Might as well share the recipes too.
The beef was easy. Here's exactly what I did, but there are many, many methods to do a rib roast.
1 Standing Rib Roast, 3-4 lbs.
2TB minced garlic
2TB Olive Oil
1TB Kosher salt
1TB cracked black pepper
3 sprigs rosemary, leaves only.
1tsp brown mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce.
Dry age beef for 5 days or longer, to reduce moisture and intensify flavors.
Preheat smoker to 350˚
Add all ingredients except the roast to bowl of food processor and process to a paste.
Rub the roast with the paste and allow to sit on counter for one hour.
Smoke or roast in oven until the internal hits 124˚-128˚ Then wrap in aluminum foil and rest for 30 minutes or however long it takes to get everything else done and to get everyone to the table.
For carving, I like to slice off the ribs for later consumption in private. IE: midnight snack for the cook. Then the roast is easier to slice to whatever thickness you desire.
Last step: BRING SMOKER HOME FROM THE PARK LEST SOME DISHONORABLE BASTARD DECIDE TO STEAL IT!
Yorkshire Pudding
Preheat oven and whatever pan you're using to 450˚
Mix batter about an hour before you'll be cooking it so it can rest.
For the batter:
Equal parts (I used 6 oz by weight each) eggs, AP flour and milk. Some like to use a 50/50 mix of milk and water, which honestly does make a lighter pudding.
2-3 TB beef drippings or beef broth if you didn't catch the drippings.
If using beef broth add 2TB melted butter to the batter, as you'll want some fat in there.
1/2tsp salt, depending on salt content of roast drippings or broth. Use your head here, you want some salt but not too much.
Dump it all in the blender and put the spurs to it until it's the consistency of pancake batter.
10 minutes before cooking remove your pan from the oven and add some fat to it. I used a muffin pan for individual puddings, so I added about a dime sized chunk of lard to each cup. For a larger pan a tablespoon or 2 will suffice. You can use more roast drippings, crisco or vegetable oil, but I'd avoid butter as it'll burn.
Return pan to the oven until fat is beginning to smoke, 5-10 minutes, possibly less. I wasn't really paying attention.
CAREFULLY remove pan from oven and pour in the batter. For the muffin pan, I filled each cup 2/3-3/4 full. For a larger pan just dump it on in. It'll sizzle and complain, but it'll be fine.
Bake for 25 minutes. It should puff and look like some sort of alien spawn. Serve hot with gravy.
Brussels Sprouts with Gorgonzola and bacon.
One pound Brussels sprouts cleaned, stemmed and cut in half.
One half pound bacon cut into 1/2" pieces and fried crisp. RESERVE both bacon bits and fat.
3oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese plus another ounce or so for garnish. Any sharp blue veined cheese will do, but we had a hunk of Gorgonzola on the cheese platter so I just grabbed it off the coffee table. I hadn't planned to add cheese at all this time, but I'm glad I decided to at the last minute.
2 glugs Sherry. I'm guessing it was about 2oz. It's not really important to be exact here. You basically just want enough to steam and mix with the cheese to form a sauce.
2oz dry white wine
1/4tsp freshly ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste.
Start by blanching the Brussels for 3 minutes in salted boiling water.
Strain and shock in ice water to set color and keep them from getting mushy. (this is a step which better cooks than I would always do, and it does make a difference, but honestly I skipped it on this batch and it turned out fine. The bright green color did fade a bit though Just don't let them sit too long before sauteeing)
After shocking thoroughly drain and dry your sprouts. A salad spinner or some paper towels will work.
Set a large, heavy bottomed skillet over high heat and add 2-3tb of the reserved bacon fat. Once the fat is HOT, as in just starting to smoke, add your sprouts. IDEALLY, you'd place them all cut side down at first to thoroughly caramelize, but honestly that's a pain and takes too much time. Just dump them in and maybe turn over as many as you can with a spoon. Careful though, you want them to CARAMELIZE, not burn. Saute them until they're brown and you can smell a nice roasted, nutty aroma, 3-5 minutes.
Drop your heat to medium low and dump in your Sherry. Any fortified wine will do here, Marsala, Madiera, Vermouth or whatever. They'll all have subtly different flavors, but they'll all be good.
Dump in your wine and then cover and braise for 10-12 minutes. CAUTION-If using a gas stove you may want to kill the flame before adding the wines to the pan. The alcohol will vaporize and create a pretty sizable fireball if it hits an open flame.
At this point sprouts should be tender but not mushy. Cut off the heat and add the crumbled cheese, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Stir to combine, cover and let sit for around 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, remove cover, stir and put in a serving bowl. Sprinkle bacon bits and more crumbled bleu cheese on top. You'll never look at Brussels Sprouts the same way again.
The Scalloped potatoes came out of a box. I'm not ashamed.
The Cheesecake.
I'm not privvy to this recipe. It's a closely guarded secret by my feisty little wife. I can tell you that it's a basic cheesecake recipe with melted bittersweet dark chocolate added and a medium ganache on top. That's all I could really tell before I was banished from the kitchen. Oh, and the crust appeared to be a basic graham cracker crust but made with the outside of Oreos instead of Graham crackers. Just peel the cream filling off.
The beef was easy. Here's exactly what I did, but there are many, many methods to do a rib roast.
1 Standing Rib Roast, 3-4 lbs.
2TB minced garlic
2TB Olive Oil
1TB Kosher salt
1TB cracked black pepper
3 sprigs rosemary, leaves only.
1tsp brown mustard
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce.
Dry age beef for 5 days or longer, to reduce moisture and intensify flavors.
Preheat smoker to 350˚
Add all ingredients except the roast to bowl of food processor and process to a paste.
Rub the roast with the paste and allow to sit on counter for one hour.
Smoke or roast in oven until the internal hits 124˚-128˚ Then wrap in aluminum foil and rest for 30 minutes or however long it takes to get everything else done and to get everyone to the table.
For carving, I like to slice off the ribs for later consumption in private. IE: midnight snack for the cook. Then the roast is easier to slice to whatever thickness you desire.
Last step: BRING SMOKER HOME FROM THE PARK LEST SOME DISHONORABLE BASTARD DECIDE TO STEAL IT!
Yorkshire Pudding
Preheat oven and whatever pan you're using to 450˚
Mix batter about an hour before you'll be cooking it so it can rest.
For the batter:
Equal parts (I used 6 oz by weight each) eggs, AP flour and milk. Some like to use a 50/50 mix of milk and water, which honestly does make a lighter pudding.
2-3 TB beef drippings or beef broth if you didn't catch the drippings.
If using beef broth add 2TB melted butter to the batter, as you'll want some fat in there.
1/2tsp salt, depending on salt content of roast drippings or broth. Use your head here, you want some salt but not too much.
Dump it all in the blender and put the spurs to it until it's the consistency of pancake batter.
10 minutes before cooking remove your pan from the oven and add some fat to it. I used a muffin pan for individual puddings, so I added about a dime sized chunk of lard to each cup. For a larger pan a tablespoon or 2 will suffice. You can use more roast drippings, crisco or vegetable oil, but I'd avoid butter as it'll burn.
Return pan to the oven until fat is beginning to smoke, 5-10 minutes, possibly less. I wasn't really paying attention.
CAREFULLY remove pan from oven and pour in the batter. For the muffin pan, I filled each cup 2/3-3/4 full. For a larger pan just dump it on in. It'll sizzle and complain, but it'll be fine.
Bake for 25 minutes. It should puff and look like some sort of alien spawn. Serve hot with gravy.
Brussels Sprouts with Gorgonzola and bacon.
One pound Brussels sprouts cleaned, stemmed and cut in half.
One half pound bacon cut into 1/2" pieces and fried crisp. RESERVE both bacon bits and fat.
3oz crumbled Gorgonzola cheese plus another ounce or so for garnish. Any sharp blue veined cheese will do, but we had a hunk of Gorgonzola on the cheese platter so I just grabbed it off the coffee table. I hadn't planned to add cheese at all this time, but I'm glad I decided to at the last minute.
2 glugs Sherry. I'm guessing it was about 2oz. It's not really important to be exact here. You basically just want enough to steam and mix with the cheese to form a sauce.
2oz dry white wine
1/4tsp freshly ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste.
Start by blanching the Brussels for 3 minutes in salted boiling water.
Strain and shock in ice water to set color and keep them from getting mushy. (this is a step which better cooks than I would always do, and it does make a difference, but honestly I skipped it on this batch and it turned out fine. The bright green color did fade a bit though Just don't let them sit too long before sauteeing)
After shocking thoroughly drain and dry your sprouts. A salad spinner or some paper towels will work.
Set a large, heavy bottomed skillet over high heat and add 2-3tb of the reserved bacon fat. Once the fat is HOT, as in just starting to smoke, add your sprouts. IDEALLY, you'd place them all cut side down at first to thoroughly caramelize, but honestly that's a pain and takes too much time. Just dump them in and maybe turn over as many as you can with a spoon. Careful though, you want them to CARAMELIZE, not burn. Saute them until they're brown and you can smell a nice roasted, nutty aroma, 3-5 minutes.
Drop your heat to medium low and dump in your Sherry. Any fortified wine will do here, Marsala, Madiera, Vermouth or whatever. They'll all have subtly different flavors, but they'll all be good.
Dump in your wine and then cover and braise for 10-12 minutes. CAUTION-If using a gas stove you may want to kill the flame before adding the wines to the pan. The alcohol will vaporize and create a pretty sizable fireball if it hits an open flame.
At this point sprouts should be tender but not mushy. Cut off the heat and add the crumbled cheese, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Stir to combine, cover and let sit for around 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, remove cover, stir and put in a serving bowl. Sprinkle bacon bits and more crumbled bleu cheese on top. You'll never look at Brussels Sprouts the same way again.
The Scalloped potatoes came out of a box. I'm not ashamed.
The Cheesecake.
I'm not privvy to this recipe. It's a closely guarded secret by my feisty little wife. I can tell you that it's a basic cheesecake recipe with melted bittersweet dark chocolate added and a medium ganache on top. That's all I could really tell before I was banished from the kitchen. Oh, and the crust appeared to be a basic graham cracker crust but made with the outside of Oreos instead of Graham crackers. Just peel the cream filling off.