The Rest of Us (cont.)

[Sneakeater]

I was pretty sure I'd be working past midnight tonight.  And I was right!  So it's a good thing I planned a supper that involved almost no cooking and almost no prep.

Ham and Swiss (OK gruyère) on rye (OK Blue Duck German horseradish rye) with Süßer Senf.

Közmatikally flame-roasted dragon's tongue beans with a just-crazy-enough-to-work drizzle of olive oil and LOTS of honey in which little tiny bits of Ghost Pepper had been steeped.

You can see what I was trying to do here:  sweet stuff to counteract the Ghost Peppers.  If I had some sweet Homadama bread instead of the rye, I'd have used that.

So of course the wine was an off-dry Riesling.  And in keeping with my need to get things on the table quickly, it was one with a screw cap!

2022 Peter Lauer Barrel X

This is the entry-level cuvée of this great Natural winemaker from the Saar.

It's a Feinherb:  only just off-dry.  For this meal, I probably should have had a Spätlese or even an Auslese.  But then I'd have had to pull a cork.

In keeping with this cuvée's junior status, the grapes are sourced from all over the place (I mean, "all over the place" locally).  This wine isn't deep or intensely rooted.  It's just the kind of thing you'd knock back with a sandwich.

In a way, it works the opposite of how you'd expect:  it's a little sweet at the front, and then tangily sour at the finish.  In between, you don't get one of those magic Riesling Journeys Into Variegated Flavors.  It's really pretty linear.

But it's a very enjoyable line.

I'd only complain that this bottle should be a little less than $20 instead of a little more.  But nobody's gonna cry rip-off.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

During the prep, as I was cutting up the Ghost Pepper and dropping the pieces into the mixing bowl, I accidentally touched some directly.

THAT was a mistake!

[Sneakeater]

Really, we should just have drones drop some of these on the Kremlin or something.

[Sneakeater]

I guess I should announce that I've decided that for sandwiches I much prefer City Ham (which I had tonight) to Country Ham.

I guess that's what the conventional wisdom says, but I didn't think I'd agree.

But Country Ham is just too funky to pile high between bread.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Sneakeater

[MitchW]

6 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Country Ham is just too funky to pile high between bread

And dry and salty, no?

[Sneakeater]

Right.  It's like making a big think prosciutto sandwich.

[relbbaddoof]

18 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Country Ham

May a backward person ask where you get your Country Ham and which Country it's from?

With the final demise of Ssäm, my ham stock has withered. Where, now, to get Lady Edison, Finchville, Benton's or Broadville?

If you know of good sources, tell me now.

Edited September 13, 2023 by relbbaddoof

[MitchW]

2 hours ago, relbbaddoof said:

May a backward person ask where you get your Country Ham and which Country it's from?

With the final demise of Ssäm, my ham has stock has withered. Where, now, to get Lady Edison, Finchville, Benton's or Broadville?

If you know of good sources, tell me now.

Can't these all be bought online? (I think it's Broadbent).

[Sneakeater]

2 hours ago, relbbaddoof said:

May a backward person ask where you get your Country Ham and which Country it's from?

With the final demise of Ssäm, my ham has stock has withered. Where, now, to get Lady Edison, Finchville, Benton's or Broadville?

If you know of good sources, tell me now.

Prospect Butcher Co.  (don't remember where THEY source it from)

[Sneakeater]

I'm sure Dickson's Farmstead has some.

[relbbaddoof]

6 hours ago, MitchW said:

Can't these all be bought online? (I think it's Broadbent).

Yes, certainly. Heritage is a good source, and I've used them. But you have to buy a significant chunk of each type, and ham-lover though I am I can't eat it in the quantities that would justify the cost (esp. shipping).

@SneakeaterDickson's is a good guess, but, oddly, I've drawn a blank there in the past.

Edited September 14, 2023 by relbbaddoof

[Sneakeater]

Prospect DEF has it, if you're ever over this way.

[relbbaddoof]

16 minutes ago, Sneakeater said:

Prospect DEF has it, if you're ever over this way.

For ham, I could be any way, any where, any how, but what was this "Prospect DEF" I wondered.

I Googled it -- I'm not dumb, as Fredo famously said -- but all I got were definitions of "Prospect".

*Then*, I got what you were saying. Thanks.

[Sneakeater]

4 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Prospect Butcher Co.  (don't remember where THEY source it from)

Just to be clear!

[relbbaddoof]

1 hour ago, Sneakeater said:

Just to be clear!

Crystals cannot compare with you.

[relbbaddoof]

6 hours ago, MitchW said:

(I think it's Broadbent)

For the record, you're quite right. Thanks.

[Sneakeater]

2 hours ago, relbbaddoof said:

Crystals cannot compare with you.

Hey I WANT you to have your ham!

[Sneakeater]

A repeat of Monday's dinner.

Leftover Amalfi-style pasta topping on Capellini.  Roasted radicchio (better this time cuz I've had the advantage of having made it before).  (I'm trying to decide, BTW, whether, when I publish my cookbook, I should call it The Lazy Cook, as I'd originally thought, or the more apt Too Stupid to Be Allowed Near High Heat.)

But I changed up the wine.  This is one of those dishes that, while it comes from Compania, in its  heart of hearts really wants a Sancerre.

HEY WAIT!  This is a Sancerre Rouge!

OK, maybe I should have looked at the bottle when I pulled it from my storage unit and moved it to the fridge.  But it was where a White Sancerre should be, not a Red.

So I blame the person who filed it.  In other words, past me rather than present me.

Hey guys!  We're having a chilled Pinot Noir with this supper tonight!

2015 Domaine du Carrau (Doninique Roger) Sancerre Rouge

At least it was a light red.

But I'll tell you what.  We all know now that it's bullshit to say you can never have red wine with fish.  But only certain fish prepared a certain way.  Not this.

I felt like Red Grant.

(To be sure, a Provençal rosé would have been fine with this.  But this isn't a Provençal rosé.)

So this wine didn't go with this pasta at all.

As for how it was on its own, well, I don't have a very high opinion of Sancerre Rouges.  They tend to be too thin to my taste.  Instead of being silky Pinot Noirs like you get from the Mothership, they're meager ones.

WIth a cold shrimp and vegs pasta topping, that was probably a blessing.  And if you're going to drink this wine chilled, for God's sake, it's almost a necessity.

But finishing the bottle now by itself, I can't say it's the kind of thing I actively want to be drinking.

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Wilfrid]

I was drinking Marques de Riscal verdejo with pulled pork tacos last night. These things happen (it was open and needed to be drunk).

[Sneakeater]

A down and dirty steak pizzaiola sandwich (Flat Iron Steak:  YUM).  Very down.  Very dirty.

A prime example of how gross half-assed food can be the best.  (Cleared out some pantry detritus, too!)

On the side, some Syracuse salt potatoes:  one of those dishes where once you see you can make them, you feel you must -- repeatedly.  (Although it must be conceded that Syracuse salt potatoes were originated by people who came from the part of Italy that sits across the Irish sea from Britain.)

Although steak pizzaiola is very much a Southern dish, the consensus obvious wine pairing for it is from the North.

2017 Gianni Doglia Barbera d'Asti "Bosco Donne"

This is very much a Modern Piemonte wine -- but it's one of the ones that are good anyway.  At least it sees no oak (unlike Doglia's very seniormost cuvée).

This smells like violets (unlike Barolo/Barbarescos, which smell like roses). It kind of tastes like violets, too.  Then, some very black cherries, a little bit of herby shit, and a BIG acid finish.

Not a lot of complexity here.  Just a lot of enjoyable flavor.

And you know what?  There's a reason why people reflexively reach for Barbera with tomato/beef dishes.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

And what did this cost?  $15?  Something like that.

Good use of $15!

[Sneakeater]

This is another of those wines that, while it doesn't overwhelm you up front, by the time you've gotten to the bottom of the bottle, it's just so drinkable you're sorry to see it go.

(As opposed to last night's accidental red, which was something of a slog.)

[Sneakeater]

One thing I did over the Summer was build a repertoire of incredibly rewarding dishes that are very easy to make.

And the easiest -- easier, in its way, than making a sandwich -- is the old old Roman Penne with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes dish.

It involves no active cooking:  you just toss it into the oven for 20 minutes, and ecco qui.  But the beauty part is that if you use the grape tomatoes I became addicted to this Summer rather than the cherry or plum tomatoes the recipe calls for, you also don't have to do any slicing.  You just throw the tomatoes into a baking pan, toss them with olive oil, salt and pepper them, then top them with breadcrumbs and grated Pecorino Romano and toss them into the oven.  That's the entirety of the prep work.  (I mean, sure, you have to cook the Penne -- which involves nothing more than boiling some water.)

But this pasta dish isn't only easy:  it's delicious.  It's so pure.  It's tomato heaven!  (As this Summer was.  The tomatoes came a little late -- but they came strong.  And they're hanging around.)

As a contorno, some Spigarello sautéed with some early garlic I found at the bottom of my crisper, salted and peppered and drizzled with balsamic.

Last time I had this pasta, I did the A-Number-One perfect wine pairing:  a Lazian Sangiovese clone.  You don't come across a lot of such wines.  So tonight I reverted to the Tuscan Sangiovese clone.

2015 Fattoria Corzano e Paterno Chianti "Terre di Corzano"

This is a producer whose bottles I usually have around, but whose wines I don't love.  They're a little too smooth, too suave -- not the way I like my Chianti.

But this, their entry-level cuvée, is by far their least polished.  Instead of being pure Sangiovese, or blended with Merlot (although don't get me wrong:  as much as they offend me in theory, in practice I'm a big fan of Sangiovese/Merlot blends), it's a trad (if quite simplified) blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo.

This wine evokes such damning-with-faint-praise adjectives as "pleasant" and "lovely".  But it really is pleasant and lovely -- with that spoonful of pepper that makes it go down in a more delightful way.

So not great by any means.  But perfectly nice for modest dinner (and less than $20 a bottle --  OK, only a little less -- if I remember correctly).

This is at the end of its window.  It's beginning to get some old-wine goop at the very end.  OTOH, that goop unsmooths things even more, so in that sense it's welcome.  Nevertheless, if you have any of this, I'd recommend drinking it up.

Edited September 16, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

(It is, of course, deeply traditional for Jews to have Old Roman Tomato Pasta dishes on Rosh Hashanah.)

[hollywood10]

2021 Cave de Lugny, La Cote Blanche, unoaked chardonnay.  Idk, maybe there is something to be said for a little oak.