Monday 29 December 2008

Sometimes Simple Is Best

When does the meat feast end? When I said my parents go over the top with Christmas food orders, I really wasn't joking. By the time we'd whacked this hefty three-rib of beef in the oven, we'd already had goose, ham and pigeon breasts in days previous. Morning, noon and night was domintated by conversations of "so, what shall we have with the (insert meat here)?"

Christmas dinner has to be fairly extravagant, or else it just ends up being another roast dinner. Time is taken over what to enhance the stuffing with, and what can be done to jazz up the sprouts. Some, I hear, even make roasted potatoes and mashed potatoes! It's an event in itself, one that many people get worked into a stressful frenzy about.

Similarly, as pigeon is such a treat, we spent a good while thinking about what would work well in a salad to accompany it. As it happens, a soft leaf with toasted pine nuts, red onions, beetroot, tomato and grilled fennel work very well indeed.

So, when it came to the beef, we were exhausted of ideas. Simple is best, I declared - roasted garlic mash, green beans and red wine gravy, mustard and horseradish on the side. It was a heavenly piece of beef; well-aged, cooked to rare and extremely tender and succulent. As I learnt from my steak at Hawksmoor, no fiddling is required when you have a quality piece of meat.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, you're sooo lucky! That is an incredible piece of meat, and I can just imagine it juicy and tender...And I love garlic mash. Can I spend Christmas with you next year?!

bellaphon said...

Full marks to your parents for upholding the Meat Fest. And at the same time award yourself a star for the perfect accompaniments to the beef.

Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

Oh drooooool....I do love a good roast beef...

Anonymous said...

I know exactly what you mean, it wasn't so much "what shall we eat with this piece of meat" in our house as "what shall we eat now". I'm so tired of thinking about food! This does look great though.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! A fabulous meat fest! I am totally drooling over that hunk of beast at the top! I also consumed a seriously huge amount of meat over Christmas - I think I need a detox! Loving the grilled fennel with the pigeon too - mmm pigeon.

Hollow Legs said...

Thanks all - It was an amazing piece of meat. My dad cut me off a hunk to take home with me too, so I've got enough to see me through to the newyear!

Anonymous said...

tsk tsk... all the meat and smoking... Did you remember to take your statin pills beforehand?? :)

Hope you had a wonderful christmas (looks like it from the pics) and a great new year :)