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!!! 

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.