The Rest of Us

[Anthony Bonner]

I think it's Fergus Henderson who advises "wait for spring and put frozen peas on the menu"

Im also fond of frozen favas when I can get them.

[joethefoodie]

1 minute ago, Anthony Bonner said:

Im also fond of frozen favas when I can get them.

Make life so much easier.

[bloviatrix]

3 hours ago, Anthony Bonner said:

Im also fond of frozen favas when I can get them.

I think I made fava beans once. So much work. And the spouse didn't even like them. Never again!

[voyager]

8 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I'm reading some reviews of this wine -- this very vintage -- talking about how it tastes on "Day 2".

It's very hard for me to imagine having any of this left over.

Like I keep trying to get across to a friend who is trying to get me to make red wine vinegar.

[voyager]

4 hours ago, Anthony Bonner said:

I think it's Fergus Henderson who advises "wait for spring and put frozen peas on the menu"

Im also fond of frozen favas when I can get them.

Wish I had a source for frozen favas.   And frozen artichoke bottoms while we're making wishes.

I have found that in many dishes you can sub frozen baby limas with good results, like in a spring vegetable ragout of peas, favas and asparagus.

[Anthony Bonner]

We get them at the Asian supermarket.

[Chambolle]

Asian, Schmasian !

This is about wine 🍷, non ?

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe … catch a Chambo by the … bottle …

Gulp !

[Orik]

And they all taste the same! Short one Drouhin, buy five Barthod and you'll have change for favas.

[Chambolle]

You think you can short me and taste me ... or dissect me with your blunt little tool … you’re so ambitious, aren’t you !

You come across as a sad rube, dude ! Well-scrubbed but with little taste … where you from ? WV ?

Try to live a little, Agent Ori … can I call you Orange, Ori ?

Favas … pfffft ! So pathetic ...

Do me a favor with your favas and live a little and give me your liver … I have a nice chianti, Signor Arancia

Doctor Chambo, over and out

[Chambolle]

 

[Sneakeater]

Bluefish with an improbable rhubarb/pickled beet sauce.  On the side, asparagus that was sautéed (with spring garlic and thyme) and then poached -- which turns out to be a nearly perfect way to cook it.  The asparagus recipe came from Martha Stewart (a surprisingly good source, I've learned over the years).  The bluefish I kind of stumbled into on my own, after doing some general reading.

I was full of misgivings about that bluefish dish.  I really didn't expect it to work.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be delicious (if extremely unsightly).

This was obviously getting a Riesling Kabinett.

2015 Ratzenberger Bacharacher Riesling Kabinett Feinherb

Ratzenberger is a good solid producer.  But their wines lack the magic of, say, A.J. Adam's.  And of course, as a Feinherb, this was a trace less sweet than a normal Kabinett.  In some cases that's welcome -- but not with that rhubarb and those beets.

A good enough wine.  I mean, quite good, really (even if not magic).  But not exactly right for the meal.

[Sneakeater]

Salo with Wild Cat Sauce.

This is the Gullah Geechee/Hungarian Fusion you've been hearing so much about.

The base recipe comes from Emily Meggett's Gullah Geechee Home Cooking cookbook.  It calls for salt pork, a Gullah Geechee mainstay.  It wasn't until this afternoon -- too late! -- that I realized how easy it would have been for me to salt a pork belly.  Of course my butcher doesn't carry salt pork.  The closest substitute my butcher and I could come up with from what they had on hand was Hungarian Salo (which differs from Russian Salo in its heavy coat of paprika).  But I was going to use paprika in the seasoning for this anyway, so no harm no foul!

I used enough meat for what Meggett considers a family serving.  But it's lucky that I did, because a lot of the Salo, lacking the streaks of meat that salt pork has amongst the lard, melted into the gravy.  Fine with me.

A word about that seasoning.  Much is made about how farm-to-table Meggett's cooking is.  That's true for the proteins and vegetables, I'm sure.  But for flavorings she relies almost entirely on such things as bottled Italian dressing and (in this case) Lawry's Seasoning Salt.  Not to sound like an effete middle-class Northerner, but I fabricated my own.

And you can guess what WILD SPRING ALLIUM I swapped in for the scallions Meggett calls for.  I'm sure in season she does the same.

You know what?  This is good.  I daresay I'm the best Gullah Geechee/Hungarian cook on my floor, if not in my whole building.

Maybe now I have to salt a pork belly to see what this dish really tastes like.

Turnip greens on the side.  At least that's authentic.

The obvious pairing for this dish would be a dry Riesling.  But if you have a bottle of a hybrid white developed in South Carolina, of course you use it, right?

2022 TerraVox Herbemont

I don't think it's even known what Herbemont, developed in the very early 1800s, is a cross between.

Like most (but not all) hybrids, this is almost good.  Even a bottle as exactingly made as this is supposed to be tastes watery.  And because it doesn't go all the way with its weird North American base flavors, they register as mildly unpleasant as opposed to the in-your-face piquancy of pure native grapes.

The main flavor I get from this is apple.  But it's a foxy apple.  And you can't really talk about layers of flavors in a wine like this.  They don't work that way.

[Sneakeater]

Meggett doesn't specify how to serve this.  I'm sure it would be best on a biscuit.  But biscuits are above my pay grade.  So on (South Carolinian) rice.

[Sneakeater]

I want to be clear that I finished every last crumb of that food.

[Sneakeater]

One good thing about this wine is that it's pretty heavily acidic.  So I can feel it eating away at the layers of fat the Salo deposited in my arteries like Roto-Rooter.