Die Kale, Die.

Yesterday we were served a lovely kale dish by some friends, which made me reflect upon the copious leafy masses that were now shading my newly planted grapes. Grapes need sun. Shading them is unacceptable. The kale had to die.

I have to be honest, I'm not sure why I waited this long to thin my chards and kales - this type of greens is one of my favorite foods. No, I think I know why. Fear. Fear that if I picked it, my garden would then be empty as nothing was germinating, and the pickings were sparse. The 57mm of rain in July solved that problem. The earth is now erupting with seedlings. The second glut of the season hath begun.

4 Wines & A Plate - Pinot Gris

We've only done one white wine night before, and it was one of the most polarized evenings we've had - albeit one of the more enlightening ones. This one proved to be educational as well, with a varied set of syles, and a varied set of opinions on the wines. Laughed a lot. Enjoyed the heck out of the dinner. And somehow pickled fish juice and polish vodka were being poured by the end of the evening. But that's another story.

THE WINES
A - 2006 Zind Humbrecht Rangen de Thann Clos Saint-Urbain Grand Cru, Alsace, $90

Group Score: 85, 2nd place. Love-hate. 4 tasters scored it 92-93, 2 tasters scored it around 70. Wine Spectator says 94. It is STINKY. Cooked silkworm, intense honey, stinkweed, model airplane glue & melted plastic, horseradish, nettle. Creamy, intense, concentrated, complex, dynamic. Fascinating, albeit bizarre and stinky wine. I was in the camp that scored it 93.

B - 2007 Bollini Pinot Grigio, Italy $18
Group Score: 79.5, last place. Fresh and bright, but aromatically challenged showing light apple and underripe berries. 'Eau de nothing' perhaps sums it up best. The palate showed bright acidity with some citrus pith. Overall, this wine was 'nice' but seriously forgettable. I scored it a 82+.

C - NV Barefoot Pinot Grigio, California $9
Group Score: 88, 1st place. Fuzzy peach, apricot, fabricated spring odor, candy aisle, grapefruit, vanilla - fake and yummy [was described as the sexy chick with fake boobs]. The texture was really nice, supple & not too dry, slightly fizzy, and persistent. I scored it 91.

D - 2007 Poplar Grove Pinot Gris, Canada $31
Group Score: 81.5, 3rd place. Produce section, champagne yeast, ammoniated cheese, licorice, cabbage, munster cheese. The palate was interestingly full, developed on the palate, but tried hard and disappointed. I felt it tasted like average wine, mixed with some flat champagne. This broke my heart when it was revealed as I'd wanted to like this one.

THE PLATE

I had a lot of options with the pairing, as pinot gris is a very versatile food wine. I trusted my 'What to drink with what you eat" book - and chose a few of the supposedly optimal pairing items: pork, salad, and goat cheese. A couple elements were knocked out of the park imo. First, the salad dressing - white balsamic, extra virgin canola oil, and poupon mustard. It was slapped together fast, but blew me away. I think it was the fact that the white balsamic was sweet and balanced the acid and fat fantastically. I'd seriously use this as a go-to combo for dressing in the future. Second: the pork. Brined ham of Berkshire [garlic and sage in the brine], rotisseried over charcoal, basted with miced sage and oil. Holy smack it was good. I think that feeling was unanimous. I wish there were leftovers. But it was too good for that. As always, it was fun to check out the interaction between the different wines and the different elements of the dish.

the inevitable additional spontaneous dish that came out later
pork meatballs, sage, rosemary, garlic

Glut of Green

I've been enjoying other people's posts about their gardens, and figured some posting about my own is long overdue. A success in this crappy year of gardening: leafy greens. How crappy? Frost warning tonight crappy enough for ya? Anyway, I figured it was time I thinned some of my copious greens this evening, and just finished washing a dozen or so spinners full of mixed greens - buttercrunch, spinach, red lettuces, arugula, a variety of mustards, leaf lettuces, head lettuces, chicories. I basically bought a whack of mixes and individual packets from various sources, dumped them into a ziploc, and that's my seed mix for my greens this year. I may do the same next year, cause lord does it make interesting salads. My new fav this year? Mustards. Man they rock.

my large bed of greens. i have others...

The Vines Arrive

After far more planning and preparation than I generally would care to admit, after all the months of anticipation - this day has finally arrived. It had been delayed by the Frontenac Gris varietal not yet being released from quarantine by the CFIA. I'd then been watching for the post truck for days, hoping that they'd have something for me. Today, after a long truck ride across the country all the way from Quebec, my vines are at their new home!!! I was very pleased with how healthy and happy the vines were upon arrival - it exceeded my expectations, which have been lowered by spindly seed catalog perennials [cheap shot?]. My new buddies:

Frontenac

Frontenac Gris

Sabrevois

Louise Swenson

I was slightly choked that they had to arrive during the one period of heavy rains all year. My soaked self felt slightly better thinking that I may dodge the number one killer of young vines: lack of water. Hope so, anyway.

So they're finally in the ground. Now the adventure of caring for them to see if I can make them survive and hopefully thrive. Only time will tell...

Dinner Party Menu

A breakdown of the menu for some new friends that came by for dinner last night. Excluding the first course - a salad from the garden...forgot the photo. The first three courses were paired with an alsatian riesling, the following 3 with a right-bank bordeaux. Overall, a lovely night:

berkshire tenderloin on white bean purée, crispy sage

pickled whitefish, dill & chervil

seared antelope, fleur de sel, baby italian parsley

korean kalbi-style antelope on rice

camembert on lovely bread our guests made

chocolate espresso swirl cheesecake with vanilla latté

Friday Wine Night Returns?

I'm resolved that my 'Friday Night Wine Night' concept needs a comeback. So last night myself and a friend tackled an 04 E. Guigal Cotes Du Rhone - widely available in an inexpensive pricepoint. A guest had graciously brought it earlier in the week, and it needed to meet its fate rather than be cellared. It's an 81 pointer that's likable, but not quality. Disjointed, arromatically challenged, but actually decent with food.

It being Friday night, the charcoal was burnin', and I decided to use some bread dough to make a herbed grill-bread, which turned out great. The dough was a bit soft, and I had a moment of near disaster, but recovered. I'd kind of given up on baking bread in the summer for lack of want of heating up my house more than I had to - but this will provide a solid solution for nights spent cooking outside.

Aside the bread on the grill was a chunk of berkshire shoulder marinated in sage, garlic, and olive oil, and some pieces of a leg of pronghorn roast I had out for tonight's dinner that got a rosemary and mint treatment. This with some garden salad [oops no photo, and yes, I eat vegetables] made for a very enjoyable, laid back meal to wrap up the week.

How do you celebrate your Fridays?

Pickerel Night

In a belated celebration of my brother's birthday, we did a tasting menu of very fresh lake pickerel, paired with Tuborg and a 2006 Zind Humbrecht Turckheim Gewurztraminer [favorite white varietal of the birthday boy]. It was a heady lovely wine on the nose - showing honeyed apricot and pear. But it lacked in the palate department, both in structure and in concentration, so most dishes paired well with the beer better than the wine. The first dish on the left was pan fried, intentionally raw inside - which didn't end up working out on the texture side - a bit 'stringy' and dense. Knowing that, the following dishes turned out very, very nicely.

pickerel ceviche on spinach leaves

wild onion grilled side of pickerel with crispy skin

pickerel stuffed with herbs en papillote

beer battered deep fried pickerel

pickerel ice cream with pluot sauce [kidding]

A memorable night as the food was particularly solid, and after a few drinks I was in a ranty, 'assertive' [read 'confrontational'] mood. Always good for some lively discussion.