What's Cooking (Take Four)

The Persian cukes are great, but I need to remember I have them because they do not hold up as well as the English cukes. I usually put them in a salad dressing of some sort, so they hold up better.

Made a big pot of green chile stew and warmed up some flour tortillas tonight. MMM, mmm.

[Jenise]

Tonight I'm joining friends for Christmas dinner. They'll be doing roast beef (I presume prime rib--she's vegetarian, so this will be interesting!) and yorkshire pudds. I'm taking brussels sprouts and charred whole small carrots with honey and fennel seeds.

I'm roasting a tenderloin for supper tonight. Not really my favorite cut, but it's the one my wife likes best. It will be getting a rub with ground porcini before going into the oven. I was going to put it on the smoker, but we've had a lot of rain lately and I didn't want to be outside in that. My wife made sweet potato soup with lemongrass and some other flavorings in it along with a chocolate caramel tart for dessert. Our older daughter will be a potato dish and a veg.

Soup and chestnuts and malbec. (Served in separate containers, 'natch.)

We were invited to a Sheraton Xmas lunch buffet. Entrees included roast beef and a really good chicken dish. Sides, of course, and an array of various desserts, including mini-chocolate eclairs (which I haven't had in decades). Sadly, no wine. The bar wouldn't open until 3 pm.

I'm cooking my Christmas dinner tomorrow. I bought a fillet of beef roast last week, on sale for a nice-sized piece. The recipe comes from Mami and Ike Eisenhower from their cookbook. The meat is placed in soy sauce overnight. The next morning, it is browned in a mix of Worcestershire and butter, then set aside for the day. It is then roasted for 45 min. to medium rare. It has been our Christmas dinner for many years, and we all like it with either a homemade Béarnaise Sauce or a combo of horseradish and sour cream. It is very tasty. Stuffed baked potatoes are a side, along with fresh green beans. Baked potatoes are stuffed with sour cream, butter and cheddar cheese. The green beans this time will be cooked with a can of canned cherry tomatoes, gifted to me ( never knew there was such a thing, and they are great), with onion, garlic, Beau Monde Seasoning, and Poultry Seasoning.

Beef Tenderloin Roast Recipe:


Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Beef Tenderloin Roast Recipe
Servings: 4 to 6 servings
Author: What’s Cooking America



Ingredients
3 to 4- pound beef tenderloin roast (also know as filet of beef)
Soy Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Sour cream
Prepared horseradish
Instructions
Place roast in a large resealable plastic bag and set into a shallow dish. Pour Soy Sauce over the roast and close bag. Marinate in the refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight; turning roast occasionally to distribute marinade.

On the morning of the day you want to serve this roast: In a large heavy frying pan or cast-iron frying pan, melt butter and Worcestershire Sauce together. Add the roast (and remaining soy sauce) and brown on all sides. NOTE: This step gives color and flavor to the meat. Remove from heat and set aside.

About 45 minutes before serving time, preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place the browned roast in an open roasting pan or the cast-iron frying pan. Roast in the oven for approximately 45 minutes until medium-rare or until a meat thermometer registers an internal temperature you desire.

Rare – 120 degrees F.

Medium Rare – 125 degrees F.

Medium – 130 degrees F.
Remove from oven and transfer onto a cutting board; cover with a tent of aluminum foil and let stand 15 minutes before carving (internal temperature will rise 5 to 10 degrees after it is removed from the oven).

While the roast is resting, make a sauce out of equal amounts of sour cream and horseradish. This can be made 1 day ahead of time. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

NOTE: I also make Knorr Bearnaise Sauce (according to direction on the package). Add 1 teaspoon dried tarragon and fresh-squeezed lemon juice from 1/2 of a fresh lemon. This can also be made 1 day ahead of time. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To Serve: Cut the roast into approximately 1/2-inch slices (can slice thinner if desired). Transfer onto a serving platter and serve immediately with the Sour Cream/Horseradish Sauce and/or Bearnaise Sauce.

For Christmas I made Cajun chicken and andouille gumbo using the recipe from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen. It comes out identical to the version I was served at K-Paul's in 1986. It has been on my special-occasion recipe list, but last night's cooking was less fussy and labor-intensive than some of the Sichuan dishes I make regularly. I'll be making chicken and andouille gumbo more often in the future. The trickiest part is making the roux. The proper roux for a gumbo is black roux but it takes some skill to make one without burning the roux. The first several times I chickened out and stopped at dark-brown roux, which Prudhomme said is perfectly acceptable. I've since learned how to make black roux reliably.

The first three times I made this dish I started grease fires while deep-frying the chicken parts. I got impatient and crowded the pan. On the most memorable of those occasions I opened all the windows and the front door to get the smoke alarms to shut up. When they finally did I found out that my exclusively indoor cat had decided the smoke and noise weren't for her and escaped out the front door. I went outside and called the cat for about 5 minutes, to no avail. So I left the front door open, figuring that she'd return eventually. The problem is that this was the dead of winter and the outdoor temperature was only 10 degrees Fahrenheit, if that. I ended up cooking the gumbo wearing a parka. After half an hour or so the cat was suddenly in the living room washing her paws. She'd decided that the cold outside was worse than the smoke and noise.

Smart cat, Paul (as many of them are).

I tried out a Kenji Lopez-Alt recipe for our tenderloin last night (as posted on Serious Eats). This involved salting the meat the night before, doing a long, slow roast, and then finishing under the broiler for a reverse sear. I'm always suspicious of his recipes as in my experience, there's always something in them that isn't quite right, or at least doesn't work out right for me. I checked the comments, and sure enough, in this one it's the amount of time you can expect to roast the beef. He puts it down as 2 hours for a trimmed and tied 4 lb. tenderloin. A bunch of people described checking on meat's temperature at 1-1/2 hours and finding it well beyond what they wanted. Otherwise, though, reviews were absolutely glowing.

So I started on Christmas Eve by drying off the tenderloin (which had been trimmed and tied by the butcher), placing it on a rack over a sheet pan, salting the hell out of it, and putting it in the fridge uncovered. Yesterday around 2:00, I took it out of the fridge to warm to room temp. At 3:30 or so, I dusted it with pepper and powdered porcini mushroom, which I will insure is sealed and tucked away should you come visit, Jenise! I then put the sheet pan, rack, and meat into our oven at 225 with a Meater thermometer in it to monitor the temp. I was shooting for about 128, since the overshoot on the temp and the broiling would take it to a bit under 135, which is medium rare (according to Kenji, which I note is different from yours, Karen). Sure enough, it took a bit over an hour to hit 128. I took it out and tented it for 20 minutes or so while we finished side dishes and the broiler heated. Then it went back in the oven, under the broiler, for around 5 minutes a side while I monitored it anxiously and turned it. When it looked like there was a nice crust, I pulled it out and rested it another 5 minutes or so (although Kenji says this isn't really necessary). It turned out beautifully, with a very even rosy pink from center to edge and a decent crust on the outside. The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender and fairly well flavored - especially for tenderloin. One slight issue was that the thicker end of the roast was rare rather than medium rare, but this did give folks a choice and we had a couple of rare meat fans. Also, I think I was a little conservative in the time under the broiler. If I do this again, I'll let it sit under there longer. Overall, a big success and I'm always happy when I don't screw up a pricey piece of meat.

By the way, Karen, your recipe sounds excellent as well. Thanks for posting that - I might try it next time.

[Jenise]

The meat is placed in soy sauce overnight. The next morning, it is browned in a mix of Worcestershire and butter, then set aside for the day. It is then roasted for 45 min. to medium rare.

Karen, I'll bet it's great. However, the instruction to brown it in the morning and leave it all day is not a good one. All that needs to happen is to let the meat cool to room temperature before roasting it--90 minutes ahead of roasting time is plenty. The result will always be edge to edge rare or your preferred doneness.

What did I have last night? Roasted eye of round cooked med-well. My hosts are British.

[Jenise]

Today I'm making a classic potato gratin to take to a prime rib Boxing Day dinner. Am also taking a chocolate-black truffle panettone.

Mike, I'm a big reverse sear fan. I don't usually have meat come to room temperature when doing a reverse sear (and don't think Kenji suggests either). A little longer in oven, but at 225 that just means that much drier/crustier. I leave a thermapro probe in and set alarm for target temp. I prefer a large skillet to broiler for the final sear.

Tonight was roast pork tenderloin, rubbed with seasonings, seared in cast iron skillet, roasted in same skillet, and served with a creamy pan sauce. Got to use the rosemary bush next to my front door.

Dale - I also usually use a skillet for the searing part of a reverse sear, but this tenderloin was pretty long, and I liked the idea of using the same rack and pan that it was roasted in. The broiler worked well, even though this was the first time I tried it. Next time, it will ne a touch better.

I guess it's in the wind. Two friends also made this exact same Lopez reverse-sear recipe! They set their oven to 180*F, thus cooking the meat longer to get it up to temp. After a quick roast at 550*F for a few minutes, serve. Also, the meat was grand.

The problem they had was that they chose to have Yorkshire Pudding alongside. Well, those are best right out of the oven but cook at only 450*F, not 550*F, so there was a timing problem. They cooked the meat, while it rested cooked the pudds, but it took 10 minutes for her oven to climb from 450->550, to finish the roast. In the meantime, the pudds sagged.

Also, this method does not product any meat juices to use in the pudds!

[Jenise]

On Christmas day I had dinner with an ADHD British family. They served roast eye of round cooked medium well but were disappointed in the results because it was chewy. Uh.... The accompanying yorkshire pudds were overbaked and deflated. I was invited for 4 p.m. At some point they apparently realized that dinner would probably not be on the table until 6:30 or 7:00 and sent a text to warn of same and say show up when you like but I didn't check since texting them around 2:00 so I was in effect real early. They served Apothic Merlot.

The food gods were looking out for me, though, as on Boxing Day my BIL made a perfect reverse-sear prime rib.

We had a variety of mushrooms that we picked up for the polenta my daughter made for Christmas Eve that didn't get used along with some rich turkey stock from the "day after Thanksgiving" turkey I picked up, so I made risotto for tonight's supper. I also used some dried porcini that we picked up from a guy at a market in Austria. These were easily the most fragrant dried porcini I've ever run across as well as the cleanest. There was virtually no grit in the soaking liquid after I reconstituted them. Some Italian sausage went in as well.

My supermarket only carries ground lamb sporadically so when I saw it on the shelf the other day I bought two pounds to make merguez sausage (Jenise's recipe). Last night I made the harissa. Today I'll make the sausage itself.

-Paul W.

On Christmas day I had dinner with an ADHD British family... I was invited for 4 p.m. At some point they apparently realized that dinner would probably not be on the table until 6:30 or 7:00 and sent a text to warn of same and say show up when you like...

!! Always interesting to see different approaches to entertaining.

I remember going to a friends' house after telling them we needed to be home at a decent hour because we had an early morning the next day. My heart sank when we arrived on time to find the wife still cleaning, as the husband was out shopping for the food and 'would be right back'. Needless to say everything was a bit late!

I remember going to a friends' house after telling them we needed to be home at a decent hour because we had an early morning the next day. My heart sank when we arrived on time to find the wife still cleaning, as the husband was out shopping for the food and 'would be right back'. Needless to say everything was a bit late!

It took me a while to figure out how to make sure that I could have dinner on the table at a reasonable time when having people over. I now make sure that I don't try to cook anything that takes much last minute work and I do everything possible the day before. That said, I don't think I ever waited to go shopping until the guests arrived!

[Jenise]

I remember going to a friends' house after telling them we needed to be home at a decent hour because we had an early morning the next day. My heart sank when we arrived on time to find the wife still cleaning, as the husband was out shopping for the food and 'would be right back'. Needless to say everything was a bit late!

Ouch! What I experienced was close but not quite that bad. At least they had the groceries. But they're not kitchen aces and were very nervous about cooking for me. Sure wish I'd seen that text! It was very awkward to sit around so long and not be allowed to help. I don't live on my phone and it didn't occur to me to check before walking out the door since we'd been in touch earlier in the day.

It took me a while to figure out how to make sure that I could have dinner on the table at a reasonable time when having people over. I now make sure that I don't try to cook anything that takes much last minute work and I do everything possible the day before. That said, I don't think I ever waited to go shopping until the guests arrived!

Yes, I learned a lot about these things in my 20s, having gone through some overly-ambitious meal plans. A friend of mine who was quite experienced at entertaining was very influential in these matters. She would set the table the day before and was very big on advance prep. I don't go quite that far, but the principle is good!

But they're not kitchen aces and were very nervous about cooking for me...

Yes, I think a lot of us food/wine types get that from our less gastronomically-obsessed friends, even if we try to be relaxed about it all! And from the entertaining feats that you have reported on, I could see how people might feel intimidated. But, nice that you enjoyed Boxing Day!

[Jenise]

Speaking of Boxing Day, I want to mention our dessert. Not homemade, but ordered from afar: Urbani black truffle and chocolate panettone, made in Italy. Pricey at $120 per, but WOW OH WOW. Even I who don't particularly love chocolate and nearly always skip dessert thinks that's one of the best things I've EVER eaten. I do not exaggerate. And I'm about the have the last slice for breakfast.