but solid and even layer of salt on the bottom of a 1/4 sheet pan and set the roast on it, then pack the remaining moist salt tidily around the browned meat, forming a solid case resembling a cast on a broken leg. Where there are cracks, redistribute the salt and fix them. This should be a fun and unfussy task. If you need more salt or more water or less water and more salt, mix up whatever mortar you need to get the beef encased.
• Place the salt-crusted beef on its sheet pan into a 250-degree oven and let it cook for 45 minutes. If you weighed it properly at the outset, 45 minutes at 250 degrees is fail-safe. Otherwise, use an insta-read thermometer and go in through a cut end to the direct center, and pull it when it hits 125 degrees inside. Crack the salt crust, dust the granules of clinging salt off with a clean, dry side towel, and set to rest on a tray in your station. Don't refrigerate, but label properly the time and date for Health Department.
• In a small, deep-sided sauté pan, heat the 1 cup of olive oil over medium-high heat. The oil should be just deep enough to submerge the first tip of your index finger. Good olive oil is rarely recommended for frying, so don't ever do this when you go on to work in a real restaurant, but here at Prune, I really prefer the flavor it adds.
• When the oil makes its beautiful, veinous, streaking patterns in the pan, which will move faster as the oil gets hotter, drop in a test piece of crouton. When it sizzles on contact, the oil is ready. Fry the croutons until golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon, and drain in a stack of basket-style coffee filters. Set aside the frying oil to cool. Mix together the tomatoes, scallions, garlic, anchovies, lemon flesh and zest and juice, and the red wine vinegar and toss well.
• Toss in the fried bread croutons and dress with 1/3 cup of the now-cool olive oil left over from frying. Rough up the parsley leaves briefly in your hands just to release the grassy aroma and add to the salsa. Sparingly season with salt and pepper to taste, keeping in mind that the filet will bring its own seasoning to the plate.
• Slice the beef to order, keep portion at 6 ounces. Shingle meat. Drape a good big spoonful of salsa over meat, but let the perfect wall-to-wall pink of the fillet show - don't hide that beauty under carelessly placed salsa. Drizzle with some of the remaining fry oil to finish. Do not season further.

MEATLOAF...A LITTLE SOUTHWEST STYLE

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Mix the ground beef, eggs, onion, bread crumbs, salsa, ketchup, barbeque sauce, salt, pepper, and celery salt together in a bowl; transfer to a loaf pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown on top, about 1 hour.

BEEF ROASTED IN SALT CRUST

Steps:

• In a bowl stir together the salt and 3/4 cup water until the mixture forms a slightly stiff paste resembling wet snow. Arrange the rib roast, fat side up, in a roasting pan and coat it completely with the salt mixture, patting the mixture on about 1/4 inch thick. Roast the beef in the middle of a preheated oven 325°F. oven for 2 hours (about 22 minutes per pound), or until it registers 130°F. on a meat thermometer for medium-rare meat. Transfer the beef to a cutting board and let it stand for 15 minutes. Remove the crust with a hammer and carve the meat.

SLOW-COOKER SALSA ROAST

Steps:

• Sprinkle roast with garlic salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat; brown roast on all sides. Transfer meat to a 5-qt. slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine salsa, water, onion, jalapeno and taco seasoning; pour over roast. Cook, covered, on low until meat is tender, 6-7 hours., Remove roast from slow cooker; tent with foil. Let stand 15 minutes before slicing. Reserve 2 cups cooking juices from slow cooker; discard remaining juices. Skim fat from reserved juices., Transfer to a small saucepan; bring to a boil. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into salsa mixture. Return to a boil, stirring constantly; cook and stir until thickened, 1-2 minutes. Serve with roast.