The Weekend of the Pig

So it's been a while. A lot has happened in the past few months. Some great meals have been created, good wines have been drank and I got a new job. I now work for a larger distributor. It's a lot of work but I like it. I have a great boss, good route and a decent book. The big plus, it pays better so my wine budget has grown. I have been going back to old world wines that I love the most, Northern Rhones, white Rhones, reds from Loire Valley, Bordeauxs, there even was an amazing Beerenauslese. It has been a great few months.

Saturday night Noel and I went out to help our good friend Jen celebrate her third 29th birthday. She got 10 people together and we had a pig roast at Franklin Southie. It was so fucking awesome!!!!!! They bring out the pig, give you a quick talk and then go back and butcher it for you. It was so overwhelming. Where do you start? I started with the cheeks and never looked back. Ribs, legs, ears, nose, eyes and the brain. YES I ATE PIG BRAINS AND I LIKE IT!!!! The brains were as soft as Foie Gras. I spread it on some bread, a pinch of sea salt and a quick squirt of lemon and I was in fucking flavor heaven!! It's is the most shockingly good thing I have ever eaten. I will never again say no to any "gross" foods!!

Thursday night I had cooked a pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon with brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes. It came out great but being for just Noel and I,we had a good amount left over. Sunday night when I was trying to figure out what to cook I thought about the leftovers from the pig roast and the tenderloin we had in our fridge. In the past I made chicken pot pie with left over chicken. So why not make pig pot pie?  I followed the basics of a chicken pot pie recipe I use from Pillsbury. I added to the onions, some celery and carrots. Instead of chicken stock I used a cup of veggie stock and 3/4 cup of cream of mushroom soup. I also replaced the steam veggies with left over veggies from both meals. It was so good!!! Both Jen and Noel agreed I had to blog about this meal!!! I usually hate leftovers, but if I could find more recipes like this I may have to chance my view on yesterday's meal.

The wine I picked was a no-brainer. I wanted something that would be full bodied, dirty barn yard, stinky ass wine. I had just bought a Northern Rhone from Brookline Liquor Mart. They have an awesome selection of wine. I especially love their French section and often drool over bottles. About a week ago I found a Saint Joseph at a good price and had to buy it. Last night I was glad I did. Cave Saint Desirat had great spice and fruit that really went well with the pot pie. I love, love, love a good Syrah and this bottle was a great Syrah!! It was another great pick for another great meal. I love when food and wine play well together.

When the Wife is Away the Foodie Will Play

Noel went to her mother's early last weekend for a surprise party for a friend and to have brunch with her mom on Mother's Day. I wasn't going until Sunday so that meant I was on my own for dinner Saturday night. I love being on my own for dinner, Noel is what we call a picky eater, while I am an adventurous eater. First I thought fish but real quick I changed my mind. I had bought a fig balsamic vinegar at Russo's a few weeks earlier but had not yet used it. It hit me like a ton of bricks....duck breast. Duck is my favorite foul and because Noel does not like it and it can be expensive in restaurants I don't get a lot of opportunity to eat the delectable bird.

I had gone to Russo's that day to do our weekly shopping. Usually Russo's has duck breast, that Saturday they did not. After my wine tasting I ran to Whole Foods but they too didn't have any duck breast. I called my friends at Bacco's Wine and Cheese, they are all foodies so they would know where I could get the sought after meal. The Cheese Wiz told me, "Duh Savenor's in Beacon Hill." I felt like such a dummy, I use to live down the street from this place and have bought some of the best meats from these guys. Savenor's Market is a really nice, high end butcher. They carry everything, I mean everything. Ever want to try lion, tigers or bears? Oh my, they have them all!! I found a great recipe online. It was a pretty simple recipe. Score the skin, heat up a skillet put some sea salt in the skillet before putting in the duck skin side down. Cook five minutes per side and l let it sit for 10 minutes covered in tin foil. While that was sitting I took 1/3 cup of my fig balsamic vinegar mixed it with 1/3 cup dry white wine and reduced it by half then added tablespoon butter. The sauce was amazing and when added to the duck I saw fireworks!!! I roasted some small potatoes for almost an hour at 500F. They cooked for so long they were small balls of mash potatoes and when dipped in the sauce were devilishly good. While the duck breast was resting I cooked carrots, brussel sprouts, shiitake mushrooms, shallot and garlic in the duck fat. There is nothing better than vegetables cooked in animal fat!!!!

Such a great meal needed a great wine. French Pinot Noir is a great wine, especially when it comes from Sancerre. Sancerre is a fantastic region in Lorie. It is now a region known for the world's best Sauvignon Blanc but historicly it was better known for Pinot Noir. Why not the region abuts Burgundy. I personally love red Sancerre's better than the wines from Burgundy. I opened a bottle of Henri Bourgeois Les Bonnes Bouches Sancerre. I had bought this once before from Beacon Hill Wine and Spirits in Beacon Hill and knew I loved. It was full of candied sour berries, tart acidity and as I drank it the earthy, dirty flavors that Pinot is known for came to the party. Perfect wine for my perfect meal!! I can't wait for the wife to go away again, I've wanted to cook a lamb dinner for a while!!

Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Dan Dreams of Pork

Sunday, Noel and I went to see Jiro Dreams of Sushi at Landmark Theater in Kendall Square. Great movie!! I was glad we went and had sushi before the movie, if we had waited until after, we would have spent so much more money at Fuji Sushi Bar. Instead, after the movie, we ended up at the Friendly Toast. They have some awesome cocktails and good food, plus I know the GM. Noel got cheese fries and it came with a strawberry-habanero dipping sauce. When we left, I made sure to get the rest of the dipping sauce to go. There was a pork chop dinner in my future and it was going to be marinated in this sauce!!!!

I marinated the pork chops overnight, then baked them to 150F. They came out amazing!!! Every bite was a mouthful of spicy, strawberry pork!! This has been my most favorite pork chop I've ever cooked!! Since the sauce had some major heat I knew I should have some sides that would help cool down the palate. I had some bacon in the frig so I grabbed the book Seduced by Bacon. This book is 178 pages of bacon love. I found two recipes that I know would help make this meal epic! First I found a brussel sprout, bacon and shiitake mushroom stir fry. Stupid easy to make and just out of this world good!! Peel the leaves off six brussel sprouts, cut up cup of baby shiitake mushrooms and 1/3 pound of bacon chopped up. Cook the bacon until the fat covers the bottom, add the brussel sprouts, then mushroom, last 1/4 cup soy sauce. YUMMY!!!!!! When we went to Russo's this week we got roasted corn and ricotta ravioli. I found a sauce a few pages later, a carbonara sauce. I've made a few before and they are real easy and this one was the same but it was bacon rather than pancetta. This sauce really went incredibly well with the ravioli. Bacon and corn is a marriage made in heaven!! OH I DO SO LOVE BACON!!!!

The wine was easy. I bought a Chinon from Beacon Hill Wine & Spirits in Boston. Gene always has good stuff and I LOVE CHINON!!!! Cabernet Franc from the Lorie Valley.... YES PLEASE!! Les Galuches was a great bottle of wine. Awesome dusty green bell pepper, dark sour cherries and raspberries, with strong tannins. The wine sang different notes all night as it opened up. When I got my last glass, I was so upset that I had to finish the journey. Loire Valley is my favorite wine region in the world, and Chinon is my favorite region with in the Loire. I love Cabernet Franc and it is such and under-appreciated grape!! Here is your homework: go get yourself a bottle of Chinon. You don't have to spend a lot, ~$15. If you like the wine, go and try Cabernet Franc from other places- the Finger Lakes would be a nice start.

One Meal Two Sauces

In the past few months I have made so many meals using fresh figs. I am really starting to love figs. I also love making sauces. Sauces make boring meals more exciting. Plus they are so gourmet, and that's what it's all about. While at Russo's Sunday, I decided to buy fresh figs and ravioli. I knew I was going to make two sauces this week, but I didn't think it would be the same meal. The ravioli was ricotta and sweat pea. I knew I wanted to use them as a side and not as the main focus. I decided to buy thin steaks while at Shaws and figured they would pair well with ravioli. But how could I make the steak as good as the ravioli? The answer was easy FIGS.

I love buying these steaks, they are so easy to make and are a cheap, decent cut of meat. I use a little olive oil and sea salt to make a quick and easy marinade and pan fry them. I found an easy balsamic fig sauce on keyingredient.com. I knew this would pump up the cheap thin steaks, and boy did it ever!!! I did change the recipe up a little. It asked for fig preserves, but I used fresh figs. I chopped up two figs before adding it to the balsamic vinegar and port. I roasted some brussel sprouts with olive oil, sea salt and garlic at 500F for 20 minutes. I tossed a cask iron skillet in with the brussel sprouts. After 20 minutes the skillet is hot enough to evenly cook the steaks. Just two minutes a side and the steaks were perfect. I cut them up into strips and served the fig sauce.  While the brussel sprouts were roasting I also cooked the ravioli and a butter and sage sauce. The butter sauce was so good, it used fresh sage, lemon juice and Parmigiano cheese. My buddy Chef Timmy gave me the idea for the butter sauce and he was so right. The two sauces kind of mixed together on the plate so I used the brussel sprouts to sop up the mess. I was in pure flavor Heaven!!

The wine was an easy pick. I had a worked with the new rep to Cielo in Italy. They have good inexpensive estate wines. In 2008 they celebrated their 100 year anniversary by introducing a new wine, Cent'anni Valpolicella Ripasso. This wine is so good!! It retails around $15.99 which for a Ripasso is a good value. The wine is big, and robust with great cherry flavors. Valpolicella Ripasso wines are great. The grapes are harvested later in the year so that they over ripe on the vine and basically become raisins. The grapes are fermented, but later in the spring they are re-passed over the left over skin of it's bigger brother, Amarone. This helps add body, color and flavor and kicks it into a second fermentation that raises the alcohol. The wine went great with the steak and the figs!! Perfect pairing for a great meal.

A Spicy Sunday

I'm standing in Shaws today, wondering what to make for dinner tonight. I give a longing look at the seafood counter, pretending I was ordering fish. Out of nowhere I hear, "you wanna get shrimp." I was snapped back from my daydream. It was Noel saying this. I knew I had to jump quickly before she changed her mind. I ordered a pound of uncooked shrimp immediately jumped on my phone to find a recipe she would like.

Noel said right away she would like some of the Sriracha she loves used in the meal. While looking up a recipe I came across shrimprecipes.org and found Broiled Cajun Shrimp. I was sold right away, both the shrimp ad the sauce asked for hot sauce. Noel was going to get her meal with her Sriracha. It's a real easy recipe. Marinade the shrimp in olive oil, tablespoon of hot sauce and three cloves garlic for 15 minutes. The broil them for three minutes. While that's cooking in a sauce pan melt two tablespoons of butter with tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, tablespoon of lemon juice, teaspoon oregano and two teaspoons chili pepper. I added a tablespoon of Sriracha to kick it up a notch. It brought it up more than a notch but boy was it good. I served it with Zatarain's Long Grain and Wild Rice. The rice is cooked in an awesome blend of spices and really helped bring the meal to the next level. I roasted broccoli, with olive oil, garlic and sea salt for 20 minutes. This was a great meal and everything went really well together.

Right down to the wine. The website suggested a Riesling, Pinot Grigio or sparkling wine. Any of these wines would have been great with the meal. I didn't have any of them in the house. I did have a Viura from Lagrimas De Maria. Viura is grown in Rioja, outside of Rioja it is better known as Macabeo and is one of the three grapes in Cava. It's light and fruity and often inexpensive. Perfect for seafood, especially spicy seafood. Lagrimas is a great wine. It's medium bodied, with aromas of tropical and fresh fruits that follow on the palate. Perfect wine for a great meal!!  

Easter Leftovers

So what do you do with leftovers from Easter. As I said before I love ham. Since Sunday I have been chowing down on cold ham. After eating more than two pounds of ham in two days, I decided there had to be a better way. I went and searched online, but I couldn't find a recipe that I wanted to make. Then I thought about the first meal I ever made with leftovers, Chicken Pot Pie. A light went off in my head....HAM POT PIE!!!! My mind was blown!!

I looked up a few recipes, including checking out my post about chicken pot pie and came up with a recipe of my own. I decided to use what I had left from Easter, ham and yams. Unfortunately for this meal my in laws took the veggies home with them, so I cut up a carrot and some snap peas. I steamed the carrot for five minutes before chopping it up. In a sauce pan I melted 1/3 cup of butter with a chopped shallot, and a minced clove of garlic. After a few minutes I added 1/3 cup flower, salt and pepper and blending everything together. In stead of chicken stock I took a half cup of cream of mushroom soup and added it to a cup of water. I added that with a half cup milk to the rue. After I mixed all this together I added the ham, left over yams (about a cup), and the veggies. I only had one crust so I poured the mixture into a pie plate and covered it with the crust. I then baked it at 450 for 35 minutes. The smell while it cooked let me know this meal was going to be amazing!! The mushroom soup really gave this meal a kick. I was afraid the carrots would be over cooked but they were perfect, the snap peas and yams were both a nice touch. I usually hate leftovers but this meal was great. I'm not even sure you could call this leftovers since it was a new meal.

Even my wine was leftovers from Easter. I bought more wine for Easter than I needed. I did it on purpose in case any of wines were bad, if we all drank more than I expected and I wasn't 100% sure what wines I wanted to serve with the dinner until I was almost done cooking dinner. The bottle that I didn't end up opening was a rose from Provence. I love Provence rose. I got Bieler Pere et Fils at The Wine Emporium on Tremont Street. Max the wine buyer had tried it a few days earlier, fell in love with it, and bought enough to have a focus on it for Easter. He loves rose wines and I knew if he bought a lot of it, it had to be a great wine. Rose is a perfect wine for ham. The light fruit flavors don't over compete with the salty, sweet flavor of ham. This wine was no different. A blend of 50% Syrah, 25% Grenache and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. It's full of ripe raspberry, strawberry and cherries, with nice spice and oak notes and a long, crisp finish. What a nice bottle of wine!!

I love rose wines and drink them year round when I can find them. There are some people out there that tell you don't drink rose. Those people are close minded and often think that rose wines are sweet. Most rose wines are not sweet, what most people are thinking about is white zinfandel. White zinfandel is a SIN AGAINST HUMANITY!!! They add sugar to white zinfandel so it gets sweet. Wine makers have been making rose wine for thousands of years. They are light, fruity and perfect spring and summer wines. On a hot summer day there is nothing better than a cold glass of rose. If you've never drank a rose wine, go to your local wine shop and ask one of the wine people for a rose recommendation. I personally love French rose wines, especially from Provence, the Loire and the Rhone. Spain also makes fantastic rose wines. I promise if you keep an open mind, you will instantly fall in love with rose wines.

Another Epic Holiday Feast

A few months ago I invited my parents and Noel's parents to Easter Dinner. Both sides don't get to interact that often since my parents live in Maryland. It was a great day, Noel made the table look amazing with her Easter decorations and flowers, we had great food, great wine and I won Apples to Apples. I love cooking for larger groups. I came up with the menu all last week. A ham with a pomegranate maple syrup glaze, steamed veggies with Dijon mustard and honey, apple sauce (more like apple gravy), roasted sweet yams, whipped cauliflower (Thanks Meg!!!), and a fig salad.  

My favorite dish for this meal was the apple sauce. I found it at allrecipes.com. It didn't use apples at all, it called for apple cider. I Daned it up by changing the raisin to dried cranberries and cherries. This came out so awesome!!!!! It went great on top of the yams that I roasted. The yams were awesome! I got a yam called sweetest oriental yam at Russo's Market. I cut them up in to 1 inch pieces, covered them in agave nectar, fresh cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Since I only have a small oven I knew I was going to have to roasted them with the ham so I roasted them for almost two hours at 350F. These yams opened my eyes to a new world of  starches. The pomegranate maple syrup glaze was amazing on the ham. The right amount of sweet and tart that helped showcase the salty ham. The fig salad was a great spring time salad and I got use red wine vinegar that I made the other day. I'm finding that I really love figs and need to cook with them more often. The whipped cauliflower was a fun dish. My friend Meg had told me about it, she said she's obsessed with the side dish. I can see why. The Dijon honey sauce I made for the steamed broccoli and carrots really helped make the steamed veggies a little more fancy. The only thing I forgot to make was biscuits, but no one seemed to even notice. This was by far one of my favorite holiday meals that I have made.

What wine do you serve with such an epic meal? I bought a sparkling rose malbec, La Rosee from Domaine Augis at Wine Emporium on Columbus Ave. Laura the wine buyer has a fantastic palate and it's helped her bring in some amazing wines. This treasure comes from my favorite wine region in the world, Lorie Valley. In Lorie Malbec is also known as Cot. The wine is made in the Methode Traditionnelle, which means the second fermentation is done in the bottle, just like Champagne. The wine is pretty delicate and refreshing, yet still has the spice and bright red fruit that malbec is know for. I know most people find it odd to serve sparkling wine with food. Why? It's perfect with food!! Champagne and fried chicken are a great wine pairing!! This wine was such a perfect pairing with this meal. It went well with the salty, sweet ham, stood strong against the yams and didn't over power the cauliflower.  I love this wine!!!!

All and all it was a great day. Noel's table setting was perfect and the dinner and wine was delicious. It really helped us show our parents that we are grown adults, and not the kids they think of. I'm sure after they both left we were back to children in their minds. After everyone left I broke into the left over ham and by 8pm, I was passed out on the couch in a "Ham Coma". I have a ham problem!!! It was a great day!!

Yummy Fungi and Merlot

Saturday, Noel and I were in Russo's getting our weekly produce. Noel asked if I wanted to get any pasta they sell. I was shocked when she said ok to mushroom ravioli. I love mushrooms!! Noel, not so much. I knew I had to make a meal that would help the mushrooms be a background taste. I decided to add thin steaks, and roasted brussel sprouts. What a meal!!

I did have to come up with a sauce for the mushroom ravioli. I found on food.com a great cream sauce with Marsala. I love Marsala, most people think it's only a cooking wine, but it is a great after dinner wine too. This sauce was so easy to make and helped make this meal outstanding. Perfect for this meal. To start you need to saute a small diced onion and three cups of mushrooms for about three minutes. When we were at Russo's, I grabbed baby shiitake mushrooms for the dinner. YUMMY!!! After the room smells of mushrooms cooked with onions (about 3 minutes) you add 1 1/3 cup Marsala. I used real Marsala for this recipe, there are "cooking" Marsala's but what fun is that? You would never want to drink that after the recipe was done. After you boil the mushroom/Marsala mix for four minutes you need to add 1 1/3 cup heavy cream and 1/8 cup milk and heat until warm. Salt and pepper to taste and serve over the ravioli. This sauce came out amazing!! I even made sure to pour a little on top of the steaks and brussel sprouts.

The wine was easy to pick. My buddy, Mike from Peirano Estate, was out in the market two weeks ago. I love this estate, especially their Merlot. It comes from 6 clones, 3 from California, Italian clone #9, and from Bordeaux clone 181 and 134. Don't tell anyone but I heard the owner was at Petus and found clone 181 on the ground and pocketed it. What a bad ass!!! This Merlot is great. So many people over look Merlot. Sure it's not the most exciting grape, but give it to the right wine maker and you get a fantastic wine. This wine has a beautiful bouquet of cherries and blackberries in cream. The palate is a wonderful array of flavors. The plum, cherries and cranberry notes help welcome this old friend back into your life. What a great pairing with this meal.

Happy Anniversary

Wow, I can't believe it's already been a year. When Noel first told me to start a blog I thought who would care, but I have found there are people out there. Thank you so much for sharing great meals and amazing wines with me!!

I was trying to think about what I should cook and blog about for my first year anniversary. My very first post was about meatloaf. I love meatloaf!! Over the year, anytime I have made my own tomato sauce I have used some of it in a meatloaf. I've got pretty good at making meatloaf. Thanks too our friends SamiJ and Erik, I still have some venison in my freezer. I decided to make a venison meatloaf for this very special occasion. The best part of using the venison in my freezer, I got to grind up the meat myself. Noel and I bought a Kitchen Aid blender on Ebay a while ago and it came with the meat grinder attachment. How gourmet!!! I cut up the steak into cubes so it would be easier to put it through the grinder, and seasoned the meat with salt, thyme and rosemary. Venison is not a real fatty meat. When I was at Russo's I bought a slab of double smoked bacon. I cut off a large chuck from the fattiest side and ground it up with the venison to add a little fat and flavor. Bacon makes everything better!!

After I had the meat ground up it was time to make the meal. I wanted to make a meatloaf with a gravy so I went online to find a recipe. What an age we are in!! My grandmother, even mother had to rely on cook books. I have a few cook books but I mostly rely on the internet. I found a great recipe for venison meatloaf on Georgia Outdoor News. The recipe calls for a red pepper chopped, small onion chopped, celery chopped, cup of bread crumbs, two eggs beaten, cup of tomato puree, BBQ sauce, and brown sugar. I didn't have enough regular bread crumbs so I used panko bread crumbs. I mixed all the ingredients and the meat together formed it in a loaf shape and stuck it in a 375F oven for about an hour, when my meat thermometer reached 135F. I found a quick recipe on line to make a mushroom gravy. The recipe called for a mix of mushrooms but I only used baby shiitake, figuring they would pair best with the venison. When I first tasted the meatloaf I couldn't believe it was venison. There was no gamy flavors at all and the gravy made the meal!!! I served it with mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts, garlic, onion and carrots. It was such a great meatloaf, I would serve this to anyone who told me they hated venison, and I wouldn't tell them it was venison until they had licked their plate clean. And trust me they would lick the plate clean!! Noel and I did!

While the meatloaf was in the oven I went over to my wine fridge and picked the perfect wine for this meal. A while back I was doing a wine tasting at Bacco's Wine and Cheese in downtown Boston. I love this place. It's the kind of wine shop that I would one day love to own myself. His space is small, so his selection is small but it is GREAT!!!! They carry wine from every region and because they are limited on space they are very selective on what wine they bring in. All the employees try the wine (even the Cheese Wiz) with Bob and the sales rep. They only take in wines that they all agree on. Bob does have the final say, but he really cares and trusts what his employees think. He only hires employees that know their shit. One of his wine guys has lived all over the world and has a real strong passion for wine and food, and his cheese wiz always brings in crazy good cheese!! It's the kind of store that you could go to everyday and always see something new. They have a wine and cheese tasting everyday!! Well except Tuesday, when they have a beer and cheese tasting. 

After my wine tasting I told Bob I wanted something different. He went right to this wine from Portugal. This is a country that is so often over looked. Most people only think of Port when they think about wine from Portugal. I love Port, but they really have so much more to offer in wine. Espirito Lagoalva was perfect for my meal. A blend of Castelao and Touriga Nacional, the wine had beautiful raspberry and blackberry fruit, a nice hint of spice and great smooth tannins. What a perfect pairing to a venison meatloaf!!!  My mouth is getting excited just thinking about the wine. If you haven't had a wine from Portugal then you need to put your computer down and run to your local wine shop. If you find Espirito Lagoalva then it's a must buy!! The best part about Portuguese wines, they are not expensive, you can find great values under $15. Thanks Bob! I don't think I could have had better wine with this meal!!

There has been some great recipes and even better wines over the past 365 days and there are still many more to come. I want to start blogging more recipes, I would love to have at least one a week. Right now I average about three a month. If there  is anything you cook or any wine that you drink that you think I need to try please contact me here or email me dangazaille@gmail.com. Together we can make the next year that much better!!! 

From The Sea

Last night Noel went to her mother's house to visit her grandmother and help set up her best friend Samij's baby shower. The only good part of spending the night away from my wife is I get to eat what ever I want for dinner. Noel hates seafood. I know she's from New England how can that happen? It happens a lot and it always confuses me. Since she doesn't like seafood I very rarely get to eat it, let a lone cook it. After a quick trip to Russo's yesterday I had the great idea to find a nice fish market in the area. Yelp sent me to New Deal Fish Market in East Cambridge. This place had everything, and I was kind of overwhelmed. The guy behind the counter could see how overwhelmed I was. He came over and gave me great advice. I always get salmon, even this time I almost got salmon. I told him how I get to eat very little fish and that I would love to have something a little different. I came upon a Red Fish an ocean perch. It's the kind of fish they sell with the head still on. He told me it was a local white fish and to broil it with a little oil, salt, pepper and hit it with lemon when it comes out of the oven. It was a little small so I also got a dozen little neck clams. Thanks to Noel's friend Samij I now know how to shuck clams.

When I started looking up ideas for a sauce to go with the clams. I found one at foodnetwork.com, a Cucumber Mignonette Sauce. So easy to make, just mix a cup of white rice wine vinegar with minced garlic, half cucumber minced, grated ginger, fresh ground pepper and cilantro leafs. You need to let it chill for at least one hour and up to a full day. Have you ever been by yourself and still said out loud "WOW"? I did after trying this sauce. The flavors of the sauce with the salty raw clam went perfect together. I could have ended my meal there and been happy.
But I didn't have to I still had the ocean perch. The guy told me to rub a little olive oil, sea salt and black pepper and broil for eight minutes. I've been buying a scallion infused oil at Russo's that helps give a faint hint of flavor that I thought would go great with a white fish. The fish was outstanding!! I ate everything down to the bone. I even got all Anthony Bourdain and ate the checks and the meat from the rest of the head. I flirted with the idea of eating the eye balls but at the last minute decided it was a little gross. I am adventurous, I've eaten a pig's eye at a pig roast but that eye looked more like a escargot. The fish's eye looked like an eye. While at Russo's I bought a Chayote squash. It's from Mexico and kinda has an appleish flavor to it. I like but again it's not Noel's thing. I found a really cool recipe at allrecipes.com. Cut the squash into 5ths, cook it in oil, sugar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, minced garlic and red wine vinegar. (I even made my own red wine vinegar it's easy 1 part red wine to 3 parts white vinegar.) This was a meal that I will not ever forget about. I love fish and this was like a meal you may get at Legals Seafood!!

The wine was a no brainier. Last year I had a work with with the wine maker at Red Newt Winery in the Finger Lakes in New York. I was the last work with that week so he left me with two extra bottles of wine he had. Last night I finally opened the Reserve Dry Riesling. The first time I tried the wine it shocked my palate. I have tried dry rieslings in the past, some have been "dry", others the acid is so out of whack it almost hurts your teeth. This wine is perfectly dry. The acid is strong but fair, and the fruit is so joyful. It's a tart ripe lemon, orange peel and apricot, with strong minerality that just went fantastic with the food. This wine could go great with a large range of foods, deserts, or just by itself.       

Sunday Dinner

Sunday is one of my most favorite days of the week. It's a day of rest. It's a day of laziness. I usually get up around 10 am, sit around watching the news or what ever show may be on and drink a few cups of coffee. Around 2 pm I finally get on with my day. Every Sunday, Noel and I head to Russo's and Shaw's. First thing on my list is Sunday dinner. I love Sunday dinner, it's usually the best meal of the week.

This week I thought we were going to have a friend of Noel's over for dinner, so I choose to make a pork loin. When I found out they could not make it I still made a pork loin. I love PORK!! Especially pork loin. I made a dry rub of fresh herbs, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and minced garlic, and roast the pork at 400 F until the pork has reached 150 F. As you let it sit about 10 minutes took gets to more like 155 F and comes out so juicy. I love good pork. Noel really likes sweet potatoes, so this week I took a large sweet potato and cut it into cubes. I covered the cubes in olive oil and salt and roasted them on the same roasting pan as the pork. At Russo's I bought broccoli. I use broccoli a lot. It's easy to steam and George H. Bush is wrong, it's a delicious veggie. Noel has said to me in the recent past she was getting sick of broccoli. So today I pulled out the food bible, The Joy of Cooking, and looked up a way to make broccoli special. Under the steaming recipe the book suggested tossing the steamed broccoli in buttered bread crumbs. The second I saw the recipe, I knew I had some panko bread crumbs. Oh yeah!! I took two tablespoons of butter, teaspoon of rosemary, and thyme and put them in a glass bowl on top of the stove to melt as the roast cooked. As the roasted finished I mixed the butter and panko, put them in a oven safe frying pan and browned them for a few minutes. I then tossed the steamed broccoli in the panko. It turned a steamed veggi into a great side dish. So fancy, so easy, so good!!

I wanted to have a glass of wine with dinner, but I didn't want to drink an entire bottle. So I went over the wines that I plan on showing this week. The Geografico Chianti Colli Senesi jumped off the wine rack right into my glass. Italian wines aren't my usually first choose but I figured a nice bottle of Sangiovese would go lovely with pork. Boy I was ever so right. This bottle comes from Colli Senesi, a hill side village within Chianti that is known for growing outstanding Sangiovese. This wine is no different. Blended with a small amount of Canaiolo. It is smooth, intense fruity, and well balanced. A perfect Sunday night paring.  

My Love Flows Like the Chocolate In A Lava Cake

So it's Valentine's Day. Sorry to friends that hate this day but I am a married man, and would like to stay a married man. So I show her how much I lover her with a card, a delicious home-cooked dinner and her pick for a romantic movie. Noel is the film guru. She love the big screen so much that she has worked at movie theaters for many years. This Valentine's Day I have cooked my wife one of her favorite dishes, and made Lava Cake for dessert. The dinner is a recipe that I have already posted. Noel loves chicken pot pie! It is so easy to make chicken pot pie from scratch. To make this dinner special, I made her Lava Cake (don't tell her but I made it a little more for me, I LOVE CHOCOLATE CAKE!!) and I paired it with a Pineau des Charentes. She ending up picking the African Queen for a movie. A great classic love story much like our life. I am the river captain and she is the strong woman that shows me the righteous way.

The Lava Cake was easy to make. I bought Noel a kit from Beacon Hill Wine and Gourmet in Melrose. I hate when Rebecca gets cool stuff in her store because I always end up buying it. This caught my eye right away. The kit even came with ramekins!! We had been wanting ramekins forever. Noel and I have put those to good use since I got the kit two months ago. It's a pretty easy recipe. Melt half cup of butter, mix that with the cake mix. Melt some bittersweet chocolate and blend that with the mix, fill the ramekins and bake for 15 minutes. They were so good I almost forgot to take a picture. Chocolate cake really is the way to anyone's heart, especially mine.

I paired the cake with Domaine du Perat's Pineau des Charentes. You are probably thinking "what the what now?" Pineau des Charentes is a fortified wine from France. A wine maker mixes three parts freshly pressed grape must with one part cognac. Legend has it, this was first made by mistake. Some wine maker in the 16th century mistook a barrel with brandy in it for an empty barrel and added his freshly pressed grapes.  The barrel was left alone for a few year until they were celebrating a large harvest. When they found out what they had done they fell in love and a new wine was born. This wine is fruity, sweet, yet a light texture, and it has an intoxicating nose of sweet floral and apricot notes. I love this wine, and find it sad that it is over looked by many people. I found this bottle at my account Greenwood Wine and Spirits in their "Last Chance Section". It was 50% off and I thought to myself ca-ching ca-ching. If you have not had one and you like port, sherry or any desert wines you will love Pineau des Charentes. It was a perfect pairing for the perfect pair.

Dinner For Six

We finally hosted our first dinner party. Noel and I haven't had an apartment large enough to fit the two of us, let alone have six friends over for dinner. Finally we have an apartment large enough. Our friend Jen has been trying to get us to set up a dinner party for a few months now. About two weeks ago I was drinking port and thought how fun it would be to cook with it. I Googled port sauce and found a recipe that screamed dinner party from www.epicurious.com. Next was finding four friends that would like to come over and enjoy the meal. That wasn't hard at all, the first four people I told about the party, RSVP right away. We got our suburb friends Jon and Lucie to brave the big, bad city. Jen had to come because she is the one that put it in my head to have a party and that would have been real shitty to not invite her to our first dinner party. My friend Meg was a no brainier, not only is she a huge foodie but she is a wine rep. and has great taste in wine. She even brought the wine that I enjoyed with the dinner.

Coming up with the menu was the best part. I knew that I wanted to make the recipe that I found the night I was drinking port, Roast Beef Tenderloin with Port Sauce. I also knew that I wanted to make a blue cheese, bacon, potato souffle that Noel and I had made a few months ago. For a veggie I made a quick stir-fry of asparagus, ginger and garlic and I made a quick beets, feta salad with and oil and honey dressing. Jon helped out with the appetizers. A panko, fried green bean dish that we get at The British Beer Company in Framingham, and a duck and fig flat bread that was to die for. The flat bread was so easy to make. I cut in half 15 figs and roasted duck legs that I had bought at the Boston Wine Expo so the meat fell off the bone. I sauteed the figs in about 50 ml (aka a nip, aka an airplane bottle) of bourbon. After the figs soaked up the bourbon I added the duck and sauteed for a few more minutes. Jon then took the naan flat bread and covered it in Gorgonzola and Bel Gioioso cheese and the figs and duck. Then he quickly caramelised some onions and put them on top of the bread before sticking in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400F.

The beef tenderloin came out so much better that I had even thought it could be. The recipe calls for a dry brine to be done 24-36 hours before cooking the meat. To do this you have to salt the hell out of the meat and leave it uncovered in the fridge. You would think the salt would just dry out the meat, but instead of drying out the meat it makes it juicy and tender! The recipe says it only takes 30 minutes in the oven at 450F but I used a meat thermometer and it took 45 minutes to get up to 130F. The port sauce I made the night before. I love making sauces, they add so much to a meal, look really fancy, yet are soooo freaking easy to make. The only thing I would have done different is instead of using three cups of beef broth, I would use two. Also I used a tawny port and I may use a ruby next time. Although I DO LOVE TAWNY PORT!!!!!! This was the best meat I have ever cooked. It came out so tender and juicy, and cooked perfectly medium rare (More like medium medium rare. I would have liked it more pink but the friends I was with told me before cooking they like their meat more medium. So I compromised instead of cooking to 120F I went to 135F.). Perfectly cooked, good cuts of meat is the meaning of life!!!! 

As I said my friend Meg came to the dinner. She too is a wine distributor in Massachusetts, so she too LOVES good wine!! When She walked in the door she took out of her bag a few bottles of wine that she had been pouring at a wine tasting earlier in the day. She told me try the Rioja first. Valsacro is a high end Rioja that danced on my tongue. Dark, full bodied with dark cherries and olives. It was a great treat as I finished cooking the meal. With dinner she told me she brought a wine that was from her private stock, something she bought a few years ago, while she was a wine buyer at Whole Foods. Florestra Apalta a Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 from Santa Rita in Chile. I LOVE CHILE'S WINES!!! Chile is my second favorite wine country, right after France. The climate is perfect, and the quality, and value of the wines are incredible! These Cabernets in my opinion are better than anything Napa can throw at you, and usually at half the price. Full bodied, cigar box, black fruits, cassis, black currants, and nice tannins. This bottle was no different. Plus the perfect amount of age helped soften the wine just a touch. This was the perfect bottle of wine to go with my first dinner party. Thanks Meg for helping me take it up a notch!!!!! 

Every Day Pork Chops Get a Flavor Boost

Everyday, one of the many recipe websites that I've joined sends me a recipe that sounds great. I love these sites, its makes the question, "What's for dinner?," easier to answer. The problem is, many times, I don't have the ingredients at the ready and I forget to get stuff the next shopping trip. Thursday, I got a recipe sent to me from FineCooking.com. I especially love this website!! You can pick by recipe, by ingredients, and so much more. It's like the Joy of Cooking (the ultimate food bible) on steroids!! A lot of the recipes on this site are from people like you and me. You get fancy home cooked meals.

Friday I had some pork chops that needed to be cooked. At first I was just going to make real simple, salt and pepper, pan seared chops. Then I opened the email. "Everyday pork chops get a flavor boost." I thought, "how cool is that? I was going to make pork chops that night anyway." The recipe was Pork chops with cider-dijon pan sauce. The second I saw the words "pan sauce," I was hooked!!! Over the holidays I got really good at making gravies and sauces. I love making a sauce with the meal. It's so fancy and so easy to do!! The best part about this recipe is that I had everything but an apple and apple cider. I had to go to whole foods anyway to grab cat food, so I also grabbed the apple, but could not find cider. They had apple juice, but no apple cider. Being a wine rep. I am in and out of liquor stores all day, so I just grabbed a 22oz Magners cider. They taste the same as regular cider and you get an easy drink pairing for dinner. Plus, by the time you're done cooking, you've cooked the alcohol out. Noel is a bit of a cider snob and I am sure she wished I had used a better cider, after all I only used a half cup in the recipe and we drank the rest of it.

The recipe was pretty easy. What You Need:
2 pork chops (it calls for bone in chops I used regular chops)
2 Tbs butter
tsp salt
tsp pepper
1 sweet red apple halved,cored, cut into small cubes
1 medium shallot
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cider
1/2 cup chicken stock
Tbs dijon mustard, better if you use the grainy kind
tsp fresh thyme (thyme is my favorite herb!!!)
Pre-heat oven to 425F. Melt the butter is a skillet over medium/high heat. Salt and pepper the chops and cook them on both sides for about two minutes. Long enough to brown them on both sides. Then stick them in the oven for about eight minutes or if you are using a meat thermometer, when it reaches 145F. While they are in the oven, reduce the heat to medium/low and add the apple, thyme and shallots and cook until they are slightly browned, about two minutes. Add the cider, scrape any bits left from the chops, and reduce by half, again about two minutes. Last add the stock and mustard, stir and reduce by about half, yet again about two minutes. Serve the sauce over the chops. This meal looked like and tasted restaurant quality yet was easy to make.

I served it over rice and a side of steam broccoli. The broccoli I steamed in water, chicken stock and tsp butter. That is fat kid broccoli!!! Along with the cider this meal was a perfect end of the week meal!! Fancy enough for Friday, yet easy enough to make after a long day/week of work. I can't wait to see what the next email has in store for my dinner!!

Sorry Bambi But Your Meat Is Just So Good

Its been a long time, too long, since I have last posted. I was going to post about my Thanksgiving Dinner but I figured it was to easy to talk about it. Then I was going to talk about my Christmas Eve dinner that I cooked but I didn't. I also could have blogged about the Christmas Day Dinner but I got lazy. I have cooked some great meals and some not so great meals. I was going to blame it on being busy with work and life, but the truth is I have been too lazy to blog. One of my many New Year's Resolutions is to blog more.

To ring in the New Year, Noel and I went and visited our friends Erik and Sami J on Martha's Vineyard. Two of the best people I have ever met. We had a few great meals, drank good wine and beer, and watched some great fireworks. Erik is the ultimate outdoors man!! One day when he got home he noticed a deer in his backyard. He grabbed his bow and got the doe. How bad ass is that?! I bribed Erik with a few bottles of wine and he sent me home with a few venison steaks and a roast. They had a great cookbook on how to cook venison, and I found a few great recipes, so I couldn't wait to get home and try them out.

Tonight's recipe is Saffroned Venison and Beans from The Complete Venison Cookbook. Sounds easy enough, and I love using Saffron. All you need is a cup Navy Beans (these are called Navy Beans not after their color but because they were a staple in U.S. Navy cooking. I was looking for 20 minutes before reading labels), a  pound of venison cut into cubes, bacon fat (venison is very lean meat and bacon fat helps. Its easy to cook up some bacon for the fat), three tomatoes quartered, small onion sliced thin, can of corn, bell pepper quartered, 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp saffron, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 cup dry white wine and two tsp salt.

You need to first cook the beans. This is easy, but takes a long time. First, make sure to rinse the beans. Then put them in a saucepan and add enough water to cover the beans. Bring them to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for two hours. Add the salt and cook for another hour. As the beans are finishing, take a few strips of bacon over medium/low heat in a skillet. Render the fat off the bacon (this is my favor part...eat the bacon). Brown the venison. Add the tomatoes, onion, salt, pepper, saffron, brown sugar and wine. Let simmer until the meat is tender. Drain the beans and add them with the bell pepper and corn to the venison and cook until the bell pepper is tender.

The meal came out well. The beans could have cooked a little longer, I could have used smaller, riper tomatoes and, had I known it would come out more like a stew, I would have cut the bacon up and added it to the mix. But for the first venison meal I've made in more than 10 years it came out better than expected. I can't wait to make the other cuts of venison I have.

So what do you drink with venison? Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Chianti, Gigondas (or anything from The Rhone Valley), Syrah- the choices are endless. Venison has a great gamy taste that goes really well with many big, bold, bad-ass wines. If I had a Cab Franc in my cellar right now, I would have opened that. But, sad monkey, I didn't have one. So I opened my BOOM BOOM Syrah. This Columbia Valley Syrah comes from one of my favorite wine makers, Charles Smith.This wine is perfect Washington wine. Bright, fresh and smooth. Full Bodied, dark meaty fruit with a touch of spice and sweet tobacco.