As David said, why go through the complicated bother of
making reservations at the
French Laundry when
we have so many accomplished cooks who can prepare a fabulous 9-course dinner,
complete with great wines?
Not
this group! Janis' beautifully set table made us feel quite elegant for the evening.
We started the evening with
Gougéres.
Annie
thought there were better recipes out there for gougéres.
She reduced the time she baked
them in order to keep them moist inside.
Even those who have eaten at the restaurant
noticed how dry Keller’s gougéres are so Annie’s decision to shorten the baking
time was a good call.
I and
others thought Keller’s gougéres were too salty as well.
Willie made better ones for our
Holiday Buffet in 2007 (a pre-blog site dinner) using Cindy Pawlcyn’s recipe. Amazing to have any reservations about any recipes from a Michelin 3-star chef.
Michelle prepared one of my favorite courses of the evening. Keller’s
Salmon Cornets were so
delicious!
I wanted more . .
. which is exactly Keller’s point at his restaurant.
He wants us to “want more” of each dish
only to move on to the next course that should surprise and delight us, where
we “want more” of that one, and on and on throughout the evening.
The salmon tartare with sweet red onion
crème fraîche layered in a crisp cornet was a two-bite trip into gourmet ecstasy!
She served them in a bed of rock salt
to keep them upright for us to partake.
Very clever!
We toasted the return of Sandi & Willie to the group
with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot,
Nonvintage Champagne (Yellow Label, magnum) from Bill's cellar. It went well with both the Gougeres and Salmon
Cornets. The bubbly was just what
the rich gougéres and cornets needed to cleanse our palates for the next bite.
To remind us just what a great cook Sandi is, she prepared a
very rich
Creamy Maine Lobster Broth for
us.
It was very delicious
and although a seemingly a “light” broth, very complex while showcasing the
lobster’s flavors.
She added a
small bite of lobster that was not called for in the recipe.
It seemed a shame to waste the meat
just to get the broth was her thought and we all agreed.
It was a
delectable surprise to find it at the bottom of our cups!
Bill poured a
2008 Rochioli Chardonnay, River Block Vineyard wine from his cellar
that was an example of a classic fruity California Chardonnay.
David shared a bottle of
2004 Domaine Marc Morey Chassagne-Montrachet,
1er cru, Les Vergers from his cellar.
A lovely white burgundy
that was a well-structured wine with a balance of fruit and acid, very typical
of French burgundies.
While people
loved both wines made from the Chardonnay grape, they thought that the Marc
Morey complemented the broth better than the Rochioli.
David prepared the Poached
Moulard Duck Foie Gras au Torchon and, instead of the pickled cherries that Keller uses in his
recipe, he served it with Sauternes Gelée, a glistening, jeweled presentation
choice! Torchon and seared
foie gras are the two best ways to serve it. David shared his source for the duck liver: Hudson Valley and D’Artagnan. Our foie gras this evening was from Hudson Valley and
was very decadently delicious. Some of us, meaning me, would have just eaten this for the entire
evening as well as drunk more of the 2001
Chateau Coutet Sauternes that
Bill retrieved from his cellar fro this dish. David said that he followed the recipe for the torchon exactly and
poached it for just 3 minutes. David said that the most time consuming part of the recipe is
cleaning the membranes and veins from the lobes. Preparing this dish is a 3-day affair, so plan ahead!
Our next dish was a second one Michelle treated us to.
The
Salmon “Chops” with Celery and Black Truffles was another rich dish
to consume and I must say, we did a great of job of pacing this dinner.
Even though the entire meal was
heavy and rich, we had enough time in between each course to appreciate and
digest the food and wine.
The
chops were moist with crispy skins and the fresh truffles were a delightful
surprise.
The truffles were
imported from Italy, purchased from the Ferry Building’s
Far West Fungi.
I loved the celery with the salmon too
. . . a very nice fresh touch to this dish.
Bill poured a
1988
Champagne Comte A. De Dampierre Blanc de Blanc de Grand Cru. What was amazing about this
champagne was its age.
It’s pretty
rare to drink a 25 year old champagne that still holds its complexity,
structure and richness
Bill informed us that originally, this was how champagne corks were secured before they began wiring them as they are today. This
was so good that Annie, who doesn’t care for champagnes, loved this one!
It went well with the salmon and
truffles.
It was so good
that it probably would have gone with everything!
I prepared the
Venison
Chop with Butternut Squash for the main entré of the evening.
I bought a domestically raised venison
rack from Schaub’s Meat Market in the Stanford Shopping Center.
They frenched it for me but I had to do
some additional trimming at home to cut away the sinews and truss the chops
into a uniform shape.
As with all
of Keller’s recipes, at first glance it looked pretty simple but closer
examination shows that each item in his ingredients is a separate recipe.
Very few of his recipes are a one-day
affair.
It’s the sauces that
require time; even his “Quick” sauce asks for a Veal Sauce that is another
recipe to prepare.
I must confess,
I cheated and purchased frozen Veal Sauce from Schaub’s so by doing this, if
one started 5 hours before serving, it can be done in one day.
The chop was tender and delicious
but I find that I prefer wild game and missed that gamey taste in this
dish.
Bill poured a magnum of a
1990 Togni Cabernet Sauvignon with the
venison.
It stilled showed it’s
fruit, richness and complexity for a 23 year old wine with a long finish. You can see from this photo how carefully the wines are decanted, using a device dubbed the
Simoni Suckee Thing.
An Aside: This
recipe called for a Beurre Monte, Brunoise, Chicken Stock and “Quick Sauce, the
necks of butternut squash, fried bacon, chervil and thyme. Even though he wanted just two
teaspoons of brunoise, I had to make at least a half recipe. So I had four pounds of butternut
squash, brunoise, Beurre Monté, chicken stock, bacon and chervil, and thyme
left over. Guess what Bill and I had
for dinner tonight? You
guessed it, Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, garnished with bacon bits and
chervil!!
Our cheese course for the evening was prepared by Janis and
may well become the way I’ll serve Brie in the future! Her Whipped Bric de Meaux en Feullete with Tellicherry Pepper and Baby
Mache was totally addictive. After removing the rind, the brie is whipped
with her Kitchen Aide paddle until fluffy. I’m not sure I can tell the difference between different
peppers but learned that there are many, many kinds of black peppers. The reduced balsamic vinegar added just the right amount of sweetness to the dish. The mache was our only tribute to
greens for the evening. I hope you
all ate your daily vegetable portions the next day! You can see from this photo that it also makes a
beautiful presentation for the cheese course. We continued to drink the Togni with this dish since we had
a magnum to consume.
Sharon brought a Lemon
Sabayon
Pine Nut Tart with Honeyed Mascarpone Cream.
The group thought that the crust would be
enhanced by lightly toasting the pine nuts before adding them into the crust.
The lemon sabayon was tart and sweet,
as a lemon dessert should!
She
topped it with whipped mascarpone that was sweetened with honey.
Bill pulled yet another
Sauternes from his cellar and this one did not disappoint.
We tasted another
Chateau Coutet but this one was from a
1999 vintage.
It was a very
good pairing because the sauternes and sweetened lemon sabayon complemented
each other.
It became a process of
sublime - bite, sip, bite, sip, bite sip!
Our last dessert was made by Willie.
Before I forget, and people think that
one needs a fancy kitchen with every tool imaginable to prepare a gourmet dish,
it is good to remember that Sandi and Willie live in an Airstream trailer and
have a far-from-gourmet kitchen in which to make the Lobster broth OR the
Velouté of Bittersweet Chocolate with
Cinnamon Stick Ice Cream.
It
was a 3-day affair, making the ice cream first, then the cookies and lastly the
velouté.
Bravo Willie! It was the fitting ending to a gourmet evening.
Rich, creamy and crispy and so very
chocolate-y!
Bill offered two
options from his cellar for this ending.
The first was a
NV Trafford Tawny Port, House of Seppelt and the
second was a
1990 Graham’s Port Malvedos
Centenary.
I passed on
the Tawny but most people thought it went best with the chocolate.
I love red ports and the Grahams was a
very good one!
I didn’t
think either was great with the chocolate but finding a good wine to go with
chocolate has been a life long pursuit for Bill & I.
Bill doesn’t think there’s any wine
that goes well with Chocolate and so far, for me, Meeker Vineyard’s FroZin
comes the closest.
Ah-h-h, what a wonderful evening! Good food, good wine and good friends . . . THIS is why we
love to cook!
Our next dinner will be on our Annual Holiday Buffet, December
7 so mark your calendars.
Location TBA.
Our tradition is that the dishes are finger food or
bite-sized appetizers and desserts served buffet style. The recipes must come from one of the
books we used this year: French Laundry, Slanted Door and Science of Good Cooking or from the
December issue of Cook’s Illustrated
(Guy Crosby, the author of the Science of
Good Cooking is the Science Editor for Cook’s Illustrated’s America's Test
Kitchen).
Please bring book suggestions for next year’s cookbooks and
don’t forget your gift-wrapped kitchen white elephant or a culinary gadget/tool
that costs $15 or less.
Enjoy your Fall season and we'll gather again in December.
Welcome back Sandi & Willie! And, thank you Willie for being our photographer this
evening. No more iphone
photos, yippee!
Bill and I took a trip with another couple to
Penn Valley to stay with Sharon for the weekend. The purpose of the trip was to attend the Draft Horse
Classic in Grass Valley and see Sharon.
The event is really cool if you love draft horses (Clydesdales, Belgians,
Friesians, Percherons,, Suffolks, Shires, etc.). Before the event you can wander around the stables and pet
the horses. Draft horses are so
gentle and mellow that their owners don’t worry about people coming up to
them….of course if they moved their giant heads quickly, and you are next to
them, you’re toast! Here you can see me with a friend from my riding class and our riding teacher, in front of a Clydesdale. Compare the size of his head with
the woman who is in front of him. These horses are huge! As you can see, Bill and Sharon are NOT into horses so they stayed at
Sharon’s. Bill was going to join
us for the event but there was rain, thunder and lightning (hence the jackets,
scarves, gloves, etc.) so the event got cancelled and we ended up going out for
a great pizza….sigh, next year.
