I had a pretty good day today, and am getting close on my job hunt. By next week I’ll have something to talk about publicly. So I’m having a bottle of Hermitage to celebrate, and making home-made pizza again. Very little cheese, to keep the fat content low, and a good home-made pizza sauce made from simmered chopped tomatoes and garlic, very simple. Tonight’s fare is red onion, red bell pepper, kalamata olive, and oregano, with a mix of low-fat mozzarella and parmesan sprinkled very lightly, with pepperoni only on half.
The wine is Chave’s 1994 Hermitage, which I just opened and needs a bit of time to breathe. Even just after opening, though, it’s sweetly spicy (not sugar sweet but rather, in the form of sweet spices), on top of the black fruit and signature high-toned tart finish. After a bit of air time, it’s pretty clear that the 1994 is good but not profound. 1994 was a tough vintage in the northern Rhone, with rain in September that ruined harvest for many producers. Chave’s Hermitage is sweet on the palate with good body but at 11 years old, is fairly light and lacking in the depth that one sees in the better vintages. My guess is that early drinking is fine with this wine, although there’s nothing about the 1994 that suggests that it won’t age gracefully for awhile longer.
Over the course of the week I tried a "natural leavening" process to essentially make a starter, and my
flour mixture definitely did leaven naturally from the yeasts in my kitchen, but I have to say I wasn’t impressed by the aromas — too dark and not sweetly tart enough. So I scrapped that for this week. Perhaps I need to tweak my airborne yeasts a bit more…
Today, however, I made a large pain Pugilese-style loaf based on a sponge I made last night and allowed to pre-ferment in the refrigerator (i.e., slowing down the yeasts). Here’s the loaf after it came out of the oven and before the tortuous 45-minute cool-down.
OK. Yes, I should be writing more, especially since I’m taking time off after Network Clarity. But in addition to a really irritating case of writer’s block about my usual topics, I’ve been getting outdoors as
much as possible and also cooking a lot more. The latter is due to a combination of wanting to make healthier meals more "from scratch," at least while I’m less busy, and from watching too much Alton Brown.
Last week’s fun item was pizza dough. I resurrected my pizza stone and peel from the basement, and made a couple of batches of dough, fairly successfully. Last Friday my brother, and our friends Ian and Beth, came over and we made pizzas, with homemade sauce, a couple of batches of my dough, some fresh herbs, olives, and good pepperoni. The crust was light but chewy, but not quite thin enough for my tastes, although the thickness did help it stand up to reheating the next day.
Today I made bread, mostly because I’d read some of "Brother Junipers Bread Book: Slow Rise As Method and Metaphor" while it was raining so hard yesterday, and partially because I still had the stone in the oven and the kitchen hadn’t been cleaned yet. Oh, and I’d been given a baguette tray for a housewarming gift long ago…
I’m not sure how good the bread is yet, but the house sure smells amazing. I need to let the loaves cool for a half hour to allow the gluten network to set up, so the bread structure doesn’t collapse when it’s sliced. But they look pretty decent, if a bit lumpy, and I’m hoping they taste good too…
I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but I’m trying to replicate the super-sour pickles they sell in the deli at the local PCC (hippy food coop for non-local readers). They’re terrific, but they’re somewhat fickle about supply, and I figured it would be fun learn to make ‘em in case they stop stocking ‘em. Also, watching too much Alton Brown on Food Network always make me want to try things in the kitchen.
Fortunately, Whole Foods had a few pickling cucumbers in the produce department, but this may be it for the season. I also bought the smallest normal cucumbers I could find, some fresh dill, and a couple of heads of garlic. Oh, and some canning jars. I got some funny looks in the checkout line — I guess not too many people do a lot of canning or pickling these days. 
At home, I made a solution of vinegar and water, upping the percentage of vinegar in the "normal" recipe, and packed the cleaned cucumbers into sterilized jars. I didn’t have enough whole small pickling cukes, so I mixed sliced normal cukes with pickling cukes in each jar, adding a bit more than a teaspoon of kosher salt for each jar. To all jars, I added dill sprigs, whole black peppercorns, brown mustard seeds, and a sprinkling of dried red pepper flakes. To half of the jars, I added halved garlic cloves to make "kosher" dills. The other half were left without garlic to make standard pickles. 
Then, fill the jars nearly to the brim (1/2 inch of room) with the vinegar/water solution and seal. Finally, simmer in a water bath for 15 minutes submerged.
They’re done at this point and labeled, and now I just need the jars to cool before I can put ‘em in the "root cellar" for awhile. In a couple of weeks, I’ll open a jar and see whether they’re inedible, ho-hum, or an excellent substitute for my PCC pickle obsession!
OK. I’m hoping somebody out there knows the provenance and origins of this drink. A gin martini, with equal parts of Grand Marnier, splash of vermouth (of course), and a twist of lemon. A superb drink, it’s not sweet like many of the "fancy" martinis out there, so it appeals to me when I’m in the mood for something besides a classic martini (which requires a 4-5 : 1 ratio of gin to dry French vermouth, instead of this "wave the vermouth over the glass" crap. Harrumph).
The drink in question came from numerous samplings at the Gallery Bar in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, over the last decade. It’s apparently a cocktail of some antiquity, maintained at the Biltmore less for its crowd-pleasing characteristics for but its historic significance, as I vaguely recall from discussions with the bartender. I travel to Los Angeles less than I prefer nowadays, so my opportunities to pursue the story are limited. Does anyone out there know the story of this martini variant?
Back towards the beginning of the month, we had some fairly notable wines:
- Raveneau Montee de Tonnere 1997 Chablis (this was terrific, with great acidity and an almost licorice concentration)
- Leroy 1978 Meursault AOC (fascinating and well-stored but more interesting than terrific)
- Raveneau Montmains 1995 Chablis (superb, still very youthful but drinking very well)
- Domaine de Chevalier Blanc 2001 (many of us thought it was Loire sav blanc, were fooled. Is on the crisper, rather than lusher, end of white Bordeaux. Excellent wine)
- Georges Deleger 1996 Chevalier-Montrachet (superb, spicy, terrific body)
- D’Armilhac/Mouton Baronne 1982 (superb bottle, well extracted, sweet and juicy but a nice maturity)
- Palmer 1982 (not nearly as good as the D’Armilhac but a good bottle of mature Bordeaux)
- Gouges 2000 Clos de Porrets St. Georges (excellent Pinot, fairly subtle but forward and lush)
- Jaboulet 1995 Les Cedres Chateauneuf (my contribution – spicy, sweet, peppery, not ready but coming along nicely)
- Prum 1990 GK Auslese (incredible bottle of Prum – honeyed bruised apples, hint of petrol, plenty of acid)
- Renou 1997 Cuvee Anne Bonnezeaux (not my style – this seemed weird and funky, not clean, but I’m told this is what the Renou is supposed to be like. Glad I focused on Pierre-Bise and Baumard)
- Schloss Johannisberg 1976 Auslese “blue cap” (gorgeous Riesling, definitely 1970′s but youthful. Thick “bruised apple” sweetness, great acid)
- Gouges 1971 Vaucrains (Chuck pulled this out after the desserts while we were playing pool. Spicy, very much alive, but at the edge. Not much body left)
There were a couple of other wines there, but not as notable, including my Kunstler 2001 Hoch Reich Kabinett — good but not noteworthy.
Tuesday night I had dinner at Cafe Campagne with the usual suspects — Bryan Loufbourrow was in town so we had a good excuse. We began with a decent but forgettable Tavel (Aqueria 2003), while we waited for everyone to arrive. Wines included:
- Colin Deleger Chassagne Vergers 1996 (creamy and excellent, improved greatly with air)
- Jadot 1996 Gevrey Clos St. Jacques (superb, still very youthful but great fruit and depth)
- Dujac 1998 Gevrey Combottes (amazingly extracted with too much new oak for my tastes right now, but I think it’ll integrate later)
- Dom. de Lambrays 2003 Clos de Lambrays (herbal, great concentration, light sweet oak. Nice.)
- Tempier 1992 Cabassaou (bottle was very slightly off, the smells were right but muted. Oh well. Might have been my only 92 Cab)
- Beaucastel 1981 (wine of the night — this was a terrific bottle of the 1981, with no drying out. Parker is still right about this wine — “Mourvedre cotton candy” describes it beautifully)
- J.B. Becker 1989 Wallufer Walkenberg TBA (holy shit – intense peach/apricot, great acid. Wow.)
- Ridge Zinfandel 1993 “Essence” (intense blackberry pie, with some brown sugar. A “discussion” ensued about maturity in this wine, but it’s safe to say it’s maybe no less than 1/2 way to full maturity. Amazing stuff)
I suspect that’s probably it for wines in August, it’s a busy month.
