Curry-Rubbed Top Round Roast

We’ve had an eventful start to the new year—a few days after returning to work, our son Otto woke up with pink eye. To add to that, he had a persistent cold (that he happily shared with mom and dad) which developed into a mild ear infection. His temperament has been cheery, but he hates his antibiotic with a passion. If that didn’t seem to be enough, just a few days ago, Otto started to crawl. As amazing and exciting of a milestone as this is for him, we were not (and are still not) ready to be landlords of a mobile baby.

Despite these life events, we’ve been busier in the kitchen than ever. Part of this past weekend was conducting recipe testing for our friend Russ, in anticipation of his new cookbook (read more about that here), and we found ourselves left with a nice cut of top round roast. You know the story: our choices were either a 1.5 lb roast or a 5 lb roast when we only needed 3 lbs. What do we do with leftover meat? Make new recipes.

With that, we decided to dry-rub the roast in curry. If you’ve been with us for some time, you know we’re fans of curry (here are a few select examples). Fun fact: the concept of curry is a completely British/American invention, as there isn’t one “curry powder” in traditional cuisine. Indian and African dishes that require a blend of spices (what we call a curry), vary in ingredients and ratios, and were often ground for the meal being prepared. This is partly why store-bought curry powders often taste similar, but not exactly the same—there’s no master formula. We used the West African Curry blend from the Teeny Tiny Spice Company of Vermont for this recipe, but I think any curry powder will work.

Ingredients
2 lb top round roast
1/4 C avocado oil, or ghee
1/4 C curry powder

Method

Preheat the oven to 275ºF and heat the avocado oil over medium-high heat in an enameled dutch oven.

Rub the roast completely and evenly with the curry powder.

Sear the roast on all sides, approximately 2 minutes per side. Move immediately into the oven, and bake uncovered for 90 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the meat to rest on a cutting board for at least 10 minutes. Slice across the grain and serve.

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