Roast Beef

Growing up we had roast beef almost every Sunday and lets just say it was never my favorite meal. However now that I'm all grown up I wanted to try making roast beef - it just seemed like I meal I should know how to make - so I did some research for good recipes and asked my mother-in-law for some advice about how to cook a good roast beef. And I can now say that roast beef is one of my favorite meals to prepare for company - it tastes soo good, but its hard to find a roast small enough to serve just 2 and neither of us are very good at eating left overs, so I usually save this meal for company. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and although it calls for beef tenderloin I usually use whatever roast is on sale, either an outside round or a sirloin tip roast.

Herbed and Spiced Roasted Beef Tenderloin

2 Tbsp fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic
1 large shallot, peeled and quartered
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil

Place all the above spices and herbs in a mini-food processor. With the machine is running, add the olive oil and process until the mixture becomes a smooth paste. Spread the paste evenly over the roast.
Place the roast in a roasting pan, cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
Now for the cooking part - here is where cooking a roast cut differs a bit from a tenderloin. A roast needs to be cooked at 350 F for approx 20 min per pound for rare or 30 min per pound for medium. And don't forget to remove the tin foil before putting it in the oven. This type of cooking method rely's on the dry heat of the oven - so you don't want to have any sort of lid on the roasting pan.
The drippings from this roast can make wonderful gravy - although the gravy I make has only turned out really good (in my estimation) about 50% of the time that I try to make it - so if anyone has a fool proof gravy recipe using roast beef drippings please share!
I usually serve this with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Some substitutions:
* I don't usually have fresh herbs around so I substitute 2tsp dried rosemary and 2 tsp dried thyme leaves. although it really is better with the fresh.
* I don't usually add the orange zest - mostly because I never seem to have oranges in the house when I make this - plus I've had bad experiences cooking meat with oranges:)
* I've used just normal onions in place of the shallots if I haven't had time to do the proper shopping for this recipe and it tastes just fine.

Here is the link to the original recipe on allrecipes.com