Blowtorch Prime Rib Roast, Horseradish Cream, Creamed Baby Spinach

Fall semester is officially over!!! Hooray :D

With no finals or classes to worry about and free time to do whatever, I decided to give Christmas dinner a mini trial-run. My dad loves prime rib, but the parents aren't really into heavy, creamy stuff - like the creamed spinach. Even though I won't be making the creamed spinach for Christmas dinner, I wanted to knock out this side dish while practicing the prime rib process.

Blowtorch Prime Rib Roast

I've always wanted to use a blowtorch and was so excited that I would finally be able to use one for this recipe! I always saw chefs use it on tv and now I got to use it - yay! You can find them at most hardware stores.

First, I put the rib roast on a roasting pan, got my handy dandy blowtorch, and heated the meat until it was gray & the fat a light brown color. I assumed this process was like searing, but with a blowtorch - holding in all the yummy juices inside.

Then I seasoned the meat generously with salt and pepper and stuck it in the oven.

After about two hours, the meat reached the desired temperature. It was then left out to rest for 30 more minutes. It was a little more rare than medium-rare, but I managed since prime rib is better under cooked. Mmm bloody meat.

Okay... the lighting makes it look more rare than it actually was - hahaa.

Horseradish Cream

Couldn't find the prepared, drained horseradish so just grated a horseradish root myself. Not a good idea. The smell shoots up your nose and stings! Pretty funny though.

Mixed heavy whipping cream and sherry vinegar, then mixed in the grated horseradish, fleur de sel, and pepper. All done!

It ended up not as spicy as I usually like the sauce, so I kept adding more and more grated horseradish hoping it would get spicier. It ended up getting a teensy bit hotter, but yeah...was a bit disappointed, haha.

Creamed Baby Spinach

For this recipe, the "Creamed" part required a special cream - Keller would. The Mornay sauce was made by first melting butter and cooking diced onions in it. Once the onions were translucent, AP flour was added to get it thick like a roux. Once that cooked for a little bit, whole milk, heavy cream, bay leaf, cloves, and peppercorns were added and cooked in a low simmer for 30 minutes. Then a pinch of white pepper, a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, and grated Comte cheese was stirred in. Comte cheese is a type of Gruyere cheese.

For the spinach, I heated up a saute pan, melted butter, and added shallots. Then I added a few handfuls of baby spinach and seasoned with salt.

Cooked the spinach until they wilted and set them aside. Added more butter and shallots, and then cooked the rest of the spinach.

Put the cooked spinach in a baking pan and added the mornay sauce and more grated Comte cheese on top.

Baked in the oven until it was bubbling and then turned on the boiler to get the cheese brown and crispy on top.

Once everything was done, it was time to grub. Also on the plate is a nice piece of Yorkshire Pudding. It isn't in Ad Hoc, but I thought it would a nice addition to the meal :)

Overall, everything was really good. The only downsides were that a Keller au jus recipe for the roast should have been included in Ad Hoc and that the horseradish cream needed more kick. Other than that - can't wait for Christmas dinner!