carswell

Buddha's Hand

Keep it simple and not too sweet or sharp. I'd lean toward something like extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar, perhaps with a homeopathic dab of Dijon mustard. If I had some duck or veal demi-glace lying around, I'd probably add a dash of that, too, to round out the flavours. If you're pouring the pinot with this course, go very, very light on the vinegar. I wouldn't marinate the filet. I'd sear it over high heat and serve it with either a compound butter (Ling's recipe looks great but you could get away something as simple as chopped parsley, minced shallots. a few drops of fresh lemon juice and some coarsely ground pepper) or a sauce. One sauce I like with filet features blue cheese: Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add 1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped. Sweat the shallot 3 or 4 minutes, making sure it doesn't brown. Turn the heat to medium, add 1/3 cup dry white wine and let it bubble away until only a spoonful remains. Add 1/3 cup heavy cream and simmer until reduced by half. Remove the saucepan from the heat but keep warm. Just before serving, reheat the sauce and add 2 oz. Roquefort or other blue cheese broken into pieces. Stir until the cheese melts. Adjust seasoning with salt and white pepper. If desired, strain the sauce into a warmed sauceboat or measuring cup. Plate the steaks and nap with the sauce. edit: Added a couple of missing ingredients to the compound butter recipe. I make mine with slightly softened butter and use a bowl and a wooden spoon (not unsoftened butter, a knife and a cutting board as mentioned downthread). Once the ingredients are mixed in, transfer the butter to a sheet of plastic wrap on a flat surface (if the butter's too soft, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes), shape into a rough cylinder, wrap with the wrap, roll into a smooth cylinder and refrigerate. To serve, slice medallions from the cylinder and place on the centre of the hot steak.

Three QPR wines now on the monopoly's shelves: 2005 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, Kim Crawford, $17.15. Just off the boat. Superior to the 2004, this could be the model for NZ SB: fresh, crisp, juicy, tangy. Flavours tend more to lime and grass, less to gooseberry, pipi de chat and jalapeno. People who dismiss these wines as Fresca will not be swayed from that view; the rest of us will smack our lips and pour another glass. 2002 Terres Dorées, Beaujolais blanc "chardonnay," Jean-Paul Brun, $23.25. Haven't opened this yet but have no qualms about recommending it in a good vintage like 2002. Expect purity, balance, minerals, chalk, a bit of butter/cream, lemon, apple, almond. Brun is a non-interventionist (ambient yeast, little sulfuring, little filtering) and favours low alcohol levels (12% in this instance), meaning he doesn't need to chaptalize. There's not a lot of this around and it'll go fast: you have been warned. 2002 Casa de la Ermita, Jumilla, $19.60. A new estate near the coast south-southeast of Valencia. A blend of tempranillo, mourvèdre and cabernet sauvignon that sees some oak. Internationally styled but not flashy or slick, this is a rich, mouth-filling but not heavy wine. Gains heft with a half hour or so of breathing.

Lucky you. Two favourite recipes, one somewhat long and complicated (French, of course), the other quick and easy (Italian, of course). The first comes from Robuchon/Wells' Simply French and involves stuffing the bird with a slice of foie gras, searing it in a skillet, then roasting uncovered in a very hot oven, then roasting at lower heat on a bed of braised endive in a covered casserole hermetically sealed with luting pastry (puff pastry for fancy dinners). The meat emerges moist and subtly perfumed by the foie, and the endives are out of this world. The second involves pan-roasting the pheasant with pancetta, brandy, white wine, rosemary and fresh chestnuts. After the bird is cooked, you reduce the cooking juices and crush a couple of chestnuts the sauce to thicken it (the rest are served alongside the bird). PM me if you'd like details.

So, were you there on Sunday, toto2? I didn't ask but studied the faces of the crew as I bought my bag. By the way, let's have some honesty in advertising. It's not peanuts. It's peanuts and pecans, and more than just a few of the latter. A little bit sweet (just enough to add a caramel taste), a little bit spicy (salt, cinnamon and cayenne, if I recall correctly). Big bag for $3.50. After purchasing the nuts, I went to Cuiz-In to buy some wine glasses for a friend. The clerk was having some trouble with the box, so I set my bag of nuts on the counter to give him a hand. When the glasses were packed, I turned to pick up my bag, only to see some old guy reaching in for a second handful. "Tu devrais les essayer," he advised me. "Sont vraiment bons!" The clerk burst out laughing. I set the guy straight and sent him your way.

Beef is a natural. Try rolling slices of rare grilled flank steak around a paste made from Fourme d'Ambert, chopped parley and either chopped chives or minced shallots. Duck in serveral forms will work, as would other non-chicken poultry like quail. Smoked duck breast and duck confit would both lend themselves to hors d'oeuvres. Depending on the wine, Chinese crispy duck rolled in crepes with hoisin sauce and shredded cukes and green onions can be a knockout. Terrines and pâtés, especially game and liver-based ones. Camembert. Young Manchego. Mild blue cheese. Mushrooms. Deep-fried polenta sticks, especially if some gorgonzola and parmesan are stirred into the polenta just before it's poured out to set.

It's Gimme! Coffee's Leftist blend, which their website describes as being medium dark and Northern Italian style. Acidity is mostly a function of the beans. Low/high temperature makes coffee sour/bitter; sometimes sourness registers as acidity. Also, dark roasting can smooth out acidity. Still, the type of bean is probably paramount. Yeah. And here's hoping that they spawn legions of competitors. This city's coffee bars are ripe for kicking up to the next level.

The steaming softens and renders the fat without drying out the meat. Girls and male TV news anchors will tell you otherwise, but this is what god invented hair dryers for.

Bwa ha ha ha! Snort. Guffaw. Pppppptttt! <wiping tears from eyes>

It's actually a two-page spread: a long article about high-end, cutting-edge joints, a shorter article about bistros, several colour photos and a contact info list. Maybe an online subscriber will offer to forward electronic copies of the articles to you. Alternatively, I can snail-mail you the section. If interested, PM me an address.

I like one-word names, too. Kha and Sanuk both appeal. Found to a greater or lesser degree in both India and Thailand (if I'm not mistaken): - Cardamom - Guava - Pandanus - Sambal (Sambol in the Sri Lankan spelling) - Galangal - Cassia - Rambutan (OK, more SE Asian than Indian but fun to pronounce and lends itself to striking logos, photos, etc.) Exception to the one-word rule: - Favor Curry

Lump charcoal or briquettes?

Thanks, RJ and SB. Have forwarded your comments to my friends.

A flabbergasted Tastet ("j'en suis encore baba") raves about changes (redecorated interior, doubled seating capacity, new chef, more ambitious menu) at La montée de lait in today's issue of Voir: Montée de lait nouvelle et améliorée. "Ce soir-là, à notre table, 24 plats donc et pas une seule fausse note." (Link will work only through next Wednesday, after which time you'll have to pull the review up from the archives.) It also looks like the 2006 edition of Le guide restos Voir, with a pic from Bô on its cover, is out.

MaeveH gives Bô a thumbs-up in today's issue of Hour: Be my Bô baby.

There are at several types of Cuisineart cookware. Most of mine is the orignal made-in-France model, in its day as pricey as All-Clad. I believe it was discontinued years ago. I also have a large Cuisinart Everyday Stainless sauté pan that was made in Korea. Like the French pots and pans, the bottom is a sandwich of stainless steel, copper and aluminum; unlike them, the metal is thinner and the fit and finish less exalted (still pretty darn good, though); it also cost about a third of what the French pan went for. The French equipment is a joy to cook with, while the Korean pan is serviceable, gets the job done. One thing to bear in mind: I cook on an electric range. Friends who have several Cuisinart and All-Clad pans and a powerful gas range prefer the All-Clad precisely because the cladding extends up the sides, useful for avoiding hot spots when the flames go beyond the bottom of the pot or pan (which never happens on an electric stove).

Bummer! I love that recipe. Just checked the copy you sent me to test back in July of 2004 and it definitely says 1½ lbs. Now, see? If your editor had let you include metric measurements, there'd be some redundancy and resourceful cooks would be able to figure out the correct amount. Feel free to add that to your pro-metric arguments for the next book!

Good suggestion but not for Quebec. The SAQ currently carries only two Nebbiolos, both from 2001, Prunotto's Ochetti and Pio Cesare's generic. Of the two, I far prefer the latter, which is also slightly less expensive (C$30.50 vs. C$35). If thomasein finds himself in Ontario in the next few days, he should check out the LCBO, which usually has a better selection of nebbs (but still no Giacosa).

Hey, t., Had an exchange with our compatriot ademello about this on the weekend. Here's what I wrote: I can also see some mature southern French wines working: a Côte-Rôtie from the 1980s, say, or a Domaine Tempier or Château Simone. Depending on the dish, a rich white wouldn't be out of place either (Vieux-Télégraphe, big Burgundy, Gaja's chard).

In his opening paragraph, Anderson mentions that he pulled a random series of bottles from his cellar. The first two were whites, New Zealand and California chardonnays, both at 14%. Next were five reds, including a 14% Beaujolais and a 14.5% Californian. He then states that "norm used to be 12 or 13 per cent." No, he doesn't name names (he doesn't really need to) or cite studies (that would be intersting). I'm sure that's partly because he's an older man (a "grandpa" is vinfidel's charming put-down over on the Montreal thread that prompted this one) and has simply noticed the change over his lifetime. So, for that matter, have I. While Anderson's got at least a decade or two on me, I've been serious about wine for more than 30 years. Back in the '70s, 13% and 13.5% wines were considered heady and 14% wines were almost unheard of. I can remember a horrid bottle of dry Spanish red, a private import by the Opimium Society, that was presented with much fanfare by the parvenu father of a friend, that rang in at something like 15.5% or 16% and that was touted in the accompanying literature as being unique in the world for that very fact. Back then, it was easy to find zinfandels at 12% and 12.5%; today, I can't say when the last time I saw one under 14% was. Don't take my word for it, though. Here's a quote from a Jancis Robinson article on the very topic: I rembember 11% red Bordeaux, too. When was the last time you saw some of those? OK, so most of the evidence is anecdotal (though I do recall some Ridge graphs posted a few years ago on the WLDG). That doesn't make it any less valid. Especially given its weight: do a Google search on trend to higher alcohol wines and you'll see what I mean. Bet you might also find some stats if you look hard enough. Yep. As does nearly every wine lover of my acquaintance. Don't know about you, but I wish the alcohol levels in wine were going down. As far as I'm concerned, 8% alc./vol. is one of the many attractions of German riesling. I'd love to be able to buy Beaujolais like it used to be back when it rarely reached 11%. In his Adventures on the Wine Route, Kermit Lynch contrasts Paris wine merchant Jean-Baptiste Chaudet's description of the 1940s-1960s wine ("very light in color, at times really pale, slightly aggressive, even a touch green") with Parker's descriptors in his 1987 Wine Buyer's Guide (soft, lush, silky, full, fleshy, rich, supple, etc.). "Mr. Parker is correct," Lynch concludes. "His adjectives perfectly describe today's overchaptalized, overalcoholic Beaujolais." Lynch also points out that new-fangled Beaujolais doesn't accompany Lyon's rich, thirst-inducing food nearly as well as the fat-cutting, thirst-slaking old Bojo did. However impressive in dimension, a 15% wine is never going to be refreshing. And for it not to be hot as the dickens, it's going to have to be highly extracted or concentrated (pace Ballinger) and carry some residual sugar. It will probably also have low acidity (I'd normally say deficient acidity but I'm trying to keep my preferences out of this). These are wines that weigh heavily on the palate. They aren't quaffers. And that's probably a good thing because if you throw them back, you're going to feel it both now (better have a designated driver) and tomorrow (hangover). Remember, a 15% wine contains 25% more alcohol than a 12% wine. Nearly all the wine I consume is drunk with food; refreshment is important to me. And I don't like headaches. So, yes, as a general rule that admits exceptions, high alcohol levels are a bad thing. Put your Parker down for a minute and read the Robinson article linked to above. Read the NYT article she quotes. Read The Vintner's Art or the relevant entries in the Oxford Companion to Wine. Poke around the Web a bit and then come back and claim that winemakers aren't consciously attempting to craft higher alcohol wines. Grapes that ripen early give the grape grower the option of increasing the hang time, of picking not ripe grapes but superripe grapes or even slightly raisinated grapes. Although Anderson skates over this and just about every other complexity, there is absolutely no justification for insinuating that he advocates the picking of unripe grapes. It's not only about wines' flavours. It's also about drinkability, potential for intoxication and even long-term health effects. Alcoholic strength is a perfectly valid topic for a wine column, especially these days when many people are coming to view it as a problem. edit: clean-up (hit the Submit button instead of the Preview button)

Not necessarily true. Many French 2003s, especially whites, have come across as hot as well as blowsy and raisiny. Besides, I don't think Anderson or anyone else in this thread is talking about extreme heat wave conditions but rather an overall trend to warmer temperatures. And saying that climate change (by which I assume you mean global warming) also brings more late rain is a wild generalization; there are places where what, if anything, it has brought is drought. More on all this when work permits.

Would welcome some recommendations for wines that are not overpriced, highly extracted, often blowsy, usually low-acid and heavily oaked Parker Pleasers™, which has generally been my experience* of them. Here is the totality of the SAQ's current offer (the list changes from time to time): - Cims de Porrera Classic 2000, 750 ml, C$94 - Finca Dofi Alvaro Palacios 2001, 750 ml, C$113 - L'Ermita Alvaro Palacios 2001, 750 ml, C$620 - Les Terrasses 2002, 750 ml, C$42 - Miserere 2002, 750 ml, C$64 C$1 = US$0.85; prices include 15% sales tax. ___________ *edit: limited experience, that is, for reasons that should be clear.

Vacationing friends ran across it in a wine store in the Jura. It has taken pride of place in their collection. Something tells me the wine won't be making it onto the shevles of the BCLCB though, critter label freeze or not.

This should get things rolling... Here's a link to a label from a bottle of Émotion Sauvage (wild emotion), a red wine made from hybrid grapes (have never succeeded in finding out which) by Françoise Berguer of Domaine des Gondettes in Satigny, Switzerland, near Geneva. The one bottle I've seen was an importation valise from Europe; I believe the quoted price was around €10. Hey, you asked! Edited, with carswell's permission, to remove copyrighted label and provide a link instead.

Is imported bottled water really flown in? Why would air freight be favoured over the much less expensive and less ecologically disruptive maritime transport? I usually drink filtered tap water, the water in question coming from the St. Lawrence river. When I think about this, I get a little nudgy. I still remember one of my biology profs in university — a limnologist, I believe — saying he'd never drink Montreal tap water, seeing as how the river is the drainage channel for the sewage, industrial and agricultural waste from the entire Great Lakes watershed as well as the Outaouais river with its many pulp and paper mills. Recent reports about fish and amphibians downriver from major cities being affected by the psychotropic, hormonal, antibiotic and other drugs excreted by city residents also give cause for concern. When I buy water for home, it's usually sparkling and often Badoit, whose carbonation is less aggressive than most, including Perrier and San Pelligrino. When buying still water for consumption while away from home, I prefer Évian, which tastes closest to the best water I know: that from a swift-running, rock-filled mountain stream.