New Years Tomahawks: Epic 5 Course 5-Star Meal (W / Lotsa Pics)

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tx smoker

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Apr 14, 2013
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Lago Vista, Texas
Our Navy guest's time with us was winding down and I wanted to put together a memorable meal for them, Courtney (my daughter) was the bar manager in a 5-star steak house prior to joining the Navy so she's very familiar with a first class meal. Where she worked though tomahawk rib eyes were a very rare item, never advertised, and only available to select customers when they could get them. She'd seen one or two but had never eaten one. She and I discussed what to serve for this meal and I tossed out the idea of doing tomahawks and her eyes got big as saucers. First decision made. Being that I wanted to mix things up and do something totally different, I was at a loss trying to figure it out. Along comes S S-met with his Friendsmas post and BINGO!! He saved the day and the seed was planted. I knew the format, now all I needed to do was figure out the menu. This took a few days and I kept going back to his post for inspiration. After much deliberation here is what I decided to do. All five courses are listed in the order they were served.

1) Mini bread loaves stuffed with spiced ground tenderloin topped with mozzarella cheese and served with homemade au jus

2) Spicy beef consomme garnished with fresh scallions

3) Caprese salads with a balsamic reduction

4) Smoked and reverse seared CPB tomahawk rib eyes, bacon stuffed twice baked potatoes, and a grilled veggie medley with yellow squash, zucchini, and onions

5) Cranberry, apple, pecan cake glazed with bourbon caramel sauce and served with French Vanilla ice cream

Knowing this was gonna take a HUGE amount of time, I got started the day before. Researched recipes for the consomme, got disgusted with them, and made up my own recipe. Got the cake all put together and cooking then started on the consomme. Prep time was very minimal but it took about 45 minutes for everything to cook down, then had to strain it off into a smaller pan. Took a taste and about went to my knees. It was amazing!! Side note: this is the first time ever making the stuff so went into it totally blind. Cake done, let cool and into a Ziploc baggie to stay fresh till the next day and consomme went into the fridge. Then cooked the spiced ground tenderloin for the stuffed bread, which also went into the fridge till the next day. Now....I also knew there were going to be a whole lot of steps to this so I did not take pics of each step through the process of each item, just the highlights. There are still a lot of pics though. Maybe that means there were a lot of highlights??

I start putting the bread loaves together first. Created the cavity and stuffed with the spiced meat
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Top with the mozzarella
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Bake the potatoes and remove the "meat" and load with bacon
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Mix up the potato filling, stuff taters, and garnish with parsley
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Caprese salads are next
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Cut up veggies to be grilled and toss with some of my garlic olive oil and Tuscan seasoning
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Balsamic reduction on the stove and getting happy
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Au Jus coming along. Should not have taken the pic right after stirring. Oh well...
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Consomme re-heating. Same problem with timing of the pic. Oh well X2
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There were 5 people total so figured 2 of these monster steaks would be plenty
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Rubbed with a bit of Worcestershire sauce and a hefty dose of my beef rub
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Steaks onto the Rec Tec. Ran low heat / extreme smoke for about an hour then ran grill temp to 275 till steaks reached an IT of 120
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Mini bread loaves done. Time to put the plate together and start dinner
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First course served. Never done anything like these but they came out really well and were a huge hit
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Second course served, the consomme. God this stuff was good!! Deep, rich, beefy flavor with just a slight spice tingle on the back end.
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Third course, the caprese salads
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All the while the first three courses are going on, I'm keeping an eye on the steaks between each course. They are on the sear burner. Cooked to an IT of 128-130
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Steaks done and into the house. Just beautiful!!
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OMG!! What more can I say?
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Taters all done
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Veggie medley all done
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First steak sliced for folks to build their own plates. I served the first 3 courses but you're on your own for this one. A couple slices on the far left for Tracy
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My dinner. Two pics
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Time for dessert. Cranberry apple pecan cake with bourbon caramel sauce and French Vanilla Ice cream
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Put a fork in me, I'm done. Don't think I'm gonna eat again for a week. As much as I truly appreciate all of the positive commentary about my Christmas prime rib dinner, this meal makes that one look like a trip to McDonald's. This meal was a truly spectacular 5-star meal. There is not a thing about this that I'd change. Everything on the menu has been requested again real soon by Tracy. I've never done anything on this level before and it was a bit of a balancing act to bring it all together to serve at the correct time, but it all came off without a hitch. Needless to say, there were a few very happy Navy folks and one happy wife in this group. I need a day or two break but then I'll be ready to do it again. Heck, Tracy has already started planning the next one with some special friends. I have it down to a science now though and it'll be much easier next time. I also have all of the recipes so that'll save a lot of time.

Now to really put this meal into perspective. Two years ago...heck even possibly a year ago, this meal would not have happened. What was required for me to put all of this together was learned right here in SMF. This place is nothing short of amazing and I am truly enjoying my time here. Many thanks to all the folks that have provided the insight, input, and inspiration to make something like this happen!!

One happy camper,
Robert
 

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Wow! That meal looks to have been a ton of work, and it's a meal fit for a king. Like, RAY
 
Man that all looks five star for sure. We may need to put you on Cooks or Cons!! Seriously beautiful meal. Better than you can get in many restaurants. The consommé sounds especially delicious. For the salad balsamic reduction my wife tried that over the holidays and it didn’t go well :)
 
Holy Mackerel!!!
Something went wrong with my MacBook Pro!!
It seems I hit some button, and it Transported me into some "High-End Restaurant"!!
What a Menu of Awesome Stuff!!
Totally Fantastic!!
Nice Job, Robert!!
Like.
Now I gotta find the Key "Button" that takes me back to the real world!!

Bear
 
Well I thought you weren't going to be able to out-do yourself but looks like I was wrong. Truly amazing...the whole thing! I know how much time and effort that takes to bring everything together at the same time. And those tomahawks are just beautiful. Looks like your family and guests really enjoyed everything. You just made it that much harder for them to go back to navy food. Points on that cook. This needs to be on the carousel!

One question though...who does the dishes in your house? :emoji_laughing:
 
OVER THE TOP and Righteous! as you usually do :)

Everything looks great and the steaks are cooked to perfection. Nice work!
 
Man that all looks great! I bet your guests were very pleased! Those mini bread loafs sound awesome and the steak looks perfect! Nice job! BIG LIKE from me!
 
YOWZA!!!!!!! Holy hell what a feast!!

It all looks fantastic. I hear ya not wanting to eat for a week! I just had a heavy lunch and I’m itching for a taste of that 5 star course. That steak, though...wow!

Glad to see your guests loved it. And thank you to your daughter Courtney for her service.

Like!
 
Absolutley killed it Robert! It appears you put a lot of time and effort into this and it came out looking tremendous!

Thanks Derek. Appreciate it

Wow! That meal looks to have been a ton of work, and it's a meal fit for a king. Like, RAY

Very much appreciate the kind words.

This was certainly a lot of work but at the end of the day I got to enjoy a meal unlike anything I've ever experienced before. That made it all worthwhile

Robert
 
Man that all looks five star for sure. We may need to put you on Cooks or Cons!!

I think not Jeff. I'm not out to be a celebrity of any sort. Truth be told, the time I've spent here kind of surprises me. Typically I'm one to fly below the radar and not draw attention to myself. this place made me feel very comfortable from the beginning though and things have just expanded a bit from there.

Better than you can get in many restaurants. The consommé sounds especially delicious.

I've eaten in a lot of high-end restaurants but never had anything like this before. The consomme is actually very easy to make and amazingly good. I'll happily post the recipe if you want. The original thread was getting so long though I felt it would be prudent to cut it off where I did

For the salad balsamic reduction my wife tried that over the holidays and it didn’t go well :)

It is very flavor forward, no doubt. If you notice I only used a small amount on the salads. A little bit goes a long way. I also reduce it with a good dose of Italian herbs which seems to calm the "bitterness" a little bit.

Robert
 
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Holy Mackerel!!!
Something went wrong with my MacBook Pro!!
It seems I hit some button, and it Transported me into some "High-End Restaurant"!!
What a Menu of Awesome Stuff!!
Totally Fantastic!!
Nice Job, Robert!!
Like.
Now I gotta find the Key "Button" that takes me back to the real world!!

Thank you thank thank you Bear!! Cannot begin to tell you what it means hearing this from you. Now if I could just learn how to make prime rib, I'd be all set :emoji_anguished:

Scotty, beam Bear back to PA,
Robert
 
Well I thought you weren't going to be able to out-do yourself but looks like I was wrong. Truly amazing...the whole thing! I know how much time and effort that takes to bring everything together at the same time. And those tomahawks are just beautiful. Looks like your family and guests really enjoyed everything. You just made it that much harder for them to go back to navy food. Points on that cook. This needs to be on the carousel!

Can't tell you how much I appreciate the kind words John. This one was certainly outside of my wheel house and I did a whole lot of thinking about timing and the sequence of cooking to bring it all together. The steaks were actually the easy part as I've done one or two of those in the past. The part that added to the confusion was having to balance the cooking of them while trying to serve and eat the first three courses :emoji_wink: No way in the world was I gonna let them get away from me though. I't be a cardinal sin to mess those up!!

One question though...who does the dishes in your house? :emoji_laughing:

Most of the time it's a team effort but Tracy took pity on me last night. When she came into the dining room for another load of dirty dishes and saw that I'd fallen out of my chair and passed out on the dining room floor, she just left me alone. She has seen enough food comas to understand.

Help me, I've fallen and can't reach my beer,
Robert
 
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Reactions: S-met
definitely more then 5 star, what a meal that must of been, looks great

Thank you Jim!! It was certainly good and we did enjoy it. Heck even the dog loved it. She got one of the bones and has had a puppy hangover all day :emoji_anguished:

Robert
 
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