Roast Beef With Beetroot Tea Sandwiches

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Roast Beef Tea Sandwiches With A Sliver Of Beetroot.

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Buttery beef tenderloin, a sliver of sweet beetroot, dollops of a light sour cream and mayonnaise mixture in between slices of white bread. That's a rather nice Afternoon Tea Sandwich.

The idea for this sandwich came from an afternoon spent in The English Tea Room at London's Brown's Hotel. It was a roast beef and beetroot sandwich. I did not think the pairing worked. It was visually pretty but it was just another beef sandwich. 

My ideal roast beef tea sandwich. Beefy tasting,
 tender and moist.

That sandwich needed a touch of moisture, something to lighten it up and the beef needed more flavour. I politely declined a second helping. I was saving tummy space for more Cornish Clotted Cream with Sweet Milk Scones anyway.  Now, that's my all time favourite English Afternoon Tea item. Read more about it in my earlier post. I digress.

English Afternoon Tea. I could have this all over again!

Top plate: Classic Victoria Sponge Cake, Checkerboard Cookies,
Sweet Milk Scones.
Bottom plate first layer: Egg and Cress, Roast Beef with
Beetroot, Crisp Cucumbers.
Bottom plate second layer: Roast Beef with Beetroot, Smoked Salmon
with Dill Butter, Ham with Honey Butter

Back home, images of that sandwich would not leave my head. I had to make the sandwich work I thought. It was just too interesting a food combination to let it pass. So after roasting four rolls of beef tenderloin, yes four, I have my perfect roast to make those sandwiches. 

We need to balance the flavours of the roast beef and the beetroot. Beetroot is hearty and earthy.  To bring out its underlying sweet flavour, you need to roast the whole beetroot in its skin and use only one slice per sandwich. Anymore and it will overpower the beef. 

The beef had to be melt in the mouth tender so you can bite through the sandwich delicately with each bite. This is English Afternoon Tea after all, one needs to or at least try to be elegant. You do not want to be caught trying to chew off sinewy beef in mid-sentence. Then again, one should not be talking while eating. 

Slices of buttery madness!

So the beef had to be a tenderloin which when cooked properly and that means only cooking it to medium rare, promises slice after slice of buttery tender madness. The beef must be seasoned well not once but twice to ensure flavour. Salting and peppering alone is quite inadequate. 

These two individually strong flavoured ingredients needed something moist to bind the flavours together as well as to lighten it up. If you use only mayonnaise, it would be too heavy. Using the right proportion of light sour cream and mayonnaise was the answer. The sandwich does not need anything else. The beef is the star. I kept it simple. 

If you are not into sandwiches, just roast the beef tenderloin and eat it as it is. No sauce required as it is so moist and tasty it really needs no further embellishments.

I hope you try this recipe. It is rather good. 

ROAST BEEF WITH ROASTED BEETROOT TEA SANDWICH     

Prep:	15 minutes for beef and beetroot + 30 minutes to assemble sandwiches
Cook:	1 hour to roast beetroot. 4 minutes to sear beef plus 25 minutes (+/- 5 minutes) to roast: about 5 minutes per 3 and 1/2 oz (100 g) of beef @ 250F (125C).
Inactive:	None
Level:	Intermediate
Makes:	12 finger sandwiches
Oven Temperature:	For the beetroot: 400F (200C) For the beef: 250F (125C)
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes. Roast 2 similar size rolls of tenderloin and not one big roll. Cooking time would be somewhat the same give or take 5 to 10 minutes.
Make ahead?	Beef and beetroot can be roasted and refrigerated one day ahead.  I actually prefer to roast both a day ahead. The beef will have rested well and upon slicing, look like something bought from a top end delicatessen but only much better. Moreover, it means it leaves me time to casually assemble the sandwiches and look like a pretty cool unfrazzled hostess. I wish! Refrigerated sandwiches do keep well through the next day and stays soggy free.

Ingredients

7 oz (200 g) whole beetroot

Wash well and leave skin on.

1 and 1/4 lb (550 g) beef tenderloin

Try to get a cut of beef that is more or less evenly sized throughout its length (ask for the centre cut), do not get the end cuts as those tend to taper off. If you can, have your butcher tie the roll of beef tenderloin.

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp oil

1 and 1/2 tsp of Soy Sauce/Tamari/Bragg

Tenderloin beef while very tender is milder in flavour compared to other cuts of beef. Rubbing Soy Sauce/Tamari/Bragg gives it the extra depth of flavour that it needs. Do not skip.

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 Tablespoon oil

For searing beef if you are not using a nonstick/cast iron pan

1 Tablespoon oil

If you are using a roasting/baking tray

12 slices of white sandwich bread

Butter 

For buttering bread slices

2 Tablespoons mayonnaise 

6 Tablespoons light sour cream


Directions

The beetroot

Two hours before your are ready to roast the beef, heat up the oven to 400F (200C) oven rack adjusted to middle position. Wrap the beetroot in aluminium foil. It should look like a UFO.  Hot air circulates within the package and helps speed up cooking. That is what I am told anyway.

Bake in heated oven for 1 hour. Beetroot is cooked when you can easily insert a skewer through it. Unwrap and when it is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin which can be pretty fun. Slice the beetroot as thinly as you can manage. Cover and set aside.

The beef

Bring your beef to room temperature and turn on the oven to 250F (125C), oven rack adjusted to middle position.

If you have an oven safe skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan this is the time to use it. If you do not have one, you need a skillet/frying pan that is preferably nonstick as well as a roasting tray or a baking tray that will fit the beef tenderloin. Place your roasting/baking tray in the cold oven to heat up at the same time as your oven heats up.

If you were unable to have the butcher tie up the beef, it is easy to do it yourself if you have butcher's twine. The simplest way is to tie a dead knot at 1"(2.5cm) intervals.

The reason for tying the beef is to get your beef into a somewhat uniform size for even cooking, especially if you were unable to get a centre cut. If you have no butcher's twine, you should be fine without tying the meat. With such a small roll of beef, the beef should be fairly even in size throughout anyway.

Mix the soy sauce, mustard and oil. Set aside.

Just before your are ready to cook, salt and pepper the beef.

Heat up your skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan until it is very hot. If your are not using a nonstick pan, grease the pan with 1 Tablespoon of oil.

In that very hot pan, sear each side of beef for no longer than 60 seconds. There are 4 sides so that means no longer than a total of 4 minutes. I would usually take only 45 seconds to sear the last side as the beef would have sat a little longer (hence have more cook time) in the hot pan when you transfer it to the work surface to slather on the soy sauce, mustard and oil mixture. Remember, you do not want to sear the meat any further then required. Otherwise, you might not achieve the nice pink centre on the tenderloin.

Remove skillet/grill/cast iron/frying pan from stove and onto work surface.

Use a spoon to slather soy sauce, mustard and oil mixture all over beef, bottom side included. Transfer the oven safe skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan into the oven. If you are not using an oven safe skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan, before you transfer the meat onto the preheated roasting/baking tray, grease the tray with 1 Tablespoon of oil.

For a meat this size, you want to roast it for about 25 minutes (+/- 5 minutes) to medium rare. It works out to be about 5 minutes per 3 and 1/2 oz (100 g) @  250F (125C). It will continue to cook when you take it out from the oven and tent it under aluminium foil.

After 20 minutes, use a meat thermometer to check that the meat registers an internal temperature of 135F (55C - 60C) at its thickest part. If you do not have a thermometer, carefully prod the meat at its thickest part with your index finger.  It should feel the same way as when you prod the fleshiest part of your open palm. For me that would be the flesh that sits 3" (8cm) down from my pinkie finger. This is my personal finger test for beef cooked to medium rare. Read the 'Tip' section below to find out how you can accurately get meat cooked to the level of 'doneness' that you like each and every time.

Always transfer the beef onto a plate, when it is done cooking, tent loosely with aluminium foil and leave it alone for at least 20 minutes before slicing.  Do not leave it on the roasting/baking tray or skillet/grill/iron cast/frying pan or it will continue to cook.

You do not want the beef tenderloin cooked any further or worse still, until 'well done'. It is a very lean cut of meat and your meat will be very dry at 'well done' stage and quite tasteless as well. Better to cook it medium rare where you can still salvage the meat with brief cooking if you find it too rare.

When the roast has rested its 20 minutes, I usually leave it for 30 minutes, slice into thin slices. This roll of tenderloin was left overnight in the refrigerator. Try a slice and tell me you were able to stop at one slice. It is so buttery smooth, it will just slide down your throat.

It looks and taste much better than any roast beef bought from a delicatessen.

Assembling

Mix the light sour cream with the mayonnaise. Set aside this cream mixture and have a teaspoon ready.

Lightly butter all the bread. The butter acts like a protective barrier to prevent the bread from becoming soggy after you add the sandwich ingredients.

To assemble sandwich, start with one layer of beef and top with one round slice of beetroot. With the teaspoon, top that off by lightly dolloping 1 to 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of the cream mixture. Do not add too much cream. The sandwich does not need it and you will have soggy sandwiches.

With a serrated bread knife and with a sawing motion, trim off the crusts and slice sandwich into two rectangles. Do the same with the rest of the bread slices.

Invite people over and serve as part of an English Afternoon Tea spread or just brew yourself some tea and enjoy it with just that cuppa.

Tips

• The best advice I can give you to get meat done the way you like is to purchase a meat thermometer.  Think of it this way. Beef is expensive. Beef tenderloin is one of the more expensive cuts of beef. It would be a pure waste of effort and money to have beef not done to your liking and worse, overcooked and inedible because you lacked a thermometer which is cheap compared to the price you paid for the meat. Get a thermometer.

• Invest in an oven-proof thermometer. You need only insert the thermometer once into the thickest part of the meat at the beginning of cooking. 'Oven-proof' means you can leave it in the meat throughout the cooking process and check on how the meat is fairing whenever necessary. You can not leave an instant-read thermometer in the oven. As its name suggest, it reads the meat temperature for an instant and then you have to remove it. I do not recommend instant-read thermometers as that repeated skewering into the meat draws out a lot of meat juices and dries up the meat. Go for an oven-proof thermometer.

• If you have any leftover beef, which I doubt you will have, they are great for salads or to top on ramen but I really just eat them straight off the plate, sometimes with a little Dijon mustard.

• You will have left over beetroot slices. We roasted such a small beetroot, you will only have enough to make a salad. This is the salad I made. That is my '20-minute Pickled Onions' strewn on top. That recipe can be found under the post, Mango Salad with Salmon and Scallops Ceviche. There are also capers, lemon zest, gorgonzola, salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice over it. Very good with crusty bread.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                  

It has to be the recipe for Smoked Salmon with Dill Butter Tea Sandwiches!

This is part of a series I am posting on an English Afternoon Tea spread. The selection you see on the 2-tier cake stand at the top of this post would be the recipes I will be posting. Recipes for Sweet Milk Scones and Checkerboard Cookies have recently been posted. Take a look at those. The Checkerboard Cookies can be rather fun to put together.