FLOWER POT KITCHEN: PRIME RIB FILLET WITH AWESOME AU JUS

19 Jan 2020

PRIME RIB FILLET WITH AWESOME AU JUS

Can I call this cooking? All I did was season and open the oven!

I think this is my new favourite way to eat steak, I don’t know if I will go back, well maybe a butter seared peppered crust might do it! Again it’s all in the method and really a almost no cooking required dinner, just opening the oven door and that’s about it! Oh and a bit of maths! Now I won’t fib I couldn’t help myself and I had to peel or chop something this is not necessary, but it will give the au jus so much more depth of flavour that I can’t get enough of with my prime rib.

The Maths

I would usually recommend a fore rib centre cut ribeye bone off approx 3kg / 6.61lbs but this time my butcher had a beautiful thick centre cut side of fillet that just screamed prime rib to me when I saw it, as the cooking is based on the weight of your cut of beef you have more flexibility on your choice of cuts. I choose a 2kg/4.41lbs centre cut of fillet this time but I have also cooked a whole sirloin that also resulted in a perfect cooked prime rib and it’s all due to this equation!

Bring your steak out 3 hours before you are going to cook, this is really important for a successful prime rib and not to end up with roast beef or London broil.

Preheat your Oven to the highest 240 C - 250 C / 464 F - 482 F

The Cooking Calculation For My Steak Weight...

4.41lbs x 5 (minutes) per lb = 23 Cooking Minutes + 1 minute = 24 Exact Minutes

( The +1 minute is for oven temperature adjustment from the door being opened...YES it matters that much! )

Prep time 1 minute - 5 minutes / Cooking time 2hrs-24 minutes.

Equipment deep roasting tray with a rack

Ingredients

(serves 6)

Prime Rib Fillet

2kg / 4.41 lbs centre cut fillet steak

150g butter room temperature

1 tbsp Himalayan sea salt

1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Au Jus

4 carrots roughly chopped

1 onion in quarters

1 leek roughly chopped

2 ribs of celery roughly chopped

1 bulb of garlic cut in half

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs of thyme

10 whole black peppercorns

1 ltr water or red wine

Pre heat your oven to its highest setting, 220, 230, 240 or 250 C / 482 F for at least one hour in advance.

Take your roasting tray and place your steak in the centre, unless like me you feel the need to add extra flavour layers to the au jus then place the au jus stock ingredients in the bottom of the roasting tray, add the water or wine. Season the steak with salt and pepper then generously spread the soft butter all over the steak, place into the centre of the roasting tray.

Place in the oven as fast as possible and from this point forward DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR, if you do you will get roast beef not prime rib. Set the timer for your maths cooking time, when this time is up, TURN THE OVEN OFF ! DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR AT ALL! After two hours your prime rib is ready to serve, it will be warm but not hot. If you want your steak cooked more medium rare then just heat the steak in the au jus to your liking.

That is it, so simple the prime rib cooks itself. You can bake some potatoes or make a gorgeous creamy buttery mashed potatoes, salad or vegetables to serve with your prime rib without the pressure of cooking timings as you know that the perfect prime rib is doing it’s own thing.

The Au Jus

I often blitz the mirepoix vegetables into all the au jus resting juices stock gravy for maximum flavour, this is optional and will give you a slightly thicker gravy or you can simply strain the cooking juices, add a knob of butter and taste for seasoning. Optional I always have a side of horseradish too.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.