Neat Thoughts About Food, Wine, Travel & More
Paired this delicious wine with sea bass a few weekends ago and it was a great combination. The 2007 Montagny 1er Cru Les Coeres is a classic example of white Burgundy. It’s rich yet offers a nice level of acidity and minerality. It’s floral with intense fruit on the palate but features a long crisp finish. Just a beautiful example of what vignerons should do with Chardonnay.
Style: White Wine
Grape Type(s): Chardonnay
Region: Burgundy, France
Around $35
I recently attended a berry virtual tasting hosted by Driscoll’s and WineTwits and created the following recipe to share with the group. The results are just as tasty when blackberries are used.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Makes 4 servings.
This simple reduction is perfect on both grilled steaks and drizzled over desserts.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Makes between ½ – ¼ cup.
Notes: Can easily be made with strawberries or raspberries. Fresh berries out of season? Use a 12-ounce bag of frozen, thawed berries.
The holidays are right around the corner and some of us will be baking like mad. A key ingredient of flavorful baked goods is the right, high-quality butter. Here’s what you need to know about this golden beauty.
According to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, butter is a food product, which is made exclusively from milk, cream or both, with or without common salt, and containing at least 80 percent milk fat by weight.
Sweet cream butter and cultured cream butter are two main varieties of butter produced in the United States. Sweet cream butter includes:
Cultured butter, a richer style of butter prominent in Europe, is becoming more popular in America.
Other butters to keep in mind:
Whichever butter you use this holiday season, be sure it’s of the highest quality available. Here are some of my favorites:
Happy baking!
Veronique
Fresh fig with Japanese pear lemon vinegar sauce
I always plan a special dinner out for my guy’s birthday, typically in Manhattan. He’s crazy about Asian food, particularly Japanese, so when it came time to book this year’s evening out, I polled my Twitter foodie followers for recommendations. Kyo Ya in the East Village made the short list and I promptly called to reserve a table.
When I called Kyo Ya, the hostess asked which tasting menu I wanted to opt for. I selected the 10-course menu at $120 and had to secure the reservation with a credit card. I didn’t mind the credit card guarantee since the place is small and purchases the required fish daily based on client reservations.
To say the restaurant doesn’t do sidewalk advertising is a major understatement. There are no visible signs outside; the place is located downstairs in what looks like a residential building. Even with the address in hand and knowing Kyo Ya has a non-descript facade, I still had doubts about it being the correct venue when we arrived. We asked the hostess if we had the right place and she softly giggled and confirmed that it was, apparently not the first time this question has been posed to her.
We were seated at what I’ll describe as a sushi bar. My guy was sat on the end, and me facing the chef. It turns out he had the best seat in the house as he could see not only our chef preparing food, but all the way into the bustling kitchen. The space is cozy, extremely neat and inviting. The staff is there to create an experience and is very knowledgeable about the food and preparations.
Grilled lobster, corn with shuto sauce in potato
The sushi / sashimi chef is incredibly talented. He works with the freshest, purest and rarest fish in Manhattan and it shows. He’s so proud of the fish varieties being flown in from all parts of the world, that he even offered us a side-by-side comparison of Portland, Maine sea urchin vs. rare Japanese sea urchin. What a treat! Here are details of the ten courses we enjoyed:
First course: Zatsuki – stuffed lotus root with fish cake
Second course: Sakizuke – grilled eggplant and Goma tofu with sea urchin sauce
Third course: Oshinogi – seared Hamo pike conger sushi with seasoned cucumber
Fourth course: Owan – snapper mousse ball and mushroom clear soup
Fifth course: Otsukuri – sashimi of the day, seared Bonito PLUS, assorted sashimi and sea urchin
Sixth course: Yakimono – grilled lobster, corn with Shuto sauce in potato simmered Sanma pike mackerel with Arima Sansho
Seventh course: Nimono – steamed Guji sweet snapper and togan squash with Sudachi citrus thick sauce
Eight course: Tomezakana – fresh fig with Japanese pear lemon vinegar sauce
Ninth course: Oshokuji – rice cooked with organic chicken and assorted autumn mushrooms in clay pot Nameko Akadashi soup and pickles
Tenth course: Sweet potato crème brulée with Shio whipped cream honey dew melon sorbet
This isn’t the place for you if you’re looking for a celebrity TV chef or for touristy sushi. This place is a museum where fish is proudly displayed. I highly recommend it to serious fish lovers.
Cheers,
Veronique
I had the pleasure to sampling this wine at a recent tasting and much like the other Cabernet Sauvignon is Cakebread’s repertoire, I thought it was outstanding.
In the glass, this Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is dark and onctuous. Just beautiful. The nose on the 2007 Cakebread Dancing Bear Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon is intense with mashed ripe cherries and dark raspberries. There are notes of pumpkin pie spices and mocha. On the palate, it’s bold yet smooth. There’s dark chocolate, pine needles, juicy stone fruits and loads of ripe fruit. A complex, rich, opulent wine with rounded tannins that last through a long finish.
Style: Red Wine
Grape Type(s): 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc
Region: Napa Valley, California
Around $100
Vibrant purple in the glass (like it already). There’s a little smoke on the intense ripe fruit nose (like it even more). On the palate, it’s a mouthful of cherries with a medium body that offers a long sweet finish (love it).
Style: Red Wine
Grape Type(s): Pinot Noir
Region: Burgundy, France
Around $25
Some news for my Chicago friends, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar has a new small plates menu offering the following dishes that sound amazing:
I love the idea of sharing multiple dishes with my friends. It’s an affordable way to sample several dishes and Fleming’s small plate prices range from $15.50 to $22.95.
Fleming’s two Chicago-area locations can be found at: 25 E. Ohio St., Chicago; 312/ 329-9463 and 960 Milwaukee Ave., Lincolnshire, Ill.; 847/ 793-0333.
Cheers,
Veronique
It felt very Fall-ish outside this weekend and while looking for inspiration for my dinner party dessert in the produce aisle of the grocery store, I found beautiful, ripe figs.
This Heavenly Cheesecake with Bruléed Figs is delectable with its creamy/velvety consistency and the slight crunch from the crackly sugar coating on the figs.
Cheesecake Ingredients:
Fig Topping Ingredients:
Cheesecake Directions:
Fig Topping Directions:
Makes 10 servings.
Notes: Don’t have a kitchen torch? No sweat – simply broil the figs on high for 1-2 minutes, until the sugar begins to melt onto the figs.
For My New Jersey Friends,
Those of you who follow my blog, Tweets or Facebook posts know that I live in New Jersey and love to cook and bake. With so much focus on various ways to help end world hunger, we often lose sight of what’s going on right in our own communities.
One of the ways I’m involved in ending child hunger in my region is through Share the Strength’s No Kid Hungry and come January, I’ll be able to help the Community FoodBank of New Jersey with my flash sale site restaurant deal purchases through 3 Square Deals. For those of you who are fans of Groupon, Living Social or Daily Deals, this will be a place where deals will be offered (either daily or weekly) and a portion of what you spend for the deal will be given to the Community FoodBank (with other food banks sure to come on board down the road).
The site and program official launch is scheduled for January, so sign up now to ensure timely receipt of updates and the launch. It’s an easy way to contribute to end hunger in New Jersey while buying daily deals you’d be purchasing anyway.
Please share this post with your friends, family, Twitter followers and Facebook connections!
Cheers,
Veronique
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