Because Judy passed away last year, Janis chose her Zuni Café Cookbook for our June
dinner. It was the best way to
honor this pioneer of fresh California cooking. We haven’t eaten at Zuni in many years but this dinner
made us want more so a visit to the city may be in the making!
Sandi & Willie had a family funeral to attend so we
weren’t able to enjoy her assorted Crostini’s, their wonderful company or Willie's professional photography of our dishes. Bill stepped up to the plate
to be the evening’s photographer as well as our Cellarmaster.
We had originally thought that Michelle and David were going
to be an hour late so although the menu started off with no appetizers, I
decided that we needed something to nosh on while waiting for the Kings. I happened to have all the
ingredients for this dish so, voila! Rosemary-Grilled Chicken Livers
& Bacon with Balsamic-Onion Marmalade Toasts. Since
this was the beginning of a big dinner, I only made two toasts per person AND,
I wasn’t sure if some people would like chicken livers. This recipe turned out to be the big
surprise to me and several others, some of whom don’t especially like chicken
livers. The bacon
wrapped livers are skewered on rosemary stems and then served on an onion
marmalade covered grilled baguette slices were reminiscent of savory, sweet,
smoky and totally yummy. It’s
a recipe I will make again! Bill
chose a 2012 Mount Eden Vineyards
Cabernet Franc Rosé, Santa Cruz Mountains to go with the
chicken livers. David thought it
had Brettanomyces, a wine spoilage yeast, but I didn’t detect it. I’ve had Jeffrey’s Rosé’s before and
this one was more lean that the ones I’ve had in the past.
BTW, David and Michelle arrived on time so we started at 6
p.m. as planned.
Because of the Brett, David poured his 2012 Domaine Huet Vouvray
LeMont Sec, Loire, France that
was a wonderful wine for a warm afternoon. It didn’t necessarily go with the chicken livers but it
certainly had no Brett!
This dinner was also
special because I had invited the editor of an upcoming book that is an
anthology of writings related to home cooking. Elizabeth is a delightful woman with a very
charismatic personality who explained that this anthology is about home cooking
that includes community, health, cost efficiency and family. She invited everyone to write a chapter
or contribute to the Cookbook Club chapter with a paragraph about your “story:”
your misadventures, values, enjoyment, cooking experiences during the past 8
years. We wanted she and
Cindy Roberts, the anthology editor, to experience the club and see first-hand
how it works as well as communicate their invitation to write for the book.
Our first course was
Mixed Lettuces with Roasted
Cherries. Janis had to hand
pick the cherries at a famer’s market to find good Bings. It’s not a good cherry year because we
had such a warm winter and they need a good freeze to create a plentiful, juicy
crop. She thought the salad
dressing needed some umami because it was somewhat bland. The dressing had a few drops of grappa
(that I was able to provide for her) but it probably would taste better if she
had used kirsch, but neither of us had any of that. Next time!
It was a beautifully arranged salad, finished with some lovely warmed Saint-Marcellin
cheese and roasted hazelnuts. Because
of the cherry flavors Bill chose a 2011
Plumed Blanc, Testarossa Winery, a gift from the Plumed Horse restaurant in Saratoga. This was a fruity
sauvignon blanc that many of us really liked. Testarossa is a
local winery that has produced some very nice wines throughout the years, on
and off.
Zuni Café is known for Judy’s Roasted
Chicken and Bread Salad so we couldn’t have a dinner in her honor without
this special dish. Judy’s Roast
Chicken is the way many people roast their chickens after she shared her
recipe. It takes 3 days to prepare
the chicken for roasting so plan ahead. The trick is to not cover the chicken so the skin
dries out and creates a crispy skin when roasted. David stepped up to the plate to treat us to this iconic
dish and the chicken was moist and tender, as expected. Because it wasn’t served right out of
the oven, we lost the crispy skin but it was a wonderful dish that brought up
fond memories of her restaurant.
To enhance this evening, even though he couldn’t make the dinner,
Jeffrey sent a 2009 Zuni Pinot Noir,
Mount Eden Vineyards, Santa Cruz Mountains to the dinner. He makes wine for the Zuni Café’s label
and is the restaurant’s most popular wine. We all understand and know why! Thank you Jeffrey!!
The next dish was a combination
of dishes from Annie and George and myself.
Annie volunteered to
make the Roasted Polenta triangles
upon which my
Roasted Quail with Bay Leaves, Madeira &
Dates sat along the sides of
Creamed Corn and Sugar Snap Boats. Judy recommends roasting the quail whole and
letting diners pick through the bones but it’s such a small bird that it seems
like too much work for so little meat, so I partially de-boned the bird just
leaving the legs and breast cartilage. The quail sauce, made from roasting the back bones,
wings and two whole quails, creating a reduced stock, adding Madeira to it to
make a lusciously thick and silky sauce that makes this dish outstanding. . .
.to which I added 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter that the recipe did not call
for but really made the sauce over the top, following Julia Child’s adage that
one cannot have too much butter! I
only served one quail per person since this dinner had three desserts on the
way. The wine Bill chose to
complement all four dishes was a 1998
Côte Rôtie Red Rhone Brune Et Blonde E. Guigal, France. It definitely did exactly
that. It was a lovely rhone that
paired with each of the dishes, standing up to the rich sauce of the quail
while not overpowering the corn or the sugar snap peas.
Everyone crowed
about the Creamed Corn that did not
resemble the mushy Del Monte canned creamed corn that we grew up on. The scraped corn kernels were
whole and simply enhanced with butter and a little marscapone. So simple and so fresh and, um,
creamy! The Sugar Snap Boats were also very simply sautéed in butter enhanced
with fresh herbs and the perfect accompaniment to the quail by adding the
sweet, crunchy announcement of spring to our main entré.
Following the belief
that there is never enough desserts, this dinner had three of them to offer our
taste buds. We started with the
lightest of them and enjoyed Sandy’s Toasted
Almond Panna Cotta with Saba while Elizabeth talked to us about her
project. The almond flavor is very
light and we all asked Sandy how she achieved that. It is toasted chopped almonds that is steeped in milk and
cream. The saba was the crowning
touch to this dessert. Saba is a
syrupy balsamic vinegar that was a surprising contrast to the panna cotta. The detail of this dish was the sugar
frosted raspberries that she must have frosted before she placed them in the
dishes. The original recipe calls
for unmolded ramikins but it is more work than it’s worth so Sandy chose to
serve hers in these beautiful dishes, placed on unique hand painted
saucers. A portrait of
delicious. Bill selected a 1998 Chateau Rieussec Sauternes, France to
serve with the panna cotta and the next dessert, the Apricot Crostata. What is there not to like about a
sauterne? Especially a
Rieussec! I just love this
chateau’s wines, one of my favorites because it’s not an overly sweet cloying
sauternes like many others.
Our next dessert was
an Apricot Crostata that Annie made. The difficult part of this dessert is
the crust that Annie discovered to be the only way she can successfully make a pie crust. She, like I, find making
pie crusts very difficult.
This one is basically a rough pastry that bakes into flakey, buttery
goodness that was tough to resist.
She tasted all the apricots at the Farmers Market before choosing these for
her dessert. That is the level of
cooking that this group is known for. . . . knowing that the best entré starts
out with the best ingredients and shopping around until we find it. It’s like David’s Tartine Bakery
Bread that he used for his Roast Chicken and Bread Salad. He drove to San Francisco to get
the bread because it is the best batard around! This crostada was baked long enough to for the crust to
become flakey while the apricots still retained their shape and fresh flavors. The sauternes really worked well with
Annie’s apricots and buttery crust.
And, finally, we come to our last dessert served in pots de
crème pots…so very special!
Michelle wanted to make the Chocolate
Pots de Crème so she could use
her little pots and it was worth the wait to spoon up this unctuous
pudding/mousse. She used 72% cacao
chocolate for this dessert and, as a result, created a small pot of creamy,
chocolate dream that was the perfect finish to our dinner, complete with a 1927 Alvear Pedro Ximenez Solera Sherry, from David’s
cellar. No, that is not a
typo. This sherry is made from a
sherry that originated in 1927,
using the solera process that adds younger wines to the aged sherry each year.
To top off the evening, Bill offered anyone a taste of a Avery
of Bristol NV Madiera that he had
to open because I needed it for my quail dish. He’s been cellaring this bottle since 1970!! He talked about, in the past, how
Madeira was used as ballasts in ships traveling to and from India. This fortified wine is also made using
the solera process.
Another memorable dinner and Judy Rodgers would be proud of
us! A toast to a grand dame
of the kitchen.
Our next dinner is on September
6, 2014. Sharon will be the
host and use Sukie’s home in the Bay Area since we can’t get anyone to drive up
to her home in Penn Valley!
The next cookbook is Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam
Ottolengh, about $20 from Amazon or $16 on Kindle. There are also
several copies in the Santa Clara Library. Switch culinary countries and start exploring the
Middle Eastern cuisines in this cookbook!
Cook on!
