After Christmas

Had a fun Christmas and spent time with family.

Bought some wine for my brother. Tried to keep the price per bottle in the $10 to $15 range. Here is what I bought. Shopped at the Wine Library.

Spice Route Chakalaka 2011 $15.98 Have not had this vintage but this wine is a great Rhone style blend from South Africa.
Wyatt Chardonnay 2012 $9.98 Wyatt are California wines with sourced grapes. Doug Polaner puts the wine together. A Parker fav, I have enjoyed thier wines in the past. Have not tried this wine.
Puig Parahy George 2010 $13.97- Southern France blend that I have had in previous vintages and it is a good value. 2010 was a good year in Europe.
Vina Olabarri Gran Reserva 2005 $15.98 A Spanish Rioja. Highly rated but I have not tried.
Charles Smith Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2012 $10.98 Charles Smith makes all types of eclectic wines in Washington State and his wines are reasonable and good. I have this wine in previous vintages. #51 in the WS top 100 for 2013. A great value for an interesting wine.
Domaine Dupeuble Beaujolais 2011 $11.98 I am enjoying Beaujolais's again and 2011 was a very good year. Have not had this wine but since it is not a cru the price was right. It is estate bottled.
Guigal Cote du Rhone red $11.98 One of my favs from the Rhone valley in France.
The Curator White $9.98 A South African blend of Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. Look interesting and South African wines are good values these days.
Dante Robino Malbec 2010 $9.98 Argentina Received a good WA review and the price was right. I am not a big Malbec fan but many people enjoy it as it easy drinking.
Chateau la Cardonne 2009 $15.98 A vg Bordeaux that is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon. I have had this several times and really like it.Great value.
Babich Sauvignon Blanc 2013 $9.98.  I find many New Zealand SB's to be good but generic. Babich is always a good wine and the 2013 should be fresh. Remember Southern hemisphere wines are 6 months ahead of us in their vintages so the 2013's are out now.

Wine buying and drinking should be fun and you do not need to spend a fortune.

Made grilled butterflied leg of lamb last night. Marinate the lamb in olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and wine vinegar for a half an hour and throw it on the grill. Cook until it is the done to how you like it. Serve it with grilled eggplant and sauteed baby bok choi and grilled potato wedges. Microwave baking potatoes until almost done. Then cut into quarters the long way (wedges). Dip in olive oil and grill for about 4 minutes on each side.
Drank a Chalone 2010 Pinot Noir that I received on Christmas. The wine was  great and it was a nice simple meal.

Looking to plan a trip this winter. Anguilla is on the short list again. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

The New Year is coming up. Is going out on New Years Eve the thing to do again these days?

Enjoy.

Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry

Recipes for Desserts

Speaking with a few of my friends, the subject of good seasonal recipes has come up. These are 2 of the best and easiest  desserts one can find.

Poached Pears

Peel 2 pears. Comice pears are great. Bartlett work well also. Cut in half and cut out the core. You should have 4 half pears.
Take about 3 cups of red wine, pour into a 1-2 quart pot and add a cup of sugar. Also add 12 black peppercorns. Heat the wine mixture to a simmer and add the pear halves. Cook for about 10-15 minutes until a fork easily penetrates the pears.
Remove the pears and let sit in a bowl. Continue to simmer the wine mixture watching it carefully. As it cooks it will thicken into a syrup. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon (the mixture will be reduced by more than half), turn off the heat.
Serve the pears by slicing the halves on an angle and spread out he slices like a fan. Spoon some of the sauce over the pears. Remove the peppercorns before spooning the sauce.
Watch as you cook the sauce as it can become a real mess if you cook it too much.

Passion Fruit Desserts

One of my favorite websites is Aunt Lilikoi http://www.auntylilikoi.com/ This is the place to buy all things passion fruit. Lilikoi is Hawaiian for passion fruit. The unsweetened passion fruit juice is great. BTW shipping from Kauai is not very expensive. The juice keeps unopened for a long time.

Passion Fruit Pie

Make a graham cracker crust in an 8 inch pie pan. Follow the directions on the back of Nabisco Graham Cracker Crumbs. I use less butter than called for in the recipe.
Make a mixture of 1 can of condensed milk(14 ounces), the equivalent of 2 eggs of eggbeaters, and about a half of a cup of the unsweetened passion fruit juice. Add more to taste. Mix the ingredients well. Pour into the prepared pie crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until set. Remove from the oven.
Let cool. Whip  a cup of heavy cream and slowly add some confectioners sugar and some of the passion fruit juice. Serve with whipped cream.

I also make a hot passion fruit souffle that is a my favorite. Recipe at a later date or drop me a note. I also make cranberry nut bread, pignoli cookies, and anything chocolate including chocolate truffles.

I will publish the recipes with the most requests. Let me know.

Wine

This time of year is great for wine buying. It seems as if all of the wine sites are trying to out do themselves with deals. My wines of the moment are
 2010 and 2011 Cru Beaujolais such Fleurie and Brouilly (around $20)
 Champagne (try producers that you have never heard of ) and keep the price under $30
 Guigal 2010 Cote du Rhone $12
 2010 Chateauneuf Du Pape (These can be pricey but you can find them for around $30.
 Lenz,  Long Island, NY Merlot 2009. (Around $17) Yes it is a merlot.
Also 2010 Bordeaux. See Garys website http://garyswine.com/ . They have 25 2010Bordeaux wines rated 90 by someone for under $25.

Any of these wine would make great gifts. If you need any other wine gift suggestions, let me know. Good wine glasses are very useful. I find that good glasses make a difference and they make swirling fun. I am not a very good swirler as some of my friends will attest. Target has Riedel wine glasses that are reasonably priced. Remember that when using big wine glasses, pour small amounts of wine.

Enjoy!

Paris and Lyon Part 4; Caymus Wine Dinner

Day 6  Our train to Lyon left from the Gare de Lyon in Paris. I had bought tickets on line for the trip. The tickets were a relative bargain at $48 each and that was for 1st class. We took a high speed train that took about 2 hours. We got off at the second train station in Lyon, Perrache. It was a 10 minute walk to our hotel, Le Royal, Lyon.The hotel was in the center of middle Town Center part of Lyon, which turned out to be an excellent location.

I had researched hotels in Lyon and Le Royal appeared to be really nice. The hotel website had rooms for 350 Euros and breakfast for 35 Euros per person. I found a deal on Expedia where we paid about $250 per night including breakfast. The only catch was this was a nonrefundable rate. My solution was that I waited until the week we left to make the reservation. I don't like to make nonrefundable reservations for our trips.http://www.lyonhotel-leroyal.com/default-en.html

The hotel is also home to the Institut Paul Bocuse, meaning the food is good. When we were there they were completing the remodeling of the restaurant which was closed. However they had a breakfast room and the breakfasts were superb. The hotel is an older hotel that has been redone inside. Our room had  high ceilings, large bathroom and was very comfortable.

The hotel is located on Place Bellocour, a large open square. The Lyon Metro is across the street and the main shopping area is a short walk away. Lyon is an interesting city with an old section and lots of restaurants and food shops.

 

View from our hotel room.

 

Breakfast at the hotel. Fresh passion fruit, my favorite.

 

The first night we ate at Le Potager Des Halles. lepotagerdeshalles.com It was recommended by the salesperson we met at a really cool wine shop where I bought 2 bottles of very interesting Champagnes. The food was supposedly typical for Lyon. Lyon has some of the best food in France. We had lamb and pork. The bread was great as it was in every restaurant we ate at. Bread has really come a long way in France. Again the wines available by the glass were excellent and reasonable. Dinner was about $110 and was good not great.

 

Lyon is a pretty city, at least the old parts and we had fun wandering around. There are 2 museums of note and we visited them. One is an art museum and the other is a fabric museum, since Lyon is famous for silk.Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon www.mba-lyon.fr Musee des Arts Decoratifs www.mtmad.fr

Lyon has 2 main rivers going through the city - the Rhone and Saone. There is an interesting church in the old city on a hill overlooking Lyon. We took a funicular up the hill to visit. We had trouble buying tickets to the Lyon metro and funicular. Our credit card would not work and there are no ticket booths with people in Lyon. We  were about to give up when 2 young men asked if they could help. It dawned on us that our credit cards do not have the smart chips and thus do not work in many places in Europe especially for some reason train stations. Anyway the young men bought us tickets and we paid them in  cash. We were very appreciative and thanked them profusely.

 

A panoramic view from the area near the church.

 

The second night we ate at a Michelin 1 star restaurant L'Effervescence, chef Christophe Hubert.

www.restaurant-effervescence.fr The restaurant was great. It was small and had about 14 tables. Apparently the chef is on the rise and the food was awesome. It was by far the best meal that we had in France and the price was reasonable. 2 courses 34 Euros; 3 courses 39 Euros. Again they had excellent wines by the glass. I had fish for the main course - baby salmon, baby clams and another white fish. My wife had pork. For dessert we had pear foam and ginger ice cream and a chocolate dessert.

 



The leaves in the pear dessert were coated with sugar and were crunchy and delicious.

 

The next day we were somewhat tired of Lyon so we managed to book a tour of the Beaujolais wine area. Best decision we have made in a while. The tour was great. Before the tour we went to the Bocuse food hall in Lyon. Wow. 56 food places under one roof.

Unreal. We bought some food for lunch and met the van for our wine tour. The tour had 2 other couples from Canada and Mexico. We had North America covered. We used Kanpai tours. The tour was wonderful.  http://www.kanpai-tourisme.com/Our tour guide was the owner of the company Olivier Delalande. Olivier was knowledgable, intelligent, patient and just a great guy. He took us to the cru Beaujolais areas and we went to wineries in Fleurie and Brouilly.

 

The first winery was Chateau de La Chaize. We toured where they made the wine and we spoke with the owners. We then had a tasting of their wines including a rose, which I had never seen. The wines were a revelation as I had not had Beaujolais's that were so good. Techniques are improving and we had vieilles vigne wines which are "old vines". They were great. We bought a 2011 vieilles vigne for 15 Euros.

 





We were there during the harvest time and it was fascinating. They were bringing in the grapes and pressing them. The vines still had some grapes which we tasted. Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape and the grapes are good to eat.

 

We next went to Domaine De La Madone which makes Fleurie wines. The do not import to the United States. We tasted about 8 wine under 2 labels. The wines were funkier than I ever have tasted in a Beaujolais but some of the wines were very good. We bought a 2010 vieilles vignes Fleurie for around 13 Euros.

 

We returned to Lyon but had to encounter the worst traffic jam I have ever seen. Every road was not moving in every direction. It took about 4 hours to get back. Olivier was so patient.

 

For our last night in Lyon we ate at a Bocuse bistro Le Sud.www.nordsudbrasseries.com It was large and modern. The food was bistro food and was reasonably priced. I had duck breast and my wife had Moroccan chicken baked inside filo dough. Everything was good but not great although my wife really enjoyed her chicken.

 

We left Lyon the next day and headed for home. Four bottles of wine in our luggage and lots of great memories.

 

 

Caymus wine tasting dinner

 

I had the priviledge to attend a Caymus wine dinner with Chuck Wagner. I had fun and had the opportunity to speak with Chuck. He is the winemaker and owner of the winery and has been making wine since he was 19. Caymus is an iconic Napa wine and we tasted a number of wines. They have divided the wine into separate wineries run by family members. There is Belle Glos which makes Pinot Noirs. Mer de Soleil which makes Chardonnays; Conundrum which makes a red and white blend and Caymus which makes 2 Cabernet Sauvignons - the regular bottling and the special selection.

 

Chuck told me that Michel Rolland, wine consultant and Robert Parker have been big influences in Napa. They like big ripe wines. Chuck prefers red wines with low acid. We tasted:

Conundrum White 2012 $18 Nice blended wine that I liked better than previous vintages. Low acid and fruity.

Mer Soleil Silver Chardonnay 2012 $20 Nice chardonnay with good acid and nice balance.

Belle Glos Dairyman Pinot Noir 2012 $40 Big grapey Pinot Noir. Young but not my taste.

Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 $65 Very young with tannin and fruit not yet integrated. Chuck explained that years ago no one would try such a young wine but that these days the wines are more approachable young.

Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 The star of the evening and a surprise pour. The wine was balanced, light but flavorful. Just a great wine. It has gotten excellent reviews from the critics as well. Everyone at our table really enjoyed it. The only downside is that it is very expensive.

Conundrum Red 2011 $18 A sweet wine that was not to my taste but it was served with dessert.

 

Any questions on France, let me know. I have been trying as many Beaujolais' as I can find. I will report on them at a later date.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. Love turkey.

 

Enjoy.

 





Paris and Lyon Part 3

Paris Day 5  We decided to explore Paris some more. A desk clerk at the hotel told us about some interesting areas of Paris. He described a food market and an elevated park like the Highline in NYC.
We went back on the Batobus boat as our ticket was good for another day. We got off at Notre Dame.



We went to magnificent cathedral as I hummed the famous fight song. The cathedral is breathtaking even with all of the people in front of it and inside it. It exudes history. They have erected stands in front of the cathedral.

 

 

 

 

We then tried to go to the Pompidou Center. We always seem to miss it. And of course it was closed on Tuesday, so we missed it again.

We then tried to find the elevated park and the food market that the hotel clerk had described. We walked past the Gare De Lyon and found the food market. Of course we arrived around 2pm and it was closed. It is open in the mornings and the afternoon.

 

Gare de Lyon

We stopped at this place for lunch. We had a pastry pizza which was very good. Remarkably this was the only pizza on the trip. I wanted French food on this trip and that is what we ate. We found the elevated park and it was quite nice. It was very quiet as it was a Tuesday afternoon.

We then decided to shop for some chocolate. Near our hotel were several great chocolate shops so we went back to the hotel. Patrick Roger http://www.patrickroger.com/site/en/index.htm is a shop recommended by Patricia Wells. BTW Patricia Wells has an app for our guide to Paris that I found very useful. It would show us places to eat that were near where we were walking.  His chocolates are very good but on  the cutting edge of where chocolate making is going. Flavors and intense and different.  The shop is sleek and modern. We bought 100 grams for around 11 Euros.

 

Down the street was Maison Du Chocolat,http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/en/#/home the current chocolate champ of France. We bought 100 grams for around 13 Euros. I must admit that their chocolates were awesome. They have a shop in the Short Hills Mall near my house but the chocolates in Paris were better and they had different flavors. Maybe it was being in France. Interesting tidbit -- we were only offered samples in both shops after we had bought chocolate.

 

We decided to go to Flaubert for dinner. Not sure if Madame Bovary would have approved but is the bistro for Michel Rostang who has his Michelin 2 star restaurant next door. http://www.michelrostang.com/  Flaubert is very small and rustic.

 

Flaubert.

 

We had duck breast which was expertly prepared. We also ordered wine by the glass. We had a red Burgundy from Irancy, an appellation that I had never heard of. The wine was quite good and reasonable by the glass. Service at the restaurant was quite good and the bill was about $110.

 

Next we were off to Lyon.

 

Mr Burns

 

We had the opportunity to see Mr Burns -- A Post Electric Play at the Playwrights Horizons in NYC. The play got a rave from Ben Brantley and it was a hoot. The premise is that there has been some event that wiped out electric and lots of people in the world. Survivors were trying to remember episodes form The Simpsons and then putting them on as live plays. Mr. Burns is a character in The Simpsons. The last act is a musical of an episode of The Simpsons.http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/mr-burns-post-electric-play/  We have had very good luck in seeing off Broadway plays lately. Be selective but check them out. The theaters are much smaller and the prices are more reasonable.

 

Wines

 

Had a chance to taste the Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 and the  Chateau Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 at the Wine Library yesterday. The Mondavi was excellent. It had flavor that really set it apart. It tasted light but is not a light wine. The only negative is that it costs around $100. The Chateau Montelena was forgettable even though it has received some good reviews. It also is around $100.

 

I received my shipment of the 2010 Domaine Drouhin Laurene Pinot Noir and their 2012 Chardonnay Arthur. We tried the Arthur and it is very good. Fruit, acid, not a lot of oak. It drink easily but is a serious wine. It is around $30 which is pricey.

 

 The holidays are coming and isn't it amazing that within 48 hours after Halloween, all traces of it disappear and Christmas is here. The wonders of marketing.

 



Enjoy.