Prime Rib for Valentine's Day

William made prime rib for Valentine's day with sourdough bread, creamed spinach, horseradish cream, and freshly grated horseradish. We found that the prime rib was best when it was thinly cut (preferably against the grain) since that made it the most tender. We first cut 1/2 thick pieces, but that was too tough; however we discovered that pieces just a few millimeters thick are best because this makes the meat very tender. So we learned that how you carve the meat makes a big difference in its tenderness. I had mine with lots of freshly grated horseradish and a dab of horseradish cream.


Recipe: "Grill-Roasted Prime Rib" from "Ruhlman's Twenty" by Michael Ruhlman
Rating: Good, especially with horseradish and horseradish cream
Status: Made once

This recipe has you salt the beef at least a day before cooking it, and then sears it on a grill before finishing the prime rib in the oven.


Recipe: "Lawry's Whipped Cream Horseradish" from Lawry's Restaurant
Rating: Good
Status: Made once

A recipe from Lawry's Prime Rib Restaurant in Los Angeles should be made with Lawry's seasoned salt.  Unfortunately I didn't any though, so I replaced it with an equal amount of kosher salt, and half as much smoked paprika.  1/2 the recipe (made from 1/2 cup whipped cream) was more than enough for the two of us.

Since I like a really strong horseradish flavor I also ate my prime rib and horseradish sauce with extra freshly grated horseradish.  I found that the horseradish flavor diminishes quickly after it is grated, so it is best when it is grated at the table.

Recipe: "Ruth's Creamed Spinach" from Ruth Chris
Rating: When we first made this, the cream sauce was too thick, so it had a little bit of a clumpy texture.  The next day when I warmed it up I loosened the sauce with some water when I reheated, enough water to stir the spinach easily and this fixed the texture and made it a lot better.  We used half-and-half, not milk to make this; next time I'd like a less rich sauce, so if I was using half-and-half then I would reduce the butter or I would use the butter with whole milk.  I also recommend mixing the sauce into the spinach, not mixing the spinach into the sauce, so that you can control the amount of sauce and stop adding sauce when it gets creamy enough; the dish doesn't need the full amount of sauce.  So basically the recipe is fine if you want a very rich creamy and smooth dish, but you need to pay attention to the consistency of the sauce and adjust it as necessary.  Next time I would probably try Smitten Kitchen's "Creamed Spinach".
Status: Made once.

I'm not sure whether I like my creamed spinach to be pureed or not; pureed spinach has a smooth creamy texture, but lightly chopped spinach has more bite and texture.  Possibly I prefer lightly chopped more since you can taste the vegetables more that way.