Buffalo Prime Rib with Orange Balsamic Glaze (Page 415)

RECIPE #1230

• Date: Friday, October 1, 2010 -- 6pm
• Location: East Lansing, MI
• Kitchen: Our House
• Dining Companions: Matty, Terry, Teri, Helen, Charles, Clara, Kendra, Jubin, and Watson
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

Buffalo standing rib roast isn't so easy to come by. I have watched for it in butcher shops for years, but have never seen it. So when I decided to make this for my parents' visit, I had to order it online. There is one online meat purveyor that I use for most of my hard-to-find meats. They are great in the sense that the selection is huge, the meat is high quality, and everything always arrives in perfect condition. However, their prices are a little high. Their website was the first place I looked for my 8-pound buffalo standing rib roast. And indeed they had it -- for the bargain price of $369. So I did a bit more searching! I found it for considerably less at a place out of Wyoming, but it still wasn't cheap!

To prepare the meat I roasted it, basting it occasionally with the Orange Balsamic Glaze (see post below). I roasted it to 125 degrees, then let it rest to 135. While it rested I made a pan sauce by deglazing the roasting pan with red wine and Madeira, then adding beef stock and reducing. I strained and seasoned the jus and served it with the carved meat:

This dish was good but not amazing. I like buffalo quite a lot, but in my opinion the additional benefit of using buffalo rather than beef in this recipe was not worth the additional cost. It was novel having a standing rib roast of buffalo, but I think it would have tasted just as good (although, of course, different) with beef, so if I made it again I would likely substitute a beef standing rib roast. The orange glaze was tasty, but I found myself wishing that the glaze could have been incorporated into a sauce somehow, or alternately that the pan sauce could have picked up those citrus and balsamic flavors more. The glaze was very tasty on the exterior of the roast, but each slice of meat only had a few bites really permeated by the flavors of the glaze. All that said, the meat was very tasty, and certainly I enjoyed eating it.

The recipe is here.

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After weeks of traveling, giving talks, changing medications, etc, I am delighted to say that my semester is calming down a bit. I am already starting to feel a lot better as my body adjusts to the medication changes. I made it through the entire day at work yesterday without any serious bouts of nausea or vertigo. I didn't even need a nap in the middle of the day! So I would say I am practically back to full strength! This weekend I am catching up on a few of the many things on my ever-growing To-Do list. These past few weeks have been out-of-the-ordinary in many ways, and now I am hoping to get back into my usual routine. Amazingly there are only four weeks of classes left this term (including Thanksgiving week, which is shorter!). It's crazy to think that in no time it will be winter break! In the meantime, my goal is to make the most of these next few weeks. Nothing motivates me quite like feeling better after a period of really feeling rotten! In the past few weeks I had to prioritize only the most important/necessary tasks in my life and focus on those, so many of the things I love (e.g. exercising and cooking) fell by the wayside. But if I feel well enough on Monday I am going to start up my routine of running daily again. And I am mulling over some cooking/party plans for next weekend! For the first time in a little while, I feel excited about what lies ahead.