The Rest of Us

[joethefoodie]

16 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Ada Boni, whose recipe was the primary one (but not the only one) I used, advises you to serve it on a heated plate, with the sauce boiling hot. 

The pre-Marcella Marcella!!  Great books.

[Sneakeater]

I don't like to repeat dishes in close temporal proximity.  So instead of making another batch of Tiroler Speckknodelen, I made some Canederli dell'Atlo Adige.  (I crack myself up.)*

I know you're all wondering, so:  yes, I was able this time to make these into something more closely approximating dumplings as we know them.

In meat broth (in which I cooked them), with cabbage in it.

2017 Domaine Finot Tracteur Blanc

Thomas Finot is one of a handfull of winemakers trying to revive the winemaking tradition in Isère.  (You fairly frequently see his wines called Savoyard -- but they're not.)  Isère wine is kind of like that from neighboring Savoie -- but it's less high-altitude, less tense, certainly less joltingly acidic.  It wouldn't be quite accurate to say that it's a cross between Rhone and Savoie -- the two (much) more well-known regions on either side -- but it gives you an idea.

This is a blend of Chardonnay, Jacquère, and Pinot Gris.  Its most notable characteristic is probably that its price hovers around $10 a bottle (or did when I bought it).  Because it's nothing like a $10 wine.  It has complexity.  And it evolves:  this wine now tastes different than it did on release -- not just older and more tired and faded.

The main difference is that the almondy bitterness on the finish has become more prominent.  The wine is more savory than it used to be.  That's one reason I chose it as a pairing tonight.

The other reason is stupid and literal:  we all know they drink Pinot Gris in the Südtirol/Alto Adige (although they call it something else).

I actually am not sure how Finot does this (by which I mean crafting this wine for $10).

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* Actually, they might not be the same thing.  Everything I've had in the Südtirol called "Canederli" has had cheese in it.  Whereas Speckknodelen don't.  Maybe @Behemoth knows something about this.

[Sneakeater]

7 hours ago, joethefoodie said:

The pre-Marcella Marcella!!  Great books.

As you know, I have you to blame for this one (Regional) -- although of course I've long had Talisman.

[Sneakeater]

When these guys actually form into dumplings, BOY are they good.

[Sneakeater]

7 hours ago, joethefoodie said:

The pre-Marcella Marcella!!

Interestingly, though, probably because she's much more reticent, I don't feel like Ada Boni is someone I know the way I did with Marcella.

My wife and I felt like Marcella was part of our marriage.  (Not just Marcella:  also Julia and Maida Heatter.) (I kinda felt that way about Victor, too -- but my wife let me have him to myself.)

Although in a way, that makes Ada Boni more useful as a cookbook.

Do you know the Accademia Italiana della Cucina's La Cucina?  I only recently got it.  It's more no-nonsense than even Ada.

[Sneakeater]

Getting back to the Domaine Finot Tracteur Blanc, for around $10 you'd expect a wine to be uncharacterized.  But that's not what you get with this AT ALL.

[joethefoodie]

6 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I don't feel like Ada Boni is someone I know the way I did with Marcella.

I'm wondering if that has to do with the fact the we came of age (cooking age) in the same era as Marcella; Boni was really a bit earlier. And to my knowledge her canon was 4 books, whereas Marcella's was about double that.

6 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Do you know the Accademia Italiana della Cucina's La Cucina? 

I am now keeping an eye out.

[Behemoth]

13 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

 

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* Actually, they might not be the same thing.  Everything I've had in the Südtirol called "Canederli" has had cheese in it.  Whereas Speckknodelen don't.  Maybe @Behemoth knows something about this.

Not a scholarly opinion but from what I've seen, the Knödel/Canderli themselves are basically the same. In Tirol (AT) they would serve them in broth or with a cabbage salad or sauerkraut, whereas in Südtirol (IT) they are often served with a butter/breadcrumb/parmesan topping. 

Our dinner tonight was a pumpkin gnocchi served with clarified butter, breadcrumbs, sage and lots of parmesan. I needed to use up a Hokkaido squash and I had run out of regular butter...

Carb-y and I need a nap but both kids ate it... I think we had a leftover Riesling with it. Us, not the kids. 

[Sneakeater]

I had a couple of hours of work left to do when I got home today at around 10:30/11 PM.  So it's a good thing that the dinner I had planned worked sort of perfectly as an after-midnight snack sort of thing.

Southern Fried Guinea Fowl Livers with Comeback Sauce.  Sautéed zucchini and peppers, hot and sweet, on the side.

Wait a minute.  This Comeback Sauce is FANTASTIC.  This Greek immigrant gift to Mississippi cuisine should be eaten regularly by like everybody.  What a tasty condiment!  And just perfect for fried poultry liver.  (I did adjust it as noted below.)

I decided that the perfect thing to drink with those fried livers would be a Demi-Sec Vouvray.  But I seem to have drunk all my Demi-Sec!  All I had around was a passel of Moelleux  -- including this rather ridiculous specimen.  So I upped the Spice Q in my liver coating and in the Comeback Sauce I made (I can't see how that wasn't pure gain in the Sauce, since I really couldn't have liked anything more -- maybe I should market it), and hoped it would balance the sweetness in the wine.

1976 Huet Vouvray Moelleux  "Clos du Bourg"

1976!  Our nation's bicentennial!  I remember the girl I dated the Summer of 1976.  She's in her mid-'60s now.  So am I!

My scheme worked.  With the higher spice levels in the dishes (I should have put even hotter peppers in the zucchini:  what was I thinking?), the sweet Vouvray was more than fine:  it was wonderful.  Of course, there's no question about sweet wine's going with liver (foie gras, anyone?).  But the natural acidity of a Chenin Blanc really played up to the um friedness of that Southern Fried Liver.  (Sweet Rieslings do that sweet-with-acid-backbone thing really well, too.  But unlike the somewhat more round and reserved Vouvray Moelleux, one of them would have overwhelmed this dinner.)

So on the one hand, it really is kind of stupid to drink a 46-year-old wine with a late Sunday supper.  But on the other hand, what more could one deserve after working till 1 AM Sunday (no:  Monday!) morning?*

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* OK, my writing work was interrupted by attendance at two shows today -- and one of them was really really good.  But that's part of my job, too.

[Sneakeater]

10 minutes ago, Sneakeater said:

(I can't see how that wasn't pure gain in the Sauce, since I really couldn't have liked anything more -- maybe I should market it),

Of course, there might be a problem with all the commercially available premade products I used, such as Duke's Mayonnaise, Heinz Organic Ketchup (you want to think that their organic couldn't be better than their regular -- but believe me, it is), La Boite O.M.G. blend, Lea & Perrin's Worcester Sauce, and Crystal Hot Sauce.

[Sneakeater]

I would like to announce to the world that when I complain I don't like liver, I mean beef (calve's) liver.

I like poultry liver just fine.

[Sneakeater]

Pork liver I'm on the fence.

[Sneakeater]

23 minutes ago, Sneakeater said:

Crystal Hot Sauce.

I guess I'm now in TWO cults with @Evelyn.

(The Crimson Tide hasn't got me yet.) (Sure, like everyone my age from New York I worship Joe Namath.) (But I worship Clyde Frazier -- and the much less cool [and more dead] Tom Seaver -- even more.)

[Sneakeater]

People who actually care can correct me, but could there ever have been a better year for New York sports than 1969?

ETA -- In terms of New York sports, Iggy was just wrong about that year. 

[joethefoodie]

5 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

People who actually care can correct me, but could there ever have been a better year for New York sports than 1969?

ETA -- In terms of New York sports, Iggy was just wrong about that year. 

No argument here…and it was a really bad year for the Baltimore teams.