December 26, 2017 Lunch – PPI Shrimp Enchiladas and Duck Posole Dinner Party – Standing Rib Roast with Horseradish Cream Sauce, Celery Root Mashed Potatoes, green beans, Spanish Orange and Olive Salad, Cranberry Compote and corn relish

December 26, 2017 Lunch – PPI Shrimp Enchiladas and Duck Posole
Dinner Party – Standing Rib Roast with Horseradish Cream Sauce, Celery Root Mashed Potatoes, green beans, Spanish Orange and Olive Salad, Cranberry Compote and corn relish

I am trying to get back on a normal diet, but only achieved it for breakfast, a bowl of granola with yogurt, blueberries, and milk.

I ate lunch after 2:00; PPI shrimp enchiladas and a bowl of Duck Posole.

I then helped Willy pick up the luminarias.

At 3:30 I started prepping the two approximately 4 lb. roasts for dinner.  I sliced holes and inserted cloves of garlic into the slits.  Then I covered the roasts with sea salt and ground pepper and put it into an oven pre-heated to 500 degrees covered.  I then reduced the heat to 350 degrees and we cooked for 2 ½ hours until it reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  Suzette arrived  at around 4:30 and immediately uncovered the roasting pan, so the meat would develop a crust.  The roasts did not have a large external fat layer, but was pretty heavily marbled internally, so it retained a lot of moisture and tenderness.

I then peeled two celery roots and five or six russet potatoes and cubed them and put the cubes into a bowl in water so they would retain their color and freshness.

I took a shower at 5:30, after watching the business news, and when  I returned at 6:00, I found a recipe for Epicure Sauce. I first beat 1 cup of heavy cream until just short of fluffy peaks (the recipe calls for ½ cup of cream but I used to make this sauce with only cream, so I like more cream).  Then I added about 3 or 4 T. of horseradish and fresh Mexican crema and whipped those ingredients together.  The;I added 1 to 2 T. of sweet lime juice, about ¾ tsp. of salt and about ¾ tsp. of Worcestershire Sauce to intensify the bitterness.  Finally I went to the garden and rummaged under the dead leaves of chives until I found about 2 T. of chives and finely minced those and added them to the sauce to complete the sauce. I then placed about 2 cups of the sauce in a serving bowl and placed it in the fridge to chill.

While I was making the sauce Suzette was boiling the potatoes and celery root in a large covered enameled casserole and then whipped the boiled mixture in the Kitchen Aid as she added melted butter and heated milk to make fluffy smooth mashed potatoes.

Melissa and Ruth arrived just after 6:30 with two bottles of wine, a 1987 Appellation Controllee  Haut Medoc Chateau Muret and a 2014 California Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Haut Medoc has been bought by Ruth’s husband and Melissa’s dad, John and they never got the chance to drink it while he was alive.

Soon, Aaron arrived with a bottle of 2015 Bogdan biodynamic Estate bottled Merlot and Cynthia and Ricardo arrived with a bowl of green beans, a cranberry and orange compote, a Spanish style salad of orange slices, avocado chunks, and quartered seeded Kalamata olives dusted with smoked paprika, and a large wedge of an apple, cranberry, and raisin pie she baked for Christmas.

Suzette put some of the golden corn chutney she made for the Christmas Eve party in a bowl on the table.


When I tried to pull the cork in the Chateau Muret it collapsed, so I pushed the cork into the wine and decanted the wine into a pitcher through an aerator and a sieve. .

Suzette had been checking the internal temperature of the meat with a meat thermometer and pulled the two roasts from the oven just before they reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  The meat was cooked to medium medium rare, just the way I prefer, with a bit of red toward the middle that Suzette prefers.

Melissa enjoyed the Romanian Domaine Bogdan rose’ I poured at the Christmas Eve Open House, so today I poured glasses of 2016 Le Pont Bandol rose’ for everyone when we were together at around 6:45.  Then I opened a bottle of 2014 Gruet Rose’ and poured glasses of it.  Melissa loved both Rose’s.

We then sat in the dining room and I carved one of the roasts, which was probably 4 ½ lb. and we heated the green beans in the microwave briefly to warm them.

We poured out the decanter of Chateau Muret and I served the meat and Melissa served the potatoes and we passed the green beans and Epicure Sauce and when we were all served Melissa offered a toast to John and we sipped the Chateau Muret.  It had a velvety smooth taste with complexity that you could identify as age.  It was a good wine that had lived for 30 years in the bottle.  A testament to French winemaking and John and Ruth’s care of the bottle.

Everything was first rate.  The meat was tender.  The mashed potatoes and celery root were wonderful.  The green beans were tender and still had a bit of crunch and the sauce, the cranberry compote, and corn relish were delicious.

For our second glass of wine we poured the 2015 Bogdan Merlot, which was indescribably light and elegant.  The best Merlot I have ever tasted.  A winner.

After dinner the conversation continued and I asked if anyone wanted coffee or tea.  When the said, “No,”, Suzette and Cynthia served dessert; Suzette served the chocolate baked Pudding with pouring custard and Cynthia served slices of her apple, cranberry, raisin pie. I served small sho glasses of Buller Premium Fine Muscat from Victoria, Australia that I have had for about ten years in the cellar and was rated 98 to 100 points, as I recall.

A little before 10:00 we all said goodnight after a lovely meal with exquisite wine that I shall remember fondly.

Bon Appetit