A sad farewell to giant beasts. I mean feasts.

I’m filled with mixed emotions at the moment. It’s all coming to an end. On the weekend I went to the farm with Marcus and Mel and the girls again. And I cooked a Jamie feast again. But that’s it. There will be no more giant farm feasts from Jamie. Which makes a little bit sad, but also makes me leap with joy that I can finally get back to farm tradition and cook spag bol. Bog rolls. Mmmmmmmm…

Ultimate Rib of Beef with Rosemary & Garlic Roast Potatoes

And so it was that I cooked meet and potatoes. Again.

Mel had kindly accepted my shopping list and gone to the butcher for me, requesting a rib of beef to be cut into chops/steaks. We had seven adults and five kids, so it was a pretty giant bag of beef that I pulled from the fridge on Saturday and then I got to work.

I marinated the steaks with smashed up garlic cloves, lemon zest, rosemary and olive oil and left it to sit for an hour.

Mel and I had a small production line going for the potatoes – Mel peeled, sipped wine, handed to me, I chopped into cubes, sipped wine and put into a pot of salted water. Easy.

Once the water with the potatoes in it came to the boil, I transferred the tayties into a baking dish that I’d heated over the stove with some duck fat (left over from the duck earlier in the week – clever huh? Forward thinking – yeah!) and tossed them with smashed garlic cloves, rosemary and S&P. They then went into the oven for about 30 minutes or basically until they were crispy and we were ready to eat.

Then I heated oil in a big and very hot pan and quickly pan fried the beef on either side, just to seal it, then popped them all into the oven for 25 minutes.

So we each had a giant piece of beef, with some very fatty and delicious potatoes and then a very healthy salad of rocket, pear and parmesan on the side. Ah lovely.




It all went down a treat, as usual. They are an eager and easy to please crowd those Wests and friends. And I love cooking in the kitchen at the farm coz it’s big and accessible.

No, I’ve decided, it’s going to have to be spag bol AND giant feasts at the farm from now on.

Xx

PS – would you believe I have only TEN recipes to go!
PPS – yes, correct. That means I will finish next week.
PPPS – which means I will finish exactly 2 months early!
PPPPS – eat your heart Julie Powell – you took a full year!!!
PPPPPS – I know I know, her cookbook was about 3 times the length of mine, but who’s caring!
PPPPPPS – sad but excited. Mostly excited though!!!