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!!