Today was a good day..... A gastro day!
What was made and drank today....
First the wine....
Teachworth
So my gastro buddy and I have been collecting wine since about the time we started the vineyard and have built up a nice collection of high altitude, small lot Napa Cabernet. He decided to splurge today and crack a few bottles to celebrate the creation of the duck pot pies... that we never ended up making. Ohh well, the wine is the occasion as this is truly some epic stuff and the the fact that he wanted to pop it today made it the star of the evening
With a wonderful high altitude napa Cabernet flavor, this really was a wonderful wine that drank great but still could of used another 10-15 years in the cellar. This wine spends 24 months in oak which is a very long time for normal Cabernet's. This wine was powerful and would seem that it could hold up for MANY years to come. With great fruit and wonderful mentality and cocoa, leather and tobacco flavors this wine drank like a dream after being decanted for about 4 hours.
Popped the 2001 Teachworth, Rattlesnake Ridge and Manzanita Hill, both very small production measuring 1 acre per vineyard location. Also pictured in some good mild french goat cheese.
Edible cappuccino's
Made with my new whip cream maker, sorry no pics but in short it was eatable cappuccino coffee.... and it was killer!
1/2 pint of heavy cream
1/4 cup strong espresso
dash of nutmeg
2 tsp sugar
Brew coffee
mix coffee and heavy cream in saucepan and heat
add sugar and stir
refrigerate for 1-2 hours
put ingredients into nitrous oxide whip cream dispenser
dispense into coffee cups and dust with chocolate powder
Smoked Ham
Spiral Glazed ham on the Smokey Mountain- Ham cooked on a smoker is some amazing stuff. My good friend cooked 2 hams on the smoker today which were excellent. If you have never tried cooking a ham on the grill or smoker I would highly recommend it.
Get smoker to 225-250 degrees
Put precooked spiral cut ham on smoker for 1-3 hours depending on size
Pull ham from smoker when internal temperature or ham reaches 153 Fahrenheit.
Eat as you normally would
Muscles in White Wine, garlic, parsley and butter
To finish the night we gathered around the kitchen family style and ate with our hands. This is the stuff I like. Very primal and direct contact with our food.
2 LBS Muscles
2 Shallots Chopped fine
3 garlic cloves minced
1 cup dry white wine
3/4 stick butter
6 Tbs minced Parsley
2 tsp lemon zest
Sea Salt
Pepper
Rinse muscles and put in bowl
Add 1/2 stick butter to large side saute pan
Saute shallots and garlic at med heat for 3 minutes
add white and reduce by 2/3
Add Muscles and put lid on pan and cook until start to open
add remaining 1/4 stick, parsley, and lemon zest.
Stir pan to distribute everything and melt butter.
Serve family style with crusty french bread to sop up the love juice
Desert
Got some great desert from the french nuns that have a store in Lake in the Hills, IL. St. Rodgers Abby cranks out some of the greatest pasties this side of ocean and I always make a point to pick some up when I am close.
Pictured below
Blueberry Tart
Chocolate Tart
Apple Turnovers
