Dog Tired Food

I am at the end of my rope....physically....and....mentally.

It's been a year since I had any real time off. A really hard year of doing the restaurant grind six days a week and trying to squeeze what little personal life I have into one day a week.

Vacation (and belated honeymoon) is next week. If I can hang on.

I'm good for nothing right now. I stared at a draft of Tuesday night's menu for a half an hour yesterday and no ideas came to me. I came home after work and promptly fell asleep. I probably uttered 12 words to my wife yesterday. She hates the person I am right now. And truth be told, so do I.

What to cook when you're dog tired and you are the best cook in town and you cannot bear the thought of going out in public or eating somebody else's substandard food? What do you do when you were so disappointed in your restaurant dinner yesterday that you are craving really, really good food?

Annie hit it right on the head yesterday. It's chilly for April: we had very thick frost yesterday morning and not quite so much this morning, but we're longing for shorts weather, not sweater weather. We needed hot comfort food. We needed a bag of pork ragù out of the freezer. Hot, comforting, and outstandingly good. And we needed a really good bottle of red. F the salad. We didn't need a stinking salad.

Annie, hang in there. Just five more days....

Chalk Hill Estate Red 2009, Beautiful

Young Pecorino Romano, Perfect for Pasta

Ahhh! Sheer Comfort!

The Local, Charlottesville

We were in Charlottesville on Sunday to visit with my daughter Lillie who is at UVa. After spending the morning and early afternoon visiting three local wineries (and coming away largely disappointed), we met Lillie and toured the grounds, then walked the Downtown Mall, and finally, made the short hop over to Belmont to dine at The Local.

The Local wasn't at the top of my list (it wasn't far down it either) but all the restaurants higher up the list were closed on Sunday. And it is a restaurant after my own, serving local products in season, so I had high hopes for it.

I started with a beer because I was thirsty from walking all afternoon. Our server recommended a Blue Mountain beer. I recalled that we had passed Blue Mountain brewery earlier in the day up on Afton Mountain and the parking lot was full. Beer wasn't on our agenda this weekend, but I was happy to try a glass of their Full Nelson American Pale Ale featuring hops that Blue Mountain grows on their own farm here in Virginia. It was a nice enough beer and I am happy for having tried it.

Sticking with the local theme, I ordered a bottle of Michael Shaps Cabernet Franc 2008 and it turned out to be the best wine of our day. I have known of Michael Shaps for a long time and have tasted many wines for which he has been the consulting winemaker, but never tasted one of his eponymous wines before. And finally a decent wine glass. Our server brought us a couple of the Riedel restaurant series. They aren't great glasses but they aren't bad either. I wanted to spend more time looking through the fairly extensive wine list, but we were on a bit of a short schedule.

2008 Michael Shaps Cabernet Franc

Though we had very high hopes for the restaurant and even more so after seeing the extensive local wine and beer lists, the reality was a hit or miss dinner in which the star dish was made from non-local ingredients. To be fair, we had a good dinner and the kitchen was using really good quality product, but the kitchen made a lot of mistakes.

We shared six appetizers and a single main dish. The appetizer list looked much more appealing to me than the list of mains, but that is true in almost all restaurants including my own.

PEI Mussels, Leek-Fennel Broth, Spicy Aïoli, Crispy Rice Noodles

The mussels were really nice, big and plump, and well cooked. But as Ann put it, it would have been nice if there were some leek or fennel in the broth. Both flavors were missing from the broth. The aïoli was neither spicy nor garlicky and so I'm confused about why it was on the dish. The noodles didn't add anything to the mussels; they merely made the mussels difficult to eat. And a beef with the restaurant: where was any bread to soak up the juice? No bread was ever offered and there were no spoons or salt and pepper on the tables. Casual service? Yeah, I get it. But perhaps a touch too casual?

Crispy Shrimp; Pickled Ginger-Black Sesame Aïoli; Seaweed Salad

This shrimp dish was the best of the day and I guess that's kind of sad from a fresh and local menu. I felt that the sauces, especially the honey-sambal garnishing sauce, were too sweet. Judicious use of lime would have catapulted this dish to the next level. Still, tasty.

Roast Pork Belly; Grits Cake; Local Beer Mustard; Braised? Red Cabbage

Doesn't this dish sound awesome? A must have? You bet it does! In reality though, it was crap. Look carefully at the grits cake. Can you see how overcooked and dried out it is? Look at the cabbage. Does that cabbage look braised to you? No, it is essentially raw cabbage. And the pork belly, which you cannot see, is a travesty. That pig should not have died to suffer again what the kitchen did to its belly.

I am an expert at cooking pork belly and it shames me for our industry what other cooks are doing to it. The belly was roasted skin on until the point where the meat had just become tough as sin and the fat not cooked enough to become that unctuous delicacy that is high quality pork belly. Folks, unless you are going to make your pork skin into chicharrón, it is inedible and doesn't belong on the plate.

Gnocchi Bolognese

This is a pretty good rendition of Gnocchi Bolognese, though I prefer my gnocchi a little more tender and without egg. The sauce was OK, but not outstanding, and don't you think somebody could have given the bowl a wipe down before sending it out?

Truffled Mushroom Ragout on House-Made Fettuccine

I wanted to try their ragout of mushrooms (which they get from the same supplier that sends them to my restaurant) on fettuccine because I love both pasta and mushrooms. That there was a little white truffle oil didn't hurt either. Talk about boring. What about some shallots and sage in the mushrooms, just a little seasoning? Good quality ingredients but just missing the boat on seasoning. The fettuccine, though a tad thick for my personal preference, were very well cooked.

Truffled Mac and Cheese

Tell me, dear reader, when you picture mac and cheese, do you picture a bowl of plain elbow macaroni with some shredded cheese on top? I sure don't. Guys, cheese is what puts the cheese in mac and cheese. Try using some!

Duck Breast,  Roasted Garlic Mash, Roasted Sprouts/Carrots; Madeira Gravy

The menu calls this Crispy Skin Duck Breast and Lillie ordered it because she loves duck. Good kid! Now, look at this picture and show me the crispy skin. Can't find it? Neither can I. The skin is barely crisp in the center and totally flabby around the edges. And see the lack of color in the meat? It's bled out all over the plate from not being rested. Lillie ordered the gravy on the side, thank God, because this stuff is an abomination. I thought the vegetables were well done and the interior of the duck breast was cooked nicely.

OK, bottom line time. I would go back. They use very good local ingredients and I want to support that. It's a shame that the kitchen doesn't appear to have the horsepower (or drive, perhaps) to make the most of these awesome ingredients.

Charlottesville Area Wineries

Disappointment.

If I had to sum up our day tasting with three Charlottesville area wineries yesterday, disappointment would be the key word. I guess that we are very spoiled and very, very fortunate to have such awesome winegrowers as Jim Law at Linden, Jeff White at Glen Manor, and Jim Dolphin at Delaplane in our very own backyard.

I was looking forward to getting back to the town where I was born. Sometimes I miss the place. I had been back only twice since I left in 1984 and now having a daughter at UVa has given me the excuse to get back for the third time. Because her college (ahem, party) schedule did not allow her to be available until after 2pm, we decided to visit three wineries (our limit for a day) on our way into town before visiting her.

We dropped in on two wineries whose wines are on our list at the restaurant, Pollak Vineyards and King Family Vineyards, and a third, Veritas, whose wines we carried some years ago. All three of these are within spitting distance of each other to the west of Charlottesville, right on our way into town on US 250.

We went to Pollak first and of the three wineries, they made my favorite wines. Despite the very early hour of our arrival, the counter staff were exceptionally nice and we enjoyed interacting with them. The soaring tasting room overlooking the pond was beautiful and I could have spent a lot more time sitting outside contemplating nothing!

Pollak Tasting Room

Most of the Pollak wines that we tasted were 2011 and for the reds, that was a disaster vintage. Pollak weathered this vintage as well or better than most, producing light, but drinkable reds. The star of the day for me was the 2010 Meritage and I can see that having a place on our wine list at the restaurant. My one complaint about this winery is about their glassware: more of the same cheap, crappy stemware.

From Pollak, we backtracked a bit to Veritas passing our supplier of cultivated mushrooms, amFOG, and the Blue Mountain Brewery, as we worked our way up the mountain. During my bike racing years in college, I used to ride my bike along all these deserted country roads, that are now pretty crowded with winery traffic. I remember the old Saddleback Farm way up Afton Mountain Road; it is now the site of Veritas.

Entry at Veritas

Veritas is a drop dead gorgeous place and the tasting room is amazing with a huge fireplace dominating one end and leather sofas spread out everywhere. The open beams and woodwork give it a very upscale rustic look. As beautiful as it is, the wines don't match the venue and the venue, like that at Sunset Hills, is not for us. We didn't feel any particular warmth at this winery or any particular connection to the people. Where the staff at Pollok was warm and engaging, the staff at Veritas seemed to be going through the motions: pouring while distractedly looking off in the distance; reciting verbiage by rote. Speaking of warmth, all the wines are served ice cold (way too cold) in cheap crappy glassware.

We were passed off to three staff members during our tasting and it felt like we were interrupting them. I couldn't wait to leave. Mediocre wines in a crazy bar scene is not my cup of tea. It seems to me that contrary to most wineries, the quality has gone down over time at Veritas. Of course, that could also be the result of focusing on all the revenue generating events at a party central winery. The Sauvignon Blanc was the best of a boring lot and it lacks a lot compared to the awesome Sauvignon Blancs in our area.

Tasting Counter at Veritas

Annie Just Outside the Veritas Winery

Our next and last stop before Charlottesville was King Family winery, close to Crozet proper and the closest to Charlottesville of the wineries we visited. Again, another drop dead beautiful winery in the middle of Roseland Farm where the Virginia Polo team plays their home matches. And as you might imagine, being so situated draws the beautiful horsey crowd. We're more at home where people come for the wine and to hell with the amenities.

We tasted through the line up, again from horrid clunker glasses, and the wines were mostly 2011s. I thought the 2011 Merlot was serviceable but Ann decided she wanted to drink the Meritage even though I found it to have a rose petal lipstick nose.

King Family: Looking out over the Polo Field; Winery in Background

King Family have all manner of lunch goodies in a refrigerator in the tasting room for a self service lunch. Ann got a box of crackers, some local soft goat cheese from nearby Caromont Farm, a "Barolo" salami from Creminelli, and a tub of Three Little Pigs duck rillettes. We took a bottle of the Meritage and the food to the patio outside to enjoy the sun and have a bit of lunch.

Lunch and 2011 King Family Meritage

Caromont goat cheese is always good and we're big fans of both their Bloomsbury and Esmontonian cheeses. The fresh chèvre is OK, but not really goaty and unlike most people, I want my goat cheese to be goaty. The Creminelli sausage was really pretty damned good. I didn't know Creminelli before, but I do now. It is not as good as salame from Olympic Provisions, but it is closer than any other salame I have had. The rillettes were standard Three Little Pigs fare: undistinguished but serviceable. They are not in the same league with my own rillettes, but then that's true of a lot of other food too.

Remember when I was describing the King Family Meritage above, I wrote rose petals and lipstick? Those aren't really compliments and it is about to get worse. With food, especially the duck rillettes, the mid-palate exploded with cocoa and orange which combined in a rather sick way to taste almost like a chocolate covered dreamsicle. We ended up giving the remaining half bottle away to a table near ours.

Great Day with my Best Girl

So, while we had a good time visiting three wineries we had never visited before on a gorgeous spring day, we were left feeling pretty disappointed in what we tasted. Bummer.

Recycling: Buffalo Tacos with Mango Salsa

Buffalo Taco with Mango Salsa

Wow! Has spring sprung? Where it was largely brown last week, everything is a beautiful shade of green this week. Sunday out at Delaplane Cellars, where Ann and I were catering the barrel tasting, was even more gorgeous than the week before, especially with the massive cherry tree in front of Jim and Betsy's house in full riot of bloom.

At the tasting, two of my pairings were shrimp and mango salad with the 2012 Chardonnay, to bring out the tropical flavors in that wine, and pulled bison with blueberry compote with the 2011 Springlot Bordeaux blend. We had a pretty good quantity of each left over after the event.

As you might imagine, Monday April 15th was a special day in paperwork hell and after I finished wrestling at the office with not only the usual Monday paperwork, but 2012 taxes and 2013 first quarter estimates, I wasn't in the mood to cook. But, it occurred to me that with almost no effort, I could recycle the two leftover catering dishes into a great dinner.

How Good Does This Look?

To the mango and shrimp salad, which was equal quantities of diced mango and diced shrimp tossed in a bit of bright lime dressing, I added cilantro, green onions, garlic, black beans, a couple of finely minced jalapeños, more lime juice, and a good bit of salt for an almost instant mango salsa.

One Man's Pulled Bison is Another's Carne Machaca

The inspiration for the dinner was this big bowl of pulled bison which struck me as a really tasty version of carne machaca (literally, crushed meat) from Northern Mexico where beef or pork was preserved by drying it, then rehydrated and pounded to soften it. Tacos de carne machaca have always been a favorite food of mine. In the modern era, now that we have refrigeration, carne machaca is no longer dried first in most restaurants. Although it is possible to buy commercially prepared machaca seca, most restaurants do as we do: braise the raw meat slowly and then shred it. It doesn't hurt that in our case, we reduce the cooking liquids to a syrupy glaze and mix them back into the meat for maximum flavor.

Tacos de Carne Asada

Skirt Steak, Grilled Onions and Poblanos, Guac, Cheese, and Pico

Call them fajitas, tacos al carbón, tacos de carne asada, or anything else that pleases you. I just know that tender bits of grilled steak wrapped up in a tortilla with some freshly made guacamole, grilled poblanos and onions, and topped with queso para frijoles and pico de gallo is one of the great feeds of all time, especially for that very first time of the new year that it is nice enough to grill out.

And yesterday was that day!

Before (Note Chef Lube in Background)

Note the freaking awesome skirt steak from Bill and Holly at Martin's Angus Beef! I cannot say enough good about this meat. It is incredible, incredible as in the best I ever ate, and you need to run to a farmers market where they sell their beef and get you some. Do not stop, do not pass Go, do not collect $200! Hie thee to the market! You will not regret it.

After!

The Fixings

Above you see the red plate with the sliced beef, the peeled, seeded, and sliced poblanos, and the chopped onions. Above that, the pico de gallo: diced grape tomatoes, sliced green onions, garlic, minced jalapeño, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Then the queso para frijoles in the middle: it's a little more rubbery and less salty than feta, but the idea is exactly the same. You could even use ricotta salata. And then on the right, the guacamole: avocado, minced jalapeño, crushed red pepper paste, lime juice, green onions, cilantro, and guaje seeds. And last, the flour tortillas. Me, I'm a big fan of corn tortillas, but the only one in the house and I'm not going to get a stack of fresh corn tortillas just for me.

Semillas Frescas de Guaje

Guaje seeds, come again? They're seeds from a pod of a locust-like tree from Southern Mexico that have a great green garlic flavor. I love them in guacamole: I don't add garlic to my guacamole when I add guaje seeds. I bought a bundle at the market and when the afternoon heat proved to be too much to be outside, I shelled them out while Ann and I sat in the sunroom under the ceiling fan, chewing the fat.

You'd be Smiling Too if You Were About to Feast!

Mixed Metaphors

Pan-Fried Noodles with Shrimp and Thai Basil

No big Sunday post this week: Ann and I were both catering at Delaplane Cellars on Sunday, almost 600 portions! It was actually kind of a crazy week: we also did the food for the Glen Manor Vineyards vertical tasting this weekend too. Given that it was supposed to be 75 on Monday and we hadn't had any weekend and I wanted to spend some time with Ann, I was up before the sun on Monday and at the restaurant, powering through my Monday chores. This let me get home just in time to make lunch.

I didn't really want to cook anything involved, but was looking for something light, fresh, and simple. A huge bunch of Thai basil caught my eye at the market and from there it was just a matter of picking up some small (frozen, peeled and deveined, pre-cooked, if you must know) shrimp. Shrimp and Thai Basil (and its cousin made with squid) is one of the glories of Thai cooking. Dead simple and delicious.

Normally this dish would be served on rice, but I was looking for a one-pan meal with minimal cleanup, so I grabbed a bag of fresh lo mein noodles and fried them into a large pancake (chow mein style) which I topped with the shrimp and basil in a sauce of fish sauce, garlic, slivered chile pepper, lots of black pepper, and a touch of brown sugar. The frozen shrimp contributed all their water to the sauce as well.

So we ended up with a five-minute lunch that was half Chinese and half Thai and so what! It was quick, light, fresh, delicious, and there was but a single pan to wash. There's a lot to be said for not washing dishes and getting on with life!

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.