Merry Christmas, everyone!

We celebrate the happiest day of the year with plenty of red meat, traditional English sides, and a froufrou dessert I always like to tackle. Usually I make a cranberry upside down cake, but this year I wanted to try something different so I made a spin on a pear tatin, which was scrumptious to say the least. Plus chruscikis, cookies, hot apple cider, Holiday blend from The Roasterie and plenty of Usinger’s during the day.

Have a holly jolly holiday! I’ll be off in my food coma now, surrounded by DVDs and my family, but here’s a nice large selection of photos from our holiday. Enjoy! (recipes at the bottom if you’d like to scroll past!)

One of my biggest holiday indulgences.

Soooo good and sooo bad.

Yes, I am INCREDIBLY anal retentive, okay?

I was incredibly blessed and lucky to win one of the gourmet giveaways from Serious Eats…

An AMAZING $70 smoked ham from D’Artagnan – the best gourmet grocer in the world!

I am very excited about my ham. We’re going to serve it on New Year’s Day with black eyed peas and yeast rolls.. mmm..

Christmas morning breakfast!

Oh man, cranberries. Cranberries.

Zest!

Mmm smells so good.

Tart and sweet and so so so delicious.

Addictive.

I think it’s enough for 4…

Prime rib and roasted root veggies (oh mannnn)…

Yorkshire puddings and cranberry sauce.

All set.

Working my way through…

Pears. Don’t worry if they’re a bit banged up – it’s what’s inside that counts!

All sliced and laid out.

Mmmm caramel.

Sticky sweet.

Time to invert! Check out my gorgeous apron – a wonderful gift from my oldest friend in the world, Meagan Ferguson, who sewed it herself! FIERCE!

Flip!

And if you’re lucky, it doesn’t stick!

Ohhhh soooo goood.

Begging for vanilla ice cream!

One missing…

A la mode.

—

Prime Rib with Horseradish Crust

Based on Tyler Florence’s recipe here.

Ingredients

• 1 3-rib prime rib beef roast, anywhere from 6-8 pounds
• 5 garlic cloves, smashed, plus 2 whole heads garlic sliced in half vertically
• ½ cup prepared horseradish
• ½ cup sea salt
• ¼ cup freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 5 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 red onions, peeled, ends removed and quartered
• 6-7 baby white potatoes, scrubbed
  

Directions

1.) Preheat your oven to 350° F with the rack set in the bottom third of the oven.

2.) In a small bowl mash together the garlic, horseradish, salt, pepper, and olive oil to make a paste. Massage the paste generously over the entire roast. Lay the beef in a large roasting pan (or jelly roll pan, whatever will fit and can collect the juices) with the bone side down. (The ribs act as a natural roasting rack.)

3.) Toss the vegetables with a 3-count of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, and then scatter the vegetables and halved garlic around the meat. Put the pan in the oven and roast the beef for about 1½ to 2½ hours for medium-rare (or approximately 20 minutes per pound). Check the internal temperature of the roast in several places with an instant-read thermometer; it should register 125° F for medium-rare.

4.) Remove the beef to a carving board and let it rest for 20 minutes, covered loosely with aluminum foi. The internal temperature of the meat will continue to rise by about 10 degrees. Remove the vegetables and set aside. Pour the pan juices into a fat separator or small bowl and set aside to allow the fat and beef juices to separate. Pour off and discard the fat to use in Yorkshire puddings!

Horseradish-Chive Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup prepared horseradish
• 2 TBL chopped chives
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  

Directions

1.) Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Taste for seasoning. Can be made up to 2 days in advance.

The Best Cranberry Sauce EVER

Ingredients

• 6 cups fresh cranberries, picked clean and rinsed
• 1 cup full bodied red wine (like a pinot noir)
• 1½ cups sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 TBL orange or clementine zest

Directions

1.) Simmer the wine, sugar, salt, and cinnamon stick in a non-reactive pot for about 1 minute until the sugar completely dissolves.

2.) Add the cranberries and bring to a rapid simmer, and let cook until they begin to pop – about 3-5 minutes.

3.) Once cooked, take off the burner and stir in the orange zest. Cool completely and refrigerate before serving.

Can be made up to a week in advance, but remove the cinnamon stick before storing.

Pear Cake Tatin

Based on Ina Garten’s Apple Tatin here.

Ingredients

• 2 pears of your choice, peeled, cored, and sliced into ¼ inch thick slices
• 6 TBL unsalted butter, plus more to grease the pie dish
• 1¾ cups sugar, divided
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 TBL flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

Directions

1.) Preheat your oven to 350° F with the rack set in the center.

2.) Using at least 2 tablespoons butter, generously grease a 9-inch glass pie plate. Arrange the pears in a decorative, fanning fashion in the plate (this will be facing up when you serve it).

3.) Heat 1 cup of the sugar with 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Swirl (but don’t stir) the pan until the sugar dissolves and eventually caramelizes. You want a warm, rich amber and it should smell nutty, but not burnt. Take it off the heat once you feel it’s there and immediately pour over the pears.

4.) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the 6 tablespoons of butter and ¾ cup sugar until fluffy. Keeping the mixer running on low, add the eggs one at a time, letting them completely mix in before adding the next. Add the sour cream, zest, and vanilla, then mix until just combined.

5.) Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix until just combined.

6.) Pour the batter over the pear slices and very carefully spread it evenly out. This can be tricky – the pears will stick but you don’t want them to move, so spread slowly and and gently. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Cool 15 minutes and then invert onto a pedestal or cake plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature with really good vanilla ice cream.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, christmas, favorite, fruit, savory, sidedish, winter

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Usually when I post on here I always start with some anecdote on what inspired me to make the dish above and go from there.  But this post is a little different because nothing inspired me other than, well, jonesing for some serious short ribs.  So as I was scratching my head, researching recipes and rewriting this post over and over trying to figure out what to say other than “Short ribs are awesome and braising is full of win,” a light bulb went off.  I could not only share the recipe, but how I got there.

When I want to make something I don’t have a favorite recipe or tried and true method for, I go through a routine to find and create the dish. I adore short ribs but have never made them at home, always having them in restaurants where all the work is done for you.  But since I have had them before, I at least knew what flavor profiles I liked. Thyme, red wine, heavy tomato base. And that was my jumping off point.

First, I go through all my cookbooks I own that I know would have recipes that fit the bill. I skim and flag anything that looks promising. Then I move onto this huge manila folder I have on top of my fridge (seen above) which is a pseudo-scrapbook of recipes I have torn out of magazines, printed off websites, transcribed from my mother, etc. I’ll pull from there. And finally, I hit up my favorite recipe websites (Epicurious, Everyday Food, Food Network, etc.) and compile those as well.  I look at all the most promising recipes and pull methods, ingredients, and measurements from them and sort of mash them altogether into the final recipe which I tweak along the way as I cook, often reducing serving sizes because I’m only cooking for one or two. And that’s how a “Based on…” recipe is born here.

And speaking of the recipe, this one is a perfect Sunday dinner treat. You can easily feed an army for cheap since short ribs are super tough cuts of meat and thus they run usually under $5 a lb. Since the cuts have a lot of connective tissue, it’s all about low and slow, braising the ribs in a great liquid base and not touching them for hours, so you get the most tender, fall-off-the-bone meat ever. Plus if you just whip up some instant polenta or steamed veggies on the side, you can just throw these in the oven for 5 hours, come back, and have dinner on the table in 15 minutes. Talk about the best way to enjoy your Sunday.

Braised Beef Short Ribs

Serves 3-4 depending on how fatty your ribs are.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs bone-in beef short ribs
• 1 TBL vegetable oil
• Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow (not sweet) onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 1 cup tomato puree (I can only ever find huge 28-ounce cans of this so just save the leftover for other uses!)
• 1½ cups dry red wine (I like using cabernet or pinot noir simply because it’s my favorite kind of dry red in general)
• 3 cups low-sodium beef or veal stock
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1.) Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 250°F.

2.) Using paper towels, pat the short ribs until they’re very dry. In a large dutch oven, heat the oil until hot but not smoking. Add the short ribs and turn until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Using tongs, transfer to a plate and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.

3.) Add the chopped carrots, onion, celery, and garlic to the leftover oil in pot and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in puréed tomatoes and wine, then bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally until sauce is thickened and scraping up all the little delicious bits on the bottom, for about 8 minutes.

4.) Add the beef stock, thyme, bay leaf, vinegar, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt and ½ teaspoon pepper to sauce, and bring to a simmer. Skim fat from the surface, then add beef along with any juices accumulated on plate and cover pot with a tight-fitting lid. Transfer to oven and braise until beef is very tender, about 4 to 5 hours. Do not open the oven or check the ribs until at least 4 hours in.

5.) Once ready, tranfser the ribs to a small oven-safe dish and keep in the oven on warm. Pour the sauce through a medium-mesh wire strainer into a large bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids, then skim fat from sauce. If it feels like your sauce is too thin (or too much), boil the sauce until thickened and reduced to about 3 cups. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with mashed potatoes, polenta, roasted or steamed veggies, or whatever you’re in the mood for.

© Jessica J. for jonesing for..., 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, indulge, savory, vegetables

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