DO YOU UNIMOG?

Our field trip to Calistoga turned out to be a small group sojourn for four of us.  Sharon was planning to join us but her dog was bitten by some insect or spider.  The wound got infected so she had to stay home with her Buster.  He is on the mend now after surgery, stitches and a cone collar.  Janis & Bill and Bill & I soldiered on however and arrived at the Davis Estate Winery's guest house in Calistoga. 

It had a fabulous view of vineyards and the Castello di Amorosa across the valley.  As you can see from the photos, the guest house is very nice with 3 bedrooms, a wonderful kitchen that Janis and I used to it’s fullest and a large dining table.

We had dinner at Ad Hoc Friday night where the main entré was a Veal Chop.  If you've never eaten there, there are no menu choices.  You walk in, sit down and are served what is being prepared that night.  There are a couple of add on's but it's the same menu for everyone.  As you can imagine, every course was well prepared and tasted as a Thomas Keller prepared meal should!   IMHO, I think our two Ad Hoc dinners were just as delicious as the restaurant's and much more fun since we had twice as many courses!

We ate a light breakfast of homemade granola, fresh baked croissants, coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice and fruit.  After relaxing a tiny bit and wandering around the vineyards, barns and outbuildings of the winery, we headed to Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen for lunch.  Cindy Pawlcyn is another chef whose cookbook we featured a few years ago.  We had a delightful lunch and headed

back to the house afterwards so I could make homemade ice cream and Peach Pie, since I bought peaches from Phil Cosentino’s orchard ( J & P Farms) the day before.  Bill brought wines from our cellar for both meals, of course!

We did a wine tasting of the Davis Estate Winery wines and our top choices were the Windmill Valley Vineyards Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. . . you can see the remnants of our tasting in this photo as well as the beginnings of setting the table for dinner.  Since our cost to rent the house was a case and a half of wine, we purchased those three varieties plus a couple of bottles of their merlot.   We’ll share those wines with you at our next dinner.

We cooked a simple dinner at the house.  Janis marinated a flank steak that Bill barbequed to perfection on the house’s grill.  It was joined by a green salad, garlic bread…how simple can you get?  It was the best meal so far.  Better than any of the restaurants!   We had a slice of pie ala mode for dessert.  We imbibed of the Estate's wines as well as a Gary Farrell Syrah throughout the dinner.  

Mike & Sandy Davis and two of their employees, Holly & Carie, joined us for breakfast the next morning.  They had just returned from Lake Tahoe with their wooden Chris Craft boats in tow very late Saturday night…well, actually early Sunday morning.   Sandi made her mother’s Sour Cream Waffles for everyone and a tomato omelet for Mike, along with sausages and fresh squeezed orange juice from Janis & Bill’s orange trees.   Everyone wanted the recipe for the waffles so I guess they all like it!

You are probably wondering what the heck is a “UNIMOG.”   Before you google it, it is a vehicle manufactured by Mercedes Benz and in this case, a fire truck that Mike keeps on the property.  It has 7 gears and can climb a 40% angled hill and holds 8 easily inside.  Mike was the "tour guide" par excellence and gave us the king's tour!  It was great fun to tour the property and vineyards in it.  It was the highlight of our trip!   

We all left the property Sunday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend with each other!  Thank you Mike and Sandy for sharing your piece of paradise and wonderful wines with us!

Next Stop:  French Laundry dinner at Janis & Bill’s home on August 31^st.   Save your appetites for this fabulous dinner!

Vietnamese Home Cooking, May 18, 2013

Living on the Pacific Rim is a wonderful exposure to new spices, herbs, vegetables and combinations, as we discovered cooking from Charles Phan’s new cookbook, Vietnamese Home Cooking.  His gourmet Vietnamese restaurant, The Slanted Door, in the San Francisco Ferry Building, is one of the most popular restaurants in the City.  You need reservations unless you show up right when they open.  I tried several of his recipes and loved some of them and others were somewhat disappointing.  AND, I admit, that perhaps I didn’t prepare them correctly.  I tried his Shaking Beef recipe because it’s pretty popular at the restaurant but mine didn’t taste as good as his…operator error?  I’ll try it again to see if I can make it better.

I ended up cooking for two* dinners from this cookbook.  Our group could not come up with a date where the majority of the members could come.  Our newbies, Michelle and David, hosted the dinner at their very charming home.  We only had 6 of us: 4 cooks, Bill, our sommelier, and Janis’ husband, Bill, to round out the evening.   We started the dinner with a lovely champagne that David provided from his cellar: Non Vintage Franck Bonville Champagne Cuvée Les Belles Voyes Brut Blanc de Blancs.  It was bright, light on the fruit and very clean finish.  The perfect choice to prepare our palates for the evening to come.

Janis prepared the Crab and Asparagus Soup for us.  She was going to originally make the Crab and Corn soup as well but could not find any fresh yellow corn.  The white corn is very sweet but does not have “corn” character.  The soup was refreshing.  Without looking at the recipe, I thought we were going to get a creamy soup but this one uses chicken broth, flavored with the spring asparagus and large chunks of crab that Bill gallantly cracked and cleaned for Janis.  It was a great start to a satiating evening.  Bill chose a 2004 J. Rochioli Chardonnay Rachael’s Vineyard, Russian River Valley, Sonoma from his cellar to serve with the soup.  I liked it but then Rochioli is one of my favorite Callifornia Chardonnays (Mount Eden Vineyards, being the other!).

We next had the Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sticky Rice that David prepared.  This was a vegetarian version of the Sticky Rice dish that you often get at Chinese Dim Sum restaurants.  It was filled with a wonderful spicy, smoky sauce that flavored the cubes of tofu, taro, and mushrooms.  None of us missed the meat (usually pork and/or chicken in the Chinese version).  The dried lotus leaves are purchased from Asian Markets and soaked to make them pliable.  Sticky rice is made from “sweet rice” that is, of course, stickier than regular short grain rice.    I really loved the tea flavor that the lotus leaves give this dish.  We tried a 2001 Dönnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spätlese with this dish that David pulled from his cellar.   Because the rice dish wasn’t very spicy, the Riesling was a great choice for this dish. 

We then had the Caramelized Lemongrass Shrimp that Michelle prepared.  We got to get our fingers into this dish pulling the shells off and licking our fingers . . . even though Michelle thoughtfully provided finger bowls for all of us.  This was another spicy dish everyone enjoyed.  The lemongrass was overpowered by the spice in this dish.   The caramel helped to tone down the spice in this dish and added some nice depth to it.  We all discussed the seemingly wasteful use of the lemongrass.  It is to peeled down to a core that is maybe 1/8” thick and then sliced into coins and chopped even further into smaller pieces.   The leaves that are peeled off had a wonderful aroma that we all thought was unfortunate that we couldn’t use.  Michelle served this dish with broken jasmine rice that served a nice foil for the spicy shrimp.  David shared a bottle of 2001 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenur Riesling Spåtlese to drink with this course.  We all didn’t think it held up to the spicy shrimp.  Pairing wines with this dinner proved to be more difficult than we had thought.  While Rieslings go really well with spicy Thai dishes, they do not work as well with Vietnamese dishes.  Maybe next time to try a smoky Syrah?

I tried over 6 recipes from Phan’s book and the Roasted Eggplant and Leek Salad was my favorite.  I love eggplants, leeks and cilantro and thought the idea of making it into a salad sounded great.  I could not find any baby leeks that he called for but settled for the smallest leeks I could find.  I went online and one person said to substitute scallions but I chose not to because it would change the taste of the dish.  The salad dressing is what makes this dish.  It uses a smoky chili paste made from ground annatto seeds and Thai peppercorns along with bean paste, and other ingredients.  The paste is then added to a soy sauce base which is then added to the salad dressing ingredients.  The good news is that once I made the chili paste, it’s good for about 3 months so I can easily add it to other dishes. Phan is correct, it is worth the effort and tastes 10 times better than any bottled version.  We drank a divine 1989 S. Anderson Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Richard Chambers Vineyard, Stags Leap District, Napa that Bill found in his cellar.  He and David swooned all evening about this cab.   It went well with this salad as well as the next dish, the Lemongrass Short Rib Stew that I also prepared for this group.

*  I must digress here to share a bit about another Vietnamese Home Cooking dinner that I shared with Jeffrey.  Jeffrey was so disappointed, after buying the cookbook, that he couldn’t make the date that he and I decided to do a separate dinner ourselves and invite another couple or two.   Tina said she’d like to join us since she bought the book too and couldn’t make the dinner date either.  So-o-o we set a date on a Monday evening and had dinner on the mountaintop.  At the last minute Tina had a family emergency and couldn’t make it so it was just Jeffrey and I cooking.   I won’t go into a lot of detail but we had Fresh Spring Rolls, Lemongrass Chicken, and Steamed Fish in addition to the Roasted Eggplant and Leek Salad  and the Lemongrass Short Rib Stew that we had for our dinner on the 18th.    For dessert at Jeffrey's, I made a Chocolate Walnut Tart to end the evening on a sweet note.

The Lemongrass Stew was delicious and everyone enjoyed the spiciness and the daikon of this dish.  The first time I made it, I added the diced Thai Chili as a garnish, along with the Thai Basil chiffonade.  It made the dish really hot so I left it off at this dinner but now I think the dish actually needs that extra kick.   Bill found a 1986 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, Private Reserve to drink with this dish.  I liked it and thought it stood up well to the spicy kick in this dish but Bill and David thought the S. Anderson cab was a better choice.  The Beringer lost its fruit as the evening wore on, so I too agreed that the S. Anderson was a better choice.  In an effort to find the perfect wine, David added a lovely Burgundy, 1999 Nuits-Saint-Georges Red Burgundy, Les Saint-Georges Domaine Robert Chevillon, Premier Cru., to the dinner to see how they worked or didn’t work with spicy dishes.   Although we all loved the burgundy, it didn’t fare well against the stew.

For this dessert, I prepared a non-cookbook dish (there weren’t any desserts in this cookbook BTW) that contained Vietnamese ingredients, Toasted Coconut & Lemongrass Bread Pudding with French Vanilla Ice Cream.    It was easy to make and the recipe used more of the lemongrass leaves because the cream and coconut cream was steeped in the toasted coconut and chopped up lemongrass stems for over an hour.  It wasn’t very sweet which appealed to me but for those who like sugar, it was a  just a rich dessert…maybe if I added a chocolate sauce to it?  To appease our sugar/chocoholics, Michelle brought out a small platter of chocolate pieces from Peru and Bolivia and we had a comparative tasting…and, as with all tastings, different people had different preferences.  Bill shared a 2006 Weingut Losen-Bockstanz Riesling Beerenauslese that went well with the dessert but was a disppointment to Bill. He was thinking that he should have poured the Ice Wine instead but no one was complaining.

I don’t think we got through this dinner before 11 p.m. . . .  so after five hours of eating, we all toddled off to our cars, letting the designated drivers head home.

AND, you may have noticed that there aren't as many photos of this dinner in this post.  Mea culpa.  I forgot to take any photos of our May 18th dinner so the photos that I posted are from the May 13th dinner at Jeffrey's...and I didn't even remember to take photos of every dish there either.  Willie, I really miss you!

Our next dinner will be from the French Laundry cookbook.  A return to the most fabulous gourmand-oriented dinner we’ve ever had.  I will start polling for a date and try to find one that everyone can attend . . . this dinner will not be one you want to miss!   David promised to prepare the Foie Gras Torchon for us so we have at least one dish settled!    Once we have a date, I’ll let you know where this dinner will take place.  Most likely a July or August date and if it’s really hot, we may need to do it at our air-conditioned home.  Stay tuned and . . .

Cook on!

Guy Crosby Dinner

It clear to see why The Science of Good Cooking is on the NY Times Best Seller list.  It is filled with information and tips on how to prepare different kinds of meats, vegetables, fowl, desserts, etc. so that the dish comes out like it should.  Guy Crosby is a good friend of Sandy’s and signed copies of his books and answered questions at an event that Sandy coordinated.  I am hoping that when he returns to the Bay Area in August, that we’ll be able to invite him for dinner.

Even experienced cooks, as our group clearly is, finds great information on why to prepare a dish a certain way ranging from the chemistry that is occurring to tips on making it an easier dish to prepare.

The recipes were not “exciting” recipes but pretty basic without any exotic ingredients, spices or herbs.   Our dinner was an “old fashioned” dinner in the best meaning of the descriptor.

We started out with Deviled Eggs.  Tina was going to prepare them but she finally succumbed to the cold/flu that she’d been fighting all week.   I decided to go ahead and prepare them for her rather than change the menu.  It was a very interesting process starting with how to lay the eggs on their sides for about an hour to make sure that the yolk remains in the center of the whites when boiled.  That also brings the eggs to room temperature.   He starts the eggs with cold water, brings them to a boil and then immediately removes them from the heat and lets them sit in the hot water for 10 minutes.  Gently break their shells and immediately plunge them into an ice bath.  I used to mash the yolks with a fork but Guy recommends that I mush the yolks in a fine sieve with a wooden pestle and I got really fine particles of egg yolk that turned into a delicious yolk filling that I piped into perfectly centered whites, as you can see from this photo.  I decided to add a sprinkle roe and chives over the yolks.  Bill poured a Roederer Estate NV Sparkling Wine from Anderson Valley, our favorite sparkling wine producer in California.  It was a wonderful wine with the deviled eggs, with just enough citrus, yeast and acid to offset the rich eggs.

 

Our next course was prepared by our new member, David, who chose the Quiche Lorraine.  Everyone agreed that this was the best quiche they had ever eaten!  I think it was helped by the fact that David used only the best ingredients.  He did some research years ago and located the best smoked bacon in the USA.  He found it in Tennessee and gets it shipped to him.  Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams.  He also used fresh hen eggs that were only 1 day old.    He followed the recipe exactly as printed.  He usually tweaks recipes but this time, he was religiously faithful to the directions and ingredients.   You’ll notice from the photo that this is a deep dish quiche and was made using a springform pan that is lined with foil to ease the release of the quiche.  The crust was flakey and tasty, and made in an food processor which makes this recipe a “must try” for me, although  I’ll have to order the bacon first.  David brought a beautiful white Burgundy to drink with his quiche, Puligny-Montrachet 2007, Premier Cru “Champs-Canet” SC.E. Domaine Ramonet.  I love white burgundies and this was no exception…it was creamy and luscious.  Perfectly paired with David’s quiche!

We then ate a  Spicy Shrimp Salad with Corn & Chipotle that Sharon prepared, again, following the recipe exactly.  The shrimp was tender and juicy because the recipe called for a quick dip in boiling water.  Although the salad used chilies, it was tempered by the homemade lime mayonnaise and sweet corn kernels.  We all enjoyed the result.  I forgot to ask Sharon if she used fresh-shucked corn or had to use frozen because of the season.  But, if they were frozen, I didn’t notice.  Bill selected a J. Rocchioli 2005 Chardonnay, Rachael’s Vineyard, Russian River Valley in Sonoma.  This Chardonnay was bright & lightly fruity and stood up well to the spicy shrimp.

Jeffrey made the Onion Braised Beef Brisket, again, following the recipe exactly.  This is unusual for our group since we usually do a little tweaking after tasting the trial run.  Maybe it’s because we don’t do trial runs anymore?  We must be getting better!   The brisket is seared first and Jeffrey explained that he was told to weight it down with a cast iron pot to get an even sear on the non-fat side.  It resulted in an evenly seared and perfectly flat brisket, making it easier to get even slices.  The recipe used a lot of onions to get the wonderfully browned, caramelized onion sauce and flavors.  Another recipe I intend to try soon.  It was a wintery dish that fit an early March dinner.  Jeffrey brought a wine from his winery’s cellar to go with his brisket.  The Mount Eden Vineyards 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon estate bottled Old Vine Reserve wine was the best choice.  This robust, well-balanced wine accented the caramelized onions and the brisket actually enhanced the flavors of the wine as well.    It also worked well with the Roasted Brussel Sprouts that Michelle, another new member, prepared.  She chose this recipe because she wanted to see if Guy’s recipe worked better than others that she used.  It was a good comparison because I am not a brussel sprout fan.  This one brought out the nutty flavors of the vegetable that was accented by chopped walnuts and a touch of lemon.  I ate every bite and I noticed that everyone else did too.

We were indulged this evening with 3 desserts.  Annie made  Orange Sherbet and Shortbread Cookies.  The orange sherbet was the best orange sherbet I’ve ever tasted.  It was creamy, not too sweet and had the fresh orange flavor that was accented by orange zest.  Her shortbread cookies were more like cookie bars. . .well, triangular bars actually.  They were thick and so-o-o buttery.  I love shortbread cookies because I don’t like sweet but do like butter (I know, don’t forget to take my Lipitor!).   Bill poured a lovely Chateau La Tour Blanche 1999, Sauternes, France to accompany this dessert.  It was a good choice to accompany the sherbet and cookies.

It did not go as well with the Crêpe Suzettes that I made for the dinner.  They were too sweet for the wine.  When the recipe said I didn’t need a crêpe pan for this dessert, I was hooked.  Guy also said to expect the first few crêpes to not turn out well and he was right.  It takes a tiny bit of practice but after the first few, I was turning out perfectly round crêpes that were lightly browned.  The orange sauce was pretty straightforward.  I made the crêpes ahead of time and although the recipe didn’t say to, I would warm them a little before serving next time.  Also, because you can only turn them over with your fingers (anything else would tear them), I would recommend wearing latex gloves to protect your fingers for the second it takes to turn them.  Guy recommends lifting them and turning them from the far edge and flipping them towards me.  I tried it the other way and tore the crêpes so follow the instructions and get perfect crêpes.

Our last dessert was served as an amuse bouche from the chef who was Sandy this time.  She made Tangerine Meringue Cookies for that last sweet bite of the evening.  They were so cute and everyone commented on the touch of tangerine.  She had a hard time keeping the meringues crispy because of the humidity Saturday evening.  She re-crisped them before driving over and in the short time between the drive and the dinner’s previous courses, they got sticky on the exterior.  The interior remained crispy and the taste was wonderful.

The conversation of the evening brought forth some great ideas for more field trips.  One is a restaurant in San Francisco that serves dinner in the complete dark, served by blind waiters.  It would be a great test to our olfactory organs and tongues.  Can we tell if it’s beef, lamb or pork?  Red or white wine?  What a great culinary adventure!

The other idea was to take a mushroom foraging field trip with a mycologist.  David and Michelle promised to look into both the restaurant and the mushroom trip.  I’ll also check with David Kinch to see he still has the name and contact info for his wild mushroom expert.  When Kinch owned the Sent Sovi restaurant, he sponsored a mushroom hunt with dinner that I joined and thoroughly enjoyed.

Our next dinner will be hosted by David and Michelle and we will be cooking from Charlie Phan’s (of Slanted Door Restaurant fame), Vietnamese Home Cooking.    I am looking forward to this book because I love Vietnamese cooking!

Cook on!

7th Annual Holiday Buffet, 2012

We welcomed the holidays and two new members to our Cookbook Club at our 7^th Annual Holiday Buffet.  David and Michelle made friends quickly and easily adapted into the cookbook concept, making us an 11-member group again.

Our holiday buffet is usually held at Annie & George’s beautifully decorated home in Willow Glen and this year was no exception.   The dishes were all prepared from any of our 2012 cookbooks: Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook or one of Ina Garten’s cookbooks. (we also cooked from Mourad but no one chose a recipe for this evening's dinner) This is always an informal dinner and served buffet style that is both easier and more difficult to serve.  Easier in that we don't have to go through as many plates, silverware, wine glasses, etc. but more difficult to pair with wines or with each other.  We decided to serve our dishes in three "flights" this year.

And, before I get into the details, I must apologize for the poor quality of photographs.  I not only forgot to take photos until we were halfway into the dinner...and I am no Willie, a past member who is traversing the United Statesin his Air Stream with his wife and cat, but I also forgot my camera so these photos are from my iphone.   Please don't take my photos as an example of how one can take great photos with an iphone; they are not.

 

We started the buffet with Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs and Caramelized Bacon that Janis prepared for us.  If you haven’t tried combining smoked salmon with traditional deviled eggs, you have to try it!!  The salmon adds umami to the deviled eggs.  The Caramelized Bacon was crispy; a salty sweet treat with very forward flavors.   We also tasted Rosemary Cashews from an Ina Garten recipe from Sharon.  She said it was pretty easy to make and it certainly was delicious.   Bill poured a German sparkling Riesling,  a Gebruder Simon 2010 Sparkling Riesling Brut Sekt Mosel.  It was a very dry Riesling that went well with the deviled egg dish.  This year's vintage was prepared with a dosage of Auslese that adds a hint of fruit and sweetness to the palate.

Our savory dishes for the evening were very filling:   Ina Garten’s version of Croque Monsieur that Annie prepared for us had the traditional sliced ham, Gruyere cheese and Dijon mustard.  As delicious as it was, we didn’t eat a lot of it because we had several other course to try this evening.  David prepared Keller’s Pomegranate Glazed Quail.  The quails were very yummy and even more so, dripping with pomegranate sauce.   I must admit, thought,  I have to not think about how cute they were, running around under the brush and chaparral.   The sauce for the quail had a bit of heat to them to contrast with the sweet pomegranate syrup.  I prepared Keller’s Rubbed and Glazed Pork Ribs because it’s one of my favorite ways to grill ribs.  I used the smaller baby back ribs instead of St Louis cut ribs since this was a buffet and added two more spices to his recipe:  Ancho Chili and celery seeds.  It is so easy and comes out so juicy and tender.  As I've written previously, Kellar's Ad Hoc book is my "go to" book when I want to make a familiar dish more special and make it taste the best it can taste.  Sharon’s Spinach in Puff Pastry was too rich and decadent to be a vegetable dish but between she and Ina Garten, they presented a wonderful  concoction that pleased everyone.  Flakey, light, creamy and rich seem to be adjectives that don't go with each other but in this dish, they do!  Bill poured Merry Edwards 1999 Pinot Noir to complement these dishes.  It was hard to believe that this wine is 13 years old.  We drank it at the optimum time because it was a fabulous wine that had come into it’s own after 13 years.

Before our dessert flight, we took a break and started our conversation regarding cookbooks for next year and decided on the following books:  

Our first dinner in February will be from the The Science of Good Cooking by Guy Crosby, Ph.D. who’s fame is from his work at America’s Test Kitchen and with the magazine "Cook’s Illustrated."  Guy will be at Sandy’s home on Jan. 20 and our Cookbook Club members are all invited.  If you didn’t get the “Save the Date” email, let me know and I’ll forward it to you.  I've peeked at the book and it's one you may want to buy rather than check out from your local library (the Santa Clara County Libraries have it,  but it already has a wait list to get on it ASAP).  It explains why we have to use certain techniques or combine specific ingredients in a certain order.  The recipes aren't very complex so for us, this dinner should be pretty easy but the explanations are detailed and scientific in well-written non-scientific "English."

Charlie Phan's Vietnamese Home Cooking.   Charlie’s book will be our summer dinner book since many of his recipe’s call for summer vegetables and fruit.  If you've eaten at Charlie's famous Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco, you will love cooking from his book!

The group unanimously decided to revisit Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook for our “retro” book so that will most likely be our late Fall dinner.  The only caveat to this dinner will be that we cannot prepare the same dish that we prepared for our first French Laundry dinner on April 21, 2007.   We didn't want the dinner to be repeat of the original but a new dinner.  We didn't have a blog back then but I have the menu from that memorable dinner:  "Oysters & Pearls," Gazpacho Soup, Parmigiano-Reggiano Custards, Citrus marinated Salmon, Fava Bean Agnolotti, Salad of Haricorts Verts, “Tongue & Cheek” and ended with his "Banana Split."   This year's dinner will be even better since we are all better cooks than we were 5 years ago, right?!

We all decided that our field trip in 2013 will be to Paso Robles.  The group thought that late Fall will be the best time to travel since it worked so well this year.  As I gather more information and details, I will keep you in the loop.  If there is a favorite restaurant or winery you’d like to visit just drop me a line and I'll try to include it into the itinerary.  It was also suggested that I delegate some of the venues...YIPPEE-E-E!  So if you want to manage one of the meals or winery tours or a visit to one of your favorite PR places, let me know.  If we stay at a VRBO home instead of a hotel, we may cook one or two of our meals and I'll set up set-up, meal and clean-up teams.

 Back to our dinner!  We ended the evening with several delicious Chocolatey desserts.  Sandy made Thomas Keller’s Brownies that were decadently rich with dark chocolate.  Michelle prepared two buttery cookie recipes from Keller too:  Chocolate Shortbread and Linzer Tart Cookies.  Since I am the all-time cookie monster, I loved her cookies!

And last, but certainly not least was George’s super  Chocolate Orange Mousse, another Keller recipe..   This evening turned into a chocoholic’s dream!   Bill found an Essencia, 2010  Orange Muscat to pair with the Chocolate Orange Mousse.  His theory is that there is no wine that goes with chocolate so eat your chocolate dessert and then drink your dessert wine. . .  and never the twain should meet!  Of course, I disagree and continue to hunt for that elusive "wine-to-drink-with-chocolate."

We ended the evening and had some great laughs over our annual gift exchange…clearly the winners being Sandy & Jerry who brought the Bill Clinton corkscrew and Hillary Clinton nutcracker.   If you are curious about these two gifts, google it!  LOL!!

So until 2013 and our first dinner in February (The Science of Good Cooking),  Cook on!

Sonoma Field Trip Report

Corralling 9 people to show up on time, move to the next place was too easy. This group was on time, moved to the next venue in step and had a great time! The first stop was at noon on November 1, Sbragia Family Vineyards and Winery. Ed Sbragia was the winemaker at the award winning Beringer Winery in Napa Valley. In 2003 he left Beringer to open his own winery in Sonoma. If you haven’t been there, make it a destination on your next trip. It is a beautiful winery and staffed by professional and friendly people.

Our group was greeted by a welcoming sign…always good to know we were expected! Our lecture was on “Pairing Food and Wine” (well done by Kirby, BTW). Bill and I have been to multiple sensory wine tastings but this was very unique. It was about how to make food bring out the best of different wines. We were able to see for ourselves how, for example, a slice of apple changes the taste of a Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon but if we sprinkle of bit of salt onto the apple slice, the wines tasted totally different.

The brightness of the Sauvignon Blanc shone just with the addition of the salt. On the other hand, we saw what lemons do to wine…as you can imagine, not good things. The wines became dull and listless. But adding a squeeze of lemon to the apple and salt, changed the wines again and brought out the flavors of the reds. After our lecture and tasting, we had lunch at the winery, dining on their covered deck, enjoying the great food, the beautiful weather and views of the colorful fall vineyards.

Tracy Bidia, their Hospitality Manager, started us off with a great plate of assorted appetizers and then prepared an absolutely delicious pasta with short ribs, served with Arugula Salad with Parmigiana and freshly baked La Brea breads.

We finished our lunch with assorted cookies and biscotti. We purchased a bottle of their delicious fruity, complex and well-balanced Zinfandel to enjoy with the lunch.

We checked into our hotels around 3:30, rested a bit and then seven of us piled into Sandy & Jerry’s van to head over to Quivira Vineyards and Winery, in the Dry Creek area. This was a tour of their Biodynamic Gardens, led by Jim, the master gardener & foreman.

Working the ground as nature intended without chemicals or materials foreign to this microclimate is a lot of work and requires attention. All the vegetables and herbs were healthy and fruitful. Jim said that when plants are healthy and strong, they can resist disease and bugs. He also mentioned that feral bees are withstanding the mite disease that is devastating the bee population raised in man-made hives. His garden has a feral bee colony that lives in an oak tree nearby.

Our dinner was in Quivera’s wine cellar, flanked on both sides by huge oak wine barrels as you can see from this photo. It turned out to be a lovely evening, weather-wise. The forecast had predicted rain on Thursday but when it finally arrived, we had sun and some beautiful fluffy clouds all day!

Because of the huge harvest, every spare space is being used for storing wine, grapes, fermenting tanks, etc. We were very lucky to be working with Jana Churich who coordinated our visit and Tim Vallery (Pelaton Catering) who catered our dinner. We had a 4-course dinner that, you will see from the photos, were not only delicious but beautifully presented. Tim used the vegetables and herbs from the biodynamic garden as much as he could. He also graciously came out at the beginning of each course to describe what we eating and to answer any questions we had about his preparation or choices.

We started with an absolutely lovely Yukon Gold Vichyssoise with Chive essence. It was served with fresh baked bread from the Costeaux Bakery and the winery poured a 2011 Viognier-Sauvignon Blanc that I really liked to complement the soup. As you see from this photo, Tim’s dishes not only taste great but are presented in an artistic manner.

Our next course was a Soda Rock Farms & Quivira Biodynamic Garden Heirloom Tomato Salad with roasted corn, marinated fresh mozzarella, basil vinaigrette and shaved almond. It look too pretty to eat but that didn’t stop a single person in our group from cleaning their plates! The Quivira 2009 Grenache, while a bright and light wine that I enjoyed, did not go as well as the Viognier-Sauvignon. Since we had a separate glass for each wine, I kept some of each wine so I could test what we had learned from our Sbragia lecture.

We then moved on to Pork Sugo Campanelle, served with Carmody Cheese and Basil essence. The basil for this dish as well as the Tomato Heirloom Salad came from Quivira’s biodynamic garden. The clear flavors of food grown in a natural soil and cared for with great attention and care is amazing. Campanelle is a pasta shape that Tim likes because it really grabs the sauce. The shredded pork in this dish was rich and flavorful. This dish was served with Quivira’s 2010 Flight Zinfandel and was a perfect match. The Zin was a full and well-balanced wine that was my favorite of the evening.

Our last savory course was a Spice Seared Sous-Vide Angus Sirloin with a Potato Fondant, Glazed rainbow carrot pearls, Brown clam-shell mushroom demi glace and red wine essence. Tim came out at the beginning of each course to describe how he prepared each dish. The sirloins were spiced and seared before being encased in the vacuum sealed bag for the sous-vide. This allowed for the flavors to come out and then return into the meat while still keeping the meat rare because he kept the water at 120º. The carrots were tiny balls/pearls created with a tiny scoop. The Quivira 2010 Goat Trek Blend was a good choice to go with the steak. For me, the wine will taste better after it gets some age on it but it shows great promise!

Dessert is not Tim’s forté (so says he) but this Tcho Chocolate Bread Pudding with macerated cranberry chutney and brown butter streusel, glowing in a puddle of farm egg crème anglaise did not disappoint. It was what a dessert should be (why else consume so many calories!), rich and decadent. He soaks the Costeaux Bakery bread in the Tcho chocolate for an hour to make sure each piece is saturated. By now, you know about my personal quest to find a wine that goes with chocolate and while the Quivira 2010 Late Harvest Zinfandel was delicious on it’s own, I am still on the search.

What a fabulous dinner! Thank you Tim and Jana. We left Quivera very contented and headed back to our hotel with a half case of Quivira wine to be used for future Cookbook Club dinners.

Friday morning was a poor breakfast at the hotel and then onto the David Coffaro Winery. As you can see from this photo of David’s tasting room, this is not a fancy winery. David is known for his blended wines. He grows very small acreage of different varieties so his production is also small for each. Many of his wines never reach is own tasting room because they are purchased by his wine club members or people who buy his futures.

We were treated to a barrel tasting of his 2011 harvest that is almost ready for bottling. The barrels we tasted will be ready to bottle in February or so (thanks, David!). We also tasted his bottled 2010’s. We tasted some very unusual varieties like Sauzao, Aglianico, Lagrein, Tannat, Alvarelhao, or Carignan. He blends most of them into some very wonderful wines and makes a few of them as a single variety wine. We were very impressed with his blended wines and enjoyed Catalina’s barrel tasting tour.

Dave was busy with his harvest and couldn’t join us but we watched his staff punch down the cap of grapes as the fruit flies rose in a flying carpet of bugs and enjoyed the winery’s aromas of fermenting grapes.

Bill and I headed home after our Coffaro tasting since we had another wine tasting event to attend that afternoon. …such gluttony! I hope the rest of the group was able to enjoy the lovely weather, other wineries and eateries in the area.

And, NO, I have no future plans to become a tour guide!

NEXT: Mark your calendars! Sunday, December 16th for our annual Holiday Buffet! Details to follow via email.