The Rest of Us

[Sneakeater]

A remarkably similar dinner to Voyager's.  New York Strip Steak with a mushroom pan gravy.  Hopefully filling in for Black Eyed Peas in the luck department, leftover hominy with Vallarta beans with rice.

I have to say that my introduction to Flannery Beef was one of the nicest effects of The Lockdown.  I'm wary of having beef shipped from California -- but I don't know anyone on the East Coast selling excellent dry-aged beef retail for such (relatively) reasonable prices.  (Yes, that's an appeal.)

I didn't feel like opening anything too grand tonight.

2009 Château Peyrabon

A Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeois.  There was a time when most of what I drank was Médoc Crus Bourgeois, and drinking this I can kind of remember why.  In my early wine-drinking years, I really got off on how you could get both fruit flavors and secondary flavors like tobacco, leather, and even buttery meat.  That no longer fascinates me the way it did -- I kind of take it for granted -- and now I'm on the lookout for more interesting flavors in each of those departments.  But you drink a good, honest Bordeaux Cru Bourgeois like this -- especially with an entrecotish steak, which it was made for -- and you can't help but enjoy it.  It's like the vinyl of wines.

[Sneakeater]

I really insanely loved hominy when I was a boy.

I still do.

[Sneakeater]

This is another wine that you can just taste opening up.

I gave it a nice long decant -- but it should have been longer.

I was initially thinking this wine doesn't have much ahead of it.  But now I'm sure it does.  (This is my last bottle, though.)

[Evelyn]

Flannery is the best. David Kinch introduced me to them many years ago (15+). They spoil me. I won't order from anyone else.

[Sneakeater]

I can't deny that I'm thrilled with their product, and also my interactions with them.  Some of the best customer service in the industry.

[Sneakeater]

And not just the best:  the nicest.  I've actually enjoyed interacting with them.

[Sneakeater]

On 1/1/2022 at 12:48 AM, Sneakeater said:

Having had more than a year to think about it, it now makes perfect sense to me that the original recipe for this dish (by La Mère Brazier) is the simplest.

The point being that La Mère Brazier and her mentor/frenemy La Mère Fillioux only wanted to create something perfect.  Whereas their successors have to "improve" on it.

Anyway, the second half of the Vollaille Demi-Deuil was as good as the first half.  These Jidori chickens are the shit.  They're extremely meaty, which would cause you to fear a diminution in flavor.  But you don't have to worry one bit about THAT.

Tonight I deviated from La Mère Brazier's recommendation of a Beaujolais Nouveau in a slightly different way.  (Not by drinking something other than a Beaujolais, God knows:  I would NEVER forgo an opportunity to drink Beaujolais!)

2015 Domaine des Crêtes Cuvée de Varennes

My prior notes on this wine suggested a long decant, so I gave this bottle one.  It seemed less heavy and better integrated than prior bottles, so I guess that worked.  It still seems oaky to me.  But with the truffles that tasted pretty good.

This isn't my favorite Beaujolais.  But with that decant, it drinks nicely.

[Sneakeater]

Now I can go back to drinking down my vast quantities of house fave Domaine du Robert.  (I miraculously STILL have some of their 2014 left.  As I think I've already said, it's like Chanukah.)

[Sneakeater]

(I'm beginning to fear it's like some fairy tale:  when I finally drink up my last bottle of their 2014 -- looking at my storage units, happily a remote prospect -- I will die.)

[joethefoodie]

11 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Anyway, the second half of the Vollaille Demi-Deuil was as good as the first half.  These Jidori chickens are the shit.  They're extremely meaty, which would cause you to fear a diminution in flavor.  But you don't have to worry one bit about THAT

Right - they're (to my taste) only slightly less flavorful than a Joyce, and even that would have to be a taste test side-by-side, with the same prep.

Last night, the one we roasted, was delicious AND meaty!

Oh - the next whole one I try is gonna be an @Orik supplied bird. 

[Sneakeater]

I was planning to make Bucatini with Black Trumpets in a cream sauce.  But then, when I was at my fishmonger getting some butter (my fishmonger is, oddly, the only place in the neighborhood that carries my favorite brand), I noticed they had some . . .

BELONS!!!!!!!!

So I had a rather fabulous first course as well.

I'd never shucked oysters before.  I understand that Belons are supposed to be particularly difficult.  I felt like I didn't really have the hang of it until Oyster No. 5 (out of a half dozen).  I might do that again.*

Sautéed tatsoi on the side of the pasta.  Lately, I've been admirably/guiltily cooking my greens lightly.  Tonight I decided to give myself a treat and overcook them the way I like them.

The wine had been chosen for the pasta with mushroom cream sauce.  It did well enough for the oysters as well -- but I wasn't really paying attention to the wine at that point anyway.

2018 Corte Gardoni Greoto

This is a Custoza:  essentially identical to a Soave, except made across the Veneto/Lombardy border in Bardolino.

Corte Gardoni is a reliable producer.  (I expect no drop-off in quality resulting from the death of its founder last year; I'm sure his sons will carry on the same way.)  Their wines are always typical, characteristic, and extremely well-made.  This is another one.  It tastes like what it is -- but a really solid version.  Stone fruit and some exotic fruit at the front, as well as some citrus even.  Then a clean finish.

This wine loves food.  It wasn't as good as a Chablis, or a Muscadet, or a Champagne would have been with the oysters.  But on the other hand, Belons are meaty enough that they benefited from this wine's greater heft.  The wine was like perfect with the pasta, though (as I knew it would be).

__________________________________________________________________________

* I mean, the Belons were less than $3 a piece at the store.  They cost considerably more in a restaurant.

[Sneakeater]

I should say a clean but herby finish.

[Sneakeater]

And let's not forget the slight salinity.

[Sneakeater]

Vaguely Persian Lamb Shank.  I was going to serve it over rice duh, but I found to my surprise that I was out of long-grain rice (which is what they use in Persia/Iran).  I could have used some short-grain rice.  But I figured if I was going off the reservation, I might as well go WAY off and finish off some amaranth seeds I had.

My reflexive wine choice for something like this would have been a Southern French or a Rioja.  But then I thought about the rose flavor accents in the shank preparation, and my thoughts turned to Nebbiolo.  God knows a lamb shank has enough fat to support a tannic Barolo -- but this dish's flavor profile wanted something lighter.  So I went up to the Alto Piemonte.

2011 Proprieta Sperino Uvaggio

This Lessona wine is a lighter brighter Nebbiolo, cut with Vespolina and the other usual Altra Uvas from this area.  But being mainly Nebbiolo, it still has that rose nose.

This wine isn't particularly meant to be aged.  But it isn't particularly meant not to be aged, either.  This 10-year-old specimen is drinking beautifully.  It has reached full integration:  the fruit and the non-fruit elements have melded together.  (The non-fruit elements do NOT include tar, BTW; that apparently does not make it up farther North than the Langhe.)  I'm tasting cherries, cranberries, and some soil.  (If Barolos and Barbescos are half-way between Bordeaux and Burgundies, this is three-quarters of the way.)  And I'm smelling roses.  And it's still vibrant (if not as puppy-like friendly as its younger self).

A lovely wine.  And a lovely pairing for the Vaguely Persian Lamb Shank.

[Wilfrid]

You had never shucked oysters?

Okay, I have never made mayonnaise. This deserves its own embarrassing cooking confessions thread.

Although I am now reminded of an eGullet thread where posters deliberately conspired to persuade the late Steve Shaw that he should be humiliated not to have and use a chafing dish.