So last Friday was my birthday. Tracy asked me on Monday what I wanted for my birthday. Of course she meant as a present. Being that there's nothing I really need or want, I told her I wanted a CPB tomahawk rib eye for dinner. God bless her, she always wants to take me out for dinner as a treat and so I don't have to cook. She's finally starting to grasp my aversion to going out but preferring to stay home and cook. She relented. Originally I was going to serve this on Friday but due to her work schedule we decided to wait till yesterday. I did get things going Thursday though originally thinking I'd cook on Friday. Here's the menu:
First course
-Beef consomme
Second course
-Cesar salads (sort of)
Main course
-Smoked reverse seared CPB tomahawk rib eye
-Portabellas in a port wine reduction
-Grilled asparagus braised in butter, shaved almonds, and sweet cranberries
-Egg noodles tossed in butter and a homemade beef sauce
Dessert
-Deep dish CI grilled bourbon peach cobbler
First we get the consomme going
Consomme done. Ready to strain it off
Run through a fine strainer lined with cheese cloth. Here's what's left to be discarded
Here's what we keep
Got the last pre-packaged tomahawk out of the freezer and defrosted
Steak ready to be seasoned. It's 2 pounds 4 ounces
Seasoned with some spice I got from Zach
Misplaced Nebraskan
Vac seal to drive the flavors home. This is Thursday so it's now going to sit for two days before cooking
Fast forward to Saturday. Get the asparagus ready. Butter, shaved almonds, and sweet dried cranberries
Start the mushrooms in a pan with some butter
This is the beef sauce that will go over the egg noodles
The port that will be used in the mushroom sauce
Build the port wine sauce for the mushrooms and let it reduce
Here is the consomme reheating
Steak unwrapped and ready to go on the Rec Tec. Gonna smoke low heat / extreme smoke for about 45 minutes
While the steak is smoking I get the salads done
Asparagus on the grill
Steak smoked. Remove, put the sear grates in, and get the grill up to 500
Seared one side and flipped. This is the best pic of the steak I got
First course: the consomme garnished with some green onions
Second course: the Cesar salads
While the steak is resting and we are enjoying the first two courses, got the bourbon peach cobblers on the grill
Steak sliced and ready to build the plates. I'm sorry it's not as pretty as I'd like. At this point I've been working on this meal for 3 days and I'm ready to eat. I'm kicking myself now for not putting more time into the presentation but there's nothing I can do about it at this point.
Dinner plated with the steak, shrooms, noodles, and asparagus. Again, I sure wish I'd taken more time on the presentation
And finally the dessert: cobbler with some Blue Bell French vanilla ice cream
All in all a very good meal and well worth the effort. Even though the carryover took the steak just a bit more done than I would have liked, it was still pink, juicy, and extremely tender. The mushrooms in the port wine reduction was fantastic. I've been playing with different approaches to mushrooms recently and this was definitely a huge hit. First time making a sauce for the noodles from scratch. I've always just gotten stuff from the store and made those. Never again will I buy them pre-made. This sauce was delicious!! Both of us just loved it. Now to the asparagus. We both love it and much prefer it grilled. I'm also constantly looking for new ways to prepare and cook it, but according to Tracy, I need look no further. This was nothing short of spectacular. The cranberries and almonds cooked down a bit in the butter and melded so beautifully with the asparagus, it was breathtaking. I still don't know where that idea came from but it hit me a couple days ago, I got my brain wrapped around it, and couldn't let it go. Glad I stayed the course. The individual cobblers was a lot of fun. I've made the bourbon peach cobbler before but always in a big CI skillet. This is the first time I've done them in the individual CI baking dishes. They cooked faster and seemed to take on a better flavor than when done in the large skillet. These were a hit.
Well, Tracy will be home from church shortly so I need to bring this to a closure and get breakfast going. Thanks once again for taking the time to share in my follies and cannot tell everybody how much I appreciated all the kind words that were bestowed on me from the post that John
SmokinVOLfan
started last Friday. Sure is great to be among such a fantastic group of folks. Y'all have a happy Sunday and I'm sure i'll be seeing everybody again real soon.
Still basking in the glory,
Robert
First course
-Beef consomme
Second course
-Cesar salads (sort of)
Main course
-Smoked reverse seared CPB tomahawk rib eye
-Portabellas in a port wine reduction
-Grilled asparagus braised in butter, shaved almonds, and sweet cranberries
-Egg noodles tossed in butter and a homemade beef sauce
Dessert
-Deep dish CI grilled bourbon peach cobbler
First we get the consomme going
Consomme done. Ready to strain it off
Run through a fine strainer lined with cheese cloth. Here's what's left to be discarded
Here's what we keep
Got the last pre-packaged tomahawk out of the freezer and defrosted
Steak ready to be seasoned. It's 2 pounds 4 ounces
Seasoned with some spice I got from Zach
Misplaced Nebraskan
Vac seal to drive the flavors home. This is Thursday so it's now going to sit for two days before cooking
Fast forward to Saturday. Get the asparagus ready. Butter, shaved almonds, and sweet dried cranberries
Start the mushrooms in a pan with some butter
This is the beef sauce that will go over the egg noodles
The port that will be used in the mushroom sauce
Build the port wine sauce for the mushrooms and let it reduce
Here is the consomme reheating
Steak unwrapped and ready to go on the Rec Tec. Gonna smoke low heat / extreme smoke for about 45 minutes
While the steak is smoking I get the salads done
Asparagus on the grill
Steak smoked. Remove, put the sear grates in, and get the grill up to 500
Seared one side and flipped. This is the best pic of the steak I got
First course: the consomme garnished with some green onions
Second course: the Cesar salads
While the steak is resting and we are enjoying the first two courses, got the bourbon peach cobblers on the grill
Steak sliced and ready to build the plates. I'm sorry it's not as pretty as I'd like. At this point I've been working on this meal for 3 days and I'm ready to eat. I'm kicking myself now for not putting more time into the presentation but there's nothing I can do about it at this point.
Dinner plated with the steak, shrooms, noodles, and asparagus. Again, I sure wish I'd taken more time on the presentation
And finally the dessert: cobbler with some Blue Bell French vanilla ice cream
All in all a very good meal and well worth the effort. Even though the carryover took the steak just a bit more done than I would have liked, it was still pink, juicy, and extremely tender. The mushrooms in the port wine reduction was fantastic. I've been playing with different approaches to mushrooms recently and this was definitely a huge hit. First time making a sauce for the noodles from scratch. I've always just gotten stuff from the store and made those. Never again will I buy them pre-made. This sauce was delicious!! Both of us just loved it. Now to the asparagus. We both love it and much prefer it grilled. I'm also constantly looking for new ways to prepare and cook it, but according to Tracy, I need look no further. This was nothing short of spectacular. The cranberries and almonds cooked down a bit in the butter and melded so beautifully with the asparagus, it was breathtaking. I still don't know where that idea came from but it hit me a couple days ago, I got my brain wrapped around it, and couldn't let it go. Glad I stayed the course. The individual cobblers was a lot of fun. I've made the bourbon peach cobbler before but always in a big CI skillet. This is the first time I've done them in the individual CI baking dishes. They cooked faster and seemed to take on a better flavor than when done in the large skillet. These were a hit.
Well, Tracy will be home from church shortly so I need to bring this to a closure and get breakfast going. Thanks once again for taking the time to share in my follies and cannot tell everybody how much I appreciated all the kind words that were bestowed on me from the post that John
SmokinVOLfan
started last Friday. Sure is great to be among such a fantastic group of folks. Y'all have a happy Sunday and I'm sure i'll be seeing everybody again real soon.Still basking in the glory,
Robert
