October 1, 2007
Paddling Up the Nile of My Barbeque Obsession, Looking for Its Source...
In the next year, I am thinking about following the North Carolina Barbeque Trail (I suppose there are maps for the other states-eg Texas-but at the same time such an exercise would be somewhat pointless: all serious barbeque trails lead back to the Tar Heel state). Any takers? Tennyson would have gone, or at least that is what I think he was trying to say when he wrote his famous ode to the search for the perfect 'Que:
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew,
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are—
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Posted by dag at 6:19 PM | Comments (1)
September 28, 2007
Ducks, Dumplings, Marriages and Emperors
Last night the wife and I traveled to Raleigh for dinner and an opera. Let me first dispense with the rant phase of today's broadcast: downtown Raleigh is a freakin' mess! If they want to bring people in there and build up more of an arts scene, they need to make it accessible. Closing most of the streets for a biker rally (which they had done yesterday) is about as dumb as it gets, given the downtown they claim they are trying to build.
Our first stop was dinner at The Duck & Dumpling, which was fabulous. We paired a chilled Riesling with a first course of crab cakes (simply perfect: crisp on the outside with moist and fabulous crabulousness on the inside) and a very refreshing tuna tartar with notes of wasabi. True, both appetizers are cliche, which is a mean way of saying classic, but both were done to classical perfection. For entrees she enjoyed a lovely duck breast while I had superb salt and pepper lamb chops. This place is the equal of Lantern in Chapel Hill. (And for you big city types who snicker at my provincialism, why don't you check out Food and Wine's top fifty restaurants of 2006: Lantern kind of kicked the butt of most of the local Asian haute cuisine offerings in the major metro markets.)
After finishing off with flan and a snifter of brandy, we headed to the opera. Tonight's offering was Le Nozze di Figaro. I really enjoyed this performance. It was light and fresh and genuinely and spontaneously funny. Stephen Powell delivered especially good acting as Count Almaviva, while Sari Gruber's Susanna hit just the right tone. I felt the highlight was the reconciliation scene between the Count and Countess, which was sung beautifully. Grant Llewellyn delivered a very steady and solid, if not necessarily innovative or moving, performance behind the baton, but it certainly was sufficient to support solidly the vocals. If there was a hole in the evening it was Wayne Tigges Figaro, but his was still a highly competent performance. It was a very enjoyable evening, despite the headaches of getting into Raleigh.
Finally, let me veer off course and dispense with Tan Dun's The First Emperor, which we saw recently on an HDTV broadcast from the Met. I had eagerly awaited this new opera which was such a bold venture for the Met and was at once supposed to revive the form and take it in new directions. Unfortunately, what was delivered was a tedious and incoherent mess. The trouble was evident from the opening notes of the overture, which was a rambling cacophony of Eastern and Western noise, with no real theme and not even memorable moments. From there it descended into a tedious and plodding story better suited to a documentary. From the overture onward it was musically flat (indeed, for all the talk of the innovative instrumentation, The First Emperor is basically several hours of the filler music opera composers have traditionally used to get through the filler libretto between the arias and choral elements that are the real reason people listen). The wife and I couldn't even finish it, and moved on instead to a DVD re-release of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train which, I can assure you, is a far better way to spend an evening. I am told that The First Emperor sold well at the Met, which I can only attribute to the "event" quality of its premier (you know: see and be seen).
Posted by dag at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2006
Hursey's BBQ
Today the wife and I took a pleasant drive west on I-85 to J.R.'s Discount/Wholesale/whatever warehouse. Culturally, its kind of like a brief and amusing trip to NASCAR World. The main attraction of J.R.'s is its spectacular walk-in humidor of a cigar shop. I was there on one of my periodic re-stocking operations, while the wife bought perfume in a different department of the store. Believe it or not, J.R.s carries a perfume she likes. It's called "Poison" and, as she explained to me, it is a flavor of the moment, if only because it is in some sense or another "retro".
On the way back we stopped off at exit 147 to try Hursey's BBQ. Hursey's has several locations, and we tried the one at 1234 South Main Street in Graham, NC. I got the sliced and chopped Q sandwiches (no slaw so that I could focus on the meat) while my wife got a chicken and chopped Q platter.
The BBQ is still hickory smoked, and that earns Hursey's quite a few points in my book. I felt that the sauce on the chopped BBQ was a bit too sweet, and that that somehow overpowered the smoke to a slight degree. Overall, I remain an Allen & Sons (NC 86 just north of Chapel Hill) man. Allen & Sons pulled pork shoulder is simply a religious experience: it has a powerful, rich and manly smokiness to it, but it is also extremely controlled, smooth and assured. He uses aged hickory that is split fresh for the fires every morning. Keith Allen and his crew have steadily earned 5 stars (out of a possible 5) from me for their Q. They are truly craftsman in an age when the idea of craftsmanship is in trouble.
Hursey's gets 4.5 (against an average for all Q joints of maybe 3). Hursey's offers a very good, wood smoked Q that outpaces what you'll get at 95 out of 100 places these days. I found it to be a little sweet and not quite as compelling as Allen & Sons (the benchmark for everyone who knows what they are talking about). But you should really try for yourself. It is well worth the trip out of Chapel Hill. (In any case, Hursey's is about a mile south of 85 at exit 147. DO NOT mistake it for the joint just to the north of 85 off of exit 147.)
Where Hursey's gets 5 stars is their fried chicken. It was absolutely fabulous, easily earning its 5 stars (against an average of 2 for joints selling fried chicken). The chicken was very juicy, without being at all greasy. The skins were light and crispy. The chicken was very high quality and there was exactly the right presence of salt. Magnificent.
Hursey's is worthy of its reputation. No question about that. Overall score: 4.8 out of 5.
Posted by dag at 9:40 AM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2006
Housekeeping
I have made a few changes to Aging Disgracefully, mostly in the categories department. First, I have renamed the category "Food" to be "Bread". Why, you might ask? Because it occurred to me that it might be a nice juxtaposition with "Circuses: The Holy Game", another new category. "Circuses: The Holy Game" has been created to cover the all-important upcoming NCAA basketball season.
"Immortal Beloved" will serve as a tag for all posts related to my wife. I chose this in honor of my favorite composer and because it occurred to me that the wife might interpret "The Relentlessly Nagging Shrew" as negative in tone.
"Plinian Eruptions" is a special category reserved for outbursts. I had planned on two categories here: "Plinian Eruptions: Time Warner Cable" and "Plinian Eruptions: Everything Else", but it occurred to me that that might make that area of the site seem too crowded.
"The Bittersweet Symphony" is for music. "The Epicurians" is for every form of indulgence not covered by another specific category.
"The Meditations" is where I'll go on endless and tedious philosphical digressions, each and every turn of which I am sure you, dear readers, will follow with breathless anticipation and excitement.
"I, Claudius" is where I will follow politics in the next few years. It would seem that we may be in for quite a ride in this regard. It is also where I will address all matters related to the Empire, whether of Claudius's time or ours (cleaving to the matter at hand, Cartman had the essential handle then and now: "They Don't Respect Our Authoritaaaay").
Finally, I announce this in "L'Etat", my new category related to the management of Aging Disgracefully.
Update: I have created yet another category, "Dismal Science", to house all of my ramblings on Res Economia.
Posted by dag at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2006
Steak a la me
Last night Joe and Anna came by for dinner. We had steaks with roasted potatoes, a simple garlic pasta, vegetables sauteed in butter and peach cobbler for desert. On the beverage side, Trang drank hard cider and some T-Daddies (her latest cocktail creation, it's a tropical explosion of coconut, pineapple, rum and all of the greatest things in the world), which she shared with Anna. Anna also joined Joe and me in some Sam Adams Octoberfest. Finally, Anna had some of a particularly exquisite late harvest Riesling that Trang and I have been enjoying recently.
Why am I telling you this? Oh yeah: to let you know my philosophy on steak. First off, I am a charcoal man. I do not believe in propane and propone accessories. Charcoal imparts a certain distinct taste that simply cannot be replicated with gas. Crucially for steak, only with charcoal can you achieve the truly extreme heat required for the first phase of the grilling process.
So here is how it works in my house. First, we grill only thick cut T-bones or New York Strips. I like to have a rub on my steak. The usual recipe, and the one employed last night, is a southwest kind of thing: equal parts chili powder, paprika and sugar. I think sugar is essential in steaks: its sweetness somehow tremedously amplifies the beautiful flavor action between charred sections and the marbeled richness just below them. Basically, you rub the steaks all over with this combination and then leave them in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Be sure to remove them one hour before grilling.
Second, light your fire. I have a big charcoal grill with enough grill surface to truly achieve separate temperature zones. Using only the "natural" charcoals sold at places like Whole Foods, begin building your zones. (I use "natural" charcoal, as opposed to briquettes, for two reasons: first, the "natural" charcoal creates a more convincing woodsy flavor; second, the "natural" charcoal burns to much higher temperatures and more quickly, which is ideal for steak.) You want one moderate sized pile and one really big pile, for moderate and really hot heat zones. Add in mesquite chips, wine barrel staves, etc.: whatever you can get your hands on that will add that really thin but clear smokey subtext to the whole thing. (Hickory, cherry, etc. and other hardwoods, which I use for slow smoking, could be used here but I think their talents are wasted in this setting: they are more useful for achieving deep penetration of a kind of rich, manly smoke.) At peak, you should have two temperature zones: one over which you can place your hand for less than one second and one over which you can do so for perhaps 2 seconds or so.*
At that point put your steaks down on the high heat zone for 2 minutes on each side. Following this, you shift to the lower heat zone and the timing differs depending on what you want:
For a rare steak:
Give it 30 seconds to a side on the lower heat zone.
For a medium rare steak:
Give it 1 minute to a side on the lower heat zone.
For a medium steak:
Give it 2 minutes to a side on the lower heat zone.
For well done steak:
Go to someone else's house.
After the first flip on the high heat, it is very important that you brush the side facing up with olive oil on each subsequent flip. This really immeasurably improves the surface texture (ie mouthfeel) of the steak.
Once you have completed grilling (and remember, the longest it should take is 8 minutes for medium; the shortest is 5 minutes for rare), let rest for 5-10 minutes.
*One other issue here is whether lighter fluid is acceptable. I have heard purists argue that they can taste the residual of the fluid in the food. However, my understanding is that, from a scientific standpoint, with a well-burning fire there should be nothing left of the fluid by the time meat meets heat. An interesting general truth about these "purists" is that none of them seem willing to take me up on a blind taste test to settle the matter.
Posted by dag at 9:19 AM | Comments (1)
April 9, 2006
Mom's Chicken
This weekend I made an old timey Italian-style marinated chicken recipe that was a staple growing up. In fact, this dish is a classic from my mom's kitchen. We have no idea where she got it from or how long it has been in the family. It makes for wonderful grilled chicken. It has served as a mainstay of summer evenings since his childhood. Moreover, it seems to have secured the immediate approval of our good friend Miguel Herce, who is notorious for his suspicion of chicken and has become a mainstay for the Good Rabbi. It can, if necessary, be prepared in the oven, or it can be quickly or slowly (the best, it yields really soft, tender bird) grilled. You can use any cut of chicken that you want in this dish. I prefer to grill up a variety of cuts.
Ingredients for the Sauce*
8 oz. basic tomato sauce**
4 oz. extra-virgin olive oil
4 oz. orange juice (use the pulpy stuff)
2 oz. vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
chopped garlic to taste
Mix together sauce. Use it to marinate chicken for at least 3 days in the fridge (note: my mom thought I was crazy for marinating so long). After several days of marinating, you are ready to cook. In the oven, give it 350 degrees (F) for 90 minutes or so. On the grill, cooking time will depend on the heat of the fire. Either way, you must always intially place your chicken fat side up (NEVER skin the chicken before marinating or grilling). Leave it there for 80% of the cooking time. This is essential for tender chicken: the fat will render through the chicken as it cooks, making it really juicy. Brush sauce over the chicken 2-3 times during cooking. You can certainly drizzle over the remaining sauce after you plate the chicken, but remember to heat it to a simmer first since its been with raw chicken for days (the heat of the plated chicken probably is not enough to kill all harmful bacteria).
Serve with a nice, simple garlic and oil pasta as a side. Alternatively, serve with a cold pasta salad. It goes well with a nice, lively young red wine.
* Make enough Sauce to submerge all of the chicken for marinating. These amounts are provided for proportions.
** Believe it or not, plain old Prego traditional style seems to work really well.
***On the grill, you have to be very careful of flareups. Chicken is flareup prone to begin with, and the oil in the sauce for this chicken doesn't help. Therefore, do not overload the grill, and perhaps use the ``ring of fire'' technique (with plenty of coals) to avoid direct suspension over coals or to provide a safety zone to which the chicken can be moved in the event of flareup.
Posted by dag at 11:55 AM
April 3, 2006
Bun Thit Nuong
Earlier this week, we grilled a hot weather favorite: bun thit nuong. Although this dish is often made with pork, my wife's family prefers to use beef. Filled with freshly de-skewered grilled beef, this dish is extremely tasty and filling and yet, with its cool salad-like quality, a very refreshing choice for the sort of summers we have around here, where the weather burns and, more often and worse still, scalds.
Anyway, the first step to making bun thit nuong is to have your wife and mother-in-law argue for several hours about how the dish should be made. You see, in the time honored tradition of the heirloom family recipes that make up the bedrock of our American ethnic culinary tapestry, we had a "two Vietnamese/three opinions" kind of situation in the kitchen.
Getting down to brass tacks, the next step is to prepare the meat for marinade. This is pretty simple. Take 3lbs of beef-it should be some cut with a decent amount of marbling-and cut into 1" strips and place in a container (such as a medium to large sized piece of tupperware) in which you can let the meat marinate in your fridge. (If you prefer pork, just use a similarly endowed 3lb cut of pork. In either case, another tack would be to have the 3lbs come from a number of different cuts to achieve your desired level of fat. My wife often combines London Broil and chuck roast in this recipe.) Cut several large onions into chunks large enough to be skewered, chop up a bunch of garlic (don't hold back here) and toss in with the meat. Then give it a sprinkle of sesame seeds, enough so that their presence is clear, but not so much that the eye and palate are drawn particulalrly to them. As you can see below, we largely forgot the sesame seeds.
Then prepare the marinating liquid by combining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1/4 cup of sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of water in a bowl. Add in salt and pepper to taste (again, be generous here). Mix throughly and toss in with the meat. Toss the meat through to insure a more even distribution of marinating liquid, garlic and onions.
Let marinate in the fridge for at least 1 day.
Once the meat has marinated, it's time for payday. First, you need to prepare a few things that will be combined with the meat once grilled. You can see these in the last picture in this post. A list of essentials might include:
1. Salad greens. We prefer lighter colored ones.
2. Thin white Vietnamese noodles (I don't what the hell they are called: see the noodles in the last picture on the last page). (My wife says that they are called bun and are available at any Vietnamese store.) Once they are boiled put them in a collander and run through with cold water. Then place the collander over a large bowl so the noodles can drain. Before serving, roll the noodles into little nests (shown) that make it easier for people to retrieve their desired amount from the common platter.
3. Sliced cucumbers.
4. A nuoc mam (fish sauce) based sauce to lubricate it all. The formula we use is to mix 1 cup water, 1/4 cup nuoc mam, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/3 cup sugar and 2 teaspoon garlic pepper sauce in a jar. This should keep for about a week (in the fridge).
Once you have these in place, it is time to begin skewering the meat. Always use wood skewers.
Once the meat is nearly all skewered, it is time to light the grill. Here is where the disgracefully aging gentleman enters the picture. Why? Because I am a maaaaaaaaaan. As Ron Burgundy might have put it: "I am a maaaaaaaaaan. I build fire. I read the news....and I like scotch. Scotch! Scotch! Scotch!"
Now, before proceeding, we need to establish a basic principal: I do not believe in propane and propane accesories.
I am a charcoal man through and through. I have heard, and accept, all of the arguments about why gas might have some advantages. But all of these benefits come at one big price: taste. If convenience is the main guiding principal in your life, you should just go to McDonalds for dinner anyway.
So, pour plenty of charcoal (I use Whole Foods organic harwood charcoal, because it burns hotter and faster and imparts a certain credible kiss of smoke) in your grill: you are going to want a hot fire here. Next, pour in plenty of charcoal lighter fluid to start the fire. Do not believe all of the stories about how it screws up the taste. 99.99999999999999999% of the fluid will burn off by the time the coals begin to settle down. If you do not believe me, try a blind taste test with one of these "no fluid" radicals. Also, try starting the coals evenly with newspaper or tinder and see how easy that actually is, unless you want to waste time with one of those chimneys (which are generally too small for the number of coals needed in this kind of recipe and, in any case, should be stored in a hallowed place until they are brought out for real barbeque, by which I of course mean slow smoking over hickory, cherry, etc.).
Anyway, at this point I offer some porno for pyros. While I watched the fire, Louie the Bull came out on the porch to oversee the process, as he tends to do. The moment he hears the grill move, he knows that very, very soon meat will be put to heat and it is time to begin crafting his begging strategy.
That's just the kind of edge that millions of years of instinct provides.
Let's return for a moment to the porno for pyros. I sort of fumbled on this one: I did not use enough charcoal or fire up what I did use consistently enough (thus maximizing the heat from the coals). That can't be helped: the first few grills of the season are always a dicey exercise in regaining rythm.
And building rythm is never easy for me: after all, I am a white man.
The point is that you want a really intense fire for this recipe, so that you can get a real crisp, carmelized exterior without overdoing the interior. A tiny little strip of pinkness inside each piece of meat is fine and desirable. Using too few coals, as I did, results in meat that cooks too slowly and thoroughly, and thus a product that is a bit too tough and dry.
Once you have the coals where you want them, it's time to cook the meat. If the fire is right (and, again, it wasn't in this case), the meat should need no more than 2-3 minutes on each side (each skewer need only be flipped once) to achieve a beautiful level of external doneness. To get an idea of what that should look like, look at the last picture in this post.
When the meat is done, plate it with the other elements of the meal described above and you should be left with a scene like
this. Each person at the table should fill their bowl with noodles, lettuce and cucumbers, and then de-skewer their desired amount of meat into the bowl. Then, splash in the sauce to lubricate (some add other elements, like peanuts, chunks of pineapple, some thinly sliced roasted shallots, some type of basil, lemongrass, other greens that one might tend to throw into pho, etc. at this stage), mix well and enjoy.
As for the wine to match, anything good that is chilled, white, crisp yet with hints of sweetness and, above all, at hand will do. I would recommend a really nice riesling, perhaps an orvieto, maybe a tocai friulano, and if you are really feeling special, a bottle of Jermann's Vintage Tunina.
Of course, if you are having some wine people to dinner and really want to show them that you're the balls, and not some chump who knows only what every chump should know or simply a show-off with show-off wines (ooooooooo, aaaaaaah, a Kistler chard: how creative; after all, that's never been done before), whip out a nicely chilled bottle of Soutomaior Albarino.
Posted by dag at 3:40 PM | Comments (1)
March 31, 2006
Orrechiette with Broccoli Rabe: Addendum
Whenever I tell anyone about this dish, the first question I usually get is what you can use if you can't get your hands on broccoli rabe. This is a big problem in some parts of the country. An obvious answer is to use broccoli. A better one is to use broccolini, which is actually the result of a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale. It is far more widely available in supermarkets than rabe. When I first encountered it, I was pretty skeptical, but have to admit that it makes a very effective substitute. It is also often available at a pretty high quality level.
Posted by dag at 3:49 PM | Comments (0)
Orrechiette with Broccoli Rabe
The weather is getting ready to burn here in the south. You can just smell it. In honor of this seasonal turning point, I offer one of my favorite summer pasta recipes.
This is a great example of a primarily vegetable and oil based past that is probably best suited to the warm summer months and hard pasta. It is a great pasta that I like to think of as bridging the gap between Italian and Italian-American food.
Serves 4.
Bring lightly salted water in a small saucepan to a boil (make sure the water is a good 5 inches or more deep). Coarsely chop and sort 2lbs of rabe into 1/2 pound increments (the sorting will be made clear shortly). Blanch each increment.* The ends of the rabe (the bulby little things), need only 60 seconds. The stems really need 90, and the thickest stems may need 120. After blanching, immediately remove and shock in ice water. Reserve the blanching water over a medium heat. When it regains its simmer, toss in 2/3 of a pound of sweet sausage still in case.
Heat an enameled cast iron pan (or any other deep pan that you use for sauces) to medium and put in some extra virgin olive oil. Toss in 1 1/3 lb of sweet sausage, casings remove. Gently saute, breaking up the sausage into small chunks with a wooden spoon. When about 1/2 way done, toss 1 lb of orrechiette into vigorusly salted boiling water. Then, add several cloves of chopped garlic and crushed red pepper to the cast iron pan. (Be more generous with each if it suits your taste.) To do this, make a space at the bottom of the pan by pushing the sausage aside, and then add in a bit more oil. After 60 seconds (when the oil is to heat), add the garlic and peppers. This will allow the garlic to soften, and the oil to be infused with garlic and spiciness. When pasta is 4-5 minutes from done, pour reserved blanching liquid into the cast iron pan (hopefully enough to fill the pan to about 1/4 depth). Grind in freshly ground black pepper. Taste (should be somewhat salty and spicy, with definite garlic and fennel overtones). Add salt if necessary. With 1 minute to go, toss in the rabe. Put the pasta in at al dente, using blanching liquid for added lubrication if necessary. Serve immediately. Cheese is not necessary, but you could use freshly grated asiago.
*Its very important not to overwhelm the blanching pan. Each increment should be fully submergable and quickly! If your increments are too large or unwieldy for this, then do more, smaller increments.
**This can be served over two days as a good cold pasta. To do so, reserve some of the braising liquid to re-lubricate the pasta later.
***You may be wondering about the fate of the 2/3 of a lb. of sausage that had been in the blanching water. These were added to infuse the water with that rich, sausagy, fennel like taste. You can remove the sausages and just eat them. Alternatively, I often chop them up and put some chunks on everyone's plate.
****You can make a vegetarian version of this. In that case, instead of putting sausages in the blanching liquid, you just add fennel seeds. These can actually be added to the blanching liquid or gently sauteed with the garlic and hot pepper flakes.
Now, this isn't exactly the classic Campanian version of this dish. The classic version is meatless. Here it is:
Trim and wash 1lb of broccoli rabe, removing tough stems. Plunge the broccoli into a pot of heavily salted water and cover. When the water returns to boil, uncover and boil oh, maybe 5 minutes. Remove and drain the broccoli. But keep the water at a high simmer.
Toss a bunch of garlic (how much depends on your love for garlic: I don't usually add more than 7 cloves) over high heat olive oil. Add hot red pepper flakes (or sliced serrano or habenero peppers). Let the peppers and garlic work into the oil. Toss in the rappini and cook 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally with the pan covered otherwise. As this proceeds, return the blanch liquid to a boil. Toss with salt. Toss 1lb orecchiette into the blanch liquid. Cook a bit more. You want the broccoli to start to fall apart.
Toss 1 cup of the starchy, broccoli water into the saute pan. Stir, then toss in the not quite cooked orrechiette and give it 2-3 more minutes. You can add fresh cracked black pepper at this point. Stir in some freshly grated pecorino-romano cheese to achieve a final creaminess.
The key here is to not have too much blanching liquid to start. You want just enough. But at the same time you want the water to be sparse enough to achieve a real starchy and broccoli quality.
Posted by dag at 3:40 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
Better Eats
Recently, I have been eating a lot at two new Chapel Hill restaurants that are neighbors: Bin 54 (a very upscale steakhouse reviewed here) and Jujube, which I would describe as Chinese and Vietnamese in its orientation. Now I learn that the same group that owns Bin54 has a new place called Grasshopper. In our immediate area, Grasshopper actually joins not only Jujube but also Lantern in this basic niche. While I'm at it, from the same group I should also try G Loft and Vin Rouge (which, after losing its way, has apparently recovered triumphantly under a new chef).
As a personal challenge, I'll try to tackle all of these by Tuesday midnight with at least a five course meal at each (I abhor small samples in any empirical setting), including re-visits to Bin54, Lantern and Jujube (if only to establish a scientifically valid baseline against which to judge the others). I know this sounds like a risky mission, with overtones of extreme personal danger, but I assure you that I am a man of true grit, well-prepared to handle the perils of excessively extravagant living.
Still, I would feel better if the Good Rabbi were here. You need a strong sideman, with just the right kind of edge himself, for a terrifying gig like this.
I mean, really, when you think about what I'm up against on this operation, I feel like Ted Ferguson, only I'll be reaching for a bottle of Gaja or DRC La Tache instead of Bud Light when my vital signs fall into a dangerous range.
Maybe I should ask the guy at Medmusings to help: as a doctor and true connoiseur, he'll know exactly the year, varietal, region, producer and dosage to reach for when I'm really on the canvas.
Posted by dag at 8:26 PM | Comments (2)
March 26, 2006
Cedar Plank Salmon
Very soon it will be warm enough to consistently grill outdoors, and I will return to an old obsession: cedar plank smoked salmon. This is not like the traditional slow smoking (as in dry-rub ribs) that I do on my big old Brinkman smoker. This is more like a high speed collision between grilling and smoking. I do occasionally throw some hickory chunks on the coals when I grill other stuff (chicken, steak, whatever), but the results are usually somewhat shy of fully satisfying. For one thing, the smokiness is usually superficial. If you add more wood, the superficial smokiness becomes almost harsh (burning building harsh)...The cedar plank cooking technique for salmon, by contrast, anoints the fish throughout with a gentle kiss of smoke, accenting it without overwhelming. The basic idea runs like this:
Take a big, thin cedar plank and submerge in water at least one hour. Fire up the grill (charcoal, of course: only commies use propane and propane accessories) and let the coals reach that point. Place the grill grate over the fire and then place the cedar plank (it should be roughly 12-15"X7" or so) on the it. As soon as it begins to smoke a bit, place the salmon fillet on the cedar plank (skin side down) and the top on the grill. I usually use a 2.8 to 3.2 pound fillet. Give it 9 (for a medium finish) to 12 minutes per pound. I usually do 9 to 9.5 minutes per pound (depending on the strength of the fire). Sometimes I go as low as 8 minutes a pound. This should serve 3 or 4 people.
Now for the question of the garnish. This is a rich, gently smoky fish at the end. If it were a wine, people might accuse it of being flabby. What one needs, therefore, is a crisp, vaguely acidic garnish. Mario Batali provides an excellent candidate in his "Babbo" cookbook. One thing I recommend, however, is to place his garnish in a strainer for 20-30 seconds, so that there is not too much liquid on the plate.
And what should one drink with this, you might ask? As well you should. I recommend a big, strong, robust....Oh hell, a Californian or Australian fruit bomb.
I can thank the Good Rabbi for introducing me to this. And I congratulate him on his recent triumph. You are truly living the Miller Highlife, Rebbe.
Note: This presumes that you can get biggish salmon fillets. If instead you decide to go with, for instance, 2 1.5 lb fillets your going to need to give it only 6-7 minutes a pound: with two smaller fillets far more surface area is exposed for the weight in salmon and hence it'll cook allot faster.
Posted by dag at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2006
New Year's Soup
I almost forgot to mention that we once again made our traditional New Year's Eve soup. This recipe is a variant on one provided by our great friend Miguel Herce. He first made it for us New Years Eve, 1998, when we stayed overnight at their place in Pittsboro.
Soak some flageolet beans (I usually use Cassoulets USA brand) for at least 40 hours (I usually soak 1 1/2 pounds and then withdraw beans later if they expand too much during cooking: it is always better to err by including too many than too few beans at the start). Place in a Le Creuset cast-iron enamel soup pan (or its equivalent) with a tomato, onion and a green bell pepper (sliced in two and seeded). Cover with water and let simmer low for several (up to 4) hours, until the beans are releasing starch and the vegetables are disintegrating (the peppers will be mostly disintegrated). Stir frequently (one must stir frequently throughout this dish). Remove the vegetables carefully, trying not to lose any tomato seeds into the broth. Reduce heat to an extremely low simmer. Add in a 1 to 1 1/4 lb. roll of pancetta (it should come from the store as a 2" thick roll and you should unroll and cut it into 2" chunks before tossing into the soup*). After an hour or more add in some sausages (use sweet Italians or something similar; never use hot sausages). Cook until the meat is done (the pancetta should start to turn very tender).
You can refrigerate the soup for one day (it tastes better in certain respects the second day, after flavors have mingled a bit in the fridge). Reheat slowly. To serve, ladle each person a piece or two of pancetta, a sauasage, some beans and broth. Serve with some bread (toasted, or bruschetta style). However, do not make allot of this and try to string it out over many days: after soaking in the broth for a while, the beans begin to become really overly mushy.
*Be careful not to use an end slice of pancetta: this will lead to too much pepper in the soup since a 2" end slice is much more covered with spices than a 2" interior slice.
Posted by dag at 12:38 PM
December 20, 2005
Sushi-ya
Here is a helpful guide to proper etiquette when eating sushi in Japan. (Via Joi Ito's web)
Posted by dag at 11:01 AM | Comments (2)
November 6, 2005
Hunter's Style Chicken
It's fall, and I am in the giving mood recipe-wise. This is my family's twist on the classic "hunter's style" chicken (pollo alla cacciatorre). As per usual, our approach is slightly weird. We build pasta right into the dish. Obviously you do not need to follow us on our descent into messy madness.
In a Dutch oven, heat some olive oil. Add in 18 oz. of lightly floured chicken drumsticks or legs and brown the chicken in the oil.* Be sure to achieve a really rich color by aggressively browning. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add 3 cups of chopped fresh mushrooms**, 2 sliced seeded medium sweet peppers, 1 large thinly sliced onion, and some finely chopped garlic. Scrape all of the carmelization from the pan (add in the onions, then the mushrooms; as each gives up moisture, you'll have liquid to work with to deglaze). Add dry white wine to cover, crushed red pepper flakes and bring to almost boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, until the liquid is 60-75% gone. Add in a 28oz. can of undrained San Marzano tomatoes, a good solid couple of squirts from a sun-dried tomato paste tube (perhaps 3 squirts or 2 tablespoons), 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, chopped fresh basil (actually, add this at the end), 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of fresh cracked pepper. Return the chicken to the pan. Simmer uncovered until the chicken is tender, almost breaking apart (hence the use of dark meat: there is less danger of drying out). Toss in fresh chopped basil and Italian parsley. Mix in freshly cooked ziti or penne, stir through and serve after letting it cook in for 10 minutes. Serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Asiago cheese.
*Don't put in too much oil. Just a bit, just enough. If you put in too much, the browning will go slowly and you'll get ALOT of hot oil splatter. Also, if you are using only drumsticks, skin them. They are fatty enough that you can carmelize right off the skin and not have to worry about drying out the meat. Even with the rest of the left quarter, you can probably get away with this. Anyway, brown the drumsticks more aggressively.
**The mushrooms should be chopped pretty large. They will cook down to the appropriate size. If you cut them normal size, they will be too small. However, don't cut the peppers too big. They cook down some, but not as much.
Posted by dag at 9:42 AM
October 29, 2005
A Tasting and a Dinner
Last night was the much anticipated (at least by those Lost in Inebriation like myself) barbaresco and barolo tasting at A Southern Season. There were 5 bottles on offer, 3 barbaresco's and 2 barolos (I wish it had been the other way around). In short:
1. Abbona Barbaresco Faset-My favorite of the barbarescos. I believe it was a 2001 (I forgot to get the vintages on the barbarescos). It has good structure, is pretty full and brings a nice velvety texture to the table. You really get a nice sense of the range that decent Nebbiolo in this neighborhood can offer. I picked up floral (eg violets) and vanilla hints. It also has a nice backdrop of spiciness.
2. Produttori del Barbaresco-This was, if memory serves, the 2000 vintage from winemaker Aldo Vacca. It has balance, but just didn't leap out at me.
3. DeForville Barbaresco-I believe that this was a 2000 as well, and I actually did not care for it at all. It seemed too acidic on the tongue and it had a kind of stinky floral quality on the nose that I find sometimes in, for instance, certain Rhone reds. Jay, the Southern Season wine guru, described it as earthy, with a farmhouse quality. Well...
4. Cordero di Montezemlo Monfalleto Barolo-This is a 2000. Certainly not a classic year, but a good, solid Barolo that is destined to accompany a hearty braise with risotto on a cold and rainy night, probably around January.
5. Abbona Barolo Terlo Ravera-This is a '99, which is one of the better barolo vintages (in my not-so-humble opinion) in that stretch. Very nice and balanced, good range on the nose and palate, and capable of a few years improvement. I bought two bottles to test that hypothesis.
On the way back the wife and I stopped off to see if Bin 54, Chapel Hill's new high-end steak house, is open. It is, and we decided to try it out. We had a 2002 Rudd Oakville Estate (a bordeaux type blend with Cabernet Sauvignon at the wheel). It is another of the excellent 2002 California Cab or Cab blends. It is superb, with beautiful fruit, a wonderful range and a dazzling liveliness. Unlike any of the wines I had at the tastng, this one exhibited great length. I already have 2 of Rudd's 2002 Oakville Estate Grown Cabernets resting in my wine collection, and now I want more and will no doubt be having a harder and harder time leaving alone the ones I already have.
Bin 54 is pricey, but the food was excellent. I had a New York Strip steak. It was my first experience with Kobe beef. This was domestic Kobe beef from Snake River Farms. I asked for it medium-rare (the perfect choice, as it turned out, for the Kobe beef) and Bin 54 delivered the perfect medium-rare steak.
And, as for that Kobe beef, my god: it is simply amazing. It's like butter. No, it's like buddddaaaah. Ooooooh mommy: the marbling is so pervasize, consistent and smooth that you find yourself hoping that you will die suddenly at the end of the steak, if only to make your final exit with that taste in your mouth. It melts in your mouth, has the most creamy quality, and is actually slightly sweet. As I noted, the Rudd had great length (that was obvious before the main course arrived), but the richness of the Kobe beef simply overwhelmed it. In fact, I don't think I could have much more than the 12 oz cut the restaurant served: it's just too hopelessly rich.
After all, I'm a man for whom restraint means something. Not much. But certainly something.
Nonetheless, the Rudd did very nicely alongside this glorious gift from Japan.
Bin 54 offers a lot of nice little touches, such as their extremely flavorful frenchfries which are deep fried in duck fat (among other things...or so I was told). I would describe them as slightly more addictive than heroin. As you can probably already guess, in taste and writing, subtle I am not.
The service was excellent and the sommelier was very helpful. I wish they had had a late harvest Riesling for after dinner, but by way of consolation I was introduced to a high-end '73 white port, which had a really nice nuttiness on the nose and was, unsurprisingly, very, very smooth.
Buy into the 2002 California Cabs (if you at all can) and try Bin 54 in Chapel Hill. And, for God's sake, before you die, have yourself a Kobe beef steak.
Posted by dag at 2:01 PM | Comments (1)
October 27, 2005
New Blog
After a great deal of careful thinking, I have decided to bring back Aging Disgracefully.
I needed a hiatus, and have decided that Aging Disgracefully needs a new focus. Out with the current events, politics and economics: I want a refuge from all of that. I think I will now focus more on the whole lifetsyle of a disgracefully aging gentleman. Initially, the last incarnation of Aging Disgraceully had achieved some balance between its various focus areas, but somehow I drifted away from that as time passed. Therefore, I want to re-focus more specifically on the key elements that make my daily life work (and not work). As part of this, I have added a new section (My Growing-and Alarming-Attraction to Pottery Barn) to document the ongoing saga that has been our new home, including my frightening forays into my metrosexual side as I make decisions about things like interior decoration (not that there's anything wrong with that). In the next few weeks my new posts will be mingled with old ones that seemed particularly relevant to the new focus.
Though this is just the latest incarnation of Aging Disgracefully, it still it feels like a new beginning. Once again, I'm moved to quote verse:
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"
Desires compos'd, affections ever ev'n,
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heav'n.
Grace shines around her with serenest beams,
And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her th' unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes,
For her the Spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins hymeneals sing,
To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away,
And melts in visions of eternal day.
-Alexander Pope
Posted by dag at 8:05 PM