Of Artichokes and Red Snapper

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day with temperatures just into the 70s. We took advantage of the late afternoon weather to sit out on the patio and have a glass of Côtes de Gascogne Blanc, before heading inside. After Carter got home, I roasted red snapper topped with artichoke pesto for dinner and despite his protests, Carter wolfed down two huge pieces.

Red Snapper with Artichoke Pesto, Roasted Vegetables, and Saffron Aïoli

Enjoying a Glass of Côtes de Gascogne Blanc Before Dinner

Artichoke Pesto; Corno di Toro Peppers

After relaxing out on the patio, I threw together a quick artichoke pesto by spinning up artichokes, garlic, pine nuts, grated pecorino romano cheese, and extra virgin olive oil in the food processor. I left it pretty thick because I wanted to top the fish with it.

To a big roasting pan, I added a big handful of grape tomatoes, a couple scoops of olives with lupini beans, rings of Corno di Toro peppers from our garden, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic in chunks, some rosemary, and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. I moved all this to the sides of the roasting pan and put four nice pieces of red snapper in the middle of the pan. I spread artichoke pesto on top of the fish and into a very hot oven it went until the fish was cooked, about 20 minutes. I cranked up the broiler just to brown the top of the artichoke crust.

I served the fish sitting on top of a scoop of the roasted vegetables, with a dab of aïoli and a sprig of rosemary for garnish.

Meh. Give me Willamette Pinot Please.

Against my better judgment, I thought we would give California Pinot one more chance. And once again, I should have known better. There is nothing wrong with this Pinot and a lot of people will really love its big plush fruit and high alcohol, but for me, there was too much fruit, too much alcohol, and not enough acid. Bummer.

Of Peaches and Fish

It was a long time getting to Sunday this week, given that we were open for dinner 6 nights this week instead of the usual 5. And given that I had to go pick Carter up at school at nearly midnight after dinner service on Saturday. So Sunday was a sleep-in kind of morning. Even the dogs didn't start their usual milling around until around 8am. Ann and I finally roused ourselves around 9am and I immediately got to work in the yard to finish some things that just had to be done before we left at noon to get to Ann and Tom's for a barbeque. Ann busied herself making some awesome locally roasted Black Dog coffee and baking another of her wonderful loaves of bread.

Baby Peaches, After Thinning

Our tender veg are all now set out in the garden beds (tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cucumbers, basils, etc). And I got some annuals seeded in the long bed against the fence: cosmos and a couple varieties of sunflowers. But what needed most doing was thinning the peaches. Just like dropping fruit on grape vines to make more concentrated wine, dropping fruit on stone crops increases size and flavor intensity of the remaining fruit. And for peach trees in particular, they want to produce way more fruit than they can support, so removing excess fruit is vital if you don't want broken branches everywhere. But it does make me sad to see all that fruit on the ground. We have pickled these baby peaches before, but I have no time for it this year.



Makes Me Sad

Bringing this post back to fish, after working in the yard, Ann, Carter, and I drove over to Tom and Ann's in Capon Bridge, WV, not 30 minutes from the house for a cook out. I brought the guests of honor for the grill, two snappers and three branzini. Ann brought bread. Tom and Annie supplied everything else. Lunch at Tom and Ann's is a long, leisurely affair, with many courses spread out over several hours.



The Guests of Honor

We started with Tom grilling slices of my Ann's roasted garlic rosemary bread (which is freaking awesome) that we spread with Tom's wonderful chicken liver mousse with a port jelly on top.



Awesome Roasted Garlic-Rosemary Bread

Tom's Great Chicken Liver Mousse with Port Jelly

Then on to several skewers of  wonderful shrimp. The turbinado sugar that Tom put in the marinade gave the shrimp a little sweetness and helped them color on the grill. I think they were delicious: Carter camped himself in front of the plate and destroyed them!

Showing off on the Big Green Egg

Food Porn

More of Same; Carter ate 90% of These Shrimp



Tom's Back Yard Does Not Suck

After the shrimps came a salad that I have been hearing about for years now:  red lettuce, green lettuce, curly endive, radicchio, green onions, prosciutto, cheese, toasted pine nuts, pickled red onions, and a warm balsamic vinaigrette. Really good.

And a Little Salad Before the Fish

The fish are slashed and rubbed with salt and olive oil and stuffed with basil stems, cilantro stems, and slices of key lime.



Ready for Action

Yum! Grilled Fish Garnished with Basil, Cilantro, and Key Lime Slices

Grilled Asparagus with Feta

And the rogue's gallery of dead soldiers:

 

Check out These Two!

Finally, cheese for dessert while we watched Robin Williams and Nathan Lane in Bird Cage for the 40th time each. These cheeses may all look similar, but they are very different. From upper left to lower right, the four blond paste cheeses are: Pleasant Ridge Reserve, Cabot's clothbound Cheddar, Kirkham's farmhouse Lancashire, and Lincolnshire Poacher. The blue, which is one of the more outstanding blues that I have ever eaten is Bayley Hazen blue. I thought that the Pleasant Ridge Reserve was the best American cheese I had ever tasted, until I tasted the Bayley Hazen blue. That stuff is ridiculous!
 

Incredible Cheeses, American and British