September 29, 2015
Dinner Party
First, let me apologize for not posting in 5 days, I am sorry. Over the weekend, we had a bachelor party for my brother. In my family we like food, a lot. We decided to do a full prime rib roast, twice baked potatoes, roasted carrots and rutabaga, and caesar salad for the main course. We had bruschetta with goat cheese for an appetizer, cheesecake for dessert and escargot for a midnight snack. Everything turned out fantastic, and I will share below as much as I can. This is going to be the conclusion to the Month of Meals. I am going to take a few days off and start on the new schedule at some point this week. We are moving to a one or two post per week schedule now, with hopefully more pictures and more details. It would be really great if you could comment and share, and we will try to make some really good food!
Bruschetta
Ingredients:
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 bunch fresh basil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
parmesan cheese, finely grated
salt
pepper
Baguette
goat cheese
Directions:
Drain tomatoes
In a small frying pan fry garlic in olive oil
Chiffonade the basil
In bowl, combine tomatoes, basil, garlic, balsamic, parm, salt and pepper
mix well, taste and adjust seasoning
slice baguette, toast lightly
spread with goat cheese, top with bruschetta mixture, top with more parm, and toast until cheese is melted and tomatoes are warm
This is one of my all time favourite appetizers. It is really good without the goat cheese, but having it adds an extra layer of flavour and goodness. I don't have amounts for the olive oil, balsamic, and parmesan, because you need to do those by taste, depending on the canned tomato flavour and salt content. Yes, you can use fresh tomatoes, but I find it very hard to get good tasting tomatoes in town, and I didn't grow any of my own, canned works great and saves a lot of cutting time. If you do want to use fresh tomatoes you will want to roast or stew them first.
The baguette can be sliced and toasted ahead of time, and just warmed up when ready to serve, you want the tomatoes warmed up but not so hot as to burn people, and the whole thing toasted but not burned. This is a sure winner if you are hosting a party and want to have something easy and quick but impressive for your guests.
Also, I have always pronounced this dish “brew-shett-a”, and I am aware the “proper” pronunciation is “brew-skett-a”, but I don't live in Italy, and every person in town I’ve met says it the same way I do, so I am not going to change at this point.
Prime Rib
Ingredients:
1 Prime Rib Roast, bone attached
Butter
Granulated garlic
Montreal steak spice
Directions:
Let roast warm to room temp*
Trim excess fat from roast**
Cut meat away from bone***
Season all 4 sides with seasoning
Tie roast back to bone with butcher twine
Rub ends with butter, season
Place in roasting pan
Roast for 15-20 minutes at 450 F
Turn down oven to 350 F and roast until internal temp of 125F
Remove roast, cover and rest for at LEAST 10-15 minutes
Remove strings, pour off juices to use in gravy or jus
Slice and enjoy
*NOTE: I know a lot of people might say this is unsafe, but as long as you don't leave it out too long and cook it properly, there is nothing unsafe about having the roast sit on the counter for a while. This will ensure proper cooking as all of the meat will start from the same temp and it doesn't have to come up from fridge temp.
**NOTE: Most of the fat on a prime rib you are to leave on, there may be some chunks of fat that are excess though, when in doubt, leave it on.
***NOTE: we did not cut through the last bit of meat holding the roast to the ribs, this allowed for the bones be more easily tied back to the roast but still allowed for proper seasoning and then could be quickly and easily cut through when ready to slice the roast.
We did an entire prime rib roast, which is from rib 6 to 12. There was a lot of meat, and it was fantastic. Cooking the meat to 125 F and then letting it rests brings you to a perfect medium rare. You can quickly fry a cut of the roast in some butter and beef stock to bring it to whatever done-ness your guests would like, but there is really no better way to eat any beef than medium rare. The initial higher temp is to brown the outside of the roast and help to seal in the flavours, similar to pan frying a smaller cut of meat before putting it in the oven to finish. I don't have a cooking time on here because it will very much depend on the size of your roast. For the whole roast we were somewhere in the range of 2.5 hours at 350F, have a good meat thermometer you can trust, and check it once in awhile to make sure you are not going over.
Leftovers make great sandwiches, or if you have a large amount leftover, you can reheat in oven or slice and in frying pan and eat as a before. Cooked roast does not freeze well, but you can cut off a portion of the uncooked roast before seasoning and freeze for up to a month before you start loosing quality.
Twice Baked Potatoes
Ingredients:
Potatoes*
butter
milk/cream
cheddar cheese, grated
sour cream
bacon bits
chives or green onion
Directions:
Bake potatoes at 425 F until cooked, cool
Cut in half and scoop out middle, leaving just enough on the outside to maintain shape
Mash the scooped out bits with butter, milk, cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, chives, salt and pepper to taste.
Refill potato skins with filling
Bake at 350 until warmed through
Top with more shredded cheese and broil until melted.
*Note: Use large potatoes with a thicker skin, I prefer redskin.
This is my preferred way to eat potatoes with steak. I can get away with putting more things into it than I would normally with just mashed potatoes, and it has a really nice presentation. Most of the time I plan for 1.5 halves per person, because with larger groups a lot of people are only going to have 1 half, but some will want their “whole” potato. These keep very well for the next day and can be quickly warmed in the oven at 350F. You can play around with the flavourings for the filling and do whatever you want, but this recipe is a really good one to start with.
Cheesecake
Ingredients:
2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsps sugar
5 Tbsp butter
4 packages cream cheese
1 1/3 cup white sugar
pinch salt
2 tsp vanilla
4 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup heavy cream
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F
Melt butter
Mix butter graham crumbs, sugar and butter
Pat into bottom of 9” springform pan evenly
Use tinfoil to encase outside of springform pan, waterproofing it.
Bake for 10 minutes, turn oven down to 325 F
Mix cream cheese for 5 minutes with stand mixer until light and fluffy
Add sugar, salt and vanilla, beat for 2 minutes
Add eggs, beating for 2 minutes after each addition
Add sour cream and heavy cream, mixing until incorporated each time
Boil 2 litres of water
Pour Cheesecake mixture into springform pan
Place springform pan in large roasting pan
Pour water into roasting pan until halfway up springform pan
Bake at 325 F for 1 1/2 hour
Turn off oven, crack door and cool for 1 hour
Remove from water, refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours
This is a rather time consuming cheesecake to prepare but is WELL worth it. I am a very big cheesecake fan, and this is one of the best that I have ever had. I know that lots of people will say they make good food and it's not that great, but I have always been the most critical of my own food, and I have had other people tell me that it is the best they have had too. I like to top with a strawberry sauce just made from a bit of sugar and frozen strawberries boiled down, but you could use anything you wanted. Don't let the 4 bricks of cream cheese scare you, this is a very tall cheesecake that is surprisingly light and airy from all the mixing.
Make sure to use a good whole fat sour cream and high quality whipping or heavy cream, or this just won’t be the same. Don't worry about the fat content, just have a smaller slice, then another one because it is so good.
This concludes the Month of Meals. As mentioned above, we did make a midnight snack of Escargot as well, but that is my father's recipe and I'm not actually sure of all the steps, maybe another time I will post that. I hope you have enjoyed the journey, and have tried some new things. I'm sorry to the one reader who discovered I left the milk out of my pancake recipe, and thank you all for reading. Keep watching to see more great food, and feel free to comment!
Cheers and Best Wishes!
The Omnomnivore
