Valentine's Day: Dinner out, or eat at home?

Valentine's Day is a bit of a special occassion here. Julie and I started dating on Valentine's Day a number of years back, as well as it being a classic Hallmark holiday. In short, it's really not simply a day of 'hate and rage' for us. :-) So, that means a nice dinner. Some years, we've gone out for dinner. The experience of dinner out on the holiday has been decidedly mixed, however. In Georgia, we did have a wonderful 5 course dinner at Five and Ten one year--well worth it, in spite of a rather exorbitant price tag. More commonly, dinner out on the holiday has been more hit or miss. One year, we went to a nice place (by reputation); during dinner, we managed to have a glass of wine spilled on us by our server, our wine selection rather poorly judged by the server because it was a screw cap (it was an Oregon Pinot that sold for around $55/bottle--not a crappy wine by any means, aside from the inappropriateness of the comment.), and we ate rubbery over-cooked, fishy smelling scallops and a rather forgetable rabbit ragout. While that might have been the worst, most dinners out on Valentine's Day (and other major holidays) are just rather disappointing. Restaurants are inevitably slammed, so they're stressed out. They don't take the time on either the service or cooking side to make sure everything is perfect--simply do NOT have the time. The menus, when "special" prix fixe, are often unimaginative and usually simple to prepare.

As a result of all of this, we decided this year to spend less, eat better, and do so at a more leisurely rate, while cooking at home. Now, for a lot of folks, this might be stressful. But I love cooking, so I didn't mind at all. And, I must say, in spite of a few missteps along the way (spilled water, spilled egg whites, slightly over-blanched pearl onions) , it came out quite well. I decided on a 4 course dinner--simply skipping the sorbet/granita course. We did wine pairings with starter, salad, and main, as well, though since there were just 2 of us, kept with the same wine for starter and salad (two people, three bottles.... not so smart).

So, what did we do?
1. Seared Foie gras with cherry-marsala reduction and baguette.
2. Asparagus-haricots verts salad with blood orange and lemon-olive oil vinaigrette.
3. Blanquette de veau.
4. Chocolate creme brulee.

Wines:
L. Mawby Blanc de blancs sparkling Michigan wine (with 1 and 2)
Domaine Romanin 2007 Pouilly-Fuisse "Terroir de Fuisse" (with 3)

So, how was it cooking these things? Pretty straight-forward, not too bad.

1. Foie Gras: Simply took a handful of dried cherries, soaked em in marsala for a couple hours. Took foie gras, sliced it, and seared it in a jet-hot cast iron pan for about 30 seconds. Plated it, deglazed with the cherries and marsala. The wine cooked down very quick making a thick sauce, which poured over the foie with the cherries. Sliced the baguette thin, used bread to soak up the sauce and to hold the foie. Very yummy, rather fatty, a bit sweet. Wine was very acidic, lemony, so it cut through the fat and sweet cherries very well. Wow!

2. Asparagus/Haricots Verts salad: A cinch to make. Steamed the veggies for a few minutes, just to al dente, and shocked in cold water. Plated with wedges out of a blood orange. Dressed with a home-made dressing of lemon juice and olive oil, with a bit of salt and white pepper. Simple, tasty, refreshing after fatty foie. Was too acidic, vegetal, to work well with the wine. Would use a sancerre, maybe, instead, or a rose.

3. Blanquette de veau: (aka, veal stew with mushrooms and pearl onions in cream-lemon sauce). This is a complicated, sort of futzy thing to cook, but it's not hard at all. Start with veal stew meat, or breast or shoulder meat, cut into large cubes. Add to pan with stock or water or mix of the two, an onion studded with a few cloves, a carrot or two, and a stalk of celery, as well as some herbs (thyme, parsley, bay leaves). Cook this for about 2 hours. Meanwhile, in two other pans cook pearl onions and quartered mushrooms in stock or water with butter, and salt. Cook until stock almost evaporates, making almost a glaze on the veggies. After the 2 hours is up, pull the veal pieces out of the cooking liquid. Strain the liquid out into another pan, tossing the "stock" veggies, but keeping the liquid. In yet another pan, make a light roux with flour and butter. Gradually work cooking liquid into the roux. Add cream. Add lemon juice. Add an egg or two, tempering it in. Season with salt and more white pepper as needed. Meanwhile, cook up some plain white rice to serve this over. Put veal and veggies back in sauce. Serve stew, meat, veggies, and sauce over white rice.

The dish is admittedly heavy, rather complex to make, but oh so tasty. This classic French stew was beautiful with the just slightly oaky, very acidic, lemony Pouilly-Fuisse. Yum.

4. Finally, creme brulee: Again, a classic, albeit heavy dessert, made of eggs, cream, sugar, turned into a custard, cooked in a bain marie in the oven. Cocoa powder and vanilla extract, with a pinch of salt rounded this out. Finished by sprinkling sugar on top of the finished custard, and torched with a propane torch. The hard, caramelized top contrasts beautifully with the creamy custard below. Nothing says indulgence like that first spoon whack cracking the sugar layer on the creme brulee.

So, was it better than dinner out? The food was every bit as good. We ate it all over a period of about 3 hours--longer than we'd have been able to command a table at a restaurant. If we'd have eaten out, the meal would have easily cost in excess of $250 or $300. We paid a fraction of that, I got to improve and use my culinary skills, and in all, a fun time was had... so, restaurant reservations next year? I doubt it. We managed to eat two rather controversial foods, a remarkably high fat, high calorie meal. Clearly, this would not be an every-day meal--weight annd arteries would not stand it. But as an indulgent, wonderful holiday meal, oh yeah.

A special wine

A few days ago, we opened up a bottle of slightly older wine--a close-out from our local wine store. I knew the producer's reputation, but I hadn't had this one before, and it was from a rather hot vintage and as a close-out, might or might not have been wonderfully stored. So, expectations were not all that high... well... it was one of the most memorable wines I've had in a long while.

So, what was it? A 2003 Domaine Puech Chaud Coteaux du Languedoc. The producer is Rene Rostaing, better known for his northern Rhone wines. But this had many of the same notes as northern Rhones, probably because the cepage was heavy on syrah--but blended with grenache mourvedre, and other grapes. The wine had many of the classic notes of the heat of the 2003 vintage in the Midi. It had great dark fruit flavors, slightly stewed in nature from the hot year, though mellowed by age, great garrigue and anise herbaceous notes. There was a classic syrah peppery note, some oak hints, roasted meat and maybe even bacon. Moderately rustic-earthy in style, it brought a surprisingly decent amount of acid for the vintage, and good minerality and tannis. There was an unusual combination of subtle complexity and power in this wine--something all too rare in wines, and just blew me away. It was drinking just beautifully now, and I think it probably has a few years on it yet--maybe 3 or even 5. That I got the bottle for $16 really made the day for me. It drank far better than many wines 3 times the price. My only regret--that I only was able to get the one bottle. Wish I had a case.