Rib Roast with Roasted Garlic Sauce

Serves 8

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475° F.
2. Put roast, ribs side down, in center of a 13- by 9-inch roasting pan and rub all with 1/2 tablespoon oil. Cut about 1/2 inch from tops of garlic heads to expose cloves and discard tops. Rub cut sides of garlic and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons thyme, pressing to adhere. Season beef generously with salt and pepper. Put garlic heads in a double layer of foil and drizzle with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil. Wrap garlic tightly in foil.
3. Roast beef in middle of oven for 30 minutes. Remove beef from oven and with a baster skim all but about 1/2 cup liquids from pan. Reserve removed liquids in a small bowl. Baste beef with remaining liquids in roasting pan. Reduce temperature to 375° F.
4. Place foil wrapped garlic in with the roast. Return roasting pan to oven and cook for additional 90 minutes. Remove roasting pan from oven. Transfer garlic to a cooling rack and transfer beef to a platter, reserving pan juices. Let beef stand 25 minutes.
5. While beef is standing, remove all but about 2 tablespoons of liquid from roasting pan. (Add removed liquid to the small bowl with other removed liquid.) Transfer the 2 tablespoons of liquid to a small pan. Add shallot to pan and turn stove top burner to medium heat, cook shallot in pan for 2 minutes. Unwrap garlic. Squeeze roasted garlic into shallot mixture and discard skins. Add vinegar, wine, bay leaf, and remaining thyme, boil mixture. Stir mixture and mash garlic with a wooden spatula against bottom of pan, until reduced to about 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes.
6. In a small bowl mash together butter and flour. Combine reserved liquid from small bowl to the garlic mixture. Stir together and boil sauce until reduced to about 2 cups. Whisk the butter and flour mixture into the broth mixture and cook for 3 minutes. (Sauce is smooth and slightly thickened.) Pour sauce through a fine sieve into a bowl, removed the solids. Season sauce with salt and pepper. 
7. Cut rib roast into slices, serve with sauce and enjoy!