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.