Roast Beast Dinner

The gardening efforts of late have been restricted to plugging in lights at dusk and unplugging them before bed.  But life goes on through the holidays and there's time to cook.  Earlier in the month were rounds of Scottish shortbread, homemade chocolate candies, and several batched of Chex mix.  With the heart of the Christmas holidays, it's time for the savory specials.

We planned a special Christmas dinner, but by Christmas day we were too tired to cook it.  So we held off for a couple more days and last Friday I cooked our slightly delayed Christmas dinner.

The Menu

Standing Rib Roast

Asparagus with Dried Tomato Pesto

Sauteed Mushrooms

Mashed Potatoes

Pan Gravy

Scottish Shortbread & Homemade Candy

We picked up the roast about a week early and put it (unwrapped) in the spare refrigerator to let it age for a week before I cooked it.  I used Alton Brown's recipe for standing rib roast and it was very successful.

 Successful - OMG Delicious! It was tender and moist with a great crust.  The aging had intensified the flavor of the meat by letting some of the water in the roast evaporate.  Then it was cooked in a very slow oven, 200 degrees for about 5 hours in a stoneware covered roaster. Finally it was put into a 500 degree oven (still in the stoneware) for 15 minutes to develop the crust.  After the high heat, it was placed on the cutting board and covered with foil and allowed to rest for 15 minutes before carving.

The asparagus is a recipe I came up with last summer.  I melt some butter and oil in a large pan. Once it's melted I stir in a couple tablespoons of sun dried tomato pesto sauce.  Add the asparagus and toss and let it saute in the pan.  We like ours to still have some body, not overcooked and limp.  For this thin asparagus it took about five minutes.

The mushrooms were sauteed in butter and when they were brown I added some brandy and let them sit in the sauce while I turned my attention to the other side dishes. I added a little espresso salt after they were done to round out the flavor. They absorbed the butter and brandy while they were sitting.

The mashed potatoes and gravy were not given a lot of attention - I had too many other pots on the stove - but they were good.

I didn't get any pictures of the shortbread or the candy, maybe next year - there won't be anymore this year.

For next year - who knows.  But we have been making it a tradition for the last couple of years to have a crown  rack of lamb on New Years Day.  Here's a picture from 2 years ago. This is on my parent's wedding china.  Each of the kids have two place settings and we divided up the serving pieces.  It only come out for very special dinners with the love of my life

I don't want anyone to forget that this blog is not only about gardening and dogs, it's about cooking too.  

You can wipe the drool off your chin now.