detlef Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Tonight will not be the culinary tour de force that Sunday will be, but will include making a few pizzas and enjoying a bottle of Soter Sparkling Rose after an afternoon in the garden and prior to heading off to the Louis CK show (wife went behind my back and scored 10th row, center section seats from my hook-up at the local performing arts center for my b-day. But from a culinary standpoint, this is not quite why you wish you were me. Saturday will be interesting in as much as I'll be checking out a cask beer fest that we're donating appetizers to. Again, however, this is not why you wish you were me. That will happen Sunday. I've already procured a 5 lb, dry-aged rib roast from Whole Foods. Unfortunately, they couldn't sell it to me bone-in because of the bacteria culture on the outside of the roast from the dry-aging process. Oh well, no ribs, just delicious dry-aged beef. I'm making a paste of fresh herbs from the garden, smearing them onto said roast, slow-roasting it, of course, in the Big Green Egg whilst I'm enjoying an afternoon of football. I'm getting some 100% fresh wasabi sent in from Oregon, along with some chantrelles, so we're going with a new-fangled steakhouse theme for dinner. Shrimp cocktail with cocktail sauce made from the wasabi (and some green tomato ketchup I made from our tomatoes this fall), an arugula salad (from the garden) with a bacon dressing and blue cheese, the roasted shrooms, creamed chard, potatoes finished on the egg tossed in sriracha mayo (made from homegrown cayenne), and of course the prime rib with horseradish sauce made from the aforementioned wasabi. For dessert, a pecan pie. We'll be washing down the apps with Champagne, moving into some White Burgundy (Bertagna Clo Vougeot Blanc Les Cras '04 and likely another '04 because the '04s are so effing good) early in the meal and then trying a 94 Shafer Hillside and 91 Dominus side by side with the beef. For dessert, we're doing a selection of aged barleywines. Because that's how we roll on my birthday... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sundaynfl Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Sounds like a great meal! Happy Birthday... I am sure a lot of people that don't have your passion for cooking are glad they aren't you... but osme of us do envy your menu and creative passion! Cheers and save me some of the sparkly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted October 21, 2011 Author Share Posted October 21, 2011 Sounds like a great meal! Happy Birthday... I am sure a lot of people that don't have your passion for cooking are glad they aren't you... but osme of us do envy your menu and creative passion! Cheers and save me some of the sparkly! And then there are those people here in the Huddle, like yourself, who are likely sitting on multiple bottles in multiple vintages of some of those wines who are thinking to themselves, "Sounds like a Tuesday at my crib..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 good times.... happy birthday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeGrandCru&Bacon Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Excited to be included in the evening... and excited to do that Dominus... I've been saving that for awhile! Might have another treat up my sleeve too, Chucker... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowboutthemCowboys Posted October 23, 2011 Share Posted October 23, 2011 sounds awesome. happy birthday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Recap: Wines were all top-notch. One of my wine reps gifted me a bottle of Billicart Salmon Extra Brut so we had that before the Soter. Both were outstanding. Coffee, Grand Cru & Bacon brought a 09 Liocco Hanzell Vineyard Chard to taste alongside the Bertagna Clos Vougeot Blanc Le Cras 04 and they tasted more similar than you'd expect. I, and I think most, preferred the White Burg, but what are you going to expect from a great aged wine. Both were delicious and went well with the salad of arugula, bacon, maytag blue, sieved egg, and pomegranate (one of the few that we got off our tree this year). Both Cabs were amazing. Out the gate, the Dominus was more elegant and restrained and the Shafer was all about the fruit. Then the Shafer started taking on nuance and the Dominus opened up. Cool evolution and I'm not going to pretend I liked one more than the other. . OK, now for the roast. Given what an outstanding piece of meat it was, I really wanted it to end up being all-time good. I actually have limited experience with roasts (probably because I haven't worked at Hotels and such that would do that sort of thing). So I researched it and, of course, came across wildly disparate suggestions. To the point of people insisting that you should never do the exact thing that others claim is the secret to their success. The biggest issue was whether or not to start it hot and then bring the temp down or to just go slow and low the whole time. I went with the latter. I built my fire mostly around the edges, got the egg to just below 300 and put in the roast. Cooking it 2x each side until it read 115. It was done way sooner than I needed it, so it rested for about 2 hours and I just re-warmed it a bit later. It was effing perfect! Uniformly cooked from about 1/2 inch in on each side, all the way through. That's frankly why I didn't want to do the hard cook, because the roast wasn't big enough to sacrifice much of the ends to being over-cooked. And it got plenty brown as it was. One of the 5 best pieces of meat I've ever eaten. My wife made some delicious pecan bars and one of the guests brought over some pumpkin caramels they made (they also brought some cheese from their goats that we enjoyed pre-dinner) and we ate those with a Stone Barleywine and Southern Tier Pumpking. My head hurt just a bit this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt770 Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I don't want to be anyone but me, but I do wish I understood many of those things you said. Nevertheless, happy bday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Dick Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Man that sounds good. I thought I was doing well smoking 3 slabs of ribs yesterday. Also did beans for 6 hours underneath the ribs catching all the drippings all day. Then I did some sweet potato fries in the deep fryer. Washed down with cold Budweiser. Not quite as sophisticated as det. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiley Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Damn, sounds like an awesome day. I got suckered into going to some Missouri wineries this Saturday. Overpriced swill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bier Meister Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 mmmmm.... sounds like a great day. i've done the roasts both ways (also have seared outside then just let it go slow) and prefer the high to low, but if you know what you are doing the all turn out good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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