Eating An Alarming Number of Oysters

Or how I came to love Vin Jaune.

First to the oysters.  For our little get together we ordered 200 un-shucked, Blue Point oysters which in retrospect was way more than we needed.  However the idea of nearly unlimited fresh, briny oysters to enjoy on a rare day off was too tantalizing to pass up.  We  went berserk and poor Kyle ended up cleaning and shucking a crap-load of them as well as coercing our guests into doing the same.   Shucking oysters is a skill I probably need to learn but as long as there is a nice guy out there willing to get the job done, why bother?  I could learn to change my oil and fix the washer too but it’s not real likely to happen.  So props to Kyle, he is really good at it and his oysters have a minimal amount of grit and plenty of sweet liquor.

Find a nice guy willing to shuck, even if he shows up in a Crayola t-shirt.

I like my raw oysters with a squeeze of lemon and that’s it.  The sweet briny-ness is just heavenly with the perfect wine adding all the extra flavor I need.  My usual pairing with raw oysters is a Sancerre with my favorite being the Claude Riffault ‘Les Boucauds’.  It tastes of pink grapefruit and minerals and I love it but just didn’t feel like the right thing in cold weather.  Maybe a little too light and breezy for a chilly day.  My brother (and business partner) Matt suggested a Vin Jaune from the Jura.  A wonderfully unusual wine that is the sort of regional specialty that makes me love French wine all the more.  Vin Jaune translates to ‘yellow wine’ and is so named because of the color achieved after fermentation.  It is fermented without topping up the barrels, like Sherry, to produce a slowly oxidized wine.  Unlike Sherry it is not fortified and the acidity tends to be higher making it perfect to pair with strong cheeses or raw oysters.  The wine has aromas and flavors of apricots but is dry like a Fino Sherry.  It could not have been a more perfect pairing.

So good, who remembers moderation?

I am just a little ashamed, but mostly proud to say I think I ate over 30 oysters (not in one go, but spread out over the course of the day).  I know, ridiculous and a little awesome.

Drink:  To pair with the oysters we drank the 1998 Arbois Vin Jaune made Rolet Père et Fils.  Totally worth the splurge.

Ginger Cookies Taken To The Next Level

Normally I am not much of a baker which is a merciful thing because my self-control when faced with a pile of baked goods is nil.  Also I prefer making savory dishes, not necessarily healthful savory dishes mind you.  Every once and awhile if I find a killer recipe I go ahead and bake something sweet for festive occasions.  This year I was inspired by the NY Times cookie recipe interactive which blew me away both by the content and the elegant presentation.

A Festive Cookie Display

If you click on a picture the recipe pops up center screen along with a link to a printer friendly version.  The Ginger cookies with lemon cream caught my attention as Kyle particularly loves ginger cookies and I like lemon desserts. I made two batches since we had the kids and company coming.  The first batch I followed the recipe to a tee, but on the second go round I reduced the baking time of the cookies (I have a convection oven) and I reduced the sugar for the cream filling.  We all found the cookies delicious, but too sweet as presented in the Times.

Adpated from the NY Times:

Cookies:
1 1/2 sticks butter, room temp.
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup raw sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Filling:
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1.5 to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2.5 tsp lemon extract
1/4 tsp vanilla
Juice of half a lemon

Cookies:
Mix all ingredients together.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.  Make small balls of dough and roll in a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, and sugar.  Place on baking sheet and flatten slightly.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes (8 minutes for a convection oven).  Allow to cool before assembling.
Filling:
Beat together shortening and butter.  Gradually add sugar, extract, vanilla, and lemon juice.  Using a pastry bag or icing knife (or even a spoon), frost the underside of a cooled cookie, and top with another.

The cookies were lovely and very addictive.  Flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger were perfectly lightened by the lemony cream, a terrific treat.

Drink:  To pair with the cookies I brought home the Musva sparkling Muscat from the Valencia region of Spain.  It is a refreshingly and lightly sweet Muscat that tastes and smell of orange blossoms and peaches.  It was a great foil to the sweetness of the cookie and a refreshing palate cleanser.  I am a huge fan of this wine both because the price is so reasonable ($15) and the high quality of the juice.  Less sweet than Italian Moscatos, but with a similar flavor profile.  The wine would work equally well with fruit desserts, or spicy fare.

Before Julia & Julia

was Julia Childs’ sweet memoir ‘My Life in France‘.  The book focuses predominantly on her time beginning in France where she and her husband relocated for his work with the American Embassy.  There is some reference to her upper-middle class upbringing and how she and Paul met, but mostly she writes about her discovery of food and building a life together.  What surprised me was that this was the tenderness with which she writes about her marriage.  These were two people who appreciated and cared deeply for one another, and in his love she flourished.  Their mutual interests became her passion, and he seemed to delight in her fearlessness; starting a new career in mid-life, going to a traditional French cooking school.  If you think the French aren’t scary, go work in a French kitchen.

Her description of her own marriage gives an intimate window into how sweet and satisfying it was, and how two smart people used their intellects and generosity to expand their worlds.  I was moved by it.  Finding love later in life, taking chances, delving into new worlds and finding improbable success are universally appealing themes, which I am sure is why this book was a hit.  She is also surprisingly candid about the last years of Paul’s life.  Their age difference caught up with them towards the end.  Unable to continue to care for him she ends up placing him in a nursing home where he declines further and further into dementia.  I thought about how difficult that must have been for her, to have such an important connection in her life cut in this way.  To have a spouse who is alive but no longer able to participate in the marriage.  And yet, she kept on with her work, cooking, collaborating.

What the book doesn’t expressly say but exemplifies is that food is more than the sum of its parts.  I love food because of the relationships it creates, the ritual of preparation, discovery, the connection to land, and of course the pleasure of eating.  Obviously Julia and Paul figured this out too.

The Problem With Wegmans

Or Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or Costco for that matter is that no matter how nice the store (and admittedly they are great stores), I find myself let down by the sanitized presentation.  There seems to be no trace left of where the food came from.  Meat is packaged down to each individual cut to the point that it’s hard to remember the animal at all, and getting produce in plastic boxes and foam trays just doesn’t inspire me.

I want to interact with the person who grew or made the cheese or raised the animal.  I feel inspired by the fresh air, the dirt and the people who work to make the food we eat.  I would prefer less choices that are all quality than aisles and aisles of things I don’t need.  Instead of having the choice to cook anything I now prefer to make dishes around what is in season and abundant locally, and to shop in small stores with people I know helping me.  On the economic side it makes sense too.  41 cents for every dollar spent at a locally owned business goes back into the community compared with 14 cents from a national chain, and the average farmer receives 5 cents on the dollar for produce purchased at a grocery store.

This doesn’t mean you will never see me in these stores again, but less and less so.  And when the new butcher shop opens up across the street I plan on never buying meat anywhere else again.  I have longed for a butcher who could make special cuts for me, source grass fed beef and have real advice on preparation.  I can hardly believe one is coming to the Burg.

For me food and community are closely linked and pleasure on the plate is part of knowing the people who made it or carefully selected it.

Why Can’t We Have One?

My dream?  An permanent producer market in Fredericksburg like the ones featured in this NY Times slideshow.  A place where the best, most conscientious farmers, cheese mongers and more set up daily and give us direct access to fresh foods.

My Favorite Cheddar

Comes from a dairy in New York. It’s made from raw Pennsylvania milk and has a deep, rich, tangy flavor that is lovely all by itself.

Tumbleweed Cheddar Profiled in SF Chronicle

We serve it at the wine bar on our white wine cheese plate, and I regularly take it home to eat. I also love the Herbal Jack, which tastes exactly how it sounds; sharp with fresh herb flavors. All the cheeses have subtle and distinctive flavors, very much like fine wine. I am of the opinion that a great deal of the flavor comes from the proper use of raw milk and of course the skill of the cheese maker. This cheese would work on a humble turkey sandwich, but I love it on its own at room temperature.

Drink: This cheddar shines with a full-bodied white wine or a mostly dry Riesling with a good acidic back-bone. Try it with the 2005 Keller Sonoma Chardonnay or the Finger Lakes 2007 Standing Stone Riesling. The Riesling will pull out the sweetness in the cream and complement the tang of the cheese. The Chardonnay will highlight the flavors of butter and add to the richness. Either way, you are in for a treat.