New year's eve supper was such a major occasion for this chef-non-chef that I can't let it go without a few words.
It's not every day I get asked to cook a meal around a bottle of wine, but when the Brit brought us a 1997 Chateau d'Yquem, what else could I do? It's not the kind of wine you can just quaff with a bag of chips or some takeaway pizza; it deserves a little more respect. And I have zero experience with d'Yquem (and only a little with Sauternes in general). So I just went ahead and bought a lobe of foie gras. A good starting point if you're ever stumped. We began with:
Seared foie with Madeira-sauteed wild mushrooms over crispy polenta pillows
Seared foie with poached quince and balsamic caramel and some poorly executed challah toasts
Seared foie with spicy red onion marmalade
The wine is amazing, luscious and almost creamy on the palate, sweet but complicated, indulgent but more-ish.
We then broke for a palate-cleansing rack of lamb with roasted potatoes and parsnips (and a bottle of California cab-sauv).
Then some of my summer peaches sprinkled with the d'Yquem and then, the winner of the night, deserving of its own line
ROQUEFORT
After all that food we destroyed a giant wedge of the cheese: the pairing with the d'Yquem is that perfect. It defied description. A few slices of my Christmas cake rounded out the evening. And several whiskeys of course.
We didn't let the bling wine get to our heads though -- corned beef hash was brunch the next morning. High-low. Happy 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment