Recipe | Roast Rib of Beef with Bearnaise sauce

Christmas has always been a super special day for us with the build-up and excitement! Celebrate Christmas with this simple but delicious Rib of Suffolk Beef and tasty Bearnaise sauce. Serve it with our Potato and Bacon Terrine as a side dish. Serve 4.

Ingredients:

1,5kg rib of beef on the bone (2 ribs)
Salt and pepper, olive oil for searing

Bearnaise sauce

400g unsalted butter for clarified butter
2 shallot, sliced
10g crushed peppercorns
20g tarragon, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
150ml white wine
150ml white wine vinegar
5 egg yolks
20ml water
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and white pepper

Method for the Bearnaise sauce and Roast Rib of Beef:

Make the clarified butter: Melt the unsalted butter in a pan, then remove from the heat and allow to cool. Slowly pour off the liquid fat – the clarified butter – into another pan, leaving behind the white liquid (le petit lait) which you can discard.
Make the Bearnaise sauce: Melt the clarified butter slowly. Keep it warm. Put the shallots in a clean pan with the peppercorns, half the tarragon, the bay leaf, wine and vinegar. Cook over a medium heat until reduced. Transfer to a small container. Put the egg yolks and water in a rounded bowl and suspend over a pan of hot simmering water. Whisk until it expands and starts to thicken. When you lift the whisk and there is a ‘continuous ribbon’ start beating in the clarified butter, a little at a time, still whisking continuously. Beat in the reserved reduction and then pass through a fine sieve. Add the remaining tarragon, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk again and keep warm.
Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4. Season the ribs on both sides and sear them on a very hot griddle or frying pan with a little olive oil for about one minute on each side. Place them in a roasting pan and cook in the preheated oven for 10 minutes for medium rare. Remove them from the oven and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Remove the bones and slice the meat, dividing it between four serving plates. Serve the Bearnaise sauce on the side with roasted potatoes or a crispy potato and bacon terrine (recipe to follow soon).