I thought I was only going to be cooking one Christmas dinner for us and one couple the day after Christmas. Oops!! Tracy changed that in a hurry. Had some really good friends come into town yesterday who were escaping quarantine in NM and Tracy is her overly generous way offered for me took them a nice dinner. Wasn't that sweet of her? Also had another couple that was to join us. She made it but a family drama situation arose with his kids and he couldn't make it. So last weekend as I was breaking down the Shortloin roast I figured I'd cut a chunk is the 3 1/2 pound range, call it a roast, and serve it for the singular dinner I was supposed to do. Oops again!! I missed by a mile and the roast came in at 5 1/2 pounds. Oh well, I'll save it knowing something would be coming up. That "something" turned out to be dinner last night so got it out and defrosted the thing. In all actuality this is nothing but a huge Porterhouse steak, but at that size, I'm calling it a roast
The "roast". 5 pounds 7 ounces
Decided to try a different method of fire management on the Santa Maria. This is a charcoal pan I bought several years ago to use in the Big Green Egg and drilled a bunch of 1/2" holes in it. Got some charcoal on the bottom and mesquite on top
Roast all seasoned up with my beef rub
Onto the grill. got some nice mesquite smoke wafting over the meat. Nice!!
Made the dough for the sour cream potato rolls
After about 45 minutes it's time to flip. I kept the grate up high so as not to totally torch the meat.
45 more minutes on the other side then into the house. At this point I try something I've never done before: vac seal and into the sous vide at 129* to finish cooking
Made a rice, broccoli, and cheddar casserole at Tracy's request. Topped with more cheddar and bread crumbs. Another first. I'm living dangerously today I guess.
Rolls all done. Found these by accident and they are fantastic!!
Appetizer plate with duck breast prosciutto, smoked Gouda, club crackers, and a Ranch dip I threw together real quick. Couldn't have an empty space in the bowl. More on the duck breast prosciutto later.
Tracy got the dining room table all dolled up
Lori brought some mushrooms stuffed with seasoned cream cheese and crab meat. Here they are right out of the oven. These were VERY rich but really, really good.
Meat out of the sous vide after about 4 1/2 hours
This is the loin side cut off...well most of it
The strip side
Some sliced and ready to serve. This is one horrid looking mess!! I kept trying to clean up the juice for a nice pic but it kept coming out faster than I could clean it up.
The whole spread. Lori also brought an amazing salad. Got some juice from the roast out of the vac seal bag after taking it out of the sous vide pot
Finally...my dinner plated up
I've read a ton of great posts about folks using the sous vide but this is the first time I'v used it to this magnitude and all I can say is that it works GREAT!!. You don't have to worry about monitoring the IT of the meat. Just set the temp and it'll come out perfectly every time. I'm sold on this technique and see why so many top shelf restaurants, as well as a lot of people here, use it. The duck breast prosciutto was absolutely incredible!! It sold a couple of non-believers on duck. this is one of the fantastic offering that I received in the gift exchange with TNJAKE and I plan to keep this stuff around all the time. I was blown away by it, as were a few other folks. The roast was done to perfection and just melt in your mouth tender. I think I have the sous vide to give a big thanks to for that. So moist and juicy...mmm mmm good. We really enjoyed the rice and broccoli casserole also. Very nice flavors came together to make a really good side dish. the rolls are just to die for, and SO easy to make. Since finding those, we've had them a number of times and will continue to.
This is a long, long way from being one of the better looking threads I've done but the meal came out really well so thought I'd share. Also I know there will be a few hundred Christmas dinner threads coming soon so figured I'd get one out before the rush This one is a wrap. I've used up my monthly allocation of bandwidth on this one so I'll see y'all next time around. Can't wait to see all the great holiday meal threads forthcoming. Have a safe and happy holiday season everybody.
Robert
The "roast". 5 pounds 7 ounces
Decided to try a different method of fire management on the Santa Maria. This is a charcoal pan I bought several years ago to use in the Big Green Egg and drilled a bunch of 1/2" holes in it. Got some charcoal on the bottom and mesquite on top
Roast all seasoned up with my beef rub
Onto the grill. got some nice mesquite smoke wafting over the meat. Nice!!
Made the dough for the sour cream potato rolls
After about 45 minutes it's time to flip. I kept the grate up high so as not to totally torch the meat.
45 more minutes on the other side then into the house. At this point I try something I've never done before: vac seal and into the sous vide at 129* to finish cooking
Made a rice, broccoli, and cheddar casserole at Tracy's request. Topped with more cheddar and bread crumbs. Another first. I'm living dangerously today I guess.
Rolls all done. Found these by accident and they are fantastic!!
Appetizer plate with duck breast prosciutto, smoked Gouda, club crackers, and a Ranch dip I threw together real quick. Couldn't have an empty space in the bowl. More on the duck breast prosciutto later.
Tracy got the dining room table all dolled up
Lori brought some mushrooms stuffed with seasoned cream cheese and crab meat. Here they are right out of the oven. These were VERY rich but really, really good.
Meat out of the sous vide after about 4 1/2 hours
This is the loin side cut off...well most of it
The strip side
Some sliced and ready to serve. This is one horrid looking mess!! I kept trying to clean up the juice for a nice pic but it kept coming out faster than I could clean it up.
The whole spread. Lori also brought an amazing salad. Got some juice from the roast out of the vac seal bag after taking it out of the sous vide pot
Finally...my dinner plated up
I've read a ton of great posts about folks using the sous vide but this is the first time I'v used it to this magnitude and all I can say is that it works GREAT!!. You don't have to worry about monitoring the IT of the meat. Just set the temp and it'll come out perfectly every time. I'm sold on this technique and see why so many top shelf restaurants, as well as a lot of people here, use it. The duck breast prosciutto was absolutely incredible!! It sold a couple of non-believers on duck. this is one of the fantastic offering that I received in the gift exchange with TNJAKE and I plan to keep this stuff around all the time. I was blown away by it, as were a few other folks. The roast was done to perfection and just melt in your mouth tender. I think I have the sous vide to give a big thanks to for that. So moist and juicy...mmm mmm good. We really enjoyed the rice and broccoli casserole also. Very nice flavors came together to make a really good side dish. the rolls are just to die for, and SO easy to make. Since finding those, we've had them a number of times and will continue to.
This is a long, long way from being one of the better looking threads I've done but the meal came out really well so thought I'd share. Also I know there will be a few hundred Christmas dinner threads coming soon so figured I'd get one out before the rush This one is a wrap. I've used up my monthly allocation of bandwidth on this one so I'll see y'all next time around. Can't wait to see all the great holiday meal threads forthcoming. Have a safe and happy holiday season everybody.
Robert