Prime Rib & Hatch Chile Scalloped Potatoes

For once, I'm not exhausted after preparing Christmas Dinner!  Might be the fewer number of us (we actually ate at the breakfast table) or that I finally decided to create a smaller menu.  Either way, I am enjoying the weekend because I'm not completely exhausted.

Here's is my very simple menu!

Soupe A' l'oignon (French Onion Soup) previous post-October 6, 2009

Roasted Prime Rib with Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Hatch Chile Scalloped Potatoes

Asparagus with Vinagrette Sauce

Roasted Prime Rib

4 pound boneless Prime Rib Roast

Olive oil

Freshly ground pepper

Grey salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat prime rib roast with olive oil.  Rub pepper and salt to taste,  I am pretty heavy handed with the pepper.  Place in shallow baking dish and roast uncovered until internal temperature reaches 110 degrees for medium-rare center, approx. 1 hour.  Once desired temperature is reached, remove from oven and place on warm platter to rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing.  Serve with Creamy Horseradish Sauce

Creamy Horseradish Sauce

1 Cup Sour Cream

1/3 Cup Horseradish

1 Tbls Dijon Mustard

1 tsp. White Wine Vinegar

1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt

1/4 tsp. Freshly ground Pepper

Place all of the ingredients into a mediumn mixing bowl and whisk until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Place in thee refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight to allow flavors to blend.  Sauce will keep in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Hatch Chile Scalloped Potatoes

2 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes

6 fresh Hatch chiles (3/4 pound)

2 Cups Heavy cream

2 large garlic cloves

2/3 C. Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded

Kosher salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Lay chiles on their sides on a rack of a gas burner and turn flame on high.  Roast chiles, turning with tongs, until skins are blackened, 5 to 8 minutes.  Transfer chiles to a bowl and let stand, covered, 15 minutes.

Rub skins off chiles with paper towels and discard stems and seeds.  Cut the chiles into 1/4-inch strips.

Bring the cream with garlic just to a simmer and remove from heat.  Peel potatoes and cut crosswise with your super amazing Cuisinart Food Processor into 1/16-inch thick slices.

Arrange one-third of potatoes evenly in bottom of well-buttered 1-1/2 quart shallow baking dish, overlapping them slightly, and sprinkle with salt to taste and 1/2 of chiles.  Repeat, ending with a layer potatoes.  Remove garlic from cream and pour cream over potatoes.  Sprinkle Monterrey jack cheese lightly over top.  Cover dish with foil and bake in lower third of oven for 45 minutes.  Remove foil and bake until top is golden brown and bubbling, about 30 minutes more.  Cool slightly before serving.

Asparagus with Vinagrette Sauce

2 bundles fresh Asparagus

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp Grey Salt

1/2 Cup Olive Oil

4 Tbls. Balsamic Vinegar

4 tsp Dijon Mustard

1/2 tsp Anchovy Paste

1 tsp Freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon, cut into wedges after grating lemon rind.

Crush garlic, sprinkle with salt and crush again until you have formed a paste.  Scrape the crushed garlic into a covered jar with a tight-fitting lid.  Add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, anchovy paste, pepper and lemon rind to the jar, cover and shake the mixture until well blended.  Set aside at room temperature.

Meanwhile, rinse asparagus spears and trim the ends.  Steam asparagu for about 10 minutes or to taste.  Arrange on a serving platter.  Let cool for about 5 minutes, then drizzle with the vinagrette.

Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Toasted Baguette for French Onion Soup

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Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon + LeslieMichele's Apple Tart

Well Folks, I survived it, it was lovely and it was worth it.  I made it the afternoon, refrigerated it for two days and served it for my parents and friends for dinner.  We all loved it!  The separate steps are necessary and the end result is nothing short of magnificent! It takes a long time to prepare, but after all when you are channeling Julia, there is a lot of nostalgia and history to consider and the process should, in my opinion, be savored!  This is the only time in my memory that I have actually followed a recipe without changing something.  I'm actually quite proud of myself for that.

My parents were over earlier in the afternoon delivering pecans to use during the holidays.  Thanks Mom and Dad, I love you!  So when I served it to them it was with Julia's Potatoes (Pommes De Terre Sautees, pg 526).  Later when our friends were here for dinner, I served it with pasta.  The potatoes, I think, are the way to go, it seemed more authentic somehow.  Just a note; I tasted it the day I made it, and it really does benefit from the overnight refrigeration.  The flavors meld and blend in a beautiful and noticeble way.

1 6-ounce chunk of bacon

1 9- to 10-inch fireproof casserole 3 inches deep
1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil
1 slotted spoon
3 pounds lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups of a full-bodied young red wine such as one of those suggested for serving or a Chianti
2-3 cups brown beef stock or canned beef bouillon
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
1/2 teaspoon thyme
a crumbled bay leaf
the blanched bacon rind
18-24 small white onions (brown-braised in stock)
1 pound quartered fresh mushrooms sauteed in butter
parsley sprigs

Cooking Instructions:


In this case, as with most famous dishes, there are more ways than one to arrive at a good boeuf bourguignon. Carefully done, and perfectly flavored, it is certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man, and can well be the main course for a buffet dinner. Fortunately you can prepare it completely ahead, even a day in advance, and it only gains in flavor when reheated.

VEGETABLE AND WINE SUGGESTIONS

Boiled potatoes are traditionally served with this dish. Buttered noodles or steamed rice may be substituted. If you also wish a green vegetable, buttered peas would be your best choice. Serve with the beef a fairly full-bodied, young red wine, such as Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone, Bourdeaux-St. Emilion or Burgundy.

Remove rind and cut bacon into lardons (sticks, 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2-inches long). Simmer rind and bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Saute the bacon in the oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Set casserole aside. Reheat until fat is almost smoking before you saute the beef.

Dry the beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the bacon.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the sauteing fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to oven for 4 minutes more. (This browns the flour and covers the meat with a light crust.) Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in the wine and enough stock or bouillon so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Then cover the casserole and set in lower third of preheated oven. Regulate heat so liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. Set them aside until needed.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.

Skim fat off the sauce. Simmer sauce for a minute or two, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 21/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons of stock or canned bouillon. Taste carefully for seasoning. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.

(*) Recipe may be completed in advance to this point.

FOR IMMEDIATE SERVING

Cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times. Serve in its casserole, or arrange the stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley.

FOR LATER SERVING

When cold, cover and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving, bring to the simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes, occasionally basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

Pommes De Terre Sautees (Potatoes Sauteed in Butter)

Oignons Glaces A Brun (Brown-braised Onions)

Champignons Sautes AuBeurre (Sauteed Mushrooms)

Apple Tart

12 sheets Phyllo dough
1/2 C. butter, melted
3 large apples (I used Fuji), peeled, cored and thinly sliced
grated rind of 1 lemon
1/4 C. pecans, finely ground

1/2 C brown sugar
3 Tbls. sugar
1 Tbl cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated
Juice of  1/2 lemon


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a large cookie sheet with foil.  Lay first sheet of phyllo on cookie sheet, brush with melted butter, repeat with all sheets of phyllo until you have used them all.  Lay apple slices, fanned out slightly to cover Phyllo, leaving about 1/2 inch boarder on all sides.  Sprinkle tops of apples with grated lemon rind, ground pecans, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.  Place cookie sheet in preheated oven and bake for approx. 10 minutes.  Reduce oven to 325 degrees and continue baking for another 20 to 25 minutes.  Once cooled, remove tart using 2 large spatulas to serving tray and slice for serving.  Tart can be served warm or room temperature.

The tart is super simple and quick to prepare.  Perfect light dessert after a heavy meal!

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Some Like It Hot......Roasted Poblano Vichyssoise with Lime

Few people realize that Vichyssoise, the cold potato leek soup with the French name, was invented, not in Paris or Lyons or even in Vichy, France, but in New York City at the beginning of the 20th Century.




It was 1917 and the fashionable Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Madison Avenue at 46th Street was about to open a new roof garden restaurant. The head chef was a Frenchman named Louis Diat (1885-1957). He often made a potato and leek soup from a recipe given him by his mother, Annette Alajoinine Diat, and he was preparing to serve it at a party celebrating the opening of the roof garden. Whether, according to legend, the soup, prepared in advance, wasn't re-heated in time to be served as a first course, or whether the day was warm and Chef-de-Cuisine Diat felt culinarily creative, he added cream to his mother's soup recipe and served it cold, sprinkled with chopped chives. He called it Creme Vichyssoise Glacee, or Chilled Cream Vichyssoise, in honor of the town where he was born.


The original Ritz-Carlton has long since been demolished but Vichyssoise lives on.


God Bless the Ritz Carlton and all of the special memories, events and amazing food that came from there.


Mmmmmmm....Vichyssoise, Some of us love it as it is cool and flavourful and creamy, as it should be.  Some of us, such as our son, cannot wrap his head around a cold soup. To him, it just doesn't make sense.  Bless his heart, in the summer he can expect to expand his tastebuds with wonderful soups like Avacado Soup, Cantelope Soup and many many more.  He'll come around, I have faith!


Yesterday was one of those days I just happen to have all the right ingredients on hand, plus, of course, I still have poblanos growing like crazy.  So this was my interpretation of Vichyssoise.

Roasted Poblano Vichyssoise with Lime adapted from a Gourmet Magazine Recipe

1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and small diced
5 C. water
4 med. Leeks, green tops removed, white cut lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 med. onion, diced
1 Tbl unsalted butter
2 tsp kosher salt
2 C. milk
1 C. Heavy Cream

1 C. Half-and-half
4 lg poblano peppers, roasted and charred exterior removed along with stem and seeds, finely sliced into strips
1 C. Sour cream
1/4 C. fresh lime juice, or to taste
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste

Garnish: several thin slices of poblano and halved lime slices to float on top

Place diced potatoes in bowl with water.  In another bowl or vegetable sink, soak leeks in water to cover.  Agitate to remove dirt and sand, drain in colander. Thinly slice leaks.  Add butter to heavy bottom soup pot, on med/low heat, add leeks and onion, cook until wilted, do not carmelize or it will discolor you finished soup.

Add potatoes with water,salt and poblanos, simmer, covered for about 40 minutes, or until potatoes are very soft.   Add milk, cream and half-and-half and bring just to a boil, stirring.


In your amazing food processor (or my crappy one that leaks all over my counters) puree soup in batches.  Return to clean soup pot.  Stir in sour cream and lime juice.




At this point you can serve the soup hot, or you can chill it, covered until very cold and up to 1 day.


Hot or cold, serve soup garnished with remaining poblanos and slices of lime.

Enjoy, Approximately 10 cups.

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