Roast Beef Plated
For some reason this popover pan stuck this year and I had to resort to this popover pan
Second Popover pan
ROAST BEEF
The timetable for roasting is approximately 5 to 5 1/2 minutes per pound of trimmed, ready to cook meat.
Bring the roast to room temperature. (At least one hour before cooking) Preheat the oven to 500. Place the roast in a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle with a little flour and rub the flour lightly into the fat. Season generously with salt (Lawrey’s if you wish) and coarsely cracked black pepper.
Roast according to the above timetable, following the minutes exactly!!!
When the cooking time ends, turn off the oven heat, BUT DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR EVEN FOR A SECOND. Allow the roast to remain in the oven for 1 hour.
The roast will be beautifully rare inside and retain a crunchy outside.
YORKSHIRE PUDDING
You need to get extra fat from the butcher to use for the Yorkshire pudding. Render the fat in a small saucepan.
To make the Yorkshire Pudding Popovers, you need a second oven as you can’t open up the oven door where the roast beef is.
Yorkshire Pudding recipe (ACTUALLY POPOVER RECIPE)
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk – room temp
Dash salt
Preheat oven to 450.
Beat eggs with hand mixer until lemon colored and foamy. Add milk and stir until well blended. Do not overbeat. Add flour all at once. Hand beat until foamy and smooth on top. Grease popover tins with the rendered roast beef fat. Place popover pan in the oven for 2 minutes to warm. Fill cups with batter poured from pitcher, filling almost full. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake 30 minutes longer.
POTATO BRIOCHE
GOURMET 1985
Makes 16
3 1/4 pounds boiling potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 teaspoons salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
4 large egg yolks
white pepper to taste
2 teaspoons milk
16 well-buttered miniature brioche molds measuring 2 1/2 inches across the top, chilled. I buttered with unsalted butter.
In a kettle cover the potatoes with cold water and bring the water to a boil. Add 2 teaspoons of the salt and simmer the potatoes for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are tender. Drain the potatoes and force them through a ricer into a bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the butter, 3 of the egg yolks, the remaining 1 teaspoon salt and the white pepper and let the mixture cool for at lest 20 minutes and up to 2 hours.
Transfer 1/4 cup of the potato mixture to a lightly floured surface, with lightly floured hands pinch off a piece about the size of a marble, and reserve it. With lightly floured hands roll the larger portion into a smooth ball and drop it gently into one of the chilled molds. Make a shallow indentation gently in the top of the ball, form the reserved marble-sized portion into a smooth ball, and fit it gently into the indentation. Make 15 more “brioches” in the same manner. In a small bowl combine the egg yolk with the milk and brush the egg wash gently over the brioches, being careful not to let it drip down into the molds. Bake the brioches on a baking sheet in a preheated 425 oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Let the brioches cool on a rack in the molds for 20 minutes. Loosen the edges with a metal skewer if necessary and invert the brioches carefully to remove them from the molds.
The potato brioches may be made 1 day in advance, kept covered and chilled, and reheated on a baking sheet in a 400 oven for 15 minutes or until they are heated through.
Creamed Spinach – the key to good creamed spinach, whether you use fresh spinach ot frozen leaf spinach, is to wring every drop of water out of the spinach. If you don’t you will have watery spinach. Also you have to finely chop the spinach – I put it in the cuisinart, then hand chop so there are no stringy bits at all.
Refined Palate 