Herb-Crusted Roast Beef with Paleo Yorkshire Puddings and Gravy

I used to be quite famous (er, among my family members but I’m still sticking with the word “famous”) for my Yorkshire puddings.  My father-in-law was British and he used to love it when I made a roast beef dinner.  He wasn’t a man to give praise easily and his assertion that my Yorkshire’s were as good as his mom’s is about as high a praise as you could ever get. There are a couple of tricks to a good Yorkshire.  One of them is very well-beaten eggs.  The other is to preheat the muffin pan with some cooking fat until the fat is smoking.

Well, heating fat beyond smoking point isn’t a very healthful thing to do… but it does make for amazing Yorkshire puddings.  You can get around this by using a very high smoke point cooking fat.  You still get the really high temperature, without the oxidized fats.

The inspiration for these Yorkshire pudding recipes came from the observations once when I was pureeing ingredients for my Perfect Paleo Pancakes, that the batter fluffed up noticeably in the food processor until I added the coconut oil, and at which point, the volume decreased by almost half.  It made me think about the ability of green plantains and egg to hold air and how that might work in a nut-free Paleo Yorkshire pudding (and yes, of course I have some other ideas too).  It took a little playing with the plantain to egg ratio, finding that give and take between air and flavor.  These aren’t quite as light and fluffy as the ones I used to make, but they’re surprisingly light for pale baking, they get that great crust on the outside and the taste is perfect!

When cooking roast beef, most of how it turns out depends on the quality and the cut.  Rib roasts are the most tender.  I used a sirloin tip roast.  Tenderloins are tender too.  A top round roast will be less tender, but will still be good and is typically the least expensive cut that’s suitable for roasting.  I always always always recommend using a meat thermometer.  There is nothing worse than overcooking a roast and, especially with grass-fed cuts, they can sometimes cook faster than you expect.

To make the roast beef autoimmune protocol-friendly, replace the fennel seed with tarragon.  The gravy doesn’t need any modification.  The Yorkshires contain eggs so  they would only be appropriate for those who have successfully reintroduced eggs into their diets.

So, you get three recipes for the price of one this week.  A delicious herb-crusted roast beef, nut-free Paleo Yorkshire puddings and gravy (because you need gravy with Yorkshires)!!!  Add some Bacon-Braised Brussels Sprouts (like I did) or a salad or some steamed broccoli and you will be in heaven!  Enjoy!

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients (Roast Beef):

• 2-3 lb beef roast
• 4-5 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp truffle salt (or 1 tsp each salt and pepper)
• 1 Tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

1. Preheat oven to 300F.
2. Grind fennel seeds in a spice grinder, mini food processor, coffee grinder or mortar and pestle.  Combine with crushed garlic, truffle salt, and chopped rosemary.  Rub herbs all over the surface of the roast.
3. Place roast on roasting pan.  Insert a meat thermometer.  Bake 1 1/2- 1 3/4 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 145F (for medium rare).
4. Let roast rest for at least 10 minutes before carving.  If waiting for the Yorkshires to cook, cover with tin foil to keep warm.

Ingredients (Yorkshire Puddings):

• 2 large green plantains (1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups pureed) (Watch this video from my YouTube Channel to learn more about green plantains)
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• about 1/3 cup high smoke point cooking fat (ghee, palm shortening or avocado oil… this is tastiest with tallow, but it will smoke)

1. Put about 1/2 Tbsp of fat in the bottom of each cup of a metal muffin pan (silicone pans can’t handle this high heat).  Put muffin pan in oven and turn up heat to 450F.
2. While you’re waiting for the oven and pan to preheat, peel the plantains.  I find this easiest to cut in half both lengthwise and crosswise (quartering the plantain) and then prying the peel off with my thumbs.  Combine the plantains, eggs, and salt in a blender.  Blend on high for 3-5 minutes, until smooth and airy.  This takes less time in a high powered blender.  In my Blendtec, I pressed the smoothie button to puree the ingredients, then blended on 7 for an additional minute.  You get more air in your batter if your ingredients are room temperature.
3. Remove the hot pan from the oven and pour batter into the muffin cups.  Put immediately into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

and don’t forget…

Ingredients (Gravy):

• Pan and pan juices from the roast
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1/4 cup kuzu starch or arrowroot powder

1. Place the bottom of your roasting pan on an element on the stove.  Add broth to pan juices and bring to a simmer over medium high heat on the stove top.
2. Combing kuzu starch with 1/4 cup cold water.  Stir until smooth and pour into the hot broth while stirring constantly.  Keep stirring gently until broth thickens (it will be opaque when you first add the starch and then when the starch is fully cooked it will be more translucent).  Serve!