Mock Turtle's Birthday Dinner

I don’t usually write restaurant reviews – and well, this isn’t so much a restaurant review, although Mock Turtle’s Birthday Dinner did occur in a very enjoyable restaurant.  It’s really more a tale of a fabulous wine and some interesting wine pairings.  It all happened in December, in celebration of Mock Turtle’s Birthday, at Garcon! in San Francisco.  http://www.garconsf.com/index.html

MT brought along her bottle of Artiste Winery’s Reflection – an amazing blend of Pinot Noir and Syrah which they bottled in 2007.  MT and I visited the Santa Ynez Artiste Impressionistic Winery and Tasting Studio during our annual New Year’s wine trip which rang in the year of 2008.  http://www.artiste.com/  During that visit, we enjoyed a number of Artiste’s delicious wines, but were particularly enamored of the Reflection bottling, which turned out to be the standout wine of that trip.  It was a stunner of a wine to bring to the Birthday Dinner, and we were excited to see how it would pair with our dishes.

The wine was tight at first, but softened and improved over the course of the meal.  It had notes of big red currant and black pepper, perhaps a hint of cranberry in the finish, and a lovely texture.  It paired beautifully with MT’s French Onion Soup Gratinee – the wine and soup each improved with the pairing.  Meanwhile, my Lychee Martini actually paired pretty nicely with my Beet Carpaccio Salad with goat cheese and fennel relish. 

This salad had delightfully fresh flavors, not too tart, perfectly dressed and balanced.  We also decided that the salad would be wonderful with a Pinot Blanc, or perhaps a Sancerre.  Our waiter, Josh, brought us a taste of the 2008 Domaine Auchere Sancerre to test this theory.  We enjoyed the Sancerre – it had honey in the nose, a round mouth feel and notes of pear and Meyer lemon. 

MT ordered the Chef's Menu salmon on a mushroom duxelle with truffle oil, served with pearl onions and Brussels sprouts.  It was amazing how well this dish paired with the Reflection.  The dish softened the wine so much, it was like a pillow in the mouth, and brought out notes of cocoa.  Delicious!

The wine paired reasonably well with my outstanding Coq au Vin.  This dish was a true taste treat, the chicken and vegetables melt-in-your-mouth tender, the sauce thick and rich.  I adored it so much that I vowed to make Coq au Vin my next recipe test.  We thought it would pair a bit better with a cabernet franc or Bordeaux blend.

The meal was capped with a lovely Crème Brûlée, silky smooth, swimming in vanilla, the caramel topping perfectly crunchy.  In yet another gesture of generosity, Josh brought us samples of a wonderful Muscat which was perfect with the brûlée – very floral, imbued with orange blossoms.

We went home full and happy, having enjoyed a wonderful wine and food, as well as superb service from Josh at Garcon!, and grateful to have shared birthday wishes and great friendship.

Visit Artiste if you can!  Go to Garcon!  And feel free to send me your favorite Coq au Vin recipes – I promise to try them!

Holiday Wine Party

For the past several years I have hosted a holiday wine party, but this was the first year to have the party in my new hometown of Sonoma!  Fourteen of us gathered to sample fabulous wines and an assortment of finger foods, some provided by me, some brought by my wonderful guests.  Note:  I realize that a food blog is supposed to have delectable pictures of party food, but alas!  When I host and cook and mingle, I sometimes forget to snap pics, and that’s exactly what I did this time! It's my only disappointment from an otherwise delightful evening!

Our lovely spread included my favorite holiday party dish of all time (I make it every year), Baked Semolina Gnocchi with Sage (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/baked-semolina-gnocchi-with-sage); another favorite of mine, Warm Camembert with Wild Mushroom Fricassee (http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/warm-camembert-with-wild-mushroom-fricassee); Citrouille au Jambon de Bayonne or Pumpkin with Bayonne Ham, from Joanne Harris & Fran Warde’s The French Market cookbook (I substituted prosciutto for the ham); and my own tweaked version of Spinach Balls.  Guests brought lovely cheese and charcuterie platters.  And we enjoyed an amazing Caviar Torte, which paired perfectly with the sparkling wines, prepared by my friend and fellow blogger Bon Vivant (http://myculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/).  And last but not least, a remarkable chocolate cake made by my friend Regina of Tuscan Cowgirl Dezerts.  Very Fun Food!

Here is a list of the wines we were sampling – many thanks to my guests who brought such lovely wines!

1999 Kenwood Cabernet Sauvignon

2002 Valley of the Moon Zinfandel

2005 Turley Pesenti Vineyard Zinfandel

2005 Ombra Montsant produced by La Cova dels Vins – a Grenache blend

2005 Summerland Duet (a grenache mourvedre blend)

2007 Sebastiani Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel

2007 Beringer Sbragia Limited Release Chardonnay

2007 Mayo Saralee’s Vineyard Viognier

Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs

Allimant-Laugner Cremant d’Alsace Rose

Great friends, great food, great wines!  Great holiday fun!  I can't wait to do it again next year!

Thanksgiving in the Desert!

This year I traveled to Pioneertown (near Joshua Tree) for a wonderful Thanksgiving with Gourmet Gal and other dear friends.  (Photo by Kerstin Goetz)

There is a spare beauty to this area, and we spent a lot of time just looking at the scenery, and watching the birds at the bird feeder.  (Photo by Kerstin Goetz)

When we weren’t doing that, we were cooking, because Gourmet Gal cooked the Thanksgiving dinner for a crowd of 13, and it was fabulous!  In addition to the usual turkey and stuffing, we had Gourmet Gal’s fabulous potato fennel gratin, braised carrots and pumpkin cheese cake, two sweet potato dishes, a beet salad and more desserts brought by guests, and brussels sprouts and cranberry relish prepared by yours truly.  We enjoyed chatting with old friends and new, sharing the fabulous food together, and consuming copious quantities of wine.  Good times!  (Photo by Jeanne Talbot)

Note:  The cranberry relish recipe comes from Sarah Lea Chase’s Cold-Weather Cooking, and goes like this:

1 ½ lbs. fresh cranberries

1 lime

1 tangerine

¾ cup (packed light brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar (Note: I used less sugar – 1 cup total)

3 TB orange liqueur (I used Triple Sec)

Scant pinch ground cloves

¼ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

Process the cranberries in a food processor till coarsely chopped, and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Cut the lime and tangerine (peel and all) into small pieces, remove the seeds, and process in the food processor till finely chopped.  Add to the cranberries.

Add the sugars, orange liqueur and cloves to the cranberries and stir well.  Taste for sweetness and adjust if it seems too tart.  Fold in the pine nuts, and refrigerate over night so the flavors can marry.  Keeps for several weeks refrigerated.

Enjoy, and cheers!

Holiday in Carneros!

Each year the Carneros wine region puts on a two day wine open house event, including more than 20 Carneros wineries.  http://www.carneroswineries.org/events/  In addition to serving a selection of their wines, participating wineries feature live music, food pairings, and special tastings.  A group of friends and I were in attendance this year, and here is my report!

We began the day at Schug Carneros Estate Winery, where we sampled delicious Thai Style Pumpkin and Creamy Wild Mushroom soups, to pair with the whites and reds, respectively.  I loved the 2007 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay with the pumpkin soup, and the 2007 Carneros Pinot Noir with the mushroom soup.  We also sampled Calolea olive oils here.

Next we visited Cuvaison Estate Winery, and loved the very modern lines of the tasting room.  The winery served delightful little pulled pork sliders, which were delicious and paired wonderfully with the 2007 Carneros Syrah.  I particularly liked the 2008 Carneros Chardonnay, and took a bottle home.  The '06 Mount Veeder Cab was great as well!

We visited Etude, where they were serving delicious cheese samples in the beautiful tasting room with it's Great Wall of Wine Bottles. 

Our next stop was McKenazie-Mueller – the standout winery of the day for me, where we loved every wine we tasted!  The 2006 Los Carneros, Napa Valley, Pinot Noir was stupendous, as was the 2001 from the Library collection!  The 2005 Malbec was another standout wine – I had difficulty choosing which one to buy.  Combine these fabulous wines with a pleasant cheese spread, very friendly winery personnel, and live music with a bit of a CSN vibe going out front, and our visit to McKenzie-Mueller was a wonderful mid-day respite.

We made a very quick visit to Ceja Vineyards because we knew they would have superb live music, and we weren't disappointed!  They had run out of tapas, which was a shame for us, but I enjoyed the 2006 Sonoma Carmeros Pinot I tasted.  (This is Lisa by the sign.)

Our last stop was the beautiful Truchard Vineyards, with the lovely gazebo, grounds and cellar, outstanding food and music.  The Chardonnay, Pinot and Syrah they poured were all really nice, and I particularly liked the '06 Cabernet – yummy!

It was all in all a delightful day enjoying food, wine and festivities with good friends!

Pollo Alla Cacciatora Cookoff

I recently did a Chicken Cacciatora Cookoff . . . with myself!  Pollo alla Cacciatora (we often see the Americanized spelling of cacciatore) is a northern Italy dish which, tradition has it, was prepared on the eve of a hunt, hence the name, “Hunter’s Wife’s Chicken.”  It is, to me, the very definition of home cooked comfort food.  I have several different recipes for the dish, and I decided to prepare three of them to see if one became a favorite.  Note: I prepared them in succession, not the same day, because a) I don’t have that many burners, and b) even with my brother coming for dinner, we couldn’t hope to consume enough of them that I wouldn't have leftovers for weeks.

I started with Chicken Thighs Cacciatore from the Sept. 2002 issue of Cooking Light.  I’ve made if before, and it is fast and easy.  I used a cut up chicken, rather than just thighs, and used only red rather than red and yellow peppers, but otherwise pretty much followed the recipe.  It calls for canned diced tomatoes, thyme, fennel, bay leaf, and red wine.  I like this chicken, the flavor is quite good, if somewhat heavy on the red bell pepper flavor (it calls for 2 cups chopped, for heaven sake!).  The sauce is a bit thin, almost watery.  Its ease and speed work in its favor, however – it is on the table within 45 minutes.

Next I prepared Marcella Hazan’s version of Pollo alla cacciatora.  The two recipes differ slightly, in that Marcella’s dish uses green bell pepper (cut into thin strips rather than chopped), less onion, and a bit of carrot and celery thinly sliced.  The chicken is floured prior to browning, and I like the substance (one can’t really call it crispiness) this gives to the chicken.  Also, Marcella calls for white wine rather than red (and more of it), and I think results in the most prominent difference in flavor between the two.  I used all chicken breasts rather than a cut up chicken, but otherwise followed the recipe closely.  The flavor was quite rich, although the texture is chunky due to Marcella’s instructions about cutting all the veggies in thin strips and slices rather than dice.  I’m not sure I prefer that, but I can always dice the veggies instead when I make it again.

My third recipe was the version from my Saveur Cooks: Authentic Italian cookbook.  This recipe uses onion and garlic only, no peppers or other vegetables.  It calls for whole canned tomatoes with juice, rosemary, bay leaf, white wine, and chicken stock.  The sauce is quite thin; I think the recipe contemplates the wine and juice from the tomatoes evaporating off more rapidly than it actually did - and I was cooking the dish at a good simmer.  I feel I didn’t need the stock to replace the evaporating tomato juice (as described in the instructions), but I added some anyway for flavor, although not the full cup called for.  I have to say I liked this recipe the least; the flavor just wasn’t balanced.  It was too heavy on the canned tomatoes, not enough of anything else.  Interestingly, I prepared this dish the first time “incorrectly,” in that I used diced instead of whole tomatoes, probably more rosemary than called for (which I particularly liked), and no broth.  I actually liked the dish better the first time, although there was still a large quantity of sauce.

All in all, I believe my vote goes to Marcella Hazan’s version.  As noted, I really like the effect of flouring the chicken (this no doubt thickened the sauce as well), and I love the rich flavor.  I have simply made a note to dice the veggies rather than slicing them next time.

Note:  I do have two more chicken cacciatora recipes to try, so there may be a second installment.  Bon appétit!

Weekly Winery Adventure!

Jacuzzi Family Winery is of particular interest to me for at least two reasons:  they focus on Italian wine varietals, which is different and fun, and their farming practices are “natural and sustainable,” which appeals to me.  At a recent Face 2 Face networking event I attended, Harry Miller of Jacuzzi Family Vineyards gave me a Complimentary Tasting card.  So, I brought my dear friend Erica along with me to take advantage of the offer.  We had a great time tasting a big wine lineup, chatting together about cooking, and chatting with Harry about the wines.  I enjoyed all the wines we tasted, but these were the stand-outs for me.

The 2007 Moscato Bianco is delightful!  It has a lovely, floral nose with grapefruit notes, and is quite crisp and clean.  We thought it might make a nice Thanksgiving wine, and each bought one (for that very purpose, in my case).  I also loved the 2007 Nebbiolo, a juicy wine with notes of pomegranate, Bing cherries and black pepper.  We thought it would pair wonderfully with braised beef.  The next favorite was the 2006 Primativo – I understand this is the grape from which American Zinfandel vines were cloned.  It has a wonderful nose, with notes of candied red currants, red cherry, black pepper, truffle, and a hint of raspberry in the finish.

Jacuzzi wines are, in my opinion, a great value for the quality.  I’m sure they will become a regular presence in my wine fridge!  If you visit on a Sunday, say hi to Harry!

Butternut!

Squash, that is.  I had a small butternut squash that I decided to roast for dinner.  I preheated the oven to 375.  I nuked the squash for about 3 minutes to soften it enough to cut and peel easily.  Meanwhile, I sliced up a red onion into large chunks, and put them into a roasting pan.  I then seeded the squash, peeled and sliced it into big chunks, and put it into the roasting pan as well.  I poured over some olive oil, and seasoned with salt, pepper and rosemary, and tossed it all together.  I covered the roasting pan with foil, and popped it into the oven.  I roasted the squash for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, and turning the heat up to 400 at some point because it seemed to be cooking slowly. 

What a wonderful dish!  Both squash and onion were melty-soft but not burned, and so sweet!  I loved the herbaceous note added by the rosemary!  Easy, too!

I’m sure I’ve seen recipes for roasted squash before, there is nothing particularly new about this preparation.  I didn’t look it up though; I just prepared and enjoyed it.