Harvest party: Zuzu

Harvest party: Zuzu, Napa, CA

seasoned and toasted almonds, a dish of olives
scallop ceviche
2006 lustau puerto fino sherry, jerez

boquerones, egg and remoulade on grilled bread
bacalao with truffle oil and garlic crostini
gambas al ajillo, shrimp with garlic, piquin chili and smoky pimenton
2007 laxas albarino

flat-iron steak with roasted jalapeno chimichurri sauce
2006 juan gil monastrell
2004 Vinos de Terrunos raices de aza (100% tempranillo)

Portland food and wine

In town for ASEV. Hit up a few places:

1. Stumptown (the location near burnside bridge)
Panama Carmen Estate coffee is my kind of coffee — a floral, high acid, light bodied coffee. Wasn’t roasted too long, the floral notes are still there. I can easily believe that this is one of the top five coffees during the Panama cupping competition.

2. Voodoo Donuts
Blueberry cake donut with a light glaze — easily the best donut I’ve ever had. Fresh blueberry flavors and not overly sweet. Chocolate glaze donut was good but not in the same league.

Summer 2008 Wines

Wines
Barbera d’Asti, ‘Ca di Pian’, La Spinetta 2005 $26 (***)
Sangiovese ‘Sezzana’, La Spinetta 2003 $48 (**)
Pin Monferrato Rosso, (Nebbiolo/Barbera) 2005 $48 (***)
Barbaresco Riserva, ‘Valeirano’, La Spinetta 2004 $122 (***, aromatic)
Barolo, ‘Campe’, La Spinetta 2003 $125 (*****)
Barbera d’Asti ‘Bionzo’, (Barrique) La Spinetta 2005 $49
Moscato d’Asti, Biancospino, La Spinetta 2007 (375mL) $13 (***)

Annual SF Chowhound Picnic

The SF Chowhound board put together a super-sized potluck. Suprisingly, there was another Chowhound from the Central Valley besides myself. Potluck items included interesting ideas like the soynut with potatoes, but personal faves were the carrot pudding and the squid dish, which I must get the recipe for. Here’s the carrot pudding recipe from Diane Kennedy courtesy of David Boyk. Good stuff.

Budín de Zanahoria (Carrot Pudding)
Serves 6
A buttered Pyrex dish (I’ve used metal with no ill effects)
A baking sheet, placed on a shelf two-thirds of the way down in the oven
A sauce made by combining 2 cups fresh orange juice with 3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Ingredients:
2 pounds boiled carrots
6 ounces unsalted butter
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 ounces rice flour, sifted ( all-purpose white is ok too)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound Chihuahua cheese, grated (legit queso fresco best, cheap mozz ok)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Pass the carrots through the medium disc of the food mill. Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Setting the egg whites aside, beat the yolks until they’re thick. Add the sugar and continue beating until it is well incorporated. Beat in the flour alternately with the butter. Stir in the carrots, salt and cheese, mix well, and lastly add the baking powder. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff and fold them into the mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Place it on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Then lower the over temperature to 350 degrees and continue cooking for about 55 minutes. The budín should be soft and spongy to the touch – the top and sides nicely browned, but the inside moist. Serve immediately, with the orange and walnut sauce to accompany it. And coarse salt and thick sour cream if you wish.

Italian or Asian?

Shopping at Corti’s; can get out of hand. I bought chestnut honey, an earthy honey that was hard to take raw and I had no idea what to do with it. Recipe searching pulled up “Comice Pears in red wine with Chestnut Honey” and no other options. Since there were no pears in the house, but an overwhelming bag of Asian Pears that cost a buck at the farmer’s market, I did this:

Poached Asian Pears with Chestnut Honey
1/2 C. red wine (used Beaujolais), 1/2 C. sugar, Asian pears (brown skinned and ripe). Can be halved and cut-side down with wine and sugar. 400 degrees for half hour or until soft. Drizzled with chestnut honey (used Via Castel Thun). The whole thing tastes like one big sweet chestnut. Very autumn-ish. Try either a scoop of not too sweet vanilla ice cream or a dollop of sour cream on the side depending on sweetness.

Grilling Season

So, I’m determined to participate this month in Wine Blogging Wednesday #35: Passionate Spain, since I was unable to make it to Catie’s WBW #34 last time. She was kind enough to invite me, but sounds like the group did a wonderful showing regardless. A great diversity of Washington Cabernets were reviewed. The assignment this month is for a Spanish wine of $10 or less. This will encourage me to seek out new wine shops in Sacramento!

So, on to food news. The steaks were so memorable last week, I asked Billo to share the preparation and he said they were Emeril’s Hawaiian Cowboy steaks. It looked like he marinated steaks about 1.5 inches thick. The marinade was so fragrant that I commented on it as soon as I walked into his place. Do try it.

Experiments

Procrastinating.
So I fiddled with the kitchen “experiments” from the fall, checking on their status. I’d experimented with different recipes last season and it was about time to evaluate them. Were they destined for the drain or perfectly appetizing? The red wine vinegar didn’t turn into vinegar and the meyer lemon vodka was floral but much too sour. Strangely enough, the winner of the pack was the vin de peche! Four months ago I nearly threw it out it was so weird. Thank heavens I didn’t. The aroma is completely almond now. Less sugar would be better but it’s still a delightful apertif. The recipe got a trial run last year but I didn’t like the results. A French coworker suggested improvements to the recipe since his hometown makes this stuff by the liter. And here are the mods.

Vin de peche
750 mL full-bodied red (used Alderbrook Zin), 0.5 cups cognac (used Korbel), 120 or so peach leaves (late-season leaves), 2 cups sugar (could probably do with less). Topped off with more wine. Racked off the leaves at two months. Supposedly ready to drink then, but don’t do it. Ignore it and wait.

Corti Brothers

Thankfully, spring quarter is drawing to a close.
I meant to participate in Wine Blogging Wednesday #34 this month, but wine tasting got short shrift when finals rolled around! Instead, another wine tasting has taken precedence. My fellow grad student has assigned regions of Bordeaux and mine is Pessac-Leognan which turns out to be tough homework. The salesperson at Corti Brothers recommended changing to something like St. Julien or Pauillac. I didn’t find a wine, but investigated what else Corti Brothers had to offer and found items from the wish list I’ve been keeping track of in the back of my mind — chestnut honey from Italy and Clear Creek eau-de-vie from Portland. I’m a very happy girl now. By the way, Kettle Chips has a Tuscan Three Cheese flavor as well! And did you know that Bumblebee has a Thai spice version of their tuna and crackers product? Yeah, Corti Brothers is going to be on the regular shopping circuit now.