Kielbasa, challenging times

So, I've been a terrible blogger for the last nearly 10 days. I have an excuse, really! Busy time at work (manuscript revisions due imminently, undergrad research posters due), plus at home. Julie's grandma was moved to a nursing home recently, and we've been to Cleveland to see her... which brings me to happier news--tonight's dinner.

Cleveland, as you may know, has a large Polish-American community. And, having worked in politics nationally for a time, I got to know some of those Polish Democrats, including some from Cleveland. As it turns out, one of those friends' family own Jaworski Meats, the best butcher/meat market in Cleveland. Years ago, I was at a party at the family store in the old Polish village. When we tried stopping by a couple years ago, the store had been closed down due to crime in the neighborhood, and moved to some suburb. Lacking time, we didn't track it down. On Saturday, en route to a non-descript suburban nursing home in Cleveland, we exit off of I-71, and there's the store, on our right. Naturally, after the visit to grandma, we had to stop a the store. As it turns out, Nikki's dad was there, said "hi" to him, and he got me in touch with Nikki--who I hadn't talked to since probably 2003 or so.

Even better, we brought home 3 lbs. of homemade kielbasa and a bunch of handmade pierogi from the shop. Ate some of that tonight, in fact. It's the most lovely spiced kielbasa you could hope for. Lots of garlic, some juniper hints, I"d say, and goodness knows what all else. And the pierogi were among the biggest I"ve seen--some stuffed with kraut, some with potato and cheese. Yum! Had a nice beer with it, and life is good.

We also had to stop for dinner in Cleveland; we thought we'd try to get reservations at Lola, a top-rated place wiht an emphasis on pork products. Sadly, no luck on short notice. We tried to stop at their bar for seating, but also, no luck. So, we went across the street to Saigon, a nice Vietnamese restaurant, and I'm SO glad we did. Good prices, great food. Pork egg-rolls were just right, and the baked/stir-fried squid was simply amazing! What flavor! And pho for the main course -- that's beef broth with thin slivers of beef, rice noodles, bean sprouts, lime, peppers. It's the best I've EVER had -- subtle, delicate, WOW! And, best of all--they had "33" beer--a Vietnamese beer with fascinating fruit overnotes--lychee and guava, if you can believe it. No, it's not sickeningly sweet fruit beer--not even a fruit beer at all. Just a regular ol' beer with amazing flavor. Get it if you can.

Pork chops with blackberry sauce

I promised you all I'd update you after I cooked my pork chops with blackberry sauce, and, as I did it earlier this weekend... it worked. Very, very well. Did a pan sear on the chops, finished with a braise stovetop. Short grain brown rice was nice, and the asparagus brought a spring-like note to the party. But the blackberry sauce was the real winner. After sweating some shallot in butter, I added the blackberries, then some wildflower raw honey. After a couple minutes, I deglazed with tawny port, and cooked it down to a syrupy consistency. Yum! Paired with some spatlese riesling closeout, and just a nice meal.

Rasteau and Lamb Chops

Tonight, it was lamb chops--mostly, my usual way--with lemon-garlic-oregano marinade, and a nice sauce. As usual, they were good. Paired with Israeli couscous, and some fresh spring asparagus, a yummy dinner.

But the real star was our wine, an amazing southern Rhone pairing, a Rasteau. It was an Ortas Tradition, Cave de Rasteau Cotes du Rhone Villages Rasteau. This wine, at $12, drinks more like a $25-30 bottle. It's a wild, rustic, big wine, with good fruit and tons of herb and garrigue. We've got a couple more bottles, and I think some age would provide a bit of nice mellowing, but it's nice now, too. Think about mixing raspberry, blackberry fruit notes, a ton of brambles, herbs, some stony minerality. This is the first 2007 southern Rhone that has blown me away, and I'm now reserving judgment on the vintage to try out some more of these slightly better wines.

For my dear readers (all one or two of you, if that?) who are confused by the long naming... it goes something like this: It's from the Southern Rhone wine region of France. Within the So. Rhone, you have the more or less "entry level" wines that follow national laws--the Cotes du Rhone. This is a village level wine, so that's a step up--in other words, around the village of Rasteau, there's enough unique about the region to give it a unique designation, but it's not at the level of its own AOC, such as a Chateauneuf du Pape or Gigondas (two of the best regions within the southern Rhone). Broadly within the southern Rhone there are 13 allowable grapes. This Rasteau is dominated by old vines grenache (40-80 years old) bringing tons of mineral notes and bright fruit, along with some syrah (or, if you got it from Australia, Shiraz), bringing spicy and peppery fruit, and some mourvedre, a deep, dense wine with more brambly, garrigue notes. That's a grave over-simplification, so be aware of that.

Anyway, a really nice dinner and wine pairing. Yay!

Last Night's Dinner Out

Last night's wine tasting turned into more of a full night out. We tasted 18 wines, and I actually rather liked more than half of them, and found a few rather spectacular--notably, the 2005 Guigal Crozes-Hermitage, as well as a low-price Nero d'Avola and three nice 2005 Bordeaux for under $20/each. Two of them were pretty "in your face", while the third was much richer, smoother, and refined. Not that one was better, just different -- in terms of grapes, and in terms of vinification techniques.

As we were preparing to leave, our host offered "a cocktail"--which, with him, is probably a dangerous proposition. This initially turned into a tasting of four buffalo grass vodkas -- some of which were amazing, and some rather artificial. Of course, we had to try three other vodkas for comparison (a Stoli in all its elegant glory, a smoky-earthy potato vodka from eastern Europe, and another wild one that was really fascinating). Then, we had to try an eau-de-vie (really, five of them)--including framboise, and two earth gentian-root ones. Then, a lichen-extract eau de vie, then an Italian grappa infused with juniper. And, as a coup de grace, a beautiful, unoaked corn whiskey from Scandinavia (I think--somewhat overwhelming lineup of alcohol.).

By this point, it was after 9 pm, and several folks decided to stop at Pita Pita in Ypsilanti for dinner. As I didn't particularly feel like cooking at that point, we joined in--and were VERY pleasantly surprised by their sampler platter. Some of the best Middle Eastern cuisine I've ever tasted, and great Turkish coffee. Yum! So, the pork chops are put off a couple of days--shall be on Saturday, I think.

St. Patrick's Day

means corned beef brisket, cabbage, and boiled potatoes. And beer. So, I cheated this year, went with store bought corned beef, rather than "corning" my own. Simply put, I didn't have the desire to put more than a week's worth of work into it, when store-bought is OK. I'm sure I could've consumed a lot less salt, and had marginally better flavor... but, c'est la vie. As I'm working on three manuscripts right now, plus a grant proposal, plus a talk for Thursday... plus working with four undergrads... all of whom have project results due soon...

Tomorrow, back to real food. Pork chops with fresh blackberries. I'm looking forward to how my sauce comes out. In fact, I'm wondering what I shall put in it, aside from blackberries. I'm kind of thinking a mix of some sweet-ish wine -- maybe port or marsala, and some honey. As it's getting to be spring, and blackberries are a very springy-early summer thing... I'm thinking asparagus would be a good pairing. Stay tuned for results.

Flank steak

Nothing too interesting tonight. Flank steaks just make a nice week-night meal. Quick cooking, reasonable price, lot of flavor. The secret to making this rather tough cut of meat really good is three-fold. First, marinate it -- I really like a mix of soy sauce, oil, brown sugar, tons of garlic, some hot pepper, maybe mustard. Overnight in that tenderizes it a bit, and adds a lot of flavor. Second, don't take it past medium rare. about 4 minutes on a side is about right on a grill pan, maybe five. More than that, and you're making shoe leather. Finally, you must, and I mean, MUST cut this across the grain to make thin strips. Yum. With a bit of Israeli couscous and green beans, a nice, tasty meal. And, as this came from the Farmers Market, it was locally produced, grass-fed cattle. We also finished off last night's wine -- the Aphillanthes vin de pays. It held up OK, but remained rather boring and simple. Looking forward to something better later in the week.

Lamb necks

Tonight, we enjoyed one of those "less-favored" cuts of meat--lamb necks. At first hearing this, you might say, "Ick". That would be most unfortunate for you. These bony cuts are ideally slow cooked in a braise, where they release all that lovely connective tissue into a wonderfully unctuous broth. We took four neck halves from Hannewald Lamb (the lamb vendor at our Farmers Market), browned 'em up with some salt, pepper, paprika and flour. Added in some bacon for smoky flavor, and to provide a better oil to sweat the onion adn garlic. Two large cans of tomatoes, some white wine, and some home-made stock rounded out the braise. Three hours later, I added lemon segments and a couple handfuls of black olives. Served with some simple couscous, it was just plain delicious. And, at $1/lb (very few people are brave enoguh to try this, I guess--their loss!), it's a downright steal. (Look at the menus of high end trendy restaurants, especially on teh coasts, and you'll find this cut commonly used in ragouts, etc. Guess who is coming out ahead on that!)

Sadly, our wine pairing, a Vin de Pays de Vaucluse from one of our local wine shops (in fairness, NOT our usual shop), was a real disappointment. It's not so much that the wine was _BAD_, per se. It just wasn't what I was hoping for or expecting. Because it's a VdP (vin de pays), the producer is free from most restrictions on the grape contents driven by French law. So, before I bought it, I asked the wine shop owner what was in it -- and they assured me that it was just classic grapes for the region, declassified. Well, when I tasted it, I knew they were wrong. Turns out that the producer threw in a bunch of merlot with their classic grapes (syrah and grenache). Don't get me wrong--merlot, when grown and vinified well, as in much of Bordeaux, is simply wonderful. In the hot climates of southern France, it becomes an oversimple, overextracted, fruit bomb. So, instead of the wild, racy, herbal notes of a wine of southern France, I ended up with a more New World, fruity wine that did not pair so well with the acidic, earthy notes of the lamb neck. It wasn't terrible, by any means. But not the wonderful pairing it could've been, either. Moral of the story: Ask your local wine merchant about your wine, but don't always trust that they know.

Edamame and Wednesday wine

Not together, thankfully.

Today is Wednesday, and that means Wednesday Group wines. 20 more wines this week -- mostly old world. Over half were young German wines left behind from the tasting -- ones we hadn't yet gotten to over the past weekend. Two stood out as exceptional -- and both were from producers who didn't necessarily grab my attention at the German tasting this weekend. I'm coming to realize just how diverse riesling is as a wine grape. In addition to the different harvest times and sugar levels refelcted by classification (ie, Kabinett, Spatlese, auslese), vintage and terroir both matter SO much to these wines. Get a California cab (or merlot, or zin), and you pretty much are drinking the same thing, regardless of producer, vintage, etc. (Yes, this is an overstatement, but not by all that much.). Rieslings, not so much. 2007 produced some of the most complex, big wines throughout Germany; 2006 were somewhat simpler, and less developed. Jury is still out on the 2008; the ones available are largely still rather unsettled from very recent bottling. And each region and vineyard has unique signatures. A few of the guys in our group could probably identify vintage, producer, and even vinyard within German rieslings. I could only wish to some day have a tenth that good of palate.

One other wine just blew several of us away -- it was the Castano Monastrell. This is a downright cheap wine--about $7/bottle--and it drinks with that violet-tar-fruit mix that just screams mourvedre (or monastrell--french and Spanish, respectively). This could age for several years without much problem, but is already drinking nice now, if a bit big and wild.

Now, to the edamame. Being that we wanted a quick dinner, it meant Sloppy Joe's tonight. We thought about making fries with it, but that was too much work. So we hauled out some frozen in-shell edamame (Soybeans) and boiled 'em up. I'd been telling Julie for months how good this could be. She's always been afraid of it, saying, "ick". Well, she tried 'em, and found them remarkably nice. Yay for me!

Filet and Jazz

Last night, Julie and I had tickets to see Wynton Marsalis, so we needed a quick dinner; I also wanted to do something kind of nice, since it was a sort of mid-week date night. This made for an easy call--filet mignon steak with a nice mushroom sauce, plus some couscous and green beans on the side. There's nothing like a beautifully pan-seared, well-seasoned rare steak. That seared, brown crust is such a wonderful contrast to the soft rare meat inside. (An aside--cook these beyond medium-rare, and you've wasted good food and good money. So, please don't.)

Thanks to having a good boning/trimming knife, the steak didn't cost a fortune, either. Precut, trimmed filet can cost upwards of $15/lb. Not everyday eating. But, buy a beef tenderloin vac-packed, and cut your own steaks, you get the same thing, and can pay as little as $4/lb--about the same as a nice beef roast. Plus, you can cut them to whatever thickness you like -- a big bonus. All it takes is cutting off a bit of connective tissue and fat, separating the three muscles that comprise the subprimal, and slicing to your desired size. Five minutes, and it's done. And, you can turn the trimmings into a nice beef stroganoff or stirfry.

So, all of this was lead in to one of the best concerts I've attended in recent years. I've long been a fan of Wynton Marsalis--this is the 3rd or 4th time I've seen him play live. He's perhaps the most talented trumpeter alive today -- that rich, mournful tone is one of a kind. But it was especially cool to see his band this year--it turns out that I know one the trumpet players in the band. Ryan Kisor and I performed together in several honor bands across Iowa during our high school years. Of course, he was always the better trumpeter, and has now grown into a true powerhouse. In addition to playing awesome section work, he stole the show as solo on a big piece--such a dark, clear tone! In spite of not getting home until after 11 at night (not much fun when the alarm goes off at 4:45 in the morning), what a great evening!

The Germans were here

Today was the annual Taster's Guild German wine tasting. Two and a half hours, 89 amazing wines--Rieslings of all levels, from QbA to Auslese and eiswein. Several gewurztraminers, five mineral-laden sylvaners, pinot noir of several styles--with and without oak, and even two sweet ones! I like pinots, but those sweet ones were definitely a unique experience, even if not something I'd actually buy to drink at home. Many of the rieslings, though, just blew me away. Fitz-Ritter, Fischer, Dr. Heyden, among others, make killer rieslings. The 2007's, in particular, were really beautiful, although many need more age.

Many of the wines were represented by either the winemaker from the estates or others close to the production, so we could get a real sense of where the wines came from, both in terms of the land, and the philosophy of the winemakers. That's an extraordinary experience, any way you cut it. But even better, our Wednesday group hosted a post-party for the winemakers. We each brought a bottle (or several) of wine, and some food to share. In all, there were over 40 more wines, all higher end stuff, to share. There were probably 10 or 15 burgundies, some dating back to the early 1990's. The Germans brought along some of their well-aged library wines--one dating back 40 years to 1969. To think that we were drinking wine that was produced the year that man landed on the moon, and five years before I was born--pretty cool. It was a beautifully honeyed, slightly nutty Auslese Riesling.

There was a lot of good food, as usual at these things. Homemade venison sausage was good. A great potatoes gratin. Pork in cherries, chicken satay. Homebaked bread, made by the host. I cooked up a lentil stew, which was very well received by the group. It's amazing how easy it is to cook that, though. Fry up some diced bacon, brown off some sausages. Cook onions, celery, carrots, leeks, and a bit of garlic in the leftover fat. Add in a pound or so of dried, rinsed lentils (they come in a bag at the grocery for about a dollar). In this case, I added liquid in three forms--a bit of white wine, which I cooked down a bit, then added a bunch of stock and enough water to top it off. Seasoned it with a mix of salt, pepper, and a premade "Bavarian spice blend" of mustard seed, rosemary, thyme. Cooked for about 45 minutes, it was done. It was a great, tasty, easy thing to cook, and enough to feed a large group cost about $12.

Wine Tasting and Spaghetti Night

So, that’s called a cop-out for “I got home late and don’t really feel like cooking anything complex.” Last night was wine tasting Wednesday (our weekly wine group), so we didn’t get home until after 8 pm. At that point, I wanted something quick and easy. So, brown up some beef, throw in some garlic and tomato sauce, and boil some Barilla pasta. Grate some parmiggiano-regianno over it, and life is good. Simple, filling, easy.

I do have one tip of my hat to my gourmet tendencies. Last fall, when tomato season was wrapping up at the farmers market, we bought seemingly tons of “tomato seconds” for a little of nothing. The fruit wasn’t pretty, we had to trim out some green parts, and some brown spots. But, cooked down with onions, garlic, and some spices, it makes a wonderful alternative to that jarred stuff. Just pull a container of it out of the freezer, add it in, and life is good.

Now, as to the wine tasting—that’s a blast. The owner of our local wine shop gathers a group of about 20 or so of us each week to taste through around 18 wines new to the shop. It’s a great mutualism: Dick gets to open and taste through his new stock, while getting opinions from other wine-heads, while we get to try out and learn about a lot more varietals and producers than we’d otherwise be able to do. I know I’ve been inspired to order several of the Wednesday night wines, and I’m sure everyone tends to do this, so it helps the store’s bottom line, and we have made some great new friends among this group.

This week’s wine lineup was as interesting and diverse as any – some very old style German Rieslings, a couple old school Italians, along with a very modern-styled super-Tuscan (mixing Sangiovese, merlot, cab, and syrah) that I hated, and Julie loved. Also some over-oaked, over-extracted California plonk. Some strange white wines from Spain – who ever heard of growing moscato and gewürztraminer in Spain? And there is a reason it probably shouldn’t be done. Two outstanding wines, and both good bargains—a lovely dry marsala for under $10, and a beautiful French rose from the Loire valley. Whoever thinks pink wines are all like the nasty, cloying Beringer White Zin needs their eyes opened with this.

Lamb Chops

One of my favorite quick weeknight meals involves lamb chops and couscous. Tonight, I made just that. We got some lamb loin chops from a local vendor at our farmers market, and I marinated them in lemon juice and olive oil, spiked with garlic and oregano. It's simple to sear them off and cook them stove-top for a few minutes on each side, then use the marinade plus some white wine and stock to make a quick pan sauce. Israeli couscous provides a wonderful baby pasta to go with the lamb and to absorb the wonderful sauce. Cooked in stock, it's full of flavor. We paired it with the remnants of the Chanson Bourgogne from Sunday night, and sadly, the wine had lost a lot of its early charm. There was still good earthy complexity, but it lost a lot of the subtle fruit notes that made it such a beauty upon opening, in spite of using the vacuum preservation and all. Still, not a bad wine, and a the earthy notes worked nicely with the lamb.

This is a meal I like a lot, and one of Julie's favorites. But it also provides a certain conundrum for me. I like to be creative when I cook, try new things. So preparing the lamb chops more or less the same way each time drives me nuts on one level. On the other hand, it's a dish I absolutely love, and lamb chops are not something we're having every other day. Sometimes there are just these classic approaches to food that just work so beautifully, it's hard to tamper with it. Stay tuned--we have another set of market lamb chops in the freezer right now, so we'll see what I do with those. Will I do the safe thing, or be adventurous?

Welcome, and Roast Chicken

So, I’ve decided to start a blog – devoted to our day-to-day eating and drinking habits. For me, it’s a way to track what we’re eating, how I’m preparing it, what drinks and food work together, and what doesn’t. I’ll probably rant a bit, explicate a bit, spend time on the soapbox, and generally be, well, me. Maybe I’ll throw in real recipes, for sure some of the techniques I’m using. After all, I seldom cook from a real recipe, per se. If you find it interesting, great. If not, I honestly don’t care – this is more for me than for you. If you can get something out of it, great. If not, well, that’s really not my worry.

My first topic: Roast Chicken. That’s what was for dinner Sunday night. It’s the ultimate in comfort foods. Done right, with a nice crispy skin and juicy meat, can be amazing. Done poorly, well, it’s still OK, so long as you don’t undercook it and poison your diners. Overcooked, yes, it’s dry and rubbery and not all that great, but some sauce will fix it fairly well. Plus, it’s cheap (you can get a decent sized chicken, around 4-5 lb., for about $5), pretty easy to prep, and incredibly versatile. Of course, you’ll get more taste if you “splurge” on a free range local bird, still a bargain around $10.

Versatile, you say? Why, yes. In it’s most basic form, it’s yummy. Toss it in the oven with salt and pepper seasoning, maybe some olive oil or butter to baste it a couple times. Tired of that? Squeeze a lemon over it and throw the squeezed lemon in the bird’s cavity. Now, the chicken has that beautiful acid freshness of lemon. Or, try balsamic vinegar instead. It brings that acetic vinegar note, with some added depth and a touch of sweetness. Cook your veggies in the pan with it—fingerling potatoes and carrots are classics, but turnips do very nicely too, as will an onion or celery. You can use some of these to make a gravy if you’d like – they take on a great flavor along with pan juices. Just throw in a little flour at the end, cook for a couple minutes, deglaze your pan with some white wine, add some stock, cook it down for a few minutes, and season it. Strain, and you have gravy.

Ready for more adventure? Glaze the bird with a fruit based preparation. It can be as easy as heating up some nice jelly or jam, or a complex mix of fruits and herbs. Or, get really crazy, and add an international flair. Try some Asian flavors – ginger and garlic in the cavity, or a soy based glaze, or both. Or, maybe some Latin notes? Or Caribbean? Citrus and allspice could really bring some new dimensions to the bird.

Sunday night, I went uber-simple. Chopped up some veggies for the bottom, seasoned it up with salt and pepper, put a few cloves of garlic in the cavity, and coated it in cheap “balsamic” vinegar and a bit of olive oil. Paired it with a ridiculously bargain-priced 2005 Chanson Bourgogne, and had a nice Sunday dinner without much work. And, we’ve got leftovers for both Julie and me to take for lunch early this week. How much easier could it be? And the very best part? We’ve saved the bones and carcass in the freezer, so after another round of chicken with bones, I’ll be able to make up a nice yummy homemade chicken stock. It’s SO much better than the crap in a can or box, to say nothing of cheaper. I control how much salt goes in, and can freeze it for months. But, that’s a topic for another day.