maria lorraine's Recent Activity
Chowhound Post
Which cheese with rosé Champagne?
In all honesty, I don't think cheese is the best pairing with Rosé Champagne. And most cheeses with truffle bits -- like sottocenere -- taste like fake truffle, meaning, wretched.
But I do really love what those near and dear to me call CheezGazm. I spread a very high-quality truffle paste -- like La Rustichella Truffle Pâté (pic below) -- between layers of Brillat-Savarin. You can also use another of the same type of "taller" triple-cream cheeses, something like Delice de Bourgogne or St. Andre. For a party, I get the whole wheel -- the Brillat-Savarin is only about 7 inches in diameter, so it's not so big or expensive. Slice the wheel (or whatever portion) in half horizontally, then spread the truffle paste between the layers, like making a layer cake. Reassemble the cheese, and then I like to find some pretty edible flowers and put them on the top. It's beautiful, it's supremely tasty. It's not called CheezGazm for nothin'.
Chowhound Post
Which cheese with rosé Champagne?
Rosé Champagne can take on foods with a little more heft and depth in flavor than regular Champagne, so cheese often isn't complex enough. At least for me.
From my extended field research, here are my favorite ingredients to pair with Rosé Champagne as idea starters:
Smoked salmon -- a classic, always works. A beautiful platter with it, capers, toast points, creme fraiche or sour cream, chopped egg, dill -- you get the idea.
Salmon roe
Salmon tartare, served in a cornet. See the French Laundry recipe.
Ahi tuna tartare.
Maguro (ahi) sushi. A mini hand roll is great.
A *tiny* touch of heat -- wasabi, horseradish, powdered mustard, etc. -- works well with Rosé Champagne.
Chiles en nogades with a walnut sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds, not too spicy -- this is one of my very favorites with Rosé Champagne (the walnuts and pom seeds make it)
Salami is dynamite, truly -- the well-made stuff; salumi, charcuterie, cold cuts.
Bacon.
Beef: rare and meltingly tender, with horseradish cream sauce
Steak tartare, with egg, lemon zest and toast points. Grind the tenderloin yourself.
Silky beef carpaccio with capers, truffle shavings, drizzle of olive oil
Fried chicken
French fries, preferably fried in duck fat or peanut oil, with a homemade tomato-plum ketchup -- must be made and served on the spot, so a little difficult for the home chef/host.
Duck is wonderful with Rosé Champagne. A slice of duck breast as a canape of some sort.
Mushrooms and truffles
Chowhound Post
Morimoto in Napa
In this economy, I'm not bettin' any deal is a done deal. Morimoto, Tyler, FN, or CIA. Financing is not forthcoming, and existing resto revenues have already been hit hard. FN is known to be, um, parsimonious; and the CIA has no $$. Time will tell.
Chowhound Post
Lemberger
The most recent lemberger I've had is Jed Steele's. Perfectly adequate but nothing terribly special. If you go to cellartracker.com and type lemberger in the search window, many producers and reviews come up. Kind of a nice overview of the varietal.
Chowhound Post
Why is Two Buck Chuck so revered?
"but only at home with no visitors present and the shades tightly drawn"
funny.
Chowhound Post
Why is Two Buck Chuck so revered?
It's not revered.
But it is what a lot of people know, and it's a wine that's drawn many people to wine who otherwise wouldn't be enjoying wine. There may be widespread appreciation for the value and the experience of 2BC wine, but I wouldn't call it reverence.
Chowhound Post
Sauce-making technique (bechamel)
I've actually found hot to hot to be both silkier and glossier, and the most efficient. No graininess whatsoever visually or on the palate, but perhaps that's due to the blond roux I use (with its ample gelatinization and increased enzymatic action for thickening).
Chowhound Post
Sauce-making technique (bechamel)
I was going on this graf of yours, which says that any roux and buerre manie thicken the same:
"As for claiming that ANY roux (white, blond or brown) and buerre manie achieve the same end result, yes, that what I am saying. ...Same flavor? No. Same ability to thicken? Yes."
So, that was unclear, but my reason for commenting on it was to point out to cooks the big difference in thickening power between a blond roux and one that's brown or black.
Chowhound Post
Sauce-making technique (bechamel)
You add the hot milk gradually, using a ladle, so there is no sputtering.
Chowhound Post
Sauce-making technique (bechamel)
Roux Redux:
Harold McGee and Scott123 agree: Cooking the flour slightly increases its ability to thicken.
McGee also says that the more flour is browned, the less ability it has to thicken, meaning, it will take a greater quantity of brown roux than blond roux to thicken the same amount of liquid. So, slight disagreement with Caroline 1 that all rouxs and beurre manie have the same power to thicken.
Hot/hot, Cold/Hot: The Rundown:
*Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Add boiling milk to roux.
*Larousse Gastronomique, 1st American Edition, 1961 — “made by pouring boiling milk on white roux.”
*Professional Cooking, 2nd Edition: Scald the milk and gradually add it to the roux.
*The New Basics: unheated milk to hot roux.
*The Professional Chef, 8th Edition: unheated milk to hot roux
*Joy of Cooking: unheated milk to hot roux, “but for better consistency, you may scald the milk beforehand; but be sure — to avoid lumping — that the roux is cool when you add it.”
My results are better, faster and prettier when I heat the milk. A snap in the microwave.
Chowhound Post
Food pairing with Zind-Humbrecht Muscat?
What are your thoughts, Charles, if you’ve had the wine?
The Vendange Tardive version of the wine is, functionally, a completely different wine from the off-dry version. It’s a bigger wine all around, with more intense fruit (and fruit that’s more tropical and pineapple-y than peach/white citrus), higher alcohol and much more sweetness. I can’t recall offhand the botrytis level of this particular ZH late-harvest wine and whether or not the classic botrytised wine pairings — foie gras preparations, pâté de fois gras, blue cheeses, almond/fruit desserts, etc. — would work, or if a savory dish of equal intensity to the wine might work better. If a spicy savory dish, the sweetness in the wine would act as a foil to the spicy heat. Perhaps Carswell or Whiner can help further.
Chowhound Post
TN: 1997 Fattoria Le Pupille Morellino di Scansano Riserva
I bet this was good. Thanks for the TN.
Chowhound Post
Fife Red Wines For $6.99 @ Trader Joe's
It's a bankruptcy liquidation. Sad for everyone involved. Try the Zin, possibly the Cab, and report back. (Fife was known mostly for Zin, and his vineyard-designated Zins were pretty tasty. Last time I tried them was a few years ago, though.) Those wines are a very good value at that price if they've been stored well.
Where is that Jason/zin1953? I miss him. Such passion.
Chowhound Post
Food pairing with Zind-Humbrecht Muscat?
Asparagus was my very first thought when I read the post. Agree with all the suggestions above. A beautiful fish served with a grapefruit beurre blanc might be lovely with the light citrus, peach and honey notes in the wine.
Chowhound Post
Wine as a Hostess Gift for Thanksgiving
Where are you in Virginia? Any wine stores nearby?
I just went to the Kroger site, and to the wine selections. Not much there, but there is
a lovely red wine called 1999 Frei Brothers Reserve Pinot Noir. Get this exact wine.
Not a different year (not the 2000 at all). Get the Reserve. Give Kroger a call to
make sure they have it. If there's a website link Kroger's can give you, please share it.
http://recipes.kroger.com/wine/browse...
Chowhound Post
Gooey Butter Cake Recipe -- NYT
Agree with your last sentence, but I imagine the recipe is adapted for home use from a very large bakery (or "manufacturing") recipe. Bakeries and manufacturers use pudding mixes rather often.
Chowhound Post
Gooey Butter Cake Recipe -- NYT
That's for the filling, and my guess is that the vanilla pudding -- being pudding -- is part of what creates gooey-ness. It's also a bit of a thickener.
Chowhound Post
Lamb stew with chocolate? Yea, or nay?
Paula Wolfert, in her book "The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook" makes a Fall-Apart Lamb Shanks with Almond-Chocolate Picada, so I don't see why not. You're using chocolate as a savory ingredient, to add depth and grounding. The only risk, in my mind, is having a dish with so many complex flavors that the flavor of the lamb is eclipsed. Take a look at PW's recipe here:
http://habeasbrulee.com/2007/03/01/fa...
Chowhound Post
A recipe for Vadouvon/Vadovon
Miss Needle, hello,
I'd already duplicated the recipe, using the Vadouvan link above and another I found at Jane's Spice:
http://www.janespice.com/recipes/vado...
The Ubuntu recipe from the MSNBC site doesn't seem accurate. For one, the assembly isn't specified until the "Tips" part at the end. But even the Tips assembly leaves out the raw cauliflower garnish on top that's in the text of the recipe. A touch of flour (that combines with the butter) also appears to be left out of the recipe, since the dish has a creaminess from a bechemel-type cauliflower sauce, with the consistency of a custard, that's not just cauliflower puree. (I know, I make it all the time.) Also, the dish at the restaurant appears to be made with cream, or 1/2-and-1/2, and not milk. And I don't know what got into Ubuntu over that photo. It looks nothing like the dish in the restaurant. There are no large raw chunks of cauliflower on top of the dish as in the photo, nor would the chef or consumer want that. The raw cauliflower garnish at the restaurant is a fine crumb. Finally, in the photo, there is a reflective pool of liquid on the top of the dish, and there is nothing like that in the dish at the restaurant. It's creamy white goodness all the way -- roasted cauliflower slathered in a custard-y cauliflower puree flavored with vadouvan, then topped with tiny shavings of raw cauliflower and bits of vadouvan.
Chowhound Post
Wine with maple-rum glazed salmon
I'm sacked out on the sofa, a little sick this evening, so let's see if my muddled mind can make any sense. My problem with Pinot-as-Syrah is that the Pinot grape loses its suppleness and sexiness when it's allowed to (over)ripen to the point of being Syrah-ish. The weight of the wine changes, the flavor of the fruit changes, and the loss of real Pinot-ness is disappointing. In contrast, many fleshy, concentrated New World Pinots still retain the raspberry, plum, and mid-range flavors that are characteristic of the varietal.
The flavors of a New World Syrah strike me as being a bit too intense and overwhelming for the dishes in the original post. But both Pinot and Syrah are found along a wide spectrum of intensity and ripeness, so a lighter-weight Syrah with red fruit flavors might work fine.
Chowhound Post
Organic/biodynamic wineries worth visiting in Napa and Sonoma?
You're referring to Grgich's 1973 Chardonnay that won the Paris tasting in 1976 that "put Napa on the map." Don't forget Warren Winiarski's Cabernet won acclaim for the best red wine in the "world" at the same tasting. The significance of that contest wasn't that the Napa Chard won that year, but that both the Napa Chard and the Napa Cab bested French wines that year. The win did bring worldwide respect to Napa, but many people -- especially Robert Mondavi -- "put Napa on the map." Just to be accurate.
I'm not all that fond of Grgich's reds. I think they're consistently overoaked, and because of that, some of the fruit is killed. They have an occasional good red, and their Chard is consistently good. Not real fond of Grgich the man, but his nephew, Ivo, is doing a good job as winemaker.
IMO, there are many other wineries that are better. I'd never put Grgich in the top five in Napa.
Many threads on biodynamic wines on the Wine Board if the reader is interested. BTW, biodynamic practices don't always make better wines -- the wines can be very disappointing, especially if combined with organic winemaking practices. The wines then are unstable, weak, and lose their flavor quickly.
Chowhound Post
Wine with maple-rum glazed salmon
Second New World Pinot, avoiding the Syrah-type Pinot.
Chowhound Post
Wine with bananas?
In that case...in order of increasing intensity...
A Sauternes or Sauternes-style (late-harvest, with botrytis) will supply a pretty honeyed flavor that will combine with the banana well. I've had this a number of times with fresh banana desserts.
20-year-old tawny port will supply caramel, toasted nut and some dried fruit flavors to go with the banana. It will work almost like a sauce accompaniment with the banana. A younger tawny won't have these flavors, so you really have to go with the 20-year-old. But rest assured, once you open the bottle, it lasts a very long time. This is probably my first choice.
Pedro Ximenez dessert sherry (mentioned above by Carswell), called PX for short, will supply even deeper caramel, fig and other dried fruit flavors. Might be fun.
Madeira at about the Malmsey sweetness level (try the Henrique & Henrique)
will also supply a caramel-molasses like sauce accompaniment.
Chowhound Post
Why would this happen??
I think you misread Cary's post. The Brett in Pinot did not refer to spritz, but was in reference to his sentence just before about contamination.
Spritz is a desirable stylistic component in some wines. That is not the case here. The Texas wine in question has an *undesirable* bottle fermentation. This is a winemaking error. The off-odor is the giveaway.
Chowhound Post
Wine with bananas?
Anything with those fresh bananas? Other ingredients, like brown sugar, honey, rum, dates, raisins, cinnamon, whipped cream, etc.? They will help make the pairing.
Or just a peeled fresh banana, sort of a minimalist party thing?
