The holidays are my favorite time to plan and prepare meals for my family. I especially love Christmas as I love my bone-in prime rib roast. I should prepare this more often as it’s a simple, amazingly satisfying dish. I am inspired by my Grandmother, Elizabeth Wisher, who always put on a wonderful dinner during the holidays. Christmas always consisted of a bone-in prime rib roast at her house, and I have carried on with this tradition. I had standardized my menu, which annually consists of the roast, my twice-baked potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts. I like to start off the preparation with some mimosas or a lovely cabernet depending on the time of day I start – which is usually noon – unlike The Hadland Thanksgiving meal, the Christmas meal involves much less chopping and preparation, so I can usually get it done in about 5 hours. For 2021 I decided to go all out and also cook lobster tails inspired by my friend Lisa who typically prepares them for her holiday meal. We had almost too much food this past year. Even Big Steve barely finished his roast, lobster, and twice-baked potatoes.
Ingredients
Bone-in Prime Rib Roast 4-7 ribs
10 Carrots
10 Parsnips
10-15 Shallots
2 boxes kosher salt
Bone-in Prime Rib Roast
I like to get my roasts from Costco. They really have great quality meats. Other sources over the years include Don and Joe’s Butcher in the Pike Place Market, the Metropolitan Market, and other local butchers. A few years back, I did a Waygu boneless and paid $750 for the meat. Not surprisingly, the roast cooked down to about half its size with two inches of liquid fat at the bottom of the pan! The meat was wonderful, a bit too rich, and the last time I will deviate from a prime bone-in.
I like to get between a 4 and 7-rib roast depending on how many guests I will be serving. My rule of thumb is at least one rib per person, allowing ample leftovers. I always rub my roast with olive oil and pack it with kosher salt. The roast will cook and sizzle and develop a wonderfully salty crust. You can see this in the main photo on this post and subsequent shots as well. Notice from the photos that I cook the roast on a variety of root vegetables, notably carrots, parsnips, and shallots.
My cooking times and method have varied over the years. Lately, I have cooked the roast at 425 degrees for 1.5 hours, using a meat thermometer to ensure it’s not above 120 for medium rare, as the roast will rest and cook for an additional 10-20 minutes. The other method calls for an initial temp of 500 degrees and 20 minutes, then reducing the temp to 325 for 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the roast. For either method, I will perform a temperature check every 5 minutes after the initial time to ensure the roast is perfectly cooked. Don’t let the meat ever get above 125 for medium rare.
2020
2021
Twice Baked Potatoes
My twice-baked potatoes are one of my guilty food pleasures in life. I probably gain about 5 pounds consuming this meal. My recipe has evolved over the years and now includes cheese, bacon, morel and chanterelle mushrooms, onions, and sour cream. These are also amazing as leftovers.
Ingredients
12 large russet potatoes
1 lb of bacon
4 cups morel mushrooms
4 cups chanterelle mushrooms
4 sticks of butter or ghee
2 large yellow onions
4 shallots
8 garlic cloves
1 bunch chives
16 oz sour cream
16 oz Beechers Flagship or white sharp cheddar cheese
4 lbs brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons garlic powder/salt
Hungarian paprika
Preparation
Wash and roast the potatoes on a large sheet pan for 1 hour at 400 until fork tender. Let cool, slice off the top of the spud and peel the flesh out with a spoon into a large bowl.
Roast the bacon on parchment paper at 325 until done.
Dice and saute the onion, chives, mushrooms, and shallots in the butter or ghee, adding salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder.
Mix potatoes, onion mix, grated cheese (reserve 1/4 cheese for the top of the potatoes), and sour cream.
Using a spoon, scoop the mixture into the potatoes. Using the reserved cheese, top each potato, and sprinkle with Hungarian paprika.
Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients
2 – 4 lbs brussels sprouts trimmed and halved
1 lb bacon
Grated Parmesan cheese
Several large splashes of extra virgin olive oil
Hungarian Paprika
Preparation
Trim the sprouts and place them into a mixing bowl.
Dice the bacon and mix into the bowl with EEVO.
Grate the parm all over the sprouts.
Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle all over with the paprika.
Roast at 325 for about 35 minutes or until desired doneness. This may take longer if you are using a single oven and need to rotate out dishes.
I like mine charred, be like Francis Mallmann!
Roasted Lobster Tails
Ingredients
Whole lobster tails – I get mine from Pure Foods in the Pike Place Market, but Costco and other fine food purveyors will have these for the holidays.
Clarified butter or ghee
Preparation
These are shockingly easy to prepare. Using kitchen shears, cut the shell of the lobster in half, and peel/pull out the meat so that it rests on top of the bisected shell.
Spread melted clarified butter on the meat.
Roast at 50 for about 10 minutes. I buy monster lobster tails – about 1 lb each, so 10 minutes is needed. The meat should be mostly opaque when don’t and ready at about 145 degrees.
