Sunday, 22 January 2012

O'Toole Christmas 12/29

My schedule has been crazy ever since the holidays, and my New Years Resolution was to really start filling this blog.  Keeping up with it day to day hasn't quite worked yet, so I figured I would start backfilling and see if I can catch up and get back on track.

For the O'Toole Christmas, I decided to do a simple menu.  It was a late dinner and my dad & uncles came up to visit.

The first course was a garlic potato soup!
Garlic Potato Soup
Roast 2-3 bulbs of garlic in a garlic baker for 2-3 hours. Baste a few times with olive oil.
Cool for at least an hour, and remove all garlic from the bulbs. (this can be done 1-2 days ahead)
Peel 2 medium potatoes and chop small.
Boil potatoes in 3-4 cups of vegetable broth (just enough to cover potatoes).
About 10 minutes into boiling, add the garlic & finish when the potatoes are tender.
Add some salt & pepper (~1/2tsp of each)
Puree with an immersion blender.
Slice up some green onions to serve on top.

Potatoes with Rosemary & Lemon
Wash potatoes and cut into ~2in chunks
Place on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.
Squeeze 1/2 lemon over the potatoes, then chop the lemon into thin slices and place on the pan.
Sprinkle with fresh rosemary, salt and pepper.
Roast potatoes in the oven at 400 for about 30 minutes.

Rotisserie Beef
Unfortunately while the crust on this was amazing, it came out overcooked, so I will suggest an alternate method.
Get a 6lb cut of beef (Round Roast shown here)
Rub thickly with your favorite spice rub I made up a cumin ancho chile rub - cumin powder, ancho chile spice, chipotle mexican spice, instant espresso powder, corriander, salt & pepper.
Let it sit for at least an hour before cooking.
Prepare for the rotisserie & place a pan for the drippings on the grill under the rotisserie.
Set the grill on medium and cook for ~2-3 hours.  You will want to stop the rotisserie every 30 minutes to check the temperature.  You should stop it at 140 for Medium Rare and allow it to rest for 15 minutes (should rise to 145 before cutting).

 And we have arrived at my favorite Whole Lemon Tart!!














Thats right, for this Tart you actually get to use the entire lemon, rind and all!
The recipe I use comes from my favorite cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen.  Her recipe for the Whole Lemon Tart is posted here.  I've served this recipe before with a homemade blackberry sauce, and I imagine a raspberry sauce would go just as well.  But in the effort of keeping this dinner simple, I just served it sprinkled with powdered sugar as shown here.

Bon Appetite!!

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