Cassoulet

Tonight was a classic "duck dinner"--as in, cassoulet. Seven of us got together for a fun dinner and wines. We started with some vintage champagne from 1998 and 2000 vintages. We then shared in this beautiful dish, paired with 1998 and 2004 Rhone wines, and a 2005 Madiran. We followed this with a salad course (very European), paired with a 1999 German Riesling Kabinett. Dessert was a chess pie, paired with an AMAZING 1969 Tokaji Aszu. What a dinner! And great company. I gained a number of fascinating insights tonight from all of this.

First, duck confit, pork belly, and sausage, paired with beans, baked for a couple hours with copious duck fat is downright amazing. And, perhaps, requiring some statins... :-) It pairs extraordinarily with a 2005 Madiran, which is still a baby. The 2004 Ste. Anne CDR-St. Gervais was beautiful, lighter, more acidic, and rather "feminine", if you can really use that to describe a wine. The 1998 Cotes du Rhone shows that a good vintage and a good producer (Grand Prieur) can lead to amazing aging on an inexpensive wine such as this.

Second, this riesling was amazing--it had such a nose of petrol/gasoline (in a very good way), and a crisp, acidic cut, with a long mineral finish. This blew me away.

Third, drinking a 43 year old sweet wine is an experience of unforgettable proportions. This goes down as a 10 most memorable wines of life. This Hungarian wine had incredible acid (STILL), great minerals, a somewhat oxidative note of good dry sherry or Madeira, nutty, sweet, mild fruit, and an ongoing finish.

I am fortunate enough to get to taste and drink a lot of good wine--even quite a bit that borders on great. But I am seldom so surprised by so many bottles in one setting; I seldom learn as much in one setting; and, rare indeed is a bottle that I will be remembering for years to come. To find two of those in an evening--that is extraordinary. Now, most of my favorite wines come from France, as do virtually all of my most memorable wines. So, to have two in a row that were NOT from France--surprising as can be.

Graham Elliot

Graham Elliot is a relatively new top-flight Chicago restaurant. Young chef, good reviews, eclectic and creative menu, and a single Michelin star--in short, a good place. So, on a recent trip, we had to stop in to try it out. They have surpassed all expectations with their blend of creativity and courage with the foods and drink pairings, and provided one of the best restaurant experiences of my life. Now, within the last couple months I've eaten at two of Las Vegas's Michelin starred restaurants (Guy Savoy, a 2 star, and Le Cirque, a 1-star)--saving those comments for later. But suffice it to say, Elliot blew both out of the water with their creativity and daring, and equalled them in service. Now, I grant you, some of this is comparing apples and oranges. Both Vegas establishments are classic French places, so creativity could only go so far. But they leaned heavily on caviar, black truffles, and foie gras--all in classic style--to make a good menu. Well, with ingredients like that, not a whole lot to do, other than not screw it up. The wine pairings in Vegas were, of course, all French, and depended heavily on moderately well-known labels, albeit from tougher vintages often. Many were clunky, often served ridiculously young, and seemed more intended to impress with their label than to match the food exquisitely.

In contrast, Graham Elliot calls themselves Chicago's first "bistronomic restaurant", with a goal of serving great cuisine in a creative, accessible manner. They do that to a tee. And then some. Not only is the food fun, it makes you think about food, not just consume it. On the table when you arrive is popcorn with parmesan and truffle oil. Good, but not great--only because it wasn't quite as crispy and hot as you'd hope, but great flavor. But the smell of truffle to wake up the taste buds in incomparable. We started with one of their classics--a foie gras mousse lollipop coated with watermelon pop rocks. Playful, dancing in the mouth, playing on the classic combination of foie gras and fruit, with a decidedly lighter interpretation. The pairing was a sparkling Alsatian wine--a blend of pinot blanc, pinot gris, maybe riesling, and who knows what else--point is, it was somewhat sweeter, certainly more fruit driven than champagne, but still with tons of acid cut--and it paired exquisitely with the foie gras. Champagne may well have lacked the fruit and body to pair with the foie. Great kudos ot the beverage staff. That was followed by an amuse bouche of granny smith jelly with Wisconsin cheddar on a housemade cracker--a tasty bite. Then, a deconstructed Caesar salad--a block of quality lettuce with an anchovy on top, beside a fried mascarpone stuffed brioche "Twinkie", tied together with a more or less classic dressing. Wow. What a creative approach. And, paired with a fairly grassy/chivy 2009 Graves blanc, they brought out each other's herbal nature, and cut through the oil in the dressing and fish and crouton. Spot on. Then, on to a deconstructed chicken soup--with a veloute (nearly a gravy) poured into a shallow bowl tableside from a classic lab flask. In the bowl: A mix of thyme tagliatelle, a carrot marshmallow, I think a slice of chicken sausage, and other goodies. Tasted much like chicken soup. On steroids. Wow. And the beverage pairing was a fascinating goose island pepe nero, a dark beer brewed with black pepper, and a large piece of lemon rind in it--all served in a chemistry beaker. Nice. Creative. Outside the box.

Now, onto the protein: First, a black bass with a smoked leek cross section, served with almonds, tomato marmalade, a leek reduction, a vinegar reduction, tomato powder. Very nicely done, maybe a bit "much" going on, but I honestly don't know what I'd have not put on the plate, and it was SO tasty. Here, the wine pairing was positively out of the box--and perfect. A 2000 white Rioja from Spain--very old school, oxidized (intentionally) flavor, big, bold, and ideal with the Spanish nods to the dish. That was an inspired, and bold pairing if I've ever seen one. Then, a small course--razor clam with pernod-licorice foam and a hint of dill. Just 2 or 3 bites, great to cleanse the palate coming into the meat course. Again, wow. Then, meat time--wagyu beef flank steak, medium rare, with truffled trumpet mushrooms, a slice of roquefort panacotta, and salsify fries--a real play on steak frites, with nearly a nod to tournedos rossini (just missing the foie gras). It was a great play on teh classic pairing, too, of beef, earthy mushrooms, and bleu cheese. And, most sommeliers would haul out the bordeaux--probably too young of an age, or worse, a California cabernet. But no. A 2006 Lucien le Moine Bourgogne rouge. "Just" a baseline burgundy--and who ever heard of pairing any pinot, much less AOC BURGUNDY, with steak? Well, it sure worked. The acidity in the wine cut through the fatty richness of the dish, refreshing after each bite. The earthy mushroom notes of the wine amped up the truffles and black trumpets. The acrid Roquefort played with the natural funk of the wine. In short, WOW.

Then, on to the sweeter stuff. A light granita of grapefruit and campari--great acidity and flavor to once again, clear the palate, refresh things for a big dessert. Which was a cocoa cake crumble with a cardamom creme, vanilla salt, cinnamon gelato, a cinnamon tuile, just complex as could be. Tasty, and interesting. And paired well with a 10 year Tawny port from Quinta de infantado. What a dinner!

Throughout it all, the service was as near "perfect" as any I've ever received. The sommelier was knowledgeable, excited to talk wines. The waiters explained dishes well, but were not intrusive at all. Best of all, after dinner, we were invited to a quick kitchen tour--mid service on a Friday night. Whoa. These guys are good. THey know how to impress. And I will be back--to try out the new menu in a few weeks, or to try out the "bigger" 9 or mroe course dinners. These are deadly serious people when it comes to their food, but they have so much of a flair for playing with it, making it fun and creative. And, in the process, they really do make you think about what food is all about. And, best of all, they have a beverage program that doesn't give two craps about what the label is, but about how the food and beverages taste together. They think seriously outside the box, and as a result, the diner gets a meal that really works together, where nothing is an "afterthought". Because we were doing a tasting menu, I did not get to discuss the wine list at length with the sommelier. But based upon his ability to pair wines, at a reasonable price point, with challenging foods, he is clearly a rare talent. The wine list is an amazing blend of named labels and eclectic, off the beaten path, producers and appelations. I know I would love to taste through some wines with this guy--I think we'd have a lively conversation, to put it mildly.

I would not say that this is an inexpensive restaurant, but a five course (that was what this was considered) tasting menu listed at $75/head. The wine pairings were $40. For this level of restaurant, for this kind of food and wine, it's a bargain. Is it everyday dining? Not for most of us mere mortals. In fact, for most of us, it's a bit of a splurge. And, probably, it shouldn't be everyday dining for anyone. No one should take such an exquisite approach to food for granted. Will this restaurant get a 2nd or 3rd Michelin star? I don't know. Their food departs remarkably from the classics, and they take a lot of risks. I happen to like that--even love it. For me, this is one of the most memorable meals I've had in a very long time, and I hope these guys keep up the phenomenal work, and keep taking the risks.

Slight Change in plans...

OK, the soup posting is coming, I promise. But I've had a couple recent dinners that just required a post.

1. Spanish lamb shanks with fried potatoes. I'd picked up some lamb shanks from Hannewald Lamb at our farmer's market, knowing I'd enjoy them on a chilly fall day. Well, that day came yesterday. Now, these don't cook in 5 or 10 minutes--they take 2-3 hours to get good and tender. So, I figured I'd brown em and get them started braising soon after I got home. I hadn't really decided exactly how to fix them when I started--I just knew they'd need 2-3 hours of wet cooking, low and slow... The classic is probably a Provencal preparation--with onion, carrots, tomatoes, herbs de Provence (rosemary, thyme, etc.)--and I figured I'd do something along those lines. Chopped up the onion, and went for carrots--to discover we were out. But I found a couple red peppers (sweet variety) that needed a use. And the Spanish smoked paprika happened to be out on the counter. So, I knew we were going Spanish style. After browning the shanks, I sweated the veggies (peppers, onions, and garlic) for a bit, added a can of tomatoes (here is one place canned is actually better, or at least much easier, than fresh), and deglazed with some inexpensive but tasty (fruit driven) Portuguese wine. Back into the pot went the lamb, and into the oven for 2.5 hours. As the meat neared completion, I parboiled some waxy blue potatoes from the market, then fried them in goose fat (rendered from a large stewing goose from the market--more on that in the soup post). Along with a Spanish onion, and a hit of paprika, yum. The gelatin had cooked out of the lamb, making for a thick, beautiful sauce, and the tomatoes and onions and garlic and peppers just merged into a massively flavorful part of that sauce. It was true cold weather food. Paired iwth a 10 year old Spanish tempranillo from Valdepenas, it made for a great dinner.

The other recent amazing meal really was just a way of approaching steak--did up some home-trimmed strip steaks, and topped them with a couple market quail eggs each, fried so the yolk was still runny--made for a great sauce--and a batch of shiitake mushrooms, also from the market, fried in olive oil and finished with a splash of soy sauce. The steaks themselves were actually not all that high quality of a meat--but grilling them added some flavor, and the accompaniments over the top made for a great flavor profile. I should say that these steaks come from strip subprimals that I can get from time to time at a great price--which is nice--but it also means 12-14 steaks arrive at a time, and even when frozen, you end up eating steak fairly often (and inexpensively, at under $4/lb.) So, it's good to have some alternative ways to eat them, to keep from getting bored. And this was one that worked. Paired with a mixed mash of rutabaga and potatoes--not bad at all.

Halibut cheeks, St. Joseph blanc

Whole Foods has halibut cheeks in stock this weekend. You seldom see these in stores, or even good fish markets. After all, there are only two on every fish, and they are not big. And fishermen and fishmongers tend to like them for themselves. But with the halibut season underway, what a great opportunity! These are much firmer in texture than typical halibut filets, and more flavorful. And, as they were quite fresh, I didn't even have to cover any "fishy-ness"! So, a pan fry in a mix of olive oil and butter for about 2 minutes a side on the cheeks was about right. I did a quick pan sauce with a bit of wine, the juice of a lemon, and some capers. Served with some simple white rice cooked in chicken stock and some sauteed spinach on the side, it was delicious.

But, paired with a Philippe Faury 2004 st. Joseph blanc, it was just magical. The wine is amazing--showing some age with honeyed notes, still showing oak--a surprising amount, actually. And tons of lemon, some stone fruits, some nutmeg, wow!!! it's a great wine. And a nice price. And it just paired beautifully with the fish--nutty/oaky, acid to mesh with the sauce, a bit salty almost, to match with the fish. In all, an amazing meal!

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.

Christmas Eve Dinner

So, my wife is suffering from pneumonia this holiday break. So, there is no travel for us. Making the best of it, we are celebrating Christmas Eve at home (and Christmas day with some friends). I had been planning an earlier celebration of the holidays one evening this past week for Julie and me, but we decided to move it to Christmas Eve.

So, what did I make? Well, of course, a roast goose. Coated in a citrus spice rub, with onion and lemon in the cavity. Into the oven until done, started at 425, down to 350. Did a cherry-brandy-port sauce to accompany it. Came out absolutely beautifully--crispy skin, juicy meat, and the sauce worked wonders. Since roasting a goose produces seemingly cups full of fat, it provided opportunities for nicely roasting some fingerling potatoes. Of course, a dressing is a must--did it with dried bread, plus pork-cherry sausage and poultry style seasonings. Gravy i a must, too. But the real hit were the Brussels Sprouts and roasted chestnuts--par-cooked and roasted first, respectively, then sauted in a bit of goose fat and finished with a bit of cream. It was absolutely delicious. In all, it was a most delicious dinner, and even Julie, sick as she is, enjoyed it.

But the real coup de grace was the wine pairing. I picked a 2005 Oregon Pinot Noir--Patricia Green's single vineyard bottling from Four Winds Vineyard. This wine comes from a rather coastal part of the Willamette Valley--west of Yamhill, even. There is not a lot of Pinot growing around this vineyard. But there sure should be more. It's one of the most burgundian, earthy, rustic Oregon pinots I've ever tasted. While it's definitely unique--very acidic, decent cherry fruit, balanced by tons of minerality and integrated tannins, violet flower nose, and tons of earth--leather, truffle, forest floor, it is perhaps most reminiscent of some Gevrey-Chambertin. The acidity cut through the fat of the meal beautifully. The fruit notes mirrored the cherry sauce well, and the rustic, gamy notes worked well with those flavors in the goose. As far as I"m concerned, this was perhaps the best new world wine I've had all year, and one of the best pinot noirs (Some from Bourgogne still eclipse this, but not by that much). The pairing was one of those things that just worked gorgeously--that rare moment where the pairing isn't just good, but where the food and wine really combine to make something far better than the parts alone. I love it when that happens-far too rarely for my personal liking, but what a treat when it does!

scallops, bacon, brussels sprouts... oh my.

Our local grocery store had dry-pack, frozen scallops on a ridiculously cheap sale. Suspicious, but willling to take a risk, we bought some. Thawed those babies out overnight, and got to cook them tonight. So... what to make with them? Well... we only had about 10 scallops--plenty as part of a bigger dish, but not a stand alone quantity, necessarily. First thing I thought of were some wonderful bacon-wrapped scallops I'd had before. Yummy. But that was an appetizer portion. I've had them seared in cream sauce before--served wtih pasta. That is always good, if a bit rich and "tried and true". Then I looked in the fridge--we had some brussels sprouts from the farmers market. Now, these go well with bacon, and they make a nice warm slaw when julienned and cooked in cream. So... could this all be brought together in one wonderful, glorious dish? I decided to experiment.

So, started some water, cooked penne pasta. Part 2 was the bacon-brussels sprouts in a cream sauce--basically, the pasta sauce. Started by browning about 1/3 lb. of bacon, threw in a finely diced shallot, and the julienned sprouts. With good stirring, seasoned with salt and pepper, this cooked up pretty nice. I then deglazed wtih some white wine, and cooked that down, then adding cream and grated parmesan cheese. All this was quite good, but a bit flat. The juice from half a lemon brightened it up beautifully. When the pasta was done to al dente, I added it to the sauce and cooked for another minute or so. Then, into pasta bowls.

Meanwhile, it was time to cook the scallops. I chose a very simple approach. Salt, a bit of pepper, a quick pan sear on each side for about a minute/side. When done, they went on top of the pasta.

The dish was amazing! The earthy sprouts, the sweet-briny scallops, the smoky bacon, the nutty cheese, the brightness from the citrus. It was a real flavor circus. Of course, I would not in any way call this a healthy dish--bacon, cream, pasta... but dang, it was good.

Now, if I make this again, and I probably will do something similar, I'll make a few changes, I think. Pancetta instead of bacon should add a bit of refinement. (or,, at least, a better bacon!) I think some toasted pinenuts or walnuts would be a nice addition. Otherwise, I think it's pretty much spot on.

Now, as to the wine: I paired it with a 2006 Dubois Vouvray. This is the 'classic' scallops wine, and it really sang with the food. This was not an expensive wine, by any stretch--just over $10/bottle. It is not what I'd call a high end Vouvray. But it was tasty, balanced, and paired wonderfully with dinner. The acid in the wine cut through the cream sauce. The slight sweetness in this demi-sec provided a good match to the sweetness of the scallops. The slight nutty notes highlighted the parmesan. In short, this was one of those really wonderful, serendipitous meals. I had no particular expectation that this would work out. I simply decided to "go for it", and see what happened. And, we were richly rewarded for that tonight.

I'm drowning in zucchini...

Not really. But we got a couple big ones in the farmers market, and had some left from a past week that weren't great, but needed used soon. So... what to do? Why, zucchini soup, of course. This made a wonderful lunch, paired with goat cheese and a baguette, and a gorgeous pinot blanc from Michigan.

The soup was uber-simple. Basically, dice up an onion (or 2-3, depending on how much soup you're making), some garlic. Sweat them down in butter and olive oil for about 5-10 minutes. Add coarsely chopped zukes--about 4X more in volume than onions, I'd say. Maybe a bit of celery, though that's optional. Sweat that all down for another 5-10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add some wine (white) if you want, and some chicken stock (homemade if you can; it's SO worth it). How much? Well, that depends on what you like your soup to be like. This chiefly determines whether you will have a thick, almost porridge-like soup, or a thinner item. More fluid = thinner soup. I like it thick and hearty. So I only did enough fluid to cover the zukes by maybe 1/2 inch. after 15-20 minutes in the fluid, take a stick blender to it (or puree it in batches in a blender, or whatever you like). Blend to a level you like for texture. Add cream to taste and health desires. If you really don't want to spend hte money, calories, and fat content on putting real cream in, you can get alot of the same effect by cooking a couple of potatoes into the soup at the start (add at the same time as zukes--and use starchy potatoes, not more waxy ones.) Adjust salt and pepper, and add some heat if you like from hot pepper flakes. At the end, I added a couple eggs, tempered in to prevent curdling. This helps hte texture, and thickens things up a bit. Yum!

with a soup like this, a baguette is almost a requirement. TOday, we added some goat cheese from a producer at the Farmer's Market. We get our goat yogurt from them, too. It's so good and fresh. Yum.

Finally, the wine... Left Foot Charley's 2008 Pinot Blanc. This is perhaps the most exceptional PB I've ever tasted. It outshines most from Alsace; it outshines most from Oregon. It's got a beautiful floral, minerally nose, with clover honey notes, an acidic palate, and an immense, mineral finish. There's more complexity and more beauty in this than you could ever expect, and the price is right at $18. Very deservedly, this wine won a double gold at the Michigan Wine competition, and sadly, the winery is virtually out of it. We've got 4 more bottles of it, and I intend to drink at least two more this year, and perhaps keep one for next year, and for grins, age one for a few years. I love its youthful fresh beauty, so I am reticent to age it, but I sense it's got the acid, minerals, and fruit to hold for a few years and perhaps become a real wonderful nutty aged white. So, we shall see.

Lamb, goat yogurt, ratatouille, and Rhone

Hmmm.. No, it doesn't really rhyme. But it's what was for dinner tonight. Lamb rib chops, marinated as usual in lemon-garlic-oregano, paired with a garlic-goat yogurt sauce (Yes, this is amazing stuff! And it's rather goaty! In the very best way!). But tonight, I paired it with ratatouille as a side. Now, what is ratatouille? Basically a stew/saute/casserole combining bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant. Tonight, I roasted my veggies before adding them to the piperade of onion, pepper and tomato. It brought out an extra layer of flavor that was very nice, above and beyond sauteeing them in olive oil. Yum.

I had picked up a bottle of the Domaine de la Tourade 2007 Cotes du Rhone, and though I figured it might be young, I wanted to try it. You may remember reading my waxing poetic about this producer's 2003 Vacqueyras, and the CDR did not disappoint. It's incredibly big and complex for a CDR, tons of raspberry fruit, some garrigue, minerality, cocoa notes, roast meat, holy cats! I love this wine already, and it's showing well; it also has all the hallmarks of a wine that should last for years, maybe a decade or more. I intend to pick up at least 4, probably 6, bottles of this to watch it age over time. I also have a few bottles of their 2005 Gigondas, and a couple of their 05 CDR in the cellar. I'm just incredibly impressed by this producer. By now, you may have realized that I'm a Rhone freak--if I could only drink wines from one region fo the world for the rest of my life, I'd likely pick these--for their rusticity, their complexity, their diversity, their friendliness to food, their accessibility when young and the rewards of cellaring. (Burgundy would be a close second, but that's another post.)

Much as I expected, the wine and food also paired beautifully. First of all, lamb and Rhone tends to go well (for that matter, lamb and most red french wines go well...) together. Second, ratatouille comes from the same general region as Rhone wines (for that matter, so does lamb). Finally, there are the flavors and traits of the wine and food that really make it work. The tannins and acid in the wine nicely cut through the fat in the lamb. The fruit accentuated the sweetness of the lamb meat and the veggies in the ratatouille. In short, a lovely pairing.

Salmon two ways, fruit, and sancerre rose

I was lucky enough to come by a reasonably priced salmon filet (full side), wild-caught, frozen on the boat at the grocery recently. This cut nicely into four pieces, and could've been five or even six. Bright red, beautiful piece of fish, not at all "fishy" smelling. So far, so good. I figured two days in row, we'd have salmon for dinner. But I didn't want the two days to seem like the "same boring thing"

Given that fruit is in season now here in Michigan, I decided to try doing fruit sauces with the salmon, and at that, two rather different ones. For Monday night, I made up a blueberry salsa the night before. It was a mix of whole blueberries, honey, half a jalapeno pepper, some shallot, finely diced, and lime juice. The mix blended nicely overnight, and made for a slightly sweet, blueberry driven sauce, with acidic notes from the lime and just a bit of heat from the pepper. It made for a great main course, and was a subtle accompaniment that highlighted the freshness and flavor of the salmon.

For the 2nd night, I figured the salmon might have lost a bit of its freshness, so I decided to go with slightly bolder Asian flavors. So, I did a teriyaki style light glaze for the filets. And, to top them, I made a stove-top Asian white peach sauce. This combined a banana pepper (hot), some shallot again, 4 white peaches, some maple syrup, ginger, and some Chinese rice wine. I cooked it down to a thick, pectin-driven syrup, almost preserves like. I got a big surprise--the banana pepper was far hotter than I'd thought it'd be. The peaches were well complemented by the ginger and rice wine, and the maple worked well with teriyaki. But overall, the sauce was rather too big and powerful for the delicate salmon.

We also had a very enjoyable wine with the salmon. It was a 2008 Reverdy Les Villots Sancerre Rose. This Loire wine was made from pinot noir grapes--so, it has much of that beautiful fruit--red cherries and strawberries. There also is good acidity, a bit of lemon-citrus in it, and deep minerality from the soils of the region. The 08 was very nice--but I'd argue no better than the 07 of this wine. That is in contrast with many of the other Sancerre wines, particularly whites, which tend to be more beautiful in the 08 than 07 vintages. Still, this is a very nice wine, even if it's price tag near $25 is on the high end for a rose. It paired well with the salmon, and was nice with the blueberry sauce, where the citrus and berry notes in the salsa and wine complemented one another. It was less successful with the hot peach sauce, where a sweeter wine would've been better at taming the sauce. But it remained a nice wine the 2nd night.

Steak with blueberry gastrique

Dinner tonight involved rather inexpensive T-bone steaks from Busch's. Being as they were not top quality, I figured they could use some help. And, it's blueberry season here in Michigan. So... in spite of my wife's apprehension at the combination of blueberries and beef, I took the risk. And it turned out very well. I started by chopping up half a large shallot, sweating it in butter. In went a cup of blueberries. So far, traditional. Then, the "surprise"--throw in some maple syrup instead of sugar for the sweetness. I've never seen these together, but stood to reason they should go well together. And they do, it turns out. Added some port and red wine vinegar to the mix, and cooked it down. Yum! And, it turned out to pair well with a remarkably inexpensive merlot, the 2006 from Dona Sol. I normally American wines under $4, such as this one. So, I was surprised to find it drinkable, even pleasant. Now, complex and age-worthy it is not. but as a simple wine to pair with a lower quality steak with a fruit sauce, yes. It wasn't over-oaked, it had recognizeable fruit, and all in all, was a real surprise.

Red Currants

Red currants make a wonderful sauce for pork chops. Who would've thought? Tonight, I cooked some up in butter wtih a bit of honey, paired it with stove-top cooked pork chops. Nice, tasty, acidic. Not bad at all. In addition, we added quinoa and wax beans to round out dinner. A schuerebe wine from closeout at Wednesday group paired decently, but was a bit too sweet for the meal.

Salmon and Rose

I am a fan of good fish, but finding it here in Michigan is not so easy. Busch's, our local grocery chain, usually has salmon and other fish, but alot of it is "fresh," meaning it is, in fact, often rather fishy and stinky by the time we get to enjoy it. So, paradoxically, the best fish is often that which has been vacuum-packed and flash frozen right on the fishing boat. Such was what we found this week--it was a side of wild-caught Pacific salmon--with beautiful color, still frozen and vac-packed. I broke it dow to four filet portions, and cooked up two, simply seasoned with salt and pepper. With some orzo and on a bed of sauteed spinach, and a squeeze of lemon juice, it was quite tasty. No fishy flavors, good classic oily salmon taste. Yum!

Best of all, though, we paired it with a Sancerre Rose wine. Now, a lot of people think of white zinfandel when they think of pink wines. Well, what a disservice to the beautiful old world roses! This, made from pinot noir, is a mix of strawberry, cherry fruit, with some floral notes, with a stark minerality and strong acid notes. It is an amazingly complex, fully dry, tasty wine. In no way is it the sickly sweet, nasty white zin we think of. So, don't fear the pink!

Rack of Lamb, Cairanne

To celebrate Memorial Day, the completion of hauling out our plants for the summer (no small feat), and the publication of one of my papers in Science, we decided to celebrate with a rather nice meal on Monday night. I roasted up a (half) rack of lamb, paired with orzo and sauted spinach. Now, I love lamb almost any way you can get it. But a rack of rib chops is something for a real special occasion. First, I trimmed it down--cutting off some of the extra fat, and "frenching" the chops--that is, cutting off the fat between the boney part of the chop. I rubbed the cut down with a mix of rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil, and roasted it for a short time in a very hot oven, just to a nice medium rare. The flavor was great, and the fat crisped nicely. The meat came from Hanewaald lamb, our farmers market lamb specialist--and it was just spectacular. It was from a young (or small) critter, so was both tender and mild flavored. My cooking did justice to the cut, if I may ignore false modesty. And the goat yogurt sauce with garlic (from the farmers market again) was a great, earthy, acidic pairing. The orzo was nice, and the spinach, sauteed in olive oil with a bit of garlic for about 30 seconds was nice and still a bit "al dente".

But the meal was really brought to fruition by the wine--a Domaine de Boisson Cairanne cotes-du-rhone Villages. I may have mentioned this wine--tasted as part of our Wednesday group--a few weeks back. It's a real southern Rhone beauty. We loved it so much (OK-I loved it) at the tasting that we split a case with a friend-getting it at a per bottle under $15. Now, I am a big fan of the "biggies" of the southern Rhone--notably, Chateauneuf du Papes. These are immense, earthy wines with a great blend of elegance and rusticity. To be truly appreciated, they need years, even decades, of bottle aging. Many also require a small fortune to purchase--top estates sell bottles well into 3 figures. This Cairanne has a lot of those same notes--not surprising, since the region is only a few miles from CdP. It's got a ton of minerality--hot rocks, slate--and a good fruit up front. But it also has the tarry, herbal, tobacco, garrigue-y notes that give southern Rhones so much complexity. By itself, this is a wonderful wine, though, as Julie reminds me, it is definitely better with food--as is virtually any well-made wine.

But, for me, the real beauty was the combination of food, wine, and of course, the reason for celebration. The fruit brought out the sweetness of the lamb, the tannins cut the fat, and the herb rub combined exquisitely with the herbal, garrigue notes in the wine. In short, this was a match made in heaven, or at least in the southern Rhone. The entirety of the meal was so much more than the sum of its parts, thanks to that wonderful synergy. It is not that hard to come up with decent, even good, wine and food pairings. Every so often, you bring together that magical combination of food and wine that is just transcendental. And, when you do, you'll never forget the experience.

Catching up again; Asparagus is here

It's been too long since I've blogged. Way, way too long. Last few weeks have been very busy in the garden as well as at work. So, first of all, there hasn't been as much time to write, or for that matter, to cook a lot. So, we've eaten a lot of takeout. But I've also cooked a fair bit, and have neglected to tell you a bit about it.

The last few weeks, asparagus has been in season at the farmer's market. I think we've eaten asparagus in every imagineable form, many times. Cream of asparagus soup (twice), asparagus risotto, steamed, boiled asparagus, grilled asparagus, roasted asparagus. As a side, as an appetizer, as a main in bigger dishes. And, I'm still hungry for more. Now, if all you've ever eaten is supermarket bundled asparagus imported from California or South America or some other distant place, or, worse, from a can or freezer bag, you probably don't get what I'm saying. In season, locally grown, fresh picked asparagus is simply the most flavorful, tender-textured, beautiful thing you can imagine. Not much in the way of tough, fibrous woody pieces. No dried out, wilted looking spears. Of course, they're also not all the exact same size or shape.

So far, the only approach that I wasn't hugely enamored with was grilled--with steaks and potatoes on the grill. And that was my fault--I slightly overcooked it, and the flare up from the steaks created a bit more burn than desired. Ah, well, those that were good were very concentrated, so I'll try that again if I can.

Now, wine and asparagus are a notorious challenge, so you might think I'd be in trouble. But no, not so much. Sauvignon blanc is arguably the grape that pairs most beautifully with asparagus. I'm personally partial to sancerre, which produces these wonderfully minerally, gooseberry, chive and sometimes bell-pepper flavored wines (from the sauvignon blanc grape). This appellation within the Loire Valley of France is just amazing. Another decent pairing was chablis--a region of Burgundy that produces steely, minerally unoaked chardonnay. For me, that was a bit less lovely, still nice, but not great, with asparagus.

More soon on some food and wine encounters.

Southern Rhone, and Illinois wines

Missed y'all... for two whole weeks of no blogging. Jeff is a bad blogger. :-( In my defense, I was in Fort Madison for a few days of family time, but still, I've been back for over a week.

So, I have some catching up to do.

Last Wednesday, I had the great joy of meeting the owner and winemaker from Domaine du Vieux Chene, a moderate sized producer from the Southern Rhone Valley of France. He, along with his son and importer, joined our wine group to taste through much of his product line up. All his wines range in price from $10-18, so are quite affordable. And not one is a dud; each is a beautiful reflection of the combination of terroir (the "land" piece) and cepage (the grapes used). While there is unquestionably a "house style" of sorts that is the stamp of the winemaker, it is a gentle stamp indeed.

So, let me tell you a bit more about these wines:
First, there were four white wines--1. a blend of southern rhone classic grapes (grenache blanc and the likes), which was nicely minerally and good fruit, hints of "green" in it, as it was a relatively cool vintage (2008); 2. a 100% viognier wine (a grape more known from the Northern Rhone), this was somewhat less elegant than the much pricier no- Rhone wines from Condrieu, but a nice example of what you can do in the south. It was much less of the quasi-sweet fruit bombs that we see in California viogniers, in particular. 3 and 4. The 2007 and 2008 vintages of a cotes du Rhone that saw a bit of oak. The 07 was beautifully complex and elegant, while the 08 was still a bit unsettled. Nice wines.

Then, 2 roses, from two different regions: The first, from a lower quality classification, was a bit thin and green for my taste, but reflected the cool vintage and the grapes well. the 2nd was clearly riper (from a somewhat hotter site overlooking the river), more fruit driven, with a lot of complexity and nice minerality.

Finally, the highlight of about 10 reds. These are mostly grenache-syrah blends, and ranged from relatively simple, fruit-laden vin de pays to exquisite 2006 and 2007 vintage wines from specific vineyards with unique characteristics. The two sites that provided a lot of the grapes are from river bluffs and from a plain (plan de dieu, or Plains of God) with a lot of hot stones in it. The first produces a more elegant wine with a good blend of fruit and minerals, while the 2nd produces a bigger wine with tons of garrigue (some weedy herbs of Provence) and minerals. Then, the vintages showed so differently-0-the 06's are more elegant, reserved, and pretty, while the 07's have more complexity and heft. I'd say the 07's have more aging potnetial overall, but both are nice.

While no single wine was awful, nor did any just jump out as an "oh my God" moment--each was very nice and interesting. But, the tasting as a whole far exceeded the sum of the individual wines. It was perhaps the best opportunity I've had to look within a single producer, single wine region, to explore simultaneously the blend of grapes, vintages, and specific site to see their impact on the final product. In addition, it is a great chance to talk to the producer and see how he thinks about wine and his grapes. Truly, if you ever get a chance to do something like this, you absolutely MUST take advantage of it. It's an experience second to none.

While in Iowa, I also visited Nauvoo (Illinois, just across the Mississippi from my hometown). There is an old winery there with a variety of grapes and resulting wines. Now, vinifera wines (those we associate with Europe and the West Coast of the US, for example) do not tend to do well in the climate of the Midwest. So, the grapes are usually either American varieties or hybrids between American and vinifera grapes. This means getting out of your usual mindset of what a wine should be, and thinking instead about what _IS_ in the glass. I decided to taste through a few of their dry wines (I find sweet wines, except for great European dessert wines, to usually be cloying and just downright disturbing). I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by some of their wines.

Perhaps the best surprise was the quality of their red wines. The Norton grape showed remarkably well with judicious use of oak for aging, while a blend of chambourcin and Chancellor was also interesting, if rather fruit driven. Their dry concord basically tasted like slightly less sweet Welch's grape juice--not a pleasant taste, and I cannot begin to think what to eat with it. But I think it was well-made; just not my style. Their whites were a bit vegetal and harsh, and not pleasing to my palate, at least at the time of my visit. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant surprise to see what was clearly a good attention to detail in a very honest effort at making wine the right way in a challenging environment.

Happy Birthday... to me. Part I. Dinner

Today, I turned 35 years old. I guess that means I'm officially old now. Not feeling terribly different today than I did yesterday, but hey, that is a definite milestone. It's been a good day, too, all in all. Julie took me out for a nice dinner at The Earle, a good "continental cuisine" restaurant here in Ann Arbor.

The restaurant has very solid food, and one of the best wine lists in all of the Midwest. The list is probably close to 1000 different wines, and importantly, they have been appropriately cellared, and have had enough time to age really nicely. One of my biggest pet peeves about high end restaurants is the often overpriced list of high end, good wines from recent vintages. Many of them are absolutely wonderfully good wines--arguably, even worth the hideous markup, where they charge 2.2-3.0 X retail. If only they had been aged. But, sadly, holding wines for years is not good for the bottom line, and doing it properly actually costs money, too. So, you end up drinking those expensive, monster wines before they have the time to mature and gain their real complexity. But, The Earle is different. They have a talented, brilliant sommelier who is both a bit old school, and who loves and understands his wines. He's thankfully not pretentious, and he doesn't look down on your if you're not buying that $200 bottle. And, if you know something about wine, and talk about it with him, he likes that, and shares his insights and gives you suggestions on interesting things to try. When you pick an older bottle, in particular, a mid to higher end one, and especially one that may not have been seeing a lot of turn-over, a good sommelier will very much appreciate it if you offer him a taste. Why? No, he's not trying to get drunk on the job. But it helps him to know how a particular vintage of a wine is aging, whether he should be trying to get it sold soon, and what it would pair well with.

So, tonight, we decided on a northern Rhone wine from Crozes-Hermitage. These are dense, serious full-bodied red wines, made almost exclusively with Syrah (sometimes doctored with a bit of Viognier). The bottle was a 1999 Domaine Belle Cuvee Louis Belle Crozes-Hermitage. Crozes is one of the "lowest end" wines of the northern Rhone, a second sister to uber-powerful Hermitage. They typically don't age as beautifully or have the subtle complexity as the Hermitage; they don't come from quite as primo of vineyards in the best sites overlooking the Rhone River. That is not to say they're crappy wines at all--they are usually still extraordinarily complex and will outshine most American or Aussie syrah/shirazes--but they are relatively inexpensive (usually $25-45 retail, $40-90 in restaurant, vs. well into 3 figures for Hermitage).

So, about the Belle? It was a real "belle" of a wine. Upon opening, it had tons of mature plum and cherry, blackberry, tobacco, smoke, some pepper and spice, and tons of slaty minerality. It was very refined, smooth, complex and tasty. This was a very serious wine. As it turns out, the vineyards are apparently within a few meters of "true" Hermitage, and the vines are 80 years or more in age. That all showed in the wine. Now, my one complaint is this. As the evening progressed and the wine was able to breathe, it rather quickly lost some of its bright fruit. This suggests the wine is probably a year or so past "peak"--not a flaw in the wine at all, but this is one that probably better be drunk in the next few years.

As to food: for starters, I went with escargot in a vol-au-vent--a bread-like structure, with a butter-wine-garlic sauce. Tasty, but not great. And the snails were perhaps a bit overcooked. Julie had a chevre on a bed of greens, topped with sesame seeds and dressed an acidic dressing. Tasty. For mains: Julie had filet with roquefort sauce, potatoes and veggie. A very classic dish, it was well-executed, amazing texture on the meat, and a very smooth sauce. My entree, though, just blew me away. Duck breast, seared and cooked to medium-rare, wiht a port wine reduction sauce, strawberries and raspberries. Now, cherries are a classic pair with duck, not so much these berries. But they worked. The port sauce was beautifully reduced, with an unctuous demi-glace built in. Wow. And it was a solid pairing wiht the fruit in the wine. In all, a great dinner! Thank you, Julie!

Dinner Party

We got together with some of our friends for a small and casual dinner party tonight. Now, most of our friends are wine and food sorts, so we can pretty much count on a tasty experience. But tonight was really exceptional. Our host is recently back from a month in Sardegna, working with a colleague at a university there. She brought back some wine and liquer from the island to serve as a foundation, and then we each brought some food and drink to supplement, for a 5 course (or so) meal of amazing flavors.

We started with sparkling wines (prosecco, a cremant de bourgogne--not so Italian, but a good rose, and a bottle from Lombardy that we brought) to pair with appetizers and snacks. That amounted to oil cured olives, a honeyed sweet tapenade, Felina olive oil with two types of bread, a focaccia "pizza" of sorts with sausages, capers, sage, tomatoes, pecorino and other delicious items. I was asked to do a risotto--essentially, the "pasta course", and our host suggested we cook at her place so it'd be good and fresh. Thatt worked out well. I did an asparagus risotto with some truffle salt. It came out very nicely, I thought, and it got substantially positive reviews, and we continued with the sparklers. Then, a salad course of arugula, mushrooms, and pecorino cheese with a balsamic and olive oil dressing. and more prosecco.

The host cooked the main course--beautiful t-bone/porterhouse prime grade steaks. They were exquisite, and paired very well with the three red wines she'd brought back, as well as with the 1995 Rioja and a Corsican wine both brought by guests. Both of those were nice, but the Sardinian wines were amazingly interesting. One was 100% monica grapes--rather rustic, fruit forward; the 2nd was a 3-way even blend of monica, grenache (called cannoneau locally), and a third grape I don't recall. The final wine was 100% cagnulari, a varietal with which I was not at all familiar. It was the most complex of the wines, a rather unusual variety with incredible herbal and fruit notes, and tons of minerality. The other two were somewhat simpler, but very beautiful, rather fruit driven, in a very good way. I would absolutely buy any of the three, were they available in the U.S. This is honest wine, made simply by traditional methods, and it was among the most interesting stuff I've drunk in a long while. Some of these local wines of Italy (and I'd be willing to bet of some other European nations) should be both more available and more appreciated. After all, variety is the spice of life, and this is some serious variety. I really don't need another over-extracted, over fruit-bomb, over-oaked California or Aussie "red wine" that could be cab, merlot, syrah, or whatever, as it all tastes pretty much the same. For the same price, give me something new, different, fascinating.

Dessert was a melon granita (AMAZING homemade stuff) and these almond-honey cookies. Yum. And, all of that was chased with a Sardinian liqueur. This was mirto. Now, I'd never heard of it before--and it is definitely something of an acquired taste. It's made from fermenting the berries, and sometimes leaves, of the myrtle plant. It has a big menthol, wintergreen, fruity taste, and was a great after dinner drink. I really loved the taste; Julie was not so taken with it.

In all, it was a really fun night. Perhaps even more amazing was that the host's hot water heater broke this afternoon, so there was no hot water. And, then, as I was finishing off my risotto, the electricity went out due to a substantial thunderstorm. So, we ate by candlelight. And, all the food, and all the drink was at least very good, if not great. And the company was amazing.

Lamb Riblets

We'd had some lamb riblets in the freezer for a few weeks that'd I'd been wanting to cook before it got too hot. And, as today was relatively cool and rainy, it was an ideal day to cook some meat low and slow. Initially, I was thinking maybe doing another take on barbeque, maybe even a curried barbeque style. But that just wasn't screaming out as what I was after. I was kind of thinking some Spanish flavors might be nice -- some smoked paprika, maybe, onions, maybe tomatoes? So, I used Google to good effect, and came upon another blogger who was rather taken with a Dean and Delucca recipe for Spanish lamb stew. Now, it called for cubed stew meat cut from lamb shoulder, decidedly NOT thin, flat riblets. On the other hand, the riblets have a ton of fat and connective tissue, making it good for a similar approach. So, I cut each slab into individual ribs with some meat, seasoned 'em, and browned them off. Then, I cut up some smoked sausage, browned that, added a couple sweet onions, sliced very thin, and garlic. Deglazed with wine, some sherry vinegar, and then some stock. smoked paprika and some marjoram and a couple bay leaves for seasoning, and in to cook. I added some garbanzo beans and served it all wth some couscous. Very yummy!

The wine pairing was a serendipitous event, indeed. A day or so ago, we'd drunk part of a bottle of Spanish wine from Navarra--a blend mostly of tempranillo wth some grenache. it's a tasty, fairly fruit driven wine, not hugely complex, but very nice. But, with this rustic dinner, it just came to life, and showed off amazing earthy complexity, and brought out the sweetness of the lamb. It was a really beautiful pairing--one of those, 'oh wow!' moments--and one I had no expectation of being so exquisite.