Food, Wine & Friends Page 303
My favorite little kitchen assistant, who's now 3+ years of age, came to help
prepare (and eat) dinner one Saturday night in February of 2020.
She easily climbed the small step-ladder and was able to stir the pan full of
Brussels Sprouts (with garlic and pancetta) that was seasoned with fresh thyme.
The table was set.
As you can see, she's quite capable with the wooden spoon!
We opened the first bottle of Champagne and Ralph took care of
pouring that.
Time for a toast!
Connie, Mark, Chef Winnie, Ralph and Kareasa.
As this was a late holiday season fest, we had Christmas
napkins on the table...
...along with olives, Marcona Almonds, Blistered Shishito Peppers, Truffle
Mousse and some Dolmas.
Some skewers of wild prawns marinated in Pesto were on the
grill.
These didn't take long and soon they were plated and ready!
The first bottle of Champagne was from the house of Chapuy, a
2012 vintage Grand Cru "Blanc de Blancs" Extra Brut.
It was nice and crisp with some ripe apple/pear notes and it was, as one should
expect, rather dry.
I think I preferred this non-vintage bottling of Chartogne-Taillet, Cuvée
Sainte-Anne.
We usually find this to be a distinctive bottle of Champagne and it was
thoroughly delicious on this occasion.
Dry, crisp and mildly toasty...
Kareasa and Ralph brought two bottles from their trip to the
Czech Republic and we attempted to create a dish to pair with these aromatic
Muscat and Traminer.
We
prepared some seafood in parchment paper...should have cut the slices in two
so'd they'd more easily fit into our parchment paper "shells."
Patagonian Tooth-Fish.
This is a beautifully-textured white fish and it's much more forgiving in terms
of cooking time than, say, salmon.
We wanted Asian-styled flavors to pair with the wines, so we had freshly-grated
ginger, shallots, garlic, cilantro, soy sauce and a drop of sesame oil to season
the fish. We were afraid the soy might make it too salty, but the flavors
were fine, in fact.
The wines were selected by Kareasa and Ralph a month or two before our dinner
when they were in the Czech Republic.
Víno Blatel is the winery and they enjoyed tasting a Muscat and Traminer.
We had two whites from the 2017 vintage:
Muskat Moravsky was mildly fruity...not especially intense with aromatics, but
in the right direction. It was fairly dry and a pleasant bottle with the
fish.
Tramin Cerveny was also a bit light and less intensely fruity and spicy than
bottles from Alsace, Italy or California.
Kareasa noted these wines were more impressive in Europe and as we often see,
appreciation of some wines is about the setting in which they are tasted.
We then had a nice little palate cleanser and Winnie said this
was good.
We made a sorbet of Cranberries and Tangelos.
We added a mint leaf to each serving. Nice "Christmas" colors,
but it tasted good, which was the most important consideration.
Someone
really enjoyed the sorbet, thinking she somehow is getting two desserts.
For the main course...
Oven-roasted Leg of Lamb and pan-roasted Brussels Sprouts.
And we had some Pommes Dauphine.
We opened two young Côte-Rôtie wines...
Jean Michel Gerin's 2015 "La Viallière" was mildly smoky and had some
dark fruit notes with a bit of sweet oak. It's certainly young and a bit
undeveloped, but quite drinkable.
The 2013 Domaine de Bonserine 2013 Côte-Rôtie "La Viallière"
was more spicy with a distinctly peppery quality. It was a bit less showy
than the Gerin wine.
Dessert?
Kareasa had suggested a Sacramento-area pie company...a store called Ikeda's (in
Auburn and Davis) and we ordered an Apple Pie.
It was pretty good, in fact.
And we made a batch of Cinnamon Gelato to go with the Pie.
Winnie
said both the Pie and Gelato were good!
We
opened a terrific, nicely mature Monbazillac as a dessert wine.
Château Tirecul La Graviere 2012.
We understand the wine is a blend of Sémillon and Muscadelle. It spends
close to two years in French oak and is an amazingly fine sweet wine.
The pickers do more passes through the vineyards than at most Sauternes estates,
resulting in a wine of remarkable quality.
Tirecul paired handsomely with the spice notes of the gelato and the sweetness of
the apple pie.
Some holiday gifts were presented and Winnie was delighted.
Hatch Chile Pepper Wine!
And as it was getting late, we adjourned the festivities.
Thanks to everyone for participating!
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