Promised Carrie I'd report back, so here's that with pictures. And do understand that though this looks excessive, this was a long, leisurely meal and we were celebrating our recent wedding anniversary. It's not our normal Sunday dinner.
We started with an artichoke. I steamed it in the rice cooker the day before, then doused it with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and fresh garlic and wrapped it up overnight to marinate. No dip needed, just some grilled bread to sop up whatever dressing the artichoke didn't retain.
Then we opened a good bottle of champers and set up the barbecue for offset smoking of the prime rib cap. I initially put the bottle in the pic backwards just to show scale, and then I thought oh the heck with it, show off, it's just all wrong to hide a Krug. As shown in this picture, the rib cap comes rolled and tied. About the price of the meat, Karen was right, I almost fainted when I saw it but that's okay, we'll get at least another meal out of it, and it could easily have served four or even six. This roast weighed 2.2 pounds, was about 3" in diameter and 12 inches long. The smoking material was alder with fresh rosemary. We smoked it for one hour at 300 degrees, then rubbed it with a paste made of olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh garlic and chopped rosemary and moved it to higher heat where it roasted for another 30 minutes. I don't have an instant-read thermometer (forgot not to pack it when we packed up the kitchen) at present, so the timing was all based on how the meat felt when I pressed on it. It took longer than expected, especially considering that this is dry aged beef which cooks a bit faster.
We let the roast rest on the cooling open barbecue for about 20 minutes before slicing it. The side dish was a room temperature potato salad of yukon golds tossed with shallots, chives, fresh grated horseradish and other chopped fresh herbs tossed with a little white wine, vinegar and olive oil.
The meat was gorgeous. Even after all the cooking, a little less medium than I actually wanted (to emulate the usual medium of the ring on an actual prime rib roast) though I must say prettier on the plate just this way. Amazingly tender, amazing flavor, and with a nice light smoke. Definitely an ultimate sort of experience to enjoy at least once in a lifetime, and the leftovers should be equally superb as a cold dinner tommorrow night.
(Actually, cheap oaky chardonnays do quite well here.) But really, no need for lecture, we just had ice water with lemon as an accompaniament to the artichoke and only THEN went on to the Krug. Didn't want nuthin' interfering with old Chuckie.
