Raamo

So restaurants around us can open if they want, but not all will. So our favorite local French restaurant Meritage occasionally offering Meritage a la maison which is French for Meritage at home. We like supporting them and the meal kits they offer always are cold so the final cooking / assembly is done at home. This time it was a large 4 course meal! I asked a good friend of mine at HDV what wine would go with all 4 pairings and he suggested their 2017 Chardonnay Le Debut (younger vines, they make 3 different tiers of Chardonnay) and it's in a French style - this wine paired perfectly, I drank at least 2/3 of the bottle over the course of the 2 hours. We would eat a dish then prepare the next to space it out. The rose was included for free as a thank you for supporting them. The first course arrived in 5 different containers: Fully prepared: These 3 small appetizers were all simply awesome. The dishes are all Japanese and designed for dipping sauces and tea but worked great for these dishs. The second course was in 3 containers, the crab was breaded but uncooked: This dish was again simply amazing! The plates for the following dishes are noritake china that belonged to my grandparents - the rims are platinum! The 3rd course involved duck, I had already cooked sous vide the duck to 135F and cooled it down, this was right before I rendered the fat: We were getting quite full so I only prepared a few of the potatoes and about 1/3 of the duck: I'm still not a fan of Brussel sprouts but my wife really enjoyed them. The final course required basically no preparation: It's chocolate and cake - I'm not really a fan but my wife loved it of course. It's very thematic for the day too. We're not the types to buy flowers or go out to eat today, so this was a neat treat to do at home. This card was included and I love the use of the mask in the heart. Covid-19 has meant a number of our local restaurants have permanently shut down so this is great we can support them.

Tonight we made a small pizza, we had a big lunch which I'll post in Lunch topic. My side was sausage and bacon My wife's side (not all pieces pictured) was pinapple: The Dough is MB's New York pizza dough.

Lunch today, wanted some fish to try out a 2017 Le Debut Chardonnay from HDV that should pair well with tomorrows 4 course french meal we picked up from our local French restaurant. Scallops were on sale so why not. Paired super well. The side is couscous with some red onion cooked in a chicken stock.

Tonight, Pasta with Cauliflower, Garlic, and Walnuts: One of our favorite recipes out of cooking for 2 from america's test kitchen.

Bits of chicken, flour, egg, panko then fried. Our main way of frying things.

Lunch today, asian style salad w/ crispy chicken.

Lunch today pasta: chicken sausage, red pepper pasta in a sour cream, butter, tomato paste, with spices sauce.

For the 2nd time ever we made New Orleans Style Red Beans and Rice, only this time we doubled the recipe and bagged 8 additional bags to reheat later. I also cooked the sausage separately sous vide and added them whole and will cut up when go to reheat, this keeps small bits of pork from hiding since my wife wants none of it We use a smoked ham hock that gives it some awesome flavor, and that's enough porky-ness for my wife.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Since it was just the two of us I chose to make a nontraditional meal. Duck Kefka Tagine with Tarte Alsacienne for dessert (Made by my wife). With the duck I opened a 2012 Syrah from HDV, not pictured, but paired very well. The Duck Kefka is one of my favorite meals hands down, and the tarte is amazing as well.

Fried Chicken Cutlet with bacon and ranch salad! Croutons are homemade from focaccia, tomato and cheese rounds it out.

Salmon Cakes for lunch, with a spicy adobo sauce, and a nice side salad.

It's finally cooled down big time in Minnesota, so Pizza time is back! Dough and sauce are homemade. I don't like a lot of cheese on my side. Very tasty!

For lunch my wife picked up some sandwiches, they offered her day old bread for free... So what to do with day old bread? Well make garlic bread (and croutons for later use) Tomato soup is from 30 mins cookbook by American's test kitchen. It's our easy go to complex tomato soup!

More Pasta with Chicken, this time it's Penne Rigatoni with Chicken Sausage, Red Pepper, & Shallot in a southwest spices tomato + cream sauce.

Quick stir fry with Broccoli, Red Pepper, Shitatki Mushrooms, and Peanuts - with a Soy Glaze / Hoisin sauce. Served over jasmine rice.

Tonight, Red Peppers & Onions with Chicken Sausage in a tomato sauce with "tuscan seasoning", served over spaghetti topped with parmesan reggiano. Off right is a nice petite sirah.

We had some potatoes that needed to be used... so I got a Wagyu sirloin steak, it was ~350g, so I cut it in half and had it over 2 days. Cooked sous vide at 130F, then seared in hot peanut oil, potatoes done in the steam oven and smashed with butter and sour cream. I now get why salt with high end steaks is so popular, the larger grains of the peruvian pink with each piece of the wagyu was really good. Not pictured, a glass of Syrah from Whitehall Lanes worked nice with this meat and potatoes dish. P.S. I miss my cat pictured in my avatar... she would have eaten the extra fatty/grizzly parts of the steak I didn't. Our remaining cat (who is 20 years old) won't without throwing it right now.

We had a bunch of Tomatoes on the table, which needed to be used... Some more outside. I hate peeling tomatoes, but I have a vitamix so why bother when making a marinara. So I wizzed the heck out of the tomatoes (most of which were cherry tomatoes) I used the vitamix to finely chop a carrot and 1/2 an onion. Into the pot went the Onion and Carrot with some olive oil and red pepper flakes. Cooked that for a while till soft, and add the pureed tomatoes. Added in some homemade concentrated tomatoes (better than a paste) along with 2 bay leaves and chopped basil and oregano. Cooked it for 40 mins... Pretty darn good for a hack job, better than most cans of sauce IMHO. The texture from the carrots really helped, served with bow-tie pasta.

72 hour Sous Vide Pork Shoulder at 150f MC's East texas BBQ sauce MB's Hamburger Buns Roasted Carrots Pulled Pork never looks that great, but it's tasty... some pickles on it for a bit of a crunch.

While in Napa we had a food and wine pairing at a winery, and one of the courses was similar to this: It's Puff Pastry, and inside is Shiitake Mushrooms sauteed in butter and caramelized onions. On top is creme fresh and scallions. It was served with a aged cab (so a few tannins) at the winery, we had it with a 2017 Zin made from 150 year old vines. Paired well.

Recipe from Serious Eats I cooked these for 35 hours or so at 150f. Really good, and I'm not really a rib person.

Green Beans with Roasted Pepper and Shallots Cookbook is Stone Edge Farm Kitchen Larder Cookbook I had to ferment peppers and dry cherry tomatoes to make this dish, it was very good. Definitely a restaurant level dish.

Page 165 of this book

Today for lunch, from one of Mary Berry's cookbooks: Individual Cheese, Tomato, & Thyme Tartlets. For the two I ate, my wife put way less cheese in, and it was amazing (I don't like gooey cheese). Paired nicely with the 2004 HDV Pinot - I coravinned another glass.

Fresh Tomato Bruschetta on toasted MB's Lean French Bread. Recipe for the Bruschetta is from here: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/08/fresh-tomato-bruschetta-recipe.html The quality of this totally depends up on the ingredients. The Basil and Tomatoes were from pots on our deck, the balsamic used is super high end and amazing. Highly recommended if you like tomatoes / basil.