Never Ruin a Rib Roast Again - Simple Method

Ok, so this Christmas my wife and I decided to make a Standing Rib Roast for the family.  Normally speaking when I want assurances for cooking an important meal, I turn to Alton Brown for advice.  While his turkey recipe is absolutely spectacular, I was completely baffled by the impracticality of his rib roast recipe. The piece of meat that lay before me looked like it came off the side of Brontosauras not cow like he displayed.  So I needed a plan B.  My wife, an excellent cook in her own right, gave me a recipe for Standing Rib Roast.  I was completely skeptical at the method and thought this is going to take all day to cook.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  So without further adieu, The World's Simplest Rib Roast Recipe Ever. 

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Farenheit.  Yes I know seems low but believe me you'll thank me later.

Take out Rib Roast let it get acclimated to room temperature.  I don't like putting ice cold meat into a hot environment.  There are differing opinions, but if I can let it get the chill out I will.

Season liberally with Kosher/Sea Salt and fresh ground pepper.  Use a lot of both.  This is a big piece of meat.  Get all sides.

If you have a stovetop set up that will allow you to put your roasting pan on the burners, do that and set them to high.  If not use a pan big enough to accomodate the roast.  Sear all sides of the meat starting with the fat side down.  Get a good sear to get the carmelization of the crust going.  Once the sides are seared, pop it in the oven and let cook until the thickest part of the meat reaches 125-130 degrees Farenheit for rare/medium rare.  I would use an instant read thermometer that has a remote so you can prep the rest of your meal.  My 11+lb roast took slightly less than 4 hours to cook. 

Oh Me So Hungry, Me So Hungry

When in doubt this recipe is our go to for an easy to put together satisfying meal. It has an asian flair. My wife said let's try Cinnamon Beef with Lo Mein Noodles. I kinda look at her with a bit of disgust. Ugh really? Well turns out, its really awesome and when I can't think of anything new to cook, this has quickly become a fall back meal for the family. Its like beef stew only feels a lot lighter. The cinnamon taste is subtle but marries very well with the stew meat. I try to get grassfed beef for this particular dish. No particular reason why other than that is how we first tried and why mess with a good thing. Its very simple to prepare and if the stew meat is trimmed and not fatty, its a low calorie dish as well.

Ingredients:
2lbs Beef Stew
2 tsp canola oil
5 cups water
1 1/2 cups Sake
3/4 cup Low Sodium Soy Sauce (I use Kikkoman) sometimes referred to as Lite
1/4 cup sugar
10 green onions (8 chopped into approx 1 inch pieces, 2 chopped thin)
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger (I use the tubed stuff as a timesaver)
1 10-12 oz package of baby spinach leaves
8 oz. uncooked lo mein noodles (wider is better, but not the end)

Heat 1 teaspoon of canola oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add beef but don't overcrowd, we want to brown the meat and get a nice crust on it. Remove from pan once browned on all sides. While meat is browning, combine Water, Sake, Soy Sauce and Sugar in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Return beef to pan and add water mixture, green onions, garlic, cinnamon and ginger. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to so liquid just simmers. Cook for 1 1/2 - 2hrs. While the beef is cooking, cook the low mein noodles according to instructions. When beef is tender, stir in spinach. Add noodles to your serving dishes and spoon beef mixture over the cooked noodles. Should yield 8 or so servings. About 1 cup beef and half a cup noodles. Calories are around 400. 10g of fat (3g saturated).