Maura McEvoy
Appears in Chef John Besh’s cookbook, Cooking From the Heart: My Favorite Lessons Learned Along the Way. Read our review.
Chef Besh: "I wasn’t crazy about beef until I discovered the flavor of Charolais beef in France. Côte de boeuf literally means “cut of beef,” which here indicates a small standing rib roast. I combine the drippings from the roast with red wine and Fond de Veau to make a rich mushroom sauce, wonderful with the roast beef. If porcinis are not in season, use whatever combination of wild and domestic mushrooms you can find (even rehydrated dried porcinis in the mix will enrich the flavor)—just make sure there are plenty of them."
Ingredients:
1, 4–5-pound bone-in rib roast
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1⁄2 cup red wine
4 tbsp. butter
8 porcini mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 shallot, minced
leaves from 4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 cup basic Fond de Veau
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 400°. Season the rib roast generously with salt and pepper and place in a roasting pan. Roast until the beef is browned on the outside and medium rare on the inside with an internal temperature of 130°, about 45 minutes.
- Transfer the roast to a platter. Deglaze the roasting pan with the wine, scraping up any delicious browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Then, melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Add the shallots and thyme, then the wine from the pan and the Fond de Veau. Simmer until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with the roast.
