kerewin's whine cellar

Pomegranates

We saw these pomegranate trees in Greece. I haven't ever seen a pomegranate tree before. Since it is such a staple of winter menus, I thought I would highlight its beautiful color.

Blindsided

I really thought everything was ok this weekend with my food issues. It didn't bother me on Thanksgiving to skip the cheese everyone got to have, because I got to have amazing terrine. They had pie, I had sorbet with coconut milk. Friday with the family I wasn't too bothered that everyone got to have mashed potatoes and I didn't. Saturday at a friend's party it wasn't too big of a deal that every appetizer, minus one, had wheat and/or dairy in it. Why then did I get put in such a spiral when Kevin ordered pizza today from our favorite delivery place? And then, why did all that other stuff bother me in hindsight? What is this trick my brain plays on me?

Also, why am I so blindsided by this feeling? It seriously comes out of nowhere and it is such a dark, black place. I have a much clearer understanding of what people who have depression have to deal with. All I want is pizza and beer. I do plan on having a day where I get to eat things I can't have (café sua da, anyone?) but this is too close upon an accidental wheat incident and I don't think I can take being ill for 4 days. URGH!

I am definitely doing something for my birthday. Fresh pasta at Tavolàta, perhaps. Amazing ice cream, Korean BBQ, or beer-battered fish and chips. Hell, just beer. For now, I will make due with some British Cider.

Paté Leftovers

Today we had brunch with friends and then some personal errands. Then I had a party to go to and Kevin had work to get done. When I got home both of us hadn't eaten a real dinner. We could have gone out, we could have cooked something but I realized that we had some leftover paté and extra ramekins of terrine. So I put together some of those leftovers, salad, capers, cornichons, marinated olives, apple slices, and some rice crackers. It was easy and low key, making it the perfect meal.

Thanksgiving Celebrations, Part 2

Round two this evening with my sister and her husband's family. We are going chill-style with an almost all leftover meal. I am bringing sorbet, paté (the smooth kind), and a surprise -- deviled eggs! I am wandering out and adding some horseradish and capers. We'll see how that goes.

This the final product of the tea-smoked duck from yesterday. There was a real depth of flavor and the meat had that slight duck gaminess. Unfortunately, the cooling off and then reheating period took some of the moisture out, I was a little disappointed.

In other news, my husband, self-titled Amigaboy, has started his own blog: The Glass Chicken. I think it will be an exploration of what he deems pop culture. He'll have to get his nicknames straight because he calls himself "candybowl" there.

I Am Thankful For Duck

Tea-smoked duck takes some time to make. Now I understand why Chinese restaurants have it on their menu with the admonition that you have to order it 24 hours in advance. I got up this morning at 6:30 and made a huge batch of black tea.

Then I strained out the leaves and got the duck steaming over the tea. That takes an hour and a half so I went back to bed to catch a little more sleep and pretty much just stared at the ceiling.


Raw duck is not very pretty so I skipped the up close picture.


Care to read my tea leaves?


Interestingly, while the duck smokes (for FIVE hours!) it also gets steamed by the tea leaves, orange peel, peppercorns, star anise, and cinnamon sticks.

Duck Day Coming!

Two fresh ducks and a paste (orange peel, ginger, chinese 5 spice, cinnamon, salt, and szechuan peppercorns).


I love how they call it a paste, it isn't super pasty and I had trouble getting it to stick to the bird.


So I put them in plastic bags and put a bunch more rub in there and rubbed it around. Now they are sitting in the fridge waiting for the morning when they get steamed over tea.

Bring this Thanksgiving ON!

Quick and Dirty

Tonight I was running a little low on steam so I needed a quick dinner. Turns out if you make some rice (20 minutes on burner, 10 minutes to steam), roast some broccoli (30 minutes at 350, flip at the 20 minute mark), and sauté onion and garlic and then a quick pan fry of steak cut up, add a little soy sauce at the end, you get dinner in about 35 minutes. Twenty of which you spend on your butt in front of the computer. Also, the meal was cheap, about $6 for two people.

Duck Terrine, Part 3

Day three, take the bay leaves out of the duck and mix the two mixtures together along with pistachios, and green peppercorns. I think the pictures can tell the next steps better than I can.

Bake in a water bath at 325 degrees until the center reaches 185 degrees with a quick read thermometer, about two hours.

After cooking weigh down with some canned food for an hour. Then refrigerate for up to four days.

Rendering Duck Fat

Duck fat is extremely useful and flavorful in cooking. Since I have the duck fat leftover from the terrine I am making I am going to render it down and save the fat. Since it is just two duck breasts there isn't a lot, not enough to confit anything but plenty to use for roasting potatoes or many other uses.

There are two easy methods for rendering the fat. One involves a low boil with water and the other is a slow pan fry. If you have a lot of fat the first method is best because it gets out all the water from the duck. If you have a small amount of fat, pan frying is best.

Cut the fat into small pieces. This might have been a bit too small for the cracklins that I had later but the smaller you cut the pieces, the faster it renders.

Pan fry on medium and scoop the fat out as it renders. You must stay and watch at this step so that the fat doesn't burn. Otherwise you have wasted your time.

Salt the cracklins and enjoy! Those ones were a tad small but still delicious.

You can filter the oil to make sure all the oil is clear or you can just let them sift to the bottom, chill the fat and then never use the last bit. Now I have two ramekins of duck fat, one in the freezer and one in the fridge. It lasts about a year, if you don't use it all by then.

Duck Terrine, Part 2

Here's where you introduce the other proteins and textures. An important part of making a good terrine is making sure there isn't one uniform texture. The duck breast is cut into 1/2 inch cubes, so you need to take the pork in a different direction.

Cut 1 lb of pork shoulder and 3/4 lb fatback into 1/8" sheets, then cut those into 1/8" cubes. Try to keep your protein cold, it cuts easier.

I was using a long knife that I felt to be my sharpest but it just seemed slow and not accurate. I had to switch partway through to my Santoku-style knife and it was much better. This step takes a long time if you aren't chopping stuff for precision on a regular basis (i.e. Me).

After you cube your meat and fatback, make sure to completely chill the meat, then on a cutting board run your chopping knife through it several times to get an even smaller chop and texture. It should be something like ground hamburger.

Then finely chop two cloves of garlic and put them in a food processor with 1/4 lb chicken liver and pulse until you get a nice pureé (this is the third texture for your terrine).

Then put in even spoonfuls of the pork shoulder and fatback and pulse twenty times until incorporated. Put in a mixing bowl. Continue to pulse batches of the pork and fatback until it is all done.

Add two eggs, 1 Tb chopped, fresh thyme, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon paprika, and 4 and 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt. Mix with hands until everything is evenly incorporated.

Pan fry a test batch (about a tablespoon full) about 2 minutes on each side and taste for flavor. Adjust seasoning accordingly. This is a very important step because you might have forgotten something. Like salt. Phew! Cover and put in fridge for a minimum of one day and up to three days for the flavors to meld.

Duck Terrine, Part 1

Last year, Saveur Magazine, Issue 116 had a great spread and recipe on Duck Terrine. The kind with a lot of animal muscle and some liver chopped up with some fatback and seasonings, then cooked in a water bath. We were going to a fancy dinner party for New Year's Eve so I decided to give it a try. It turned out really well so I decided to make it again this year for Thanksgiving.

This is the kind of dish that requires several days so I got a start tonight. First you get some duck breast.

Separate all the fat and any silver tissue. (Holy hannah, look at all that fat that I can render for later use with some sort of confit. Also, after you render all that fat you get crispy duck skin to eat. YUM! A great party treat.

Chop into 1/2 inch pieces.

Mix with one finely chopped garlic clove, three torn bay leaves (holy shit, dry vs fresh is not a contest, get to a store and buy a bay plant, even if you keep it indoors), one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, two tablespoons orange liqueur.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days. The longer the duck marinates in the liqueur, the better the terrine.

I am kind of in love with the last picture because the duck looks so vibrant and the bowl is so shiny. Also, GOSSET! If you haven't tasted Gosset Champagne before, go now and get a bottle. One of the more affordable champagnes but one of very high quality that I would put up against some better known names. The color is golden and star bright. Very small bubbles. Leesy aromas, lemon zest and toast. These are all mirrored in the palate with a definite sense of lemon curd, oaty, toasty, nutty biscuit. The great acid in the this champagne gives it such a long, persistent finish. My mouth is watering after every drink enticing me to have more.

The camera battery died before my next paté step so it will have to wait until tomorrow. That is the key ingredient in terrine, next to different textures, patience.

Yet One More Long Day

However, a good part of the evening involves dinner out with very good friends. It's worth it.

Here's a shot we took in Greece, in the town of Hania on Crete.

Glass and Lights

Not home for very much time tonight. Just a cool picture from last night.

Cicchetti

Tonight a good friend invited me to a "test dinner" at Serafina's new restaurant. They open officially in a week, Tuesday, November 24th.

All picture's were taken on my friend's iPhone, since I forgot to bring my camera (M, you must be so glad because that flash is a bitch!). It was pretty dark inside so it has a shaken camera effect. Just call us artists!

I believe this makes us "cool." Although commenting on one's coolness immediately makes one uncool.

Part of the reason for a soft opening is to get great feedback and get all the glitches fixed before the people who don't know you come to eat. As such, I am not going to be critical about the food. To make it even, I also won't praise, you can just look at the pictures and drool. I will say this: I had an excellent time, they have a little work on the menu before they are fully polished.

We really liked their dishes. All that white, all those awesome geometrical shapes. Beautiful.

Roasted lamb with Moroccan-spiced lentils.

Steamed clams. We sort of forget to check the menu for a description on this.

Seriously, how beautiful is that bowl?

This was the base of the water bottle that sat on the table. I just kept staring at the etched little design on it all night long.

Being a fan of more old-world wine, I really liked the wine list. Small, Euro-centric, great tasting! My friend works with Washington wines a lot and felt like the list needed a little more local flavor. All in all, a great time. I think we easily could have stayed there a couple more hours. Go check it out next week!

Quick Grill Meal

Last night I had a great time pouring bubbles but didn't get home until around 8pm with just a scant bit of appetizers in my stomach. Don't get me wrong, I was plied with great food, I just can't eat wheat so there wasn't a lot I could really have.

I hit the grocery store on my way home and found very nice choice New York strip on sale two for one. Since we get organic produce delivery I knew there were vegetables waiting at home and I had some leftover smashed (purple) potatoes from the night before. Note: Purple potatoes are perfect for smashing! I didn't use any milk, just some of the boiling water, butter, and the hand masher. Such a great consistency. Using just water made them tastier the next day, too (I surmise that is why - I've never really liked mashed potatoes the next day).

When I got home I surveyed the fridge. Vegetable-wise I was down to making a salad or using broccoli. Since I was already using the grill for the steak, I decided to grill the green stuff, too. Raining and 40 degrees outside? Sure! Use the grill! We use it all winter long.

First, I seasoned the steak with olive oil, salt, and pepper and let it get to room temperature - for better grilling, less harsh temperature swings.

Then I chopped up the broccoli, including a lot of the stem. I tried to get even-ish sizes. I tossed them in olive oil, herbed salt, and pepper.

I grilled the steak about 5 minutes a side then let it rest. The broccoli I tried to get a good char on all sides, especially the stems.

Here's the final plate:

We agree, grilling broccoli is amazing and we are going to cook it this way from now on. It is almost time to run the dishwasher and we didn't have two clean, similar plates. Oh well.

Champagne On Sunday

One of my accounts had a customer tasting of sparkling wine and champagne. I was invited to come pour a couple of my sparklers and enjoy some food (mmmm...rilletes, caviar, smoked salmon). I had a great two hours and tasted some great bubblies. With the season coming on I figured I would highlight my two favorites. Full disclosure: I sell one of these wines.

Henriot Non-Vintage Brut Souverain

This house never uses Pinot Meunier - sometimes considered a "lesser" grape in Champagne, and the blend changes year to year but the currrent release is 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay. Henriot is based in Reims and founded in 1808.

Very pinpoint bubbles and great acid, definite strong characteristic of ruby grapefruit on the palate. Toasty with a mineral, clean finish. Extremely persistent bubbles.

Drappier Carte d'Or Non-Vintage Brut

This house is located in Urville where Pinot Noir is king. This blend constitutes as much as 80% of the blend with Pinot Meunier taking up to another 10%, making a majority of dark skin grapes. As a family tradition they use very little sulphur and extremely low dosage making for Champagne that has a lovely aged quality and also is extremely dry. The bubbles are fine and subtle. Drappier makes the dosage on property from vineyard grapes.

This wine had a lovely yeasty quality that made it taste very round in the mouth, the dryness accentuated the acids, tart apple nose, baked apple in the palate.

Both of these Champagnes are exceptional for their price and being Pinot-heavy would pair nicely with some heavier foods. I am definitely getting some for Thanksgiving.

Tea For When You Aren't Well

Back in one of the restaurants I worked, I had a bad cold. A fellow waiter made me a pot of tea that cured a lot of what ailed me. Spice to clear the sinuses, sugar to soothe the throat and well I have no idea what the tea and the lemon were for but they did wonders.

I have been sucking this tea down the last couple days. Take a tea bag of any sort (black for morning or day, or green/white for evening or when you want to sleep). In a cup put a heaping spoonful of honey, the juice of a quarter of a lemon (and the lemon peel, if you desire), and about 1/16th of a teaspoon of cayenne (go more if you like spicy food and have a tolerance). Pour in boiling water and let steep for 5 minutes while stirring occasionally.

Cayenne creates (I have been told) a numbness so if your throat is sore this is a great spice to use. The honey also coats the throat and prevents coughing, also it balances out the spice.

I have been drinking this for three days. I am totally addicted.

I Am Just So Miserable

This cold is taking me down, so I just want to picture somewhere nice and sunny.

This is the waterfront of downtown Sitia, Crete. It was so warm and sunny that September afternoon. Makes you just want to dive into the water.

Two Kitties

Spent the day home sick and so got to catch this little scenario.

Since we got the little kitty, there haven't been any epic battles and for the most part they get along. However, they haven't been buddy-buddy.

Too bad the flash kept making them open their eyes and look away.

Lemonade Out Of Lemons

What do you do when you have a glass of so-so sparkling wine? There's an easy fix, if only you are at home, have some sherry or port, and a lemon.

Take an ordinary glass of bubbles, something that doesn't inspire you.

Pour in about two teaspoons of sherry or port (this is port, I am out of sherry, sherry is actually better for its oxidized nuttiness).

Cut a twist off of the lemon peel, twist it while holding it over the glass to get all the lemon oil in your beverage, and then rub the rim of your glass with it before tossing it in.

Enjoy! It is ever so much better.

Shigoku!

At Saturday's oyster festival I tasted a new oyster that was released just this year. Shigoku.

Basically, take a Willapa Bay oyster (already known for their plump, juicy, clean flavors) and suspend it in a bag that has floats. As the tide goes in and comes out, the bag flips, forcing the oysters to grow deep wells instead of wide flat sides.

It is one of the best oysters I have ever tasted. Briny but clean with a long cucumber finish. The flavor stayed in my mouth for minutes after swallowing. I am sure that Taylor Shellfish (they created this oyster) is making a killing.

Now I have to go find an oyster bar with some. Right now!

Sources:
The Oyster Guide
Nancy Leson, Seattle Times Food Writer

Best Roasted Potatoes Ever

I don't recall where I discovered the secret to perfect roasted potatoes but it is all about the par-boiling.

Here's what I do:

Rinse and dry whole potatoes, cutting out any bad spots. Chop into uniform pieces, I aim for about 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches. Put them in a pot, cover with salty water - I aim for the saltiness of the ocean, or potato chip salty.

Purple potatoes! These came in our organic produce bin. They seem to be less waxy and slightly starchier than my favorite, yukon golds.

Bring water to a boil and boil until a fork goes through easily. There is no set time with this, it depends on the size you cut your potatoes and the type you have. Once the water boils I usually set the timer for 8 minutes. The waxier and larger the more time it takes. These purple ones were ready at 6 minutes. You don't want to be roasting mashed potatoes! (Although, that sounds kind of good.)

Once they are at your desired pre-cookness, drain then and lay them out on a cookie sheet to cool. I have done this without cooling, they turn out fine, just slightly fluffier when you let them cool all the way. Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss cool potatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper and return to cookie sheet.

Roast potatoes for 30 minutes, take out of oven, turn over, return to oven for 30 more minutes. Enjoy!

I think they are great just the way they are but you can boost up the flavor by adding a few things: chopped rosemary or other spices with the salt and pepper, chopped onion and/or garlic about 8 minutes before the end of cooking, or once they are finished you can add in some chopped sun-dried tomatoes, or roasted red peppers. Breakfast potatoes have nothing on these and once you try them the restaurant version suffers (sorry!).

Yukon Gold potatoes are my very favorite with this recipe but I have had great results with any kind.

Pumpkin Soup

One thing I try during NaBloPoMo is to find new and interesting blogs to read, and hopefully recipes to try. The other day I read a recipe I knew I was going to make and soon, courtesy of Burning Up and Burning Down

So, I chopped some aromats.

In addition to the onion (I used leek because I had one on hand), jalapeno, and carrot, I used some celery (it gave it an earthy tone that I think next time I will leave out). Then I sauteed the veggies in butter until they were soft.


Then I added the liquids, wine - a glass for me, chicken stock, pumpkin puree, and seasoning.


Then I pureed it, added coconut milk (since I can't have dairy) and reheated it. When I served it I added a drizzle of olive oil.

It was delicious, warm, and filling. Because the pumpkin I roasted and pureed made 2 cups I adjusted some of the other items. I used the whole leek, 2 carrots, 4 cups of chicken stock, 1 cup of white wine but kept the coconut milk at 1 cup. I also grated a little bit of nutmeg and added some lemon juice for acid.

I might try some different things in the future, such as use curry for the spice, or put in ham and not puree the soup at the end. Altogether a very pleasing Sunday meal.

Oyster New Year

You can find me here tonight:

Doing what? Shlepping wine, of course.

En La Vida Dos Cosas Ciertas

Ozomatli! Ozomatli! Ya se fue.

Tonight we are going to see a favorite band and have dinner with friends. Should be great!

In place of actually writing anything here's an interesting article in the NYT. 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do

23. If someone likes a wine, steam the label off the bottle and give it to the guest with the bill. It has the year, the vintner, the importer, etc.

A nice touch, hopefully the server isn't busy! It isn't quick to take a label off.

I do find the whole thing a bit strident, but good things to remember.

Grumpy Night

Tonight I got home from work hungry and cranky. There wasn't any protein defrosted and I wasn't in the mood to cook. Before a year ago that meant an easy Dinner Out solution. Now, it involves a more stressful process. I can't eat food with wheat or dairy. I couldn't a year ago either, I just didn't know it.

I know there are people who have food issues that embrace them and they are happy they figured out their problem. That's awesome. However, I love good crusty bread, homemade pasta, ice cream, yogurt and cheese. LOVE. So, while I am glad I am not running to the bathroom every ten minutes, I am depressed about having to think about food All. The. Time. Quick lunch with friends? I hope the words "Italian" and "deli" aren't used. Dinner out? Hope no one minds when I have to quiz the server about their use of soy sauce or buttermilk.

Sometimes I am just too worn out for that discussion. Sometimes I just want to eat. I miss sandwiches, I miss pasta. I miss eating easily. I am not going to pretend it doesn't suck.

I have relatives send me recipes that I can't make. My friends tell me all the time about food I should cook that I can't. I have stopped reading some cooking sites because there isn't a thing on there I can eat.

Tonight instead of going out to dinner, which should be a treat, I found it easier to defrost chicken, grill it (hello, it is POURING down rain in Seattle), and make rice and sauteed chard. Yes, it was delicious. That's not the point. The topping on this shit cake? The propane ran out on our grill halfway through cooking and I had to finish the chicken in the oven. Good times.

Ostrich

Oh those beautiful eyelashes! This was on a goat farm in South Africa (Fairview winery's farm) and I wanted to pack that baby up and take her home with me. For the record when you return to the US, at least from South Africa, you have to declare if you have been on a farm or not. I, and most of the group I traveled with, checked "No."

Is it Tuesday Already?

Those candles being burned on both ends are killing me. Mostly because I chose to do yardwork on the weekends with my (very little) spare time rather than rest. Monday and Tuesday I chose to get up at the crack of dawn to exercise. All I want is a warm beach and a sunny day.

Note to self: Probably not a good idea to spend three weekends, time, and money working on your yard/borders/bulbs if you are going to have your roof redone the weekend after. Hopefully something turns out.

Perspective

Me in South Africa, February 2008. This is after I went down about a size from exercise.

Fall 2009 in Athens, Greece after more exercise and discovering that I couldn't eat wheat or dairy. I ain't no supermodel, but it is progress.

Bougatsa

When we decided to go to Greece, I knew for sure that we were going to go to Crete and find the pastry that Anthony Bourdain had on his show No Reservations. Maybe that seems weird but I couldn't believe that we would travel that far, get that close, and not at least try to find a pastry that sounded blow-your-mind amazing.

Byron takes Tony to a small shop for a Hanian delicacy, bougatsa. Bougatsa is a sweet cheese and phyllo pie. Here the same baker has hand made the gossamer thin phyllo from scratch for 20 years. When the morning's supply runs out around 1 p.m., the shop closes.

They whip the crap out of the coffee there, makes for such creamy foam.


Crispy dough, creamy cheese with a slight sour that goes perfectly with sugar they sprinkle on the outside. An amazing combo of salty, sweet, and sour with a nice mix of crispy and then creamy textures.


I tried to save this napkin, I have no idea why. It was a crumpled mess in my bag in hours.


I am sorry now we only had it that one day. We could have gone back the next day. If you are ever going to Greece, seriously consider making a trip to Hania, Crete and seek out this pastry. You'll never have another like it.