Holiday Dinner

For our family Christmas dinner I really wanted to re-create the wonderful traditional British holiday dinners my mom would make. Her roasted potatoes and parsnips were always super crispy and tender and the Brussels sprouts were always nice and caramelized. Her Yorkshire puddings were light and puffy, and she made great gravy. Since I have taken over cooking the family dinners, I wanted to get it right and treat her to a nice dinner. The centerpiece of the meal was a 7 ½ pound New York Rib roast. The night before, I salted and peppered the roast and refrigerated it overnight to allow the salt to really penetrate the meat. Several hours before I cooked the roast I let it come to room temperature and slathered it with a mixture of fresh garlic, thyme, sage, rosemary and olive oil. I put it on a roasting rack fat side up and cooked it for 15 minutes at 450° and then turned it down to 350° until it was 130° in the center and placed foil over it while it rested for 45 minutes. That gave me time to roast all the vegetables. One of the most important things you need when want great roast potatoes, parsnips and Yorkshire Pudding is a lot of beef drippings. To ensure I had a lot of drippings, I added solid vegetable shortening to the roasting pan so it cooked with the beef drippings. To give my gravy a big boost (and save myself and oven a lot of time), I bought a pint of homemade demi glace at Granville Island Market which was really good and ensured my gravy would be a hit. A big tip to make puffy Yorkshire puddings is to add some beef drippings to a teflon muffin pan and place it in a 425° oven for a few minutes to get the pan very hot. Add the batter and bake until it is golden brown and puffed and eat right away. The nice thing about this meal is that a lot of it can be prepped the night before and there is not a lot of fuss when you just put a roast in the oven and let it cook. Click here for the menu, time line, grocery list and recipes….