Stag's Leap and the "Say Fay" Kid

What comes to mind when you think of the word "Fay"? For me, it's Fay Vincent, former commissioner of baseball. Why? I have no idea. For you, perhaps it is Irish Dancing Shoes. Or weirder better yet, perhaps you enjoy raising fairies.* Or perhaps you remember that stellar ballplayer for the Giants back in the 1950's and 60's called the "Say Fay Kid".**

* I realize that there is a whole wide world out there of unique and different and worthwhile interests that don't necessarily intersect with mine. But if you are raising fairies online, you have moved in from the suburbs and right into downtown Weirdville.

** I know, it's Say Hey Kid. Thanks.

In any event, my word association with "Fay" has taken a DRAMATIC shift, thanks to the recently completed Food Night, as you soon shall see.

We had a nice crowd of 6 at Food Night this time, which is my personal favorite number for a dinner party. Not that I don't enjoy EIGHT (don't worry, no links to 80's TV shows this time), or five, or ten, or four. But six* really is where a proper dinner party's bread is buttered (pun intended). In addition to Food Night regulars Tom and Alex, the fabulous duo of James and Cynthia were in attendance this go round. In addition to being wonderful guests and food/wine appreciators, James is quite adept at snapping a photo or two, so I asked him if he would like to bring his new Leica to aid us in documenting the evening. Thankfully for all involved, he obliged.

* Sorry. I just couldn't resist. The Six Million Dollar Man. A bionic man... with an eye with a 20:1 zoom lens, two artificial... excuse me... bionic legs enabling him to run at 60mph. A bionic arm "with the equivalent strength of a bulldozer". And obviously the arm contains a Geiger Counter. I mean, that's so obvious I almost didn't even bother to mention it, of course the arm has a Geiger Counter, of COURSE! You may think I'm making this up, but, I'm not. This is a show that happened. It actually happened, and was very popular. Hell I remember watching reruns and enjoying the heck out of it as a kid. Maybe James Cameron should do a remake of it as a 3+ hour movie where Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Lee Major's role, is sent back from the future to kill Sarah Connor, crashes on his way back, and doctors rebuild him into the Bionic man (complete with Geiger Counter Arm), who then goes on to save the world from nuclear annihilation at the hands of Crazy-Ruthless-Dictator-X. Since he has a Geiger Counter in his arm and all. I think this idea may have legs.... real ones.

This Perfect Storm of guests, cameras, technology and of course... food and wine... culminated in an incredibly enjoyable and stunningly photographed Food Night!! Yes, I snapped a few clunkers myself, but James' shots are absolutely incredible in my humble opinion. But let's start by revealing the wine list at Food Night, where we pour EVERYTHING by the glass, and every bottle in the cellar is fair game*.

* Remind me to rant about "Wine Bars" and wine lists later. I mean, are you really a Wine Bar if you pour wine that retails for $5/bottle by the glass? But later, remind me later.

United States
L'Aventure Estate Cuvée
2005

Stag's Leap Cellars, Fay Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon
1999

France
Perrier-Jouët, Fleur de Champagne, Brut Rosé
1995

Chateau de Beaucastel, Chateauneuf du Pape
2004

Clos Des Papes, Chateauneuf du Pape
1998

Chateau Clerc Milon, Bordeaux, Pauillac
2002

Domaine Leroy, Côtes de Beaune-Villages
1996

Chile
Montes, Rosé of Syrah
2008

Let's hand out the awards, shall we? The Gold Medal winning wine of the night, by a LONG shot, destroying all comers like a bully on a playground, went to...


The 1999 Stag's Leap Fay Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon! This gem was brought to Food Night by James and Cynthia, and easily secured the spot atop the podium. Not to shabby considering a couple of top flight Chateauneufs were in play, not to mention a measly little 98 point wine from Paso Robles. We tasted this one blind, and thought it was older (late 90's, early 2000's) high end Supertuscan. Tom guessed the 1999 Guado al Tosso. I thought it could be something like Solia.

The wine itself was very "cab" like, but most of us felt it had an Old World treatment about it. There was layer after layer of flavor and texture, and the juice absolutely coated the glass with its fleshy, inky goodness when swirled. This was top notch stuff. A real treat to add to the tasting database. And more enjoyable than raising fairies.

Next, the Silver Medal went to...


2002 Chateau Clerc Milon Bordeaux, Pauillac! That's it there in the middle. Another wine we tasted blind, Tom thought it was California or Washington Syrah. And I actually came pretty close with a guess of 2005 Pauillac. I must have smelled it 10 times before I finally locked into the trademark 'pencil lead' characteristic wines from this region are known for. Really cool aromatics, including smoke and leather poured out of the glass. Very Bordeaux-like on the palate, refined, and not overly tannic. A fabulous wine courtesy of Alex.

And finally, the Bronze went to...


The 1998 Clos Des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape! This is a bottle I pulled out of the cellar for Food Night. Normally the deal is, I supply the food, and other peeps bring the wine. But given the guest list... I had to call a little audible. Quick bit of background on this bottle... years ago, probably 2001 or 2002, James and I were playing golf out in Stillwater somewhere. Afterwards, we strolled into town to eat at La Belle Vie, which at the time was still in Stillwater. We sat in the back, where Cynthia joined us, and we ordered a bottle of this 1998 CDP. At the time, I had pretty limited exposure to wines of that caliber, and this wine completely floored me. So shortly thereafter I went out and bought a bottle for my cellar*, and ever since I've been searching for the right occasion to open it. This Food Night was clearly the perfect occasion.

*My "cellar" at the time consisted of a cardboard box in a closet.

There is a great saying that you don't have to search for an occasion to break out a special bottle of wine. The wine IS the occasion. And while I'm not saying that this bottle was some otherworldly, life-changing wine, it represented an introduction into the world of fine wine for me. The occasion and the wine intersected at the perfect crossroads on Food Night. Tasted blind, most thought it was older Chianti. And honestly, when I opened the bottle before people arrived, and tasted it... I KNEW someone would think it was older Chianti, it had that exact color and aroma of fine Chianti. But Tom... um, well.... Tom gave it some thought.... then all of a sudden said....

"I'm gonna guess 1998 Chateauneuf." BANG. Bullseye! Pretty good, Tom. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. (That's actually Tom and a couple DEECE bottles at a tasting at the store, not at Food Night. Whatever.)

The rest of the wines were as strong a supporting cast as we've had at Food Night. The L'Aventure Estate Cuvee was rich, pure and another tooth staining powerhouse. The Beaucastel was very representative of that producer's consistency. But would you look at the bubbles that Alex brought....


Are you kidding me??!?? Look at the color of that stuff! And look at the BOTTLE... absolutely gorgeous. This vintage Champagne is certainly one of the most interesting wines I've ever had. Apparently it was stored in a hot Arizona garage for a spell, which made how good it still was all the more remarkable. And while it may have been starting to ease into the twilight of its life, it was a massively cool tasting experience. Almondy. Appropriately dry, but not cloyingly so. And soooooooo food friendly. I thought it was absolutely brilliant with the first course of....... well, you'll just have to tune in next time to see what we had first. Thought I was gonna give it up, didn't you.

And one more wine I have to make mention of is... the Leroy*. Ahhhhhh the Leroy. With the end of another Food Night comes... the morning after. As in, dishes. As in, why didn't I clean up a little more the night before? In an effort to delay that not-so-great-feeling as long as possible, as the proceedings were winding down I asked if anyone would like to open one more bottle. And I had just the bottle to open...


*One thing you'll soon come to understand if you attend Food Night (which, by they way, I hope each of you do at some point...), is that we like to have a little fun with pronunciation. Leroy is pronounced "Leh-WAH". But, obviously, we like to call it "LEE-roy". I mean, that much should be clear. Another thing you'll realize is that, we love us some Leroy wines. I would say Calera and Domaine Leroy are Food Night's favorite producers. Put it this way, I have gotten voicemail at 4am telling me how utterly profound a Leroy that was CURRENTLY being consumed was. Yeah, it's like that.

We like to talk at Food Night about when a wine gets to a certain quality, a certain abstract level of "goodness", or "deeceness" if you prefer, it almost becomes...... some other thing. As in it's almost not wine anymore, but of course it IS still just fermented grape juice, but yet it is so NOT just fermented grape juice. Does this make sense? It's like a Ferrari is a car, and so is a Chevy Chevette, but it's not like you'd go around talking about them in the same sentence. Some of the best, most spirited and enjoyable conversations at Food Night revolve around this concept that once a wine gets to a certain level of quality... is it wrong to clutter the experience with (gasp!) food? It's a subjective issue to be sure, but I've had two wines from Domaine Leroy that fall into this "some other thing" category, and never once while I was drinking those bottles did I think "Wow, I wish I had something to munch on with this unbelievable beverage."


I know that picture is a little dark. Ok maybe a LOT dark. But it actually captures the cloudy nature of the color of the wine. It's almost "emulsified" with the particulate matter in the wine. I can remember the smell and the texture of the wine perfectly just by looking at that picture.

To be sure, this particular wine from Domaine Leroy we had at the conclusion of Food Night was not one of those "some other thing" wines. It is basically the lowest level wine that Leroy produces, made with bought Pinot Noir juice, not juice from grapes that were grown by Leroy. But what's so cool about this 1996 Domaine Leroy Cotes du Beaune Villages is that... you can tell it's a Leroy. Of course it has the FILTHY dirty foil, the saturated cork, the bottle that began leaking prior to uncorking. But most importantly, in the nose and on the pallate, this little baby Leroy says "Hey, I'm something special... stop what you are doing, and ponder me for a moment."

And so we did. On the deck, after a hard rain, and with a distinct chill in the air, we donned our fleeces while we sat and enjoyed simple conversation over that bottle of Leroy.


Next up; The Food posts from the "A MidSpring Night's Dream" Food Night, complete with uber-deece photos. See you back here shortly.

Great Expectations

No, I don't mean the Chaz Dickens "masterpiece" that I read (cough, cough) in 10th grade. I mean that your expectations invariably color how you perceive a given experience. If you expect nothing, and you get something… HEY… neato! But if you expect something, or worse yet, if you expect GREATNESS… and you get nothing, well… that’s no good is it. For example, I expected Clash of the Titans to be epic, mindblowing, and devastatingly cool. The Kraken was all that, and it had creepy lawyer guy from The Usual Suspects which is always nice, but the rest of the movie… eh. It was fine, but since I expected so much more, my overall impression of the movie suffered. And since you asked, I was particularly annoyed about Liam Neeson's Zeus - I just couldn't take him seriously with that constant white glow about him. I know he's supposed to be a God and all, but, really... pull down a window shade or something.


So recently when I arranged a little gathering at the preposterously fabulous Saffron Restaurant and Lounge, naturally I expected great things. The food there as you may know is simply fabulous, and we’ve gone there often enough that we have a little vibe with Chef Sameh and the staff. So I decided to ask him if he’d be interested in putting together a little tasting menu of his choosing for the occasion. My recollection is that I asked him if he would like to do “a few courses, maybe including the watermelon curry he did on Iron Chef America*, or a soft shell crab if the little critters are deece enough right now”. So I’m thinking maybe three or four courses and dessert. Sounds reasonable enough, no?

* You did know Sameh was on Iron Chef America, right? And was the youngest ever challenger on the show, right? Yep. True, and true again.

What transpired when we got to the restaurant so far exceeded our already lofty expectations, that I wish I could hire a DW (Designated Writer) to do the experience justice. Sameh made an eight course tasting menu just for our little four person birthday party that night. EIGHT*.

* Link too predictable? I don’t care. If there is one thing I can’t get enough of, it’s Dick Van Patten. A true master of his craft. What that craft is, I'm not totally sure, but he has certainly mastered it. Go ahead and take a look at his body of work. IMDB could easily condense that list and just say "Dick was on one or more episodes of every show ever made between 1970 and 1990. Thank you.". Go ahead, look at the list... "I Dream of Jeannie", "Baywatch", "Family Guy", "Wonder Woman", "Happy Days". That's gold Jerry, GOLD.

Now, finally, let’s have a look at the utter riduclousness that Sameh unleashed upon his unsuspecting guests that night, a night that came complete with a personalized menu that I forgot to have him sign. (Closed Circuit to Sameh… have your sharpie ready next time you see me.). And not all dishes are pictured, some were devoured before the picture-taking-apparatus could be queued up. And yes, the pics aren't perfect but hopefully they get the point across.

This was our first course, and it is really hard for me to imagine a better way to start a meal than this. That's pea soup on the left, with juuuuuust the right amount of mint in it. And black truffle. (Remember, Food Night loves it some black truffle). And lobster with succulent sweet fresh peas on the spoon. I mean, are you kidding me? THAT right there got the taste buds going let me tell you. The soup was liquid velvety silky goodness. The earthyness of the truffle, with the barley there tinge of the mint, the texture of perfectly cooked lobster. I honestly was worried that subsequent dishes would have a hard time topping that first one. And of course, I was wrong........

Brown butter and veal carpaccio. Yes, please.

Favorite dish of the night. The soft shell crab was perfectly crisped, fresh and succulent. The cucumber broth... perfection. I'd need to go back to school to learn how to describe it further.

Right there we have some spice crusted mahi mahi with a little pickled ramp, and an incredible puree of fava beans (I believe). Just phenomenal, that puree was to die for.

Finally, we had beef with Parisian gnocchi (pate a choux dough, that I think Sameh boils like regular gnocchi, then pan sears. That's what I'm going with anyway). Rich, full bodied and an incredibly satisfying conclusion of the savory courses. All desserts were inhaled prior to photographing, but I have to mention the black olive ice cream. Yes. That happened. And was fabulous.

The point of this post is to say… Thank You… to Sameh and everyone that works at Saffron for a truly singular dining experience. We really appreciate the effort you put forth on a busy Saturday to make our evening truly memorable.

And by now, you may be wondering.... "Um, what the hell does this have to do with Food Night? I came here to read about Food Night, dammit". Well, since you've made it this far and asked so nicely, I'll tell you.

In honor of that meal and of the incredible soft shell crab dish Sameh made with the cucumber broth that I personally think should be in the Smithsonian, I tried to come up with my own take on that dish for the recently completed and (dare I say) wildly successful Food Night! And in general, going to great restaurants and talking about cooking and ingredients inspires me and influences my cooking. Thanks be to EVERYONE I've ever talked food with, from Sameh to my Mom, and everyone in between. Food Night wouldn't be the same without all your collective contributions to my foodiverse. Foodiverse... that's a word, right?

How did my take on an Iron Chef quality dish turn out? And are you really cooking if what you serve is not.... "cooked"? Check back for all the deets,* which will be coming along shortly. No really, they will be. I promise.

* Link provided for hipster-lingo-challenged persons only, not you. You obviously know what “the deets” means. But for others who might not be sure what it means...... it's OK to click the link.

Food Night, Halley's Comet, and Rabbits

Halley’s Comet. The Olympics. Home runs at Target Field by the home team. Food Night.

What do all these things have in common? Well clearly they are all funtastic, super duper neat things that don’t come around often enough!

It would be difficult for us to alter how often a comet visits our solar system, and actually the Olympics are probably fine just the way they are come to think of it. I mean how many down hill half pipe mogul triple lutzs can one person take? And the Twins will hit a few more taters once the weather warms up (or so they say…). But Food Night… now that is something we have some control over. So I'm happy to report that....

FOOD NIGHT is back, and on the books for Sunday May 30th!

Since you all know I'm NOT a fan of previews, I'll just tease the menu by saying there could be a recipe (or even two, depending on TIME......... Home Depot.... Bed Bath & Beyond.... etc.) from the master of Mexican cuisine in play. Obviously I cannot tell you who that Chef of Chefs might be, but I have a feeling if you are reading this you might already know.*

* Hint; his name rhymes with "Rick Bayless".

Also, it is that time of year again, when I go to the Farmers Market and buy WAAAAAY TOOOOO many plants* for the herb garden. This year, I had magic tarragon that shot up from the ground like a Russian Nuke-u-ler missile at the first hint of warm temps in April, brutally cold winter be damned. I have more tarragon than I can shake a wooden spoon at, and believe me, I can shake a wooden spoon with the best of ‘em.



* I have “X” amount of space to plant things. And I always buy X + 17 plants. What is wrong with me? And yes, that is the Nuke-u-ler tarragon, above.

This year I got some tomatillo plants in addition to my usual suspects, as I’ve heard they are pretty prolific producers, as well as fairly easy to not kill. The plan is to have a bounty fresh tomatillos for use in salsa verde. And since you asked, no, I have not even bought any rosemary or basil yet! I know, geez! I have no idea where it is going to go… perhaps in the neighbor's yard.

So obviously, we are excited to have some fresh herbage at our disposal for this upcoming extravaganza. The Taj-Ma-Food Night has also recently been equipped with new outdoor dining apparati (read: table and chairs). And there is a possibility that an uber-talented photographer will be in attendance this time. The possibilities, as you can clearly see, are endless.



* OK look. I've said here several times that I'm not a photographer. And if you have visited the blog before, you know that. (If this is your first visit... Welcome! Where have you been?). But I have to say... LOOK at that picture?!? That is the most deece picture I could possibly take with a point-and-shoot camera. I woke up early (7:30am is early, right?) after a recent rainstorm, and wanted to take a shot or two of the garden for this post. And much like the 29-handicapper that shanks his way around the golf course, then tops a 3-wood on a 160 yard par-3 that rolls up onto the green and into the cup for an Ace, well... that picture is my topped 160-yard 3 wood. I wish there would have been a witness there to attest that yes, I actually did point the camera at the pea plant and push the button all by myself. I'm sure a rabbit or four saw me do it. And speaking of rabbits........

Finally, if you are a rabbit, and you are reading this…

1). Wow. That is impressive. I didn’t even know rabbits had computers.
2). Stay away from my plants. I’m warning you. Don’t do it.



So to sum up; Food Night... 30th... Rick Bayless... Deece.

Beef Short Ribs - the most bestest kind

Hi. Remember your friends at Food Night? We've been strangers, haven't we. Please accept our apology. But fear not, we are back and ready to unleash many words into the interwebosphere...

Braising. Braising can do no wrong in my book. As such, I suppose I am a self aware braising apologist. Braising transforms the mediocre into the magnificent. I started braising cheap cuts of meat (pork shoulder, beef chuck roasts) on a regular basis about 8 years ago, and that is really what kicked my fascination with cooking into high gear. Paying a couple of bucks a pound for a very pedestrian cut of meat and transforming it into succulent goodness was, and still is, extremely rewarding. And cost effective. And crowd pleasing. And a million other things. But until this past New Year’s Eve, I’d never made a decent beef short rib. You know why? Two reasons:

1). Inferior short ribs.
2). The damn periosteum.

Don't you hate when the periosteum screws up your short ribs?!?? I know, right??! So frustrating! Geez!! We'll address that later. But as we have discussed here before, step #1 in making good food is to BUY QUALITY INGREDIENTS. This is not a difficult concept I understand, but it is so, so important. The $10/lb Mad-Cow-infused-inhumanely-raised-filth-laiden filet mignon you get at Cub or Costco or Sams Club or the like are absolutely NOT as good as the locally raised grass fed beef you can find at Whole Foods, Kowalski's, and the like. I'm sorry, but they just aren't. It's the difference between a Matchbox and a Mercedes. Between a Top Flite and a Titleist. So let's get this post rolling by diving into...

Beef Short Ribs

carrot mascarpone agnolotti, red wine, stock, parm, maldon

Two main components to this dish; Agnolotti.... and Short Ribs. First, the Agnolotti. We'll need to have a separate post on The French Laundry Cookbook, otherwise this post would be 10,000+ words, and I respect you too much to make you sit through that. Suffice to say - the recipe for the pasta dough that was used to make the agnolotti was from TFL cookbook. Agnolotti are basically ravioli, except that they are sealed via a fold on one of the four sides, where as ravioli are sealed on all four sides by pressing the top and bottom layers of pasta together to form a pocket. The filling is totally up to you. Just keep it relatively water free... when you freeze water, it expands, things constraining it (like pasta) burst, and bad times ensue. Agnolotti are positively some of the most freezer friendly food there is, so keep the water in the filling to a minimum and your diligence will be rewarded.

The pasta dough, the filling, the assembly of the agnolotti... all that can be done ahead, and the individual agnolotti frozen. That way you are ready to unleash culinary madness on your unsuspecting guests as a moments notice. They'll never know what hit them. Just look how at home the agnolotti are in the freezer....


* Yes, that is a thing of (gasp) store bought ice cream on the top left, and NO I did not buy it (not that there is anything wrong with that). It served it's purpose here balancing the agnolotti.

I featured carrots in the agnolotti filling this time, roasting them, combining them with sinfully delicious mascarpone cheese in the Food Processor, along with a little pork stock to get things moving, thyme, and crispy bacon bits (no, not these*... ACTUAL bits of bacon crisped up in a pan... shame on you).

* Just look at the ingredient list on that page... I dare you. "Defatted Soy Flour". What?! "Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil". Of course, because fully hydrogenated stuff is bad for you. And the every popular "Artificial and Natural Flavor". Funny, I just picked up a can of Natural Flavor at the store yesterday. I'm quite sure no Food Night readers are using imposter bacon, but if there are, call me... I can get you help. I know people. People who can teach you how to put a strip of bacon in a pan and turn on the heat. It's not as difficult as it sounds.

Have another glance at that the filling and a few of the finished product...




After piping the mixture onto a sheet of silky fresh pasta and forming the individual agnolotti, it was time to consider... the short rib.

Here is all you need to know about making short ribs... Alton Brown. Whatever your opinion of him, he is a freaking culinary genius. But again, you have to start with GOOD SHORT RIBS. This was the root of my prior short rib short comings (pun intended). I would buy fatty, non-meaty, boney, iffy short ribs and think "Oh, I guess short ribs are just bones with mostly fat on them". False. Proper beef short ribs are sucullently marbled hunks of beefy goodness. For Food Night, I went to Whole Foods, got some freshly cut, uber-meaty, sinfully delicious looking short ribs, and Alton Browned the hell out of them. As in, I got a cast iron pan screamin' hot, seared the heck out of them, then braised them in a tin foil packet with mixture of tomato paste, good quality vinegar, lemon juice and thyme. They come out of the oven a few hours later looking like this...


* Awful picture quality, I know. Walter Iooss I am not.

And here, is where the periosteum amputation comes into play. The periosteum is essentailly a membrane that surrounds the bone.* But when you braise short ribs gently for hours, the periosteum becomes soft, gelatenous, yet still unyielding to extensive chewing, which I find incredibly unpleasant. Its unchewable texture is just plain unpleasant to attempt to eat. But if you CHILL the short ribs overnight after braising, the periosteum siezes up, and you can EASILY remove it** to the delight of your diners. And hooray!!!... you now have periousteum-free short ribs! If you like eating grizzley oddly textured grossness, by all means skip this step. Otherwise, it is well worth your time to perform this amputation. The damn periosteum - don't like it ruin your short rib experience.

* If you know your anatomy, feel free to comment any corrections or further explanations.

** I like to remove the bone while the short ribs are still hot and then use a kitchen shears to carve out the easily distinguishable periosteum once they are thoroughly chilled.

The final, leisurely step is to have the chilled, periosteum-free short ribs hang out in a low 225ish degree oven just prior to serving for... however long, hour, two hours whatever... in a sauce constructed from the juices from the braising process and some extra red wine (which, wasn't exactly in short supply... )

Plating consisted of boiling the frozen agnolotti, then tossing them with some of the sauce from the sort ribs, and topping that with parmesan, maldon salt, and a couple of pickled tomatoes that were lying around. The verdict? Well, since a new atomic element called Deliciousonium was created in a big-bang sort of way, with a "HOLY COW how can food stuffs taste this good?!?!" sort of proclamation, yes, the dish was a success. Just look at it...



So what did we learn? Make fresh pasta, and make it often, as it is other-worldly. Buy good short ribs, braise them and remove the periosteum. And if all else fails... open a bottle of Monte Bello... your concerns will be immediately destroyed by a wave of vinicultural deeceness.

Finally, check back soon as the posts will be more frequent and more compelling. The Haskells "After Sale Tasting/Party" is in the works, as is the next official Food Night. I think I'm even going to put up a poll to see what topics you glorious people are interested in. And we may even join the rest of the free world on Al Gore's Invention called "Facebook" so people can "Follow" us at Food Night. Am I saying that right? I dunno. Anyhoo, stay tuned... and thanks for reading and caring.

The Beet Salad, with a Twist

Beet salads. When I dine at a decent restaurant, particularly in fall or winter, I usually go for the beet salad if there is one on the menu. Beet salads done right are absolutely phenomenal. But in truth, this fall/winter, I got a little beet salad'd out. They seemed to get stale, unimaginative, yesterday's news, blah. Perhaps I just saw a few too many of the usual suspects; some greens, some roasted beets, some blue cheese, and yadda yadda yadda, a $10 beet salad. We can do better than that, can't we? So for the Valentine's Food Night, I thought I'd try to turn the fun-meter up a few notches past "the usual". Let's see what happened.

Beets

Blue Cheese, Maldon, toasted almond, preserved lemon, blood orange vinaigrette

As you can probably surmise from the photo... there is a little dollup of "something" in the middle of the plate. We'll get to that in a bit. But first... beet chips! The texture of beets, beets, and more beets can get a little monotonous, no? I can remember one beet salad I had this winter at a restaurant that was so infiltrated with beets that... A). I wasn't hungry anymore after finishing it, and B). I was SO SICK of that roasted beet texture after finishing it, I didn't eat another beet salad.......

UNTIL NOW.


Anyway, beet chips. I used the ever present yellow handheld mandoline* to shave some thin slices of raw peeled red beet. Next I got a small dutch oven of peanut or other high heat oil hot - round about 340ish degrees. Toss in the beet chips, I think I did about 5 or 6 chips at a time. Trying to fry too many simultaneously will lower the temp of the oil too much, and you'll get oily, greasy, lame chips - which have to rank between stale triscuits and spoiled milk on the fun-meter. Yuck. Turn the chips a few times in the oil, and remove the chips from the oil when they stop bubbling.** Transfer to a drying rack of some kind, immediately salt them, let them dry and cool completely - then test. They should be crispity-crunchity. If not, mess with your oil temp, your frying time, your beet slice thickness, hell change your underwear maybe if you think it'll help.

* I'll stop harping on this little tool after this, but it really is my favorite kitchen gadget. I use it for potatoes, cucumbers, chiles, garlic, shallots. And yes I realize it is a uni-tasker, and no I don't care, Alton.

** It is pretty amazing how much smaller in diameter the chips are when they come out of the oil. I'm assuming from the water that is expunged from the beet by the hot oil? Alton - any input here? No? OK, anyway, keep that in mind - if they go in the size of a manhole cover, they'll come out the size of a quarter. And hey, don't limit yourself to round chips. Go CRAZY and cut them into strips before frying. Use the chips/strips to garnish tortilla or other soups. Put them on green salads. In your kids lunch. Go ahead - do it! The Beet Police won't find you - you're too smart for them. Whatever you do, if you make beet chips... make lots. You'll want lots and lots of beet chips. Lots more than pictured below. Trust me here, mkay? Swell.



So now, we have our beet chips. Those were done ahead of time. As were the toasted almonds.* As was the preserved lemon. As were the beets themselves - roasted in a 425 degree oven, then cubed up and reserved for plating. About all that was left to do was throw together a blood orange vinaigrette using the blood orange "carcases" that remained from the supremes that were used in this dish.

* Do not, I repeat NOT, walk away while toasting your nuts in the oven. Do not multi-task. Do not go to the bathroom, take a phone call, or water your plants. Maybe it's just me, but I absolutely cannot toast nuts properly in an oven and do anything else at the same time other than take in air. Nuts burn easily and quickly and without remorse. Consider yourself warned.

Oh yes, there is one more thing to the dish isn't there. That little-something that is sitting atop a beet chip at the center of the plate. That little something is......... wait for it......... BLUE CHEESE ICE CREAM!!!!

Fear not though! It worked really, really well in this dish if I do say so myself. And actually there were other selfs at Food Night that said the same. Namely distinguished guest Matt, who said he had blue cheese ice cream one other time (at a restaurant that shall remain nameless, but rhymes with La Belle Tree), and he indicated that Food Night's presentation of blue cheese ice cream was superior. Somewhere, I picture the impossibly nice Tim McKee grinning (as pictured) and saying "I'm sorry, what? I couldn't hear you, my James Beard Award was clogging my ears, can you repeat whose blue cheese ice cream was better?". So yeah, anyway, I was pleased all the guests seemed to think the blue cheese ice cream was deece.

A big key in a successful blue cheese ice cream experience is exercising a little restraint. Nobody, not even me, wants to dive into an entire bowl of blue cheese ice cream the way you would Rocky Road or Mint Chocolate Chip. Please. A tablespoon sized scoop of blue cheese ice cream sitting on a nice crisp beet chip fit the bill nicely.

Also, when you make blue cheese ice cream (which I know you are going to run out and do) spend a little coin on a good quality, creamy blue cheese. You only need a few ounces, so get a good one. Of course the ice cream recipe I used comes from the brilliant David Lebovitz, who I'm going to dub the "Official Unofficial Ice Cream Czar of Food Night". I know David will be thrilled. Look - see below? That's David being "thrilled"... I hope. Either way, ALL ice creams made at Food Night are either verbatim Lebovitz recipes, or are my creations inspired by Lebovitz recipes.


And let us not forget one of the perks of making your very own blue cheese ice cream; leftovers! That means, you can get yourself some high end balsamic vinegar, some little ramekins, and top a dollup of blue cheese ice cream with yummy balsamic. Place this fabulous combination of flavors in front of your wonderful guests WITHOUT telling them what it actually is... and watch the hilarity ensue as their eyes say "Mmmmm, vanilla with chocolate sauce", and their mouths say "NOT SO MUCH"!!!


So, you now have all the components needed to make the above dish. Plate the dish as you see fit. The composition options are limitless. And if you have a stray pickled tomato or two, as apparently I did, I'm sure the beets would be happy to have them along for the ride.

Up next - a more conventional dish that was so freaking amazingly fantastically good... scientists have decided to add a new element to the periodic table in honor of this dish. It will be called "Deliciousonium", and will have an atomic weight of infinity.

So, check back, you obviously don't want to miss that.

The Scallop/Bacon Nuptuals

* If you are looking for a brief account of course #1 at the Valentines Day Food Night... look elsewhere. I have edited, re-edited, paired down, and deleted all I can. This is what's left. Maybe I'll post the "Directors Cut" of this post in the future, for those of you that just can't get enough of my ramblings.

Studies show, if you are reading this there is roughly an 81% chance you know who the bearded fellow pictured here is. That, of course, is Kevin Gillespie, contestant on the recently completed Season 6 of the wildly successful Bravo TV series "Top Chef". Kevin is your typical MIT scholarship-turner-downer-to-instead-attend-culinary-school. So, he clearly is genius material, and I do mean that literally. Furthering his case for Culinary Jedi status was the "Escargot Quickfire Challenge".

In a Quickfire Challenge, contestants have a brief period of time (in this case it was 45 minutes) to create a foodgasm-inducing dish for a celebrity chef (in this case it was uber-chef Daniel Boulud) The contestants were instructed to "Make a winning dish, using snails as the main protein". So what does Kevin do? He makes BACON JAM. I repeat; Bacon. Jam. He makes Jam... with Bacon in it. And of course he still has time to russle up some snails and other stuff in under 45 minutes. I can barely boil water on my stove in 45 minutes, let alone make bacon jam and snails. So the next time you are trying to dig that Smuckers* garbage that is only 43% fruit and 57% partially hydrogenated xanthan gum fructose red dye #40 out of that sticky-ickey glass jar, know that if you have bacon... and stock (obviously)... you could be spooning some baconey goodness onto your english muffin instead of that ridiculous smuckers.

* See what word you are left with when you take the "m" out of "Smuckers"? Yeah. I'm just sayin'.

But enough preamble... let's dive into Food Night's first course...

Scallops
bacon jam, stock reduction, citrus, maldon, cilantro, chile sauce

Can you turn on your oven and push "start" on your blender? Then you can make bacon jam. Look, it's just hanging out in the oven, practically cooking itself.... all you need to do is apply heat and stir.


Since I had it in my head that I wanted to recreate Kevin's bacon jam, and scallops with bacon are a frequently matched pair*, I thought I'd try to raise the bar a little on the usual "bacon wrapped scallop".

* You'll often see scallops wrapped in bacon skewered up and pre-packaged at your grocery store. Only problem is... it is near impossible to cook both the bacon and the scallop properly simultaneously. And frequently the grocery store will sell you inferior wet packed scallops** this way. Do yourself a favor; if you want to join some bacon and scallop in culinary matrimony, make this bacon jam and go to Coastal for your scallops (and for ALL your seafood needs for that matter). Food Night Truth #1; make your own stock. Food Night Truth #2; buy your seafood from a trusted source, that gets fresh product daily.

** Scallops that are without any additives are called "dry packed" while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STP) are called "wet packed". STP causes the scallops to look "nice" and white, and to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process. More moisture means they weigh more, and thereby cost you more (only you are paying for water, not scallop). And the excess moisture in these wet scallops makes them literally IMPOSSIBLE to sear properly. Moisture + High heat = Steam = No Caremlization = Rubbery Seafood = Bad times. So please. Get your seafood from a reputible source. And no - Coastal Seafoods does not contribute monetarily to Food Night. Quite the opposite, actually.


ANYWAY. Let's get on with the method...

Bacon Jam a la Kevin Gillespie

• 1 cup bacon (roughly 8oz), cut into 1'' pieces (get the good bacon from your butcher, please, not the prepackaged stuff packed with preservatives)
• 1/4 cup yellow onions, julienned
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 cups chicken stock*
• 1 tablespoon honey

* If you don't have any stock because you are waiting for me to post on how to make it, use water instead. Do NOT use anything that came out of a can or a box. But you knew that already.

Render bacon in heavy saute pan (cast iron works great) in 500 degree oven until crisp. Pull from oven, remove bacon, and saute onion in remaining bacon fat until onions are golden. Return bacon to pan, and add brown sugar, stirring to coat.

Add 1 cup stock. Stir, scraping up all browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Return to oven. Reduce until thick, and nearly dry.

Repeat with another cup of stock.

Add remaining cup stock, season with salt/pepper, and pour contents into blender. Process to fairly smooth.

Pour contents back into pan, stir in honey. Put pan back into oven, stir frequently until deep brick red color is attained. Remove from oven, swirl in butter.

Now that you have your Bacon Jam, you are ready to join said Jam, and a dry packed scallop, in blissful culinary matrimony. That process starts by searing the bejezuz out of the scallop, as follows...

Use a pan* like the one pictured above and add a film of high heat oil (peanut, grapeseed) while pan is still cold. Get the pan rip-roarin' hot, and only when pan is screamin' hot, add the scallop(s). Sear for maybe a minute, some browning will happen, the pan will hiss, and smoke, and you will want to poke/prod the scallop but DO NOT under any circumstances poke and/or prod your scallop. Leave it alone, you don't want to mess up the matrimony do you?! Didn't think so. After a minute or so, add a knob of butter to the pan (and garlic clove(s) with skin on, and thyme sprigs if you want, but you MUST add butter). Tip the pan, and spoon the melted butter oil over the scallop for another 30ish seconds, things should be noticeably brown around the scallop by now, but you haven't poked or prodded the scallop, have you. Remove scallop(s) from pan and invert onto paper towel (so browned side is up) when browned to your liking. Bang. Done. The End. How easy was that?!**


* You'll notice this pan is NOT a non-stick pan. Non-stick pans have many uses. Searing a scallop is not one of them. Nor is searing anything, for that matter.

** Answer; very easy! Please, if you haven't already, try it. It's not rocket science. Buy a good scallop. Sear the living daylights out of it. And revel in your accomplishment.

Note you did not turn the scallop over in the pan either. And if you have a bunch of scallops to sear (like we did at Food Night), work in batches, don't overcrowd the pan, and change the oil/fat between batches. The keys here are the proper pan, and making sure it is hot as the sun. And yes; I exaggerate. Again. But only slightly. That pan has got to be mega-hot.

The finished dish actually involved TWO kinds of scallops. When buying the sea scallops, I snagged some Nantucket Bay scallops* since Coastal had them on hand, and proceeded to sear them as above (except in a fraction of the time since they are a fraction of the size of sea scallops). You can see the finished product below... the bacon jam on the left, the supremes of grapefruit and blood orange on the right...

* These little guys (and gals. At least, I assume there are guy and gal scallops right? If there is an ichthyologist reading this... maybe he can enlighten us... Dad.......) are the candy of the seafood world. They are so sweet I think you could sear them just by THINKING of putting them in a hot pan. They are a seasonal product, available only November t0 March or there abouts... so get them while you can. There are four on the plate below...

The dish probably didn't need the reduced stock (which was kind of hidden under the citrus). But what was key to melding the flavors was Maldon salt. It functions as garnish, texture and flavor enhancer. Great stuff the Maldon.

And there you have it. Scallops & Bacon. Food Night style.

Valentine's Food Night - The Wines

Have you ever tried to follow an act that was wildly successful? Rarely is Act II as good as Act I. Unless you are Larry David, and you follow "Seinfeld" with "Curb Your Enthusiasm". Or unless you are Tim McKee and you follow La Belle Vie with Solera and Barrio. But clearly, I don't do comedy, and I don't qwiiiiiiite have the culinary acumen of a James Beard Award winner like Tim McKee. So I did what anyone would do - I panicked. And right after panicking, I set out to create a menu that would be a worthy Act II to the wildly successful Act I that featured...

• The first Food Night ever documented on the Internets.
  
• A Food Night that featured a freaking truffle (and not the chocolate kind, either).
• A Food Night whose wines included the best Priorat I've ever had, and Lafite's second wine.

One thing is never in question at Food Night... the wines will be Rock Star caliber. The food takes a bit of luck and thought and effort and luck and more luck and then a miracle happens and then I trip over a rabbits foot onto a four leaf clover patch, and then if all the happens the food turns out deece. OK, I exaggerate slightly, but the wines... the wines are never in question. Let's have a look at the Star Studded lineup this time that featured not one, not two but THREE Chateauneufs...

United States
Calera, Selleck Pinot Noir
2001

Ridge, Monte Bello
2001

Northstar, Columbia Valley Merlot
2002

Swanson, Alexis Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2005

France
Clos Des Papes, Chateauneuf du Pape
2006

Vieux Télégraphe, Chateauneuf du Pape la Crau
2000

Cuvée du Vatican, Chateauneuf du Pape, Réserve Sixtine
2000

Chateau Cambon La Pelouse, Haut-Médoc, Bordeaux
2005

Spain
Les Brugueres, Priorat Vi Blanc
2006

Rotllan Torra, Tirant, Priorat
2001

Italy
Manzone, Barolo le Gramolere
2004

By now, you are no doubt aching to find out which of these wines were the fave's of the Food Night crew. So let's not keep you waiting any longer... the prestigious GOLD MEDAL from the Valentine's Food Night goes to....................................

The 2001 Ridge Monte Bello! Absolutely no surprise there, it was certainly a notch (or two) above all other wines that night. The best domestic wine I have ever had was the 2004 Phelps Insignia, and the Monte Bello seriously made me reconsider that position, as it was absolutely spectacular. A sort of ripe banana aroma was incredible, as were the layers of texture and concentration. Certainly one of the better wines we've had at any Food Night. There was actually a great article in the New York Times this week about Ridge, and the Monte Bello in particular. You can imagine hard time I had convincing them to run it in conjunction with this post. Amazing that this little blog has gotten so much pull in such a short period of time, no?! In any case, I highly encourage you to check out the article.

When Tom extracted the unmistakably Ridge labeled bottle from the paper bag that had been concealing it during our blind tasting... many loud "OHHHHHs!!!!" were heard, many fists bumped, and chants of "We are not worthy!" filled the air. So many of us had been wanting to try this bottle for some time. A dream had been realized. Because that is what we do at Food Night. We make dreams... come true.*

* If your dreams happen to involve drinking great wine, that is. If you dream bigger than that, we probably cannot help you. Thanks for understanding.

Moving on, the SILVER MEDAL goes to.........

The 2006 Clos Des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape! The first (and last, prior to Food Night) Clos Des Papes I had was a the 1998 vintage at the old La Belle Vie in Stillwater. My wine knowledge at the time couldn't have filled a flea's bathtub, but I knew enough to say... wow... that's good. Fast forward several years, and Clos Des Papes is making even BETTER wine now, so says Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, and others who "know". And while it was absolutely fantastic, I think Tyler captured it accurately when he mentioned we probably did not max out this bottle's potential. It was decanted OVERNIGHT in TWO separate decanters for maximum aeration. Rich, decadent, and ripe, I'm really glad there are three left in my cellar. We'll break it out again for a Food Night in 2015.

And finally... rounding out the medal stand with the BRONZE is...


The 2001 Calera Selleck! If you know anything about the Food Night crew, you know we are pretty obsessed with Calera wines. The 2001 Selleck is what started that obsession. Perfume? Check. Bright acidity? Check. Gobs of Asian spice and other "non-fruit" aromas? All present and accounted for. Amazing stuff the Calera.

Personally, I really loved the Tirant Priorat too. I actually gave it the Silver on my ballot. Fantastically structured, with awesome aromas of asphalt and rich tobacco and smoke. Plus, check out the hand written bottle numbers! How cool is that?! Very classy.


And speaking of labels, how regal are these Chatty labels...


In the middle is the 2000 Vieux Télégraphe. That stuff (as Tim commented on) was indeed fantastic. I think it had the most terroir (ter-whah) of any wine of the night. You could smell and taste the soil the grapes were grown in, and the musty funky air of the cave that the wine was aged in.* The Clos Des Papes even goes so far as to print the word "TERROIR" right on the label! (Check out the picture below if you don't believe me). Above on the right was the 2000 Vatican Sixtine, and unfortunately it had a definite hint of TCA (or, it was slightly "corked"). It wasn't as prevalent on the palate, but once that smell is in my head, I have a hard time getting past it. A shame too, as the 2001 Sixtine was one of the best Chateauneufs I've ever had, so I was really looking forward to trying the 2000.

* I have no idea if it was stored in a cave, but it sure wouldn't surprise me.


Rounding out the wine summary, was a 2004 Manzone Barolo, which is a wine I've had twice before. First time was the 2001 vintage, and at the time, it was the best Barolo I'd ever had. I distinctly remember it's leathery bouquet and wonderfully acidic structure. The second time was the 2004, and I decanted it for hours and hours, but was unable to extract it from it's youth. That seems to be a pattern for young Barolos. Sometimes you can give a young powerful wine some air and time in the decanter, and it will reveal itself to you. Not so, the Barolo. It is the most stubborn wine I've come across in that regard; it seems there is simply no substitute for bottle age with Barolo. That isn't to say the 2004 Manzone wasn't enjoyable - it certainly was, and it will surely be a gem in another 5+ years. But like the Clos Des Papes, another wine we opened before it's time.

And now, sadly, I must wrap up this riveting post on the wines of the Valentine's Food Night. I could go on, but, A) it's almost St. Patrick's Day, and B). I need to save my energy for detailing the food of Food Night. And as you might imagine... there was a lot of pretty deece (and this time, unique) food to detail.