Thanksgiving Galantine

For appetizers before our Thanksgiving feast this year, I indulged in a couple of favorite works of charcuterie, turkey neck rillettes and a classic galantine, a boned out chicken stuffed with a pork, blueberry, and pistachio forcemeat. Here's a little step-by-step show-and-tell on how to make a galantine.

Cut Through the Skin Along the Backbone

Start with a nice large bird (bigger is easier to work with); this is about a 4-pound fryer. Make an incision from stem to stern (neck to tail). Cut all the way down to the backbone.



Following the Carcass, Cut Down to the Breast Keel

Using a flexible boning knife, follow the carcass down the sides. When you find the oyster, the little pocket of meat on the back just above the hip, you will find the hip joint just below (towards the tail). Work around the hip joint and then when you can see it, cut right through the joint. As for the wing, as you are cleaning the backside of the rib cage, you will find a free-floating bone above the ribs that leads directly into the wing joint. Grab this bone and pull it up into the wing joint where it will snap off. Where it snaps is where you will find the wing joint. As you did for the leg, clean around the joint and cut through it. Once through the wing joint, locate the wishbone and scrape it down to its point. Do the same thing on the other side. Be sure to remove the wishbone.



Carcass Removed, Legs and Wings Intact

Once you have cleaned the carcass all the way down to the breast keel. Lift the carcass so that you can see where the skin attaches to the breast keel and very carefully separate the skin from the bone with the tip of your knife, being very careful not to puncture the skin.



Expose the Thigh Tips and Clean Down to the Leg Tips

For each leg, make an incision from the hip joint down into the leg joint, following the bone. Scrape the flesh away from the bone to expose it as you see in the photo above. Carefully cut around the leg joint and scrape the meat down the leg bone. Cut off the bone tip with a cleaver or heavy knife and remove all the bone.



Remove the Wing Tips; Scrape Down the Wing Bones

For each wing, remove the wing at the second joint and then scrape the meat off the remaining bone to remove the bone.



Boneless Bird, Squared Up, Meat Evenly Distributed

Lay the boneless bird out on a cutting board and square it up. Where the breast is very thick, cut it down and use the breast meat to fill in places on the skin where there is no meat. Your finished product should be rectangular and roughly the same depth in meat all over as in the photo above.



Add Forcemeat to the Center, Bring the Two Halves Together

Place the forcemeat in the center where the carcass used to be. It will take about a pound and a half of forcemeat to fill a 4-pound chicken. Bring the sides together and tie with butcher's twine.



Tie and Roast

Here you see the finished bird, breast side up, rolled and tied and ready for the oven. Bake in a moderate oven (350F) until a meat thermometer reads 145F. Remove, let stand so that the carry through will bring the final temperature up to 155F, and chill.



Slicing the Chilled, Finished Product

Chicken Galantine with Pork, Blueberries, and Pistachios

Easter 2013

In between snowstorms and rain falling from sullen grey skies, the sky became clear enough on Wednesday evening for me to see the full moon, meaning that Easter was just around the corner. I had thought about it a little bit about a month ago when Ann first brought up doing lamb again for Easter. I thought about it for about five minutes, long enough to scratch out a menu on my clipboard—yes, in this digital world, this particular dinosaur's personal assistant is a clipboard—and then promptly forgot about it until I saw the full moon.

I don't know why, but it somehow seemed fitting to do a little Greek food for Easter this year. I just had a hankering for some honest, home-cooked Greek food with no shortcuts. So I set about this menu on Good Friday by getting my pita dough started and then prepped most of the dinner on Saturday during the day, and what little was left over à la minute on Sunday.

Tom and Ann Matthes joined us for dinner. We had expected Ann's parents but her dad, Bob, was not feeling well. We missed them.

Mezés

Olives

Pita

Taramosalata

Marinated Cucumbers

Dolmades

Dinner

Arni Lemonato (Slow-Roasted Lamb)

Roasted Potatoes

Horta: Spinach Braised with Onions and Dill

Dessert

Orange Salad with Pistachios, Candied Pine Nuts, Feta, Mint, and Olive Oil
Cheeses

Dolmades and Marinated Cucumbers

Top to Bottom: Tzatziki, Olives, Taramosalata

I made tzatziki from really awesome goat milk yogurt and traditional taramosalata from bread, tarama, olive oil, grated onion, and lemon juice. I wish that my tarama (mullet roe, bottarga) had a more pronounced fishy flavor, but it was still good.

Ed-Made Pita

As I mentioned earlier, I started pita dough on Friday to let it ferment through several rises to develop flavor. Then I baked several sheet trays of it on Saturday and rewarmed it in the oven on Sunday. I make pita from the exact same dough that I make focaccia and pizza dough. And I make naan from the same dough, substituting yogurt for the olive oil.

Arni Lemonato me Patates, Horta

For the lamb this year, I decided to go with shanks because they are my favorite cut, but I decided to do something different: slow roast them. For whatever reason, I have always braised them in the past. I cut 5-6 slits in each shank and inserted a sliver of garlic, rubbed them with olive oil, and gave them a generous sprinkle of salt and pepper, then roasted them in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes, turning once, until they were browned all the way around. I squeezed a couple lemons over the shanks and sprinkled them with oregano, then added about four ounces of water to the bottom of the roasting pan and double-wrapped it in foil. The shanks cooked in a slow oven for an additional two and a half hours.

I scored some pretty Kennebec potatoes at the farmers market and they got roasted in a very hot convection oven until crispy done. The star of the plate was the horta, the greens, which I only wilted instead of braising. I only used spinach this time because Ann is a bit iffy on other greens and I wanted her to enjoy them. I sweated a finely diced onion in olive oil with several slivered cloves of garlic, then added the spinach and just wilted it. Into the pan next went a little feta cheese, fresh dill, and the first tiny mint leaves of the year from the garden. A quick season with salt and pepper and we had a fabulous side dish.

Tom's Cheeses: Gouda, Detroit Street Brick, Gorgonzola, Cabot Cheddar

Tom and Ann brought cheese for dessert. The orange gouda and the goat brick, I've already discussed in a prior post. The cheese in the front right is Cabot's (yes, the same people who make so-so block grocery store cheese) Clothbound Cheddar, that has been aged by affineurs in Vermont for a minimum of 13 months. Really, really delicious Cheddar that even the Brits would be forced, albeit most grudgingly, to admit is worthy. The hit of the day for me though was the Gorgonzola Naturale, just above the Cheddar in the photo. The texture is just so damned creamy and perfect on this particular wheel of cheese. Splendid!

Blood Orange Salad

No doubt we all know by now that I just don't care for sweets for dessert, though I do have a fondness for fruit. So I made a salad of sliced blood oranges and then tossed chunks of blood oranges with olives and feta and put that over the sliced oranges. I drizzled this with honey and extra virgin olive oil then sprinkled it with salt, pistachios, candied pine nuts, and the cutest, tiniest baby mint leaves from the garden.

Valerie Hill Winery

We finally got the time to make a trip to our new local winery, the first to open in Frederick County. Valerie Hill winery is situated in the western part of the county about midway between Winchester and Stephens City, about a 15-minute drive from downtown. It opened this past summer.

The concept for the winery is fairly unique in my experience; the closest I can think of is the Winery at La Grange where the vineyards have been planted around a historic property. The 1807 brick farmhouse has been lovingly restored and must have been very sumptuous in its day. The wines are being made at Veramar in Clarke County from grapes sourced from wherever they can be found. The first vines, Norton, have been planted on a small, low-lying plot behind the house.

The Stone Chimney; Norton behind

I have to wonder at the choice to plant Norton, never one of my favorites, and I especially wonder about planting the vines in a low-lying bowl that is sure to be one of the coldest sites on the property. But if any grape can tolerate cold weather, surely it is the fairly bulletproof Norton.

We tasted through the lineup and the star was the 2010 Chardonnay which was very well done indeed. The two reds are, unfortunately, from the 2011 vintage, the 2010 having sold through in the last couple of weeks. 2011 was unkind to everyone in Virginia and without long-standing grape contracts, Valerie Hill was not in line to get good fruit in 2011. I do have to say that despite being very light-bodied and missing a lot of stuffing, the 2011 Cabernet Franc has quite a beguiling red fruit nose. The signature Stone Chimney Red was just another 2011 red, another victim of the horrible rain in September 2011.

We chose the Cabernet Franc to take out back to enjoy with our little picnic. Our friend Boo Snider was playing guitar and singing out on the patio; we sat in the shade of a black walnut tree overlooking the baby Norton vines. Ann made an incredible loaf of rosemary-lemon bread to go with goat cheese, prosciutto, and a jar of fig and grape jam that she made just recently. I kicked in a mini-terrine of Berkshire pork, bacon, pistachios, Port, porcini mushrooms, and green peppercorns.

2011 Cabernet Franc: Great Nose!



Ann Digging in to her Fig Jam

Pork, Porcini, Port, and Pistachio Terrine

We wish Frederick County's first and so far only winery all the best!

A Silver Oak Kind of Day

Sunday will go down as one of our best days ever. After Ann and I got into a scrap the evening before, Sunday unfolded as a fantastic day from the get-go. After a delicious breakfast, we headed south to Bentonville to spend time with Jen and Dewie and new (85-pound Dobie) puppy Austin at their beautiful house on a hill looking out on Signal Knob.





Ann and I were given our marching orders a couple of weeks back: Bring sparkling wine, we were told. And sparkling wine we did bring, a bottle of Bailly-Lapierre Crémant de Bourgogne, a light and lemony sparkler that is very, very good, and a bottle of Roland Champion Champagne Chouilly Grand Cru, a golden blanc de blancs with a nose of yeast and mushrooms, more wine-like than Champagne-like. Our first order of business was to open the crémant, because to quote Dewi, "It would be rude to start with anything else!" This wine is light and beautiful and dances across the palate. I love it. And I love the Roland Champion as well—this particular wine is a recently disgorged blend of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 vintages. It's not the fresh, lightweight wine that the crémant is, but then grand cru wines are seldom lightweight.

Just look at this spread! Prosciutto from mutual friend Derek Luhowiak who along with his wife Amanda is now selling his wares at the Whole Ox inside the Marshall IGA, crackers, Marcona almonds, and a lovely burrata. Missing is a photo of Jen's crispy ciabatta.
And grapes, a Manchego cheese, a slab of Meadow Creek Dairy's Grayson—possibly my favorite cheese being made in the US now, and some killer salami from Derek, this one a really spicy pepperoni style. I loved this sausage.
Here's a close-up of the Grayson, a cheese that we serve at the restaurant when we can get our hands on it. It's a real stinker and super delicious. A customer once called it "the most disgusting thing ever," so you know it's not for everyone. Me, I can't get enough and Ann loves it as much or more than me. It is a very seasonal cheese and made in limited quantities, so it can be tough to find. I am hoping to get some for the restaurant in the near future.
Did somebody say burrata? I love burrata (even though it doesn't love me)! I can hardly wait until August when we will be making mozzarella and burrata daily at the restaurant!

And Jen's delicious shiitake tart, which I absolutely adore.

After we had our fill of these delectable goodies, we took advantage of the beautiful spring weather to sit out on the screened porch and admire the light green fuzz on the poplar trees and the fuchsia buds just popping out on the red buds. Dewi went back inside and returned with four mystery glasses of white wine for us to identify. The petrolly oxidized nose, the golden color, and the clear burst of Chardonnay acidity pretty well convinced me that this was a white Burgundy of about 8 to 10 years old. White Burgundy it was (Olivier Leflaive Bourgogne "Les Sétilles") but I was really wrong about the vintage. This was a 2009, that super hot year that cooked a lot of wine prematurely and one that we skipped at the restaurant. With its Meursault-like richness, the wine is drinking beautifully right now but it tastes like it has ten years on it. I would be drinking all my 2009s now if I had them.

Imagine seeing this tantalizing array of glasses and a couple of brown bagged bottles on your counter. One had a huge dark berry nose; the other was fairly closed, even after being open for hours and after decanting. One was deep purple, but showing the fading ring of lighter color around the edges that older wines take on. The other was brick red and clearly showing its age. One was clearly new world, California in style, with prominent black and blue fruit. The other seemed much more old world in style with less fruit, more acidity, and a streak of lean vegetal flavor that I associate with cold climate Cabernet Sauvignon (imagine Russian River Cabs from the 1980s) or some Virginia Cabernet Franc. The wine seemed fairly similar to some older (early 1980s) Bordeaux that I have tasted recently. Ann really liked the bright berry one.

Both wines were paired with the main course, an exemplary sirloin steak that Dewi grilled. The beef came from a farm in Middleburg and was as tender as it could be. To say that I rarely eat beef is a gross understatement—I pretty much never eat steak—so this was a special treat!
The sliced steak was served on a big bed of arugula, which worked really, really well with the vegetal flavors in the seemingly older wine, the one that I thought was a Bordeaux. We all loved the roasted onions that Jen served with the steak.

And after the grand unveiling, the wines turned out to be both Silver Oaks from 1996. The one that I thought was California was the Alexander Valley bottling and the one that I thought was Bordeaux was the Napa bottling. It is quite amazing the difference in these two wines! And that is why tasting blind is so fun. Thanks to Jen and Dewi for their incredible generosity in sharing these wines with us! And thanks for washing all those wine glasses!

And for dessert, Jen served these lovely dried figs with mascarpone, pistachios, and honey. What's not to love, especially when paired with a beautiful dessert wine? We had the 2007 Rappahannock Cellars Vidal. Although it tasted lovely and honeyed and was a great match, it had turned thin (lost its viscosity) and had turned a lovely shade of amber. I'm guessing that the cork was faulty, because I have seen Vidal last a lot longer and still maintain its color and vigor.
What an incredible meal and day from start to finish! We are blessed to have great friends! Truly blessed indeed.