That huge prime rib roast? And the crown roast of pork? Was turducken attempted??!? Whatever you cooked, how did it turn out?
Here’s my report on the duck – YUMMY! (And not greasy! ) I did the steam roast method. Steam stovetop for 30 min. breast up. Flip breast down and braise in the oven for 30 min. Then remove to a roasting pan, breast up, and roast 40-50 min. until the skin gets crisp. I had enough rendered duck fat to roast potatoes, and they were divine. Served the duck with a port wine cherry sauce.
I think I’m going to make cassoulet from the pickings from the duck carcass.
I pan-grilled/roasted a tri-tip of beef and served it sliced with hot horseradish sour cream sauce. IMO, it’s about as tasty as prime rib and a lot more manageable for two people. The starch was little balls of potato which had been slowly sauteed in butter. To do this, I use a melon baller on peeled big potatoes to get a lot of potato balls about the size of egg yolks. Then saute them slowly until they are crisp and golden brown all over. You can’t beat it as a fancy potato side dish with something roasted. Some ho-hum broccoli rounded out the repast.
Then some fresh-churned French vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Bone-in ribeye roast (“Prime rib” cut, but USDA Choice beef so they can’t call it that) here. A cheapie roast from the local grocery store, since the local “good stuff” farm/butcher shop was out. Used the Good Eats “backwards” roast method: cook at 200 until desired doneness, then turn the temp up to 500 for 15 minutes to sear. It was the first one I’d done in decades, and at a lower heat, so I under-guessed the cooking time by about 90 minutes (but since it was done by temperature, I at least knew I’d missed it). Five-pound roast took about 2.5-3 hours.
It was great – much better than I’d have expected such a cheap roast to work. Just enough for two people plus some leftovers (a fair amount of the roast was “waste” in the form of large chunks of fat that get trimmed before serving). I’ve still got the ribs – there’s only two of them, not enough for a meal and I’m not sure what to do with 'em.
In all, almost trivially easy, and better than the prime rib I had in a restaurant the week before (no, I don’t usually eat prime rib once a week – it’s the holidays). Of course, the starch was those frozen mashed-potato “cubes,” with some sour cream mixed in, but hey, I can’t be a gourmet all the time, right?
I make only a few things for Christmas, usually it’s just the in-laws and us (eldest nephew also joined us this year). This year was ribeye roast with my famous pan sauce*, asparagus au gratin, mashed potatoes, and pots de creme au chocolate. Everything came out pretty well, I just used a rosemary, fresh ground black pepper, and kosher salt rub on the roast, which got rave reviews. I would like to make a duck in the future, but I worry that I’d be the only one that likes it.
The pots tasted OK, but came out kinda weird: there were pockets of clear fat throughout, not quite the texture I was going for. A quick stir though made them creamy and they were delicious. It was the first time I made pots de creme; I am guessing that I beat the cream too much, making pockets of butter. Not that there’s anything wrong with butter.
Mini-croissants by Pillsbury, and I washed it down with a pint of Spaten. Others had various cocktails (I made Christmas Collins for MiL: just a Tom Collins with red and green sugar on the glass rim - fun!)
*I tried to make demi-glace this year, but I ruined the espagnole by adding too much tomato. 40 hours and 50 bucks sigh I’m using it as really expensive soup base though.
The crown roast turned out great. The temp on the grill got away from me a bit, and it would up a bit dark on the outside (dark mahogany), but the taste was great. Due to its small size, I did not stuff it.
Everyone loved it, and tonight will be leftovers.
Mom roasted a couple of pork tenderloins from Trader Joe’s for Dec. 24. They were superb and quite easy to eat. Same with the Angus beef tenderloin on Christmas.
I baked a country ham. It could have done with a third day of soaking, and I overcooked it by about 30 minutes, but it was fantastic for my first attempt.
) I did the steam roast method. Steam stovetop for 30 min. breast up. Flip breast down and braise in the oven for 30 min. Then remove to a roasting pan, breast up, and roast 40-50 min. until the skin gets crisp. I had enough rendered duck fat to roast potatoes, and they were divine. Served the duck with a port wine cherry sauce.