The Rest of Us (cont.)

[Sneakeater]

Smoked bluefish (smoked by me) with a tomato-chili sauce.

In addition to the mild chili I put into the sauce, I put some tiny bits of Ghost Pepper into the brine for the fish.  I figured that if any food could stand up to a Ghost Pepper, it's bluefish.

And I was right!  At last the intense heat of the Ghost Pepper (imparted only through brining) became an accent rather than the dominant flavor (I mean, in previous uses, it wasn't even a flavor:  it was more like a sensation -- and not a pleasant one).

I'll confess something:  this was the first time I bothered to brine anything other than tongue before smoking it.  It makes a difference!  This fish developed a proper pellicle.  And it was like twice as flavorful as previous bluefish I've smoked.  (Because I know you all care, I put salt, sugar, Old Bay, pepper, bay leaves, tiny bits of Ghost Pepper, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and Crystal into the brine.  Maybe I should have invited Guy Fierri over.)

Roasted okra on the side.

I did a Happy Dance when I thought of the pairing earlier in the day.

2018 Les Vin Pirouettes Le Brutal!!! de Jean-Marc

As I'm sure I don't have to tell you, the Les Vins Pirouetts "Brutal!!!" project is a loose group of hipster producers in Alsace, spearheaded by Christian Binner, dedicated to furthering Natural wine culture in that region.

The wines are consistently fun with a bullet.

This is an Orange blend of Gewürtztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Riesling.  You can see how, in theory, this would be a great pairing.

And so it was in practice.

Definitely leads with Gerwürtztraminer lychee, then some nectarines and some Rosh Hashana honey (no apples, though).  Often in Orange wines, you can't really identify the grapes on the basis of the way the wine tastes.  That is DEFINITELY not the case with this one.

Some fizz.  Lots of salt on the finish.

On the way to the salt, a healthy sour tang.

Fuck this was good with that fish.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

Pork ribeye.  A cut that's new to me, although not I'm sure to the world.

Since this is the time of year when I wildly overbuy hot peppers, I decided to make pork chop with hot peppers.  Some might say this is too much like a dish I'm having later in the week (it's traditional for Jews to eat a lot of pork during the Days of Awe) -- but I'm telling you they're totally different.

On the side, a sautéed green that was touted (I don't know whether literally or figuratively) as a cross between mustard greens and something else that you'd want to eat (I can't recall what).

I thought I'd want a carb.  I was thinking of potatoes.  But then it struck me that I've never seen this pork dish in Italy, only in New York Metro Area Red Sauce joints.  (To be sure, I've never been to Calabria.)  So I did what the New York Metro Area Red Sauce joints would do, and served some linguini with a Marinara-ish sauce as a side.  I crack myself up.

The Calabrian wine I have would be too tannic to drink with hot peppers.  I figured that although this dish wasn't remotely Sardinian, Monica di Sardegna is very good with spicy food (even if it's kind of light for a Big Hefty Pork Chop).

2020 Cardedu Monica "Praja"

Cardedu is Sardinia's sane Natural Wine maker (as distinct from total madman Detorri).  So this wine is thin and sour -- but it's recognizably Monica (a grape I adore, BTW:  it's like a Rhône that's a Beaujolais) (or maybe it's like a Freisa from the South) and very pure in that regard.

Start with bright red fruit -- but pretty restrained.  The fruit has some persistence.  Which is good because all else there is, pretty much, is the tart sour finish.

So this wine delivers a lot of pleasure -- but almost no complexity.  Much to enjoy -- but almost nothing to think about.

Most importantly tonight, its sharp acid and low tannins agreed very well with the peppery heat.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

My personal contribution to that pork dish was to add some sugar to the vinegary sauce.  I think it provided a nice sweet 'n' sour tang.  I'd probably get thrown out of Calabria or wherever this dish comes from for it, though.

[Sneakeater]

Another night where I knew I'd be working way past midnight and so planned a dinner accordingly.

Linguini with farmstand goat goop (I guess I should specify that I mean goat cheese goop).

On the side, a friend was enthusing about an orange-Sungolds-chili-fennel pollen salad he had at Ci Siamo, and it occurred to me that I had the makings of it here at home (I mean, I used my beloved grape tomatoes instead of Sungolds:  so shoot me).  I'm sure it wasn't as good as Ci Siamo's.  But it was here.  And it was pretty good.  (I marinated the tomatoes in Sherry vinegar like Melissa Clark says -- good rec, Melissa Clark!)

You'd obviously want a Sauvignon Blanc with this.  And this time I made sure the Loire Sauvignon Blanc I was going to open was a Sauvignon Blanc, and not a Pinot Noir.

2018 Domaine Ricard Pierre à Feu

Vincent Ricard's sharp clear Anjou Sauvignon Blancs really do improve with some age.  They lose a little bit of their edge, take on a little bit of depth -- and you don't want to stop drinking them.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

Chili Verde with Pork.

I have my közmatik at the ready now for flame-roasting, but chili peppers are unaccountably late this year.  I couldn't wait any longer for the arrival of fresh local versions  of the Numex chili peppers (the Joe E. Parker my favorite!) that I now know are what constitute Hatch Chilis if they're grown in the Hatch Valley.  I wanted to get flame-roasting.

So I figured I could substitute a blend of Anaheims (originally from New Mexico, even if they achieved renown in California) and Cubanelles. There's also some Jalapeño in there and of course some tomatillos.

And you'll be relieved to know that I've kind of mastered Ghost Peppers (good thing, cuz there they are, sitting in my pepper bowl).  For this dish, you toss the pork pieces with salt and let them sit for an hour before cooking.  I put a very little bit of minced Ghost Pepper into the toss -- and then was very careful not to let any of the pieces of Ghost Pepper get into the pot.  Just sitting with the pork for an hour, they imparted this very enjoyable tingle -- but not the intense pain my first use or two of them inflicted.  There you go:  let the Ghost Peppers touch what you eat -- but don't even think of eating them themselves.

This dish was kind of perfect for tonight in that I had to do the prep work at a good time to take a work break, and then the dish was cooking away while I took a few more hours to finish work for the day.

Also, the pork was fantastically good.

Over larded rice (and topped with crème fraiche and scallions).  Some Guiso de Flor de Calabaza on the side.

This definitely seemed like a dish that a wine with Carignan as well as Grenache and Syrah would get along with.

2013 Le Roc des Anges Côtes Catalanes "Segna de Cor"

This is approximately 40% Grenache with the rest approximately evenly split between Carignan and Syrah.  It is, I think, this producer's entry level cuvée, made to be simple and vibrant.  It seemed like just the thing with a mildly spicy dish.

And it was.  It was racier in its youth -- and that was probably preferable.  But while age hasn't made it complex, it has added some depth of flavor that wasn't there before.  A decent trade-off.

There's some smoke here, which was welcome with that pork dish.  And of course those Carignan baking spices that are so nice with mildly spicy food.

Most people tend to drink this wine too young.  This was almost certainly too old -- but (as I keep telling myself) age has its compensations.

If you have any bottles of this wine of this vintage, drink up.  It isn't going anywhere but down.  But it's quite enjoyable right now.  Especially with mildly spicy food.  (Be very good with a lamb curry or tagine.)

Edited October 5, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

I keep saying each batch of Pasta alla Norma I have is my last of the season.  And tomatoes keep staying good.  The tomatoes I bought last weekend shouldn't exist in mid-September.  But then, you shouldn't have two weeks of 100º weather in early September.  In any event, this will be my last batch.  Probably.

Since I had to toss the eggplant with salt, I did the Ghost Pepper-in-the-toss thing.  On top of that, the chili I actually put into the sauce turned out to be hotter than I expected -- but not painfully so.  This was probably my best batch of this favorite dish of mine yet.

On the side, green beans in the Sicilian style.  While you're slicing the green beans in half lengthwise, you can't help but curse the Sicilians for coming up with that prep method.  But when you cook the beans and eat them, you can see why they do that.

As you know, I've found the A#1 wine pairing for Pasta alla Norma.  But I'm out of it, and I just can't see buying more.  Sometime during the afternoon, I fixated on a Douro as being a good pairing for this pasta.  I can't really articulate why I thought that.

I made sure to open a modest one.

2015 Quinta do Crasto Douro Superior

As I always tiresomely write when I drink this, "Superior" doesn't mean that this is an especially good Douro.  It means it's grown in the "Superior" district, upriver from the older classic Douro district.  So it's actually a sign of inferiority (just like the New York State Supreme Court is the court of first resort, not last).

Quinta do Crasto is one superb mainstream wine producer.  They're an old outfit, but unlike say Luis Pato in Bairido, they aren't excentrically traditional.  They make wine in the mainstream style.

But boy is it good.  And in one respect they're resolutely trad:  they only use local grape varieties.  This is the Douro blend:  a bunch of grapes you haven't otherwise heard of (at least by these names:  I think one of them might be Cabernet Franc).

Another important thing is that these wines are almost fanatically well made.  You can taste the care in every gulp (and believe me this is gulpable).  The balance, the restraint.

Maybe the most important thing is, this wine is THERE.  Sometimes you can taste when a wine has gotten where it wanted to go.  This is one of those cases.  The balance between the elements (not that there are many, as we'll get to below) is now about perfect.  And they each taste so good.

So what's it like?  Well, remember this is a modest wine:  simple, pretty linear.  It's gotten some high ratings that strike me as absurd.

But that doesn't mean it isn't delicious.

Cherries at the start.  They're not big -- but they're pure. Then, a little menthol, a very little tobacco, and we're probably done.  The finish isn't especially persistent.  But those mildly recessed but so definitely there cherries at the front are so beguiling.

There's also a decent amount of acid.  That's what made it work with dinner.  Even if it was too tannic for the hot peppers.

Edited September 22, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

I rail against the limited selection of fish that we get here in the USA as opposed to what you see at markets in Yurp.

But when one of your available local fish is as sheerly delicious as striped bass, it's hard to stay angry.

Looking at what I needed to use up, I pan roasted my striped bass with some grape tomatoes, some olives, and some lemon (and herbs).  I cooked the fish very lightly, the way Eric Ripert and Dave Santos would.

This Greek-adjacent preparation led me to make some Greek lemon-roasted potatoes on the side.

Also okra oven-roasted with tomatillo and hot chili pepper, which isn't remotely Greek.  But I'll bet Greeks would like it (if this were 1968 or '69, instead of "like" I'd have said "dig") (it isn't).

I decided this needed an Assyrtiko.

2022 Hatzidakis Santori Familia

My only complaint about this wine is that I undoubtedly drank it too young.  The elements are all superb.  But to me it tastes like they haven't quite come together yet.

This is still the best Assyrtiko I've ever had.

You (by which [like Pauline Kael] I mean I) think of Assyrtiko like say Picpoul:  a sharp warm-weather charmer -- but not something to contemplate.

This Natural Assyrtiko isn't like that at all.  There is so much going on here!  It's like a symphony of acid, herbs, minerals, and salt (it's NOT particularly fruity:  a whiff of grapefruit at the very front).  Now they're all there as fairly discrete elements.  In a few years, they'll start to meld (anneal, R. Sietsema would say), and this wine will be not just really good, but outrageously good.

As it was, it was a fine fine superfine companion for this dinner.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

I mean, when Early Man was tasting all the fish, deciding which ones were good to eat and which ones weren't, when they got to striped bass they must have fucking freaked.

[Sneakeater]

This is another of those wines where I really feel regretful when I get to the bottom of the bottle.

[Sneakeater]

VERY seasoned lamburger with goat cheese mush (with pesto and roasted red pepper), PA Dutch onion relish, Mean Old Lady chili crisps, and sweet pepper hot sauce.

On the side, a vaguely Moroccan roast vegetable melange, made even more vaguely Moroccan by serving it over cous cous.  Topped with shaved almonds I was too lazy to toast.

That side dish came out almost exactly as I intended -- far from a foregone conclusion when you're freestyling.  Well, probably it's a foregone conclusion if you're @voyager.  But I'm not @voyager by a long shot.

(Although only the gourd in the melange really required resting in salt before cooking, I decided it would intensify the flavors of all the non-tomato vegetables to give them the salt treatment.  [The tomatoes I wanted to retain all their juices to generate a gravy.] [Look at me talking like I know what I'm doing.]  So I put in some youknowwhat to seep while the vegetables were sitting.  I think I've really gotten the hang of using Ghost Pepper.  You might ask, if you take so much trouble to minimize the Ghost Pepper, why not just use a milder pepper?  The answer is, I'm not mellowing the Ghost Pepper so much as containing it.  It's not like suddenly it's just like a habanero.  It's still super-intense.  It's just that now it tingles rather than hurts.)

There was so much La Bôite in each of these dishes that I felt like Lior Lev Sercarz was my sous chef.

As I was cooking this, it occurred to me that a Rioja would have been a good pairing.  But I was already committed to something else.  I mean, on a gloomy Autumn day, who wouldn't want to drink something called . . .

2020 Bloomer Creek Vineyard Cabernet Franc "Vin d'Ete"

This is one lipsmacking wine,  It's got all the substance of a Cab Franc.  But it's got the texture and feel of the Natural wine it is.  So you get your bell peppers, you get your eucaplyptus, you get your minerals -- but it's all light as a feather.

A Rioja wouldn't have been a better pairing.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

Man, you just inhale this wine!

[Sneakeater]

Kathy Chan's Family Fish Sauce Garlic Eggplant Dish (Grandma's version)

On the side, a salad made of that mustard green cross I sautéed last week, the other parent of which turns out to be bok choi.  With a sesame oil-sherry vinaigrette.

I forgot how much I like Kathy's family dish.  If eggplants hold out, I'ma make it again next week.

It was early this morning when a great pairing hit me.

NV Domaine Laguerre Oxy

This is a Rancio from Roussillon, where I think this was once, long ago, the dominant style of wine made.  It then virtually disappeared -- until now when it's making a comeback, for reasons that will become apparent.

Rancios are oxidated like Sherries, but unlike Sherry not to the point where the wine stops tasting like wine.  This is very much a  heavily oxidated white wine.  You can still taste the fruit.  It's a really piquant combination.

So while Sherry is an excellent accompaniment for that eggplant dish (I can tell you from experience), this is a slightly different approach.  The fruitiness works so well here!  I'll note that the only grape in this wine is Grenache Blanc -- Grenache Rouge being, of course, a really great pairing for eggplant.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

I so prefer Grandma's version (it adds eggs and chili, and lets the eggplant dry out more) that I join Grandma in wondering what the younger generation (in this case, Kathy and her mother) (if I remember right, Kathy has a sister who sides with Grandma) is thinking.

[Sneakeater]

Leftover Chili Verde con Cerdo.  Over larded rice.  Topped with what you'd expect (I usually use Queso Fresco among the toppings but tonight I used Cojita, which is about ten million times better).

This chili certainly became insanely good sitting in the fridge over the week!

Guiso de Flor de Calabaza on the side.

Another wine pairing that just made me happy when I thought of it late afternoon.

2016 Jutta Abrositsch Raket

This is a Viennese red-white co-fermented field blend.  It kind of fell through the cracks over here:  it's not meant to age this much.  But it tasted fine.

What was probably a slight fizz upon release has become less slight.  The very berry fruit is still very merry.  And that's really all there is to it.

The increased fizz was only a  plus with this lard-infused meal.  The simple (but of course not jammy:  this is a Natural wine) fruit was a perfect counterpoint to the mildly spicy faux Hatch chili chili.  You can taste the white grapes in this wine -- and it's just what this main dish wanted.  (I was actually thinking of an off-dry Riesling -- which is how I came to think of this wine.)

Self back-pats all around.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

A dish that was, believe it or not, inspired by something Kyle Connaughton once cooked for Mrs. Donabe.  Of course, Connaughton is both much more skilled than I am and much less lazy.  So the resemblance between our two dishes ends pretty quickly.

Ibushi Gin Donabe-smoked duck breast over rice mixed with shitake mushrooms and charred bok choi-mustard green cross, garnished with flowering garlic chives.  Some yamamomo on the side.  And lime to squeeze on the duck.

I put some sencha in with the apple chips, cuz why not?  I can't say I tasted it.  Nobody would call this "tea-smoked duck".

This was a rare dish for me that looked a little better than it tasted.  Not that there was anything wrong with the way it tasted:  it just looked really nice.

The leftovers will make a knockout fried rice that will barely require any cooking!

Another pairing I'm pretty proud of.

2019 Ratzenberger Rivaner trocken

I often (well sometimes) wonder what you drink Müller-Thurgau (Rivaner's secret identity) with.  It turns out:  this.

You'd think, based on all the Liebfraumilch there is in the world, that all Müller-Thurgau must be thin and wan.  But a well-made one (like this one, I think from the Rhein-Nahe, or lots of the ones made in the Südtirol) has surprising heft.  Making it very good with something like smoked duck:  the acid cut through the fat, but the flavor was thick enough not to get lost with the meaty smoked duck.

Surprisingly, based on other bottles I've drunk from this vintage, this wine seems to be improving with age:  this bottle seems materially better than past ones I've had.

Given everything (including the togarashi I sprinkled on the duck), this might have been a better pairing if it were off-dry rather than trocken.  But I'm not complaining.  It worked beautifully.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

Grilled bavette with housemade perpetual chimmichurri.

The elevator pitch for bavette is that it has what's good about its neighbor on the body of a cow, flank steak -- the intense beefiness -- but it also has some marbling, so it isn't dry and one-dimensional like flank steak.  That's true as far is it goes.  But for "money cuts", I prefer flat iron or oyster or tri-tip steaks.  Not that there was anything wrong with this bavette.  I mean it was steak, right?

On the side, some broccolini flame-roasted/charred/burnt on the közmatik.  I let it rest in shoyu and sherry vinegar before cooking/burning; I drizzled it with olive oil after.  I wondered how broccolini would respond to this treatment.  I guess the answer is:  vegetables are good this way.

Everything I ate in this dinner had a char.  I like that.

The wine kind of chose itself.

2006 Achaval Ferrer Quimera

This is a Mendoza, Argentina blend of a plurality of Malbec with substantial minorities of (especially) Merlot and (less so) Cabernet Sauvignon, and also some Cabernet Franc.  These are all grapes that could go into a Bordeaux, you'll note -- but the proportions would be different.

The thing about a dinner like this one is that you're almost bound to have the kind of wine I tend to disfavor.  But for that kind of wine, this is quite good.

The dark fruit stays within reason, and the secondaries -- the tobacco, the eucalyptus, the smoked meat -- are there, and flow in logically.  There's a pronounced acid kick at the end:  good thing this steak was marbled.

I would call this wine "classy" -- with all the good and bad things that descriptor entails.

I read some reviews when this was released counselng drinking it within 5 or 7 years.   I feel sorry for anyone who did that.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

I think I might not have been clear enough:  if you're having steak, this is definitely a bottle to consider.

It's kind of MADE for it.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Sneakeater

[mongo]

wait, flank is dry and one-dimensional?

[Sneakeater]

You don't think so?

[Sneakeater]

I mean, I love Fajitas as much as the next guy.

[mongo]

well, i don't know about dimensions--most steak is at the most 1.5 dimensional--but i don't find it dry at all, properly grilled (on coals or in cast iron on the stove top).

[Sneakeater]

I just find flank steak simplistic compared to cuts I really like.

But I'd be the first to concede my technical incompetence.

[mongo]

you can probably afford the choice cuts, guvnor. down our way we mostly eat the meat from around the anus and perineum. flank is like filet mignon to us.

[Sneakeater]

Hey to me the anus is like the Holy Grail.

[mongo]

you want anus? i can get you anus, believe me. there are ways, dude, you don't want to know about it, believe me. hell, i can get you some anus by 3 o'clock this afternoon...