Kevin's Watch

Mmmm, Sarge.

Tell Julie to enjoy her meal gift!

she already is forward looking to relaxing.

sgt.null wrote:for the first time in our 13 years of wedded bliss, i will be making the holiday meal. the lineup.

bay scallops au gratin

fresh spinach salad (craisins, cheese, nuts...)

stuffed chicken s(tuffed with spinach and feta cheese)

corn with tomatoes

potatoes au gratin (from scratch, not a box)

croissants (from a can, i can not bake)

iced tea (home brewed)

baked apples

I gotta remember you're in Texas or somewhere hot! Sounds great, but so weird from what I think of as Christmas fayre! I'll just be making a super-dooper version of my Sunday roast.

Though I read in today's paper a few suggestions for party food and fingerfood that I might try - will post later, if i get a chance.

stone: we had the traditional turkey and fixings for thanksgiving. i wanted something different, but something we could afford and i could make.

and right now in texas we are having bone chilling nights and hot days.

sgt.null wrote:stone: we had the traditional turkey and fixings for thanksgiving. i wanted something different, but something we could afford and i could make.

and right now in texas we are having bone chilling nights and hot days.

AH! It makes sense now, I tend to forget about Thanksgiving....

...plus Sarge doesn't eat red meat...

Christmas recipes by Nigella Lawson, from yesterday's newspaper...

Martini Olives

4x240g jars of pimento-stuffed green olives
60mls gin (or vodka)
1x15mls tablespoon vermouth
1 teaspoonful chilli oil

1. Open the jars and drain the olives, pttuing them in a bowl with the gin, vermouth and chilli oil, and give them a stir.
2. Leave to steep for half an hour or so.
3. If you've made too many, put back into the jars - they'll keep for a couple of days.

Makes 550g olives.

Party Popcorn

2x15mls tablespoons of wok oil
200g (unpopped) popcorn maize
50g butter
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground paprika
4 teaspoons table salt
4 teaspoons caster sugar.

1. Pour the wok oil into the biggest pan you have with a lid and place over a high heat, add the popcorn and quickly put the lid on.
2. let the popcorn pop, shaking the pan every now and then to keep the kernels moving. After it's stopped popping - a couple of minutes - take pan off heat.
3. Melt butter with the spices, salt and sugar in another pan, then pour it over the popcorn and put everything in a large paper carrier bag.
4. Shake and shake and shake to get popcorn thoroughly coated in the spicy butter.

Makes 3 litres.


More later....

Menolly wrote:...plus Sarge doesn't eat red meat...

yep, just the lower life forms. fish and fowl.

None of these for Sarge then! (I'm assuming that cocktail sausages mean the same the world over - little sausages, you could fit two or three in your mouth if you really wanted!)

Stick Christmas Sausages

1kg (75) cocktail sausages
2 x 15mls tablespoons sesame oil
125ml/150g honey
2 x 15mls tablespoons soy sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7
2. Separate the sausages if the are linked, and arrange in a large shallow-sided roasting tin.
3. Whisk together the oil, honey and soy sauce, and pour over the sausages, then move everything about in the tin until alll the sausages are slicked.
4. Roast for 25-30 minutes, shuffle halfway through.

My grandfather and I are going to eat at a Chinese buffet for Christmas dinner. Here's our logic:

a) We're not picky.
b) My grandmother is making New Year's dinner, so she needs a break.
c) When we eat at home, it's not as a family: my grandmother eats upstairs, watching QVC, while we watch football downstairs. And then my deadbeat uncle and my dad invade and the rest is history.


Now, the difficult part: convincing my grandmother to go.

We're not cooking this year. KiGirl and I have been hitting the weights this month in preparation for the spring-shedding-of-pounds, so we decided to not go crazy with a large Christmas meal. However, last night we were craving something special, so we went in search of a restaurant that was open. Both of my usual pizza pubs were closed (dozens of microbrew taps!), so was our favorite authentic Mexican. Neither of us were in the mood for German on Christmas Eve, so we ended up at Lone Star Steakhouse. Not my first (or 5th) choice, but I suppose a 14oz canjun ribeye will do! Damn it was tasty. Almost as good as a steak I cooked myself.

And now, on Christmas morning, I'm regretting my decision to not cook a big meal. Especially after reading through what everyone else is having. I suppose I'll console myself with the Russian Imperial Stout taste-test challenge (see the beer thread), and probably grill up some chicken that has been marinating in Jack Daniels BBQ sauce for 2 days. Yes, BBQ for Christmas! It will be a first.

But damn, I wish I was having some of Menolly's standing rib roast instead. I saw a show recently on how to do one properly in the oven, and I've been wanting to try it ever since.

Malik23 wrote:But damn, I wish I was having some of Menolly's standing rib roast instead. I saw a show recently on how to do one properly in the oven, and I've been wanting to try it ever since.

....

...don't leave me hanging, Malik!

After spending three days aging the beast, if there's another trick to making it even better...spill!!!

I've tried the roasting for 20 minutes at 500ºF for a seared crust, and then turning the oven down to 350ºF until it reaches desired doneness trick, but as I like my own roasts on the raw side, it was still too cooked for me. What other tricks are there?

well the extra-super-dooper roast went well. apart from the garlic and herb stuffing that was horrible (note to self: must learn how to make stuffing for next year). I have enough pork and beef left for three week's sandwiches. dessert might have to wait til tomorrow.

Menolly wrote:

Malik23 wrote:But damn, I wish I was having some of Menolly's standing rib roast instead. I saw a show recently on how to do one properly in the oven, and I've been wanting to try it ever since.

....

...don't leave me hanging, Malik!

After spending three days aging the beast, if there's another trick to making it even better...spill!!!

I've tried the roasting for 20 minutes at 500ºF for a seared crust, and then turning the oven down to 350ºF until it reaches desired doneness trick, but as I like my own roasts on the raw side, it was still too cooked for me. What other tricks are there?

Actually, after going back and reading page 2 here, I realized that the show I saw was probably the one where you got your recipe. It was Alton Brown on Good Eats. He said to purchase the loin end, age it (to evaporate the water, thus concentrating the flavors), etc. just like you said. But if I remember correctly, he cooked it at 200 F until it reached about 117, pulled it out for a "rest," and then bumped the heat up to 500F to produce a crispy crust. He made a sauce out of the drippings, using red wine and sage(?), which he poured over the roast when serving.

What surprised me the most was his insistence upon even heat. He said ovens are usually too dirty to reflect heat properly, so he cooked the whole thing in an improvised "pan" consisting of a giant clay planter and used that thing which normally goes on the bottom (to catch water if you over-water your plant) as a lid. He said this clay planter thing would radiate the heat from the over perfectly even.

*nodding*

Yep. I love AB, although I prefer Tyler's flavorings better. But yes, AB's aging, and method of cooking, is a given here. His roast turkey is the best I've ever had, let alone made, and method of cooking rib roast is the same.

Thanks.

Stoney...do you want to do a roulade of the roast, or would "stuffing" on the side suffice? I love crockpot stuffing...

Last night CMJ and I went to Julie and her fiancé's for dinner. Julie grilled Omaha beef fillets on a stove-top grill iron; so tender. I made scalloped potatoes Au Gratin, sautéed broccoli rabe and a green salad w/ roast pecans, dried cranberries and feta. We also had pecan pie, chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and 10 yr tawny port.
I'll probly just have a couple taco's today.

Oh gosh, dinner came out so good.
Beorn has decided he didn't care for the Yorkshire Pudding (no surprise there though), and Hyperception and I both decided I should have cooked it at least another five minutes as it was just starting to brown as I took it out of the oven, but boy was it a puffed up thing of beauty as I brought it to the table.

The Cabernet au jus was awesome. So much better than any au jus I've had in restaurants. And the crust on the roast was perfect, while the green beans and mashed potatoes rounded out the meal.

Yum...

scallops were great.
skipped the spinach salad. will do later this week.
potatoes were top notch.
corn & tomatoes was surprisingly good.
chicken did not work out, so altered it to a chicken with the cheese/spinach filling on side. and it was fantastic.
tea was better than expected.
will do apples later this week.

excellent meal.

Menolly wrote: The Cabernet au jus was awesome. So much better than any au jus I've had in restaurants. And the crust on the roast was perfect, while the green beans and mashed potatoes rounded out the meal.

Yum...

You're my new hero. That sounds amazing. I've got to try to make a standing rib roast. That's my new Holy Grail of cooking meat. I have mastered the ways of the grilled steak, and the smoked ribs, and the best damn hamburgers on the planet (really), but this is the final beef achievement still eluding me.

gotta love Pops! T-Bones, broiled scallops, shrimp kabobs, corn, biscuits and apple pie. yummy! I know, not very Xmas-y, but we're two old and tired dudes, and too much fussin on the holidays just takes away from it seems these days......