Thankfully, I have the wife all kinds of trained on spotting those wonderful finer foods in life specials that can float in and out of the grocery store. Such things can turn into a wonderful, unplanned Valentine's Day meal.
Anyone a Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern fan? Yes? No? What are you talking about Big O? Anyway, I've always been fascinated by the episodes where they're visiting either some swanky NYC or Moscow restaurant sampling caviar for some ludicrous price per ounce. I'd only ever tried the salty, cheap American stuff or only had a few "peas" in another dish. While cruising CostCo, we stumbled upon some Ossetra caviar that I remembered from one of those episodes for about one-third the price. Giddeeup! Take one mini spoon caviar and place over blini or Carrs cracker slathered in creme fraiche OR just have it straight up. Serve with chilled vodka or brut sparkling wine. Must say our Rene Sparr Cremant d'Alsace Blanc de Blancs Brut was just ok. Should have gone with the wodka. One course down, two to go.
On a busy Saturday at the store right smack in the middle of the holidays, I get a text that went something like this:
Wife - Wegman's has foie on sale. We can freeze it. Want some?
Me - Umm....YEAH!
Wife - Just checking.
Me - You never, ever need to check again. Buy, buy, BUY!
I've loved anything made from duck, goose, and chicken liver since I was a little kid. Pate? Sign me up. Terrines? Oh baby... Now that the wife has me back in the style in which I'm accustomed, I will always order foie gras if it's available on a tasting menu at some of our favorite Wilmington or Philly restaurants. It's soooo good - like buttahhh...
Our preparation consisted of nothing more than mixing half a cup each of balsamic vinegar and tawny port together, reducing to about a third of a cup over medium-high heat, searing the salt and pepper sprinkled foie gras for 30 seconds on each side, placing the foie gras over a bed of mixed greens, and sprinkling the reduction all over. Wish I had busted out the decadent wine at this point, but we were still finishing our Rene Sparr. Two courses down, one to go.
Not sure about my vast readership (ha!) out there, but we love lamb. Lamb shank, rack of lamb, lamb chops, lamb with Eastern spices, etc. All the different preparations are excellent. On Valentine's Day, I still had this wonderful leftover foie gras residue on our skillet so I just slapped our four pieces of rack of lamb seasoned with salt and pepper right on there. Four minutes per side, and we were good to go. Throw in some blanched green beans, some tiny red potatoes sauteed covered for about 25 minutes then seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and voila!
James, get on with the wine already! Fine, fine. One of my favorite Aussie wines of all-time is the 2002 Elderton Cabernet Sauvignon Ashmead Vineyard 2002. It is built for ageing and demands a decadent meal. Aussie wines get a bad rep because of all those high production wines that flood the market. Don't think I need to name any names. The Ashmead is one of those wines you open and smell the fruit right away. Put the wine in a decanter
, cook, walk past it later, and you can still smell the fruit from five feet away. I pull this wine out when I want to just get lost in some fruit. The plum and blackberry are amazing. It's not all fruit though. It has some licorice mixed in with a spicy, vanilla finish. For $50, it's definitely an investment, but the wife counts it as one of her favorites as do I. I've seen Elderton in quite a few wine stores so see what you can find.Hope everyone else had some decadent dishes over Valentine's Day. In the meantime, happy sipping!
No comments:
Post a Comment