Christian Troy's Sanity is found in Pommes Chateau Chinon

I found myself in a client's shop today discussing the conditions/trials/tribulations of being a young father. Sleep deprivation was brought up. Management of wife expectations was discussed. The ability to balance work/life pressures was surely at the top of the list. And I...probably like every mid-30s guy with kids...am finding solace in late night solo dinners.

I start work early...it should be 5:30, but with current sleep deprivation its around 7:30. I finish work at around 8. I come home, and the kids are headed up to bed, the house is settling, and somewhere around 9-9:30 I get to cook dinner. I know, physiologically this is an absolutely horrible time to "enjoy" food. I should eat an apple and go to bed, a good nutritionist would say. But then I would not be enjoying life...

Tonight is a classic example. Started work at 8- very late, but was shot from night before. On road all day and finally got home at 8....pm. Came home and immediately spent some time with the family. Hugged my son and read him some books, etc...And then around 9-9:30 as my wife took him upstairs to bed (my wife rocks!) I cooked a classic Bisteca Fiorentina with Pommes Chateau Chinon.

Sat down. Drank a glass of Cab. Nothing amazing, but good. And ate. Solace in the table. And the day is done.

I actually use a modified version of Pommes Cht Chinon. See below:

Take 1 large potato. Peel it. Grate it with a large cheese grater. In small handfulls, take the potato gratings and over a sink, squeeze out the water until the left gratings are relatively dry. Put them all in a mixing bowl. Add some parmesan cheese. Salt. Pepper. Add one egg. And using your hands mix the ingredients together like you were making homemade hamburger patties. Form into small flat patties. You must squeeze them tightly sometimes to get them to stick to form.

Heat a cast iron skillet to high. Add vegetable oil and one pat of butter. Add potato patties you just made. Cook like you are cooking pancakes. Brown on both sides and be sure to cook through but not to burn. When done, transfer to plate lined with paper towel to catch excess oil.

If you're not listening to great music while tasting great wine...it's all lost...

2006 Chateauneuf

Lunar Tasting Group met last night. Wines tasted:

Rayas Fonsalette 2004

Prefert Cuvee Charles Giraud 2006

Amandiere Cuvee Imperiale 2006

Clos St Jean Vieilles Vignes 2006

Vieux Lazaret 2006

Vieux Telegraph 2006 (2 separate bottles)

La Roquette 2005

Vieille Julienne 2006

Marcoux 2005

For me, the heads and tales wine above them all was the Vieille Julienne. Simply showing amazing right now...forrest floor, truffles. My exact note reads, "walking through forrest in October hunting black truffles..."

For the most part the 2006s were totally shut down. They were blocky and heavy, and overall I found myself worrying if their fruit there that would eventually show itself, or were the wines all tannin and structure? They're in an awkward stage and are solidly vins du garde right now.

On a side note, the La Roquette- which is considered a value Chateauneuf- showed beautifully. Little more meaty and heavy than the Julienne, but lovely and excellent considering the price.

Carrots

Ok, so I automatically admit to borrowing/stealing from Ed Brown. I saw him on the Today Show and he whipped out these roast carrots. Then I proceeded to watch Matt and crew knock these thing back like shots at a college homecoming and I thought, "Mental note kid..."

The carrots by themselves are stupid easy. And as far as I remember, Brown only finished his carrots with parsley, so I think I can take ownership of this full recipe. Regardless, wifey declared this the finest side dish I've ever made. Little man wolfed them down, and I enjoyed half a dozen myself. In short, they are quite tasty (and simple to make).

Roast Carrots with Sherry Vinaigrette

First and foremost, buy good carrots. This means, stems and leaves attached. It means not pre-packaged in a plastic bag. It means organic. And in a perfect world you even know the farm they came from. Bring them home. Cut off the stems (leave a little stem). Wash them to get all the dirt of them. DO NOT peel them. Take some paper towels out and roll them around in the towels until the carrots are reasonably dry.

Preheat the oven to 375. Convection on if possible.

Find yourself a large cookie sheet (or some form of other worthy pan that will easily fit all of the carrots in.) Lay the carrots down. Lazily drizzle a couple glugs of olive oil over the carrots. Crack pepper them. Douse them in generous sea salt. Roll the carrots around to make sure they're all well covered. Stick them in the oven. Generally time that at 30 minutes to start watching them.

Meanwhile...in a non-reactive bowl (ie- ceramic...stainless steel does something with acid and ingredients which I simply do not know how to explain, but whatever it is...it's not tasty) add a bunch of very finely chopped shallots, a pinch of finely chopped garlic (just a pinch please here), cracked pepper, sea salt, a dollop of Maille mustard or Grey Poupon (ie- not Goldens or Frenches, etc), and a good squig of Spanish Sherry Vinegar (good sherry vinegar please). Stir until the mustard and vinegar mix to together and the mustard is dissolved. Let sit 10 minutes.

30 minutes passes. Take a look at the carrots. They should be shrunk. The ends should have started to caramelize (ie- turn brown). The skin should look wrinkled. The smell should be wonderful. The point of pulling them out is a feel thing. Err on a couple more minutes if in doubt. Pull them. Let them sit for a couple of minutes.

Once you've pulled the carrots, turn to your vinaigrette bowl. Add 2 good glugs of vegetable oil and with a whisk beat the vinaigrette vigorously until it comes together. Once it comes together, add one good glug of olive oil. Again, beat to reform a vinaigrette. It should be thick with chunks of shallot/garlic in it.

Plate carrots. Sauce with vinaigrette. Watch the light of God descend upon you as all who taste bow down at your culinary thrown. Yes, I'm in a playful mood tonight...

Wine? They were delicious with a bottle of Javier Sanz Villa Narcisca Rueda Verdejo 2008 (Spanish white).

Green Peppers

I find myself embracing the green bell pepper more and more these days.

Can't really explain it. But, there's this depth of flavor that it adds to a lot dishes- kind of like a bridge between the green of parseley and fresh herbs, and the earth of broccoli and dark greens. Maybe it's Winter and the cold?

Tonight I made a Spanish torta with cheese, onions, garlic, green pepper, potato, and mushrooms. Had a glass of day 2 Cartagena Sauvignon- which was freaking singing by the way, take note of this producer- and the wine, egg, and pepper went together famously.

It's funny, in wine green bell pepper is considered an unwanted flavor- a flaw. I'm beginning to wonder if that's wrong, or if I'm just getting older...

Basque Chicken

A simply marvelous dish the other week: Basque styled chicken.

As usual, I headed back to the study of my wife's grandfather Pierre Franey for the fundamentals. In leafing through a number of his books I discovered some themes within his technique and sauces. There is definitely a Spanish, or Iberian, or Basque theme- whatever you want to call it really- but it comes when the classic French saute structure sees a hefty dose of garlic, both green and red peppers, tomatoes, olives and some form of heat- chiles, red pepper flakes, etc...

Here is the recipe below. I actually added a nice hefty dollop of Tabasco in at the end which really deepened the flavor.

You would think that you should serve something like Basque Chicken with a Basque red, yes? Well, maybe, but the Basque region is known for its whites called Txakolina. This is super crispy white made from the grape Hondarribi Zuri. Lemon acid, a little spritz, and a high saline quotient make this a no brainer when oystering, or chowing on shellfish.

So, your next thought might be a Rioja, or Ribera del Duero- classic Spanish reds. I would also pass on these. Garlic, olive oil and tomatoes scream the Mediterranean for me and that puts us closer to Barcelona and with the power of the sauce and the heat of the red pepper or Tabasco I would want a raw, earthy, sun roasted wine. In Spain, I'd look at the Monastrells of Alicante- the peninsula that sticks out in the Med, south of Barcelona. I'd also highly recommending heading North into the Languedoc-Rousillon area of France. (I actually had an amazing Costieres de Nimes, Chateau la Baume, with my Basque Chicken.) Anyways...the preparation is classic and can be done with pork, chicken, lamb, or steak...Make sure to adjust pan roasting time based on how long you need to cook the meat.

Basque Chicken (as adopted from Pierre Franey)

Take out a large roasting dish, a huge Creuset pot with a heavy lid will do. Put it on the stove and set the heat to high. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. Take 2 chicken breasts (skin on) and lightly dredge them in flour. Add oil to the pot and add chicken breasts skin side down. Salt and pepper them. Let them cook until the skin has caramelized and is golden brown. Once brownness is achieved, flip the breasts and cook 2-3 minutes on the other side. At this point, the skin should looked cooked, but the meat will probably still look pretty raw.

While your browning the chicken do your chopping and prepping.

Chop up 1 large onion.

Chop up 3 cloves of garlic.

Chop up 1 green pepper.

Chop up 1 red pepper.

Get some pitted olives.

Open a can of San Marzano tomatoes and mash the whole tomatoes with a fork so that they're rather broken up.

Open up your beef stock and make sure its ready.

Make sure you have some white wine.

Check to make sure you have your spices- bay leaf, dried thyme, salt pepper.

Getting back to the chicken. After those 2-3 minutes on the meat side, take chicken out of the pot and set aside. Add onions and garlic to the pot. Stir around for about 2 minutes to coat. Add peppers to the pot. Cook about 3-4 minutes (let them start to cook.) Then add bay leaf and large pinch of dried thyme. Make sure mixture is thoroughly cooking by now- then hit it with a shot of white wine. Deglaze the pan by scraping up the bottom. Put the chicken breasts back in the pot. Add the tomatoes now. Add a shot of beef stock- not too much...you want it to marry with everything, not water it all down. Add your Tabasco now. Add the olives. Salt and pepper some more.

Now, cover the pot with the lid and stick it in the oven (or per Pierre, you can let it cook on the stove if you don't want to start your oven.) For chicken, I like it really roasting for about 20 minutes. The flavors will come together and the chicken should be just done. Pork, maybe 25 minutes.

Make some rice.

Plate with rice and add breast over rice with sauce on top. Maybe finish with chopped parseley.

Serve with a Mediterranean red.

A denouncement of The Best

I finally have taken my first week off in over a year. Feel's good. A little weird I must admit to downshift, but good. The reason was the birth of my daughter Arabella. A miracle and an absolute gift. You can tell I'm smitten and in love, can't you...:)

Two things caught my eye this week that I wanted to share though...

The first was the 2009 Winter Holiday Season Catalog from Patagonia. Normally clothes catalogs are nice to flip through for about 30 seconds but that's it for me. This one is widely different and I think Yves Choinard and Patagonia have created the perfect business meets life trip/story I've ever seen. The catalog is featured around the release of the Malloy movie 180 South and is a re-creation of the original trip done by pals Yves Choinard and Doug Tompkins traveling from California to Chile, and finishing in Patagonia. The trip is re-created by surfer/adventurer/mountain climber Jeff Johnson. I've yet to see the film but it looks amazing. A complete purist view of the world venturing to one of the purest places in the world...for no reason other than to do a trip.

And my magazine trolling also saw me looking at a lot of, well, magazines. And I began to notice something. The word, or better yet, the expression- "the best" is used way too much in our society. The Best. What does that mean?

If I write and tell you that a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is "the best" does that mean that every other Napa Cab pails in comparison?

If you read a restaurant review and the writer says that a restaurant makes "the best" butternut squash soup does that mean that every time you go to another restaurant and order butternut squash soup you know you are ordering a second rate soup?

I am red handed in this. For years I've used this phrase to sell a lot of wine. My daily emailed offering constantly included the phrase "the best". The Best Chianti for Under $15. The Best 10 Wines for the Holidays. The Best White Burgundy Value. What does the phrase do- it certainly catches your attention which is why it's used so much. It's why I used it. But is it honest? Even after honestly extolling the virtues of what may be an absolutely excellent choice White Burgundy-one that may be at a quality much higher than most of its peers- is it right or correct to say that that wine is "The Best" White Burgundy?

No. It is not.

The Culture of the Table is about the complete embrace of life and relationships centering around what happens at the table. Each experience table side is different, carrying its own background and context, and for that reason there never is any best. There are fantastic moments, great highs, unbelievable treasured meals, and magnificent wines...But without the people with you at the place in time, with the back drop of the setting, and the circumstances of the day...nothing tastes and feels as good. In essence, embracing The Culture of the Table is embracing a living terroir very much like Jeff Johnson embraced life by traveling down to Patagonia.

So, why the big diatribe and all of that about this phrase that basically means nothing but sells a ridiculous amount of product? It is because from this point on I have decided to never use that phrase again. It's not honest. It carries no integrity. It does not tell the story of the table. And it explains nothing of a living terroir.

Embrace your relationships and the moment- cherish them. They are the foundation of the Table.

Happy Thanksgiving. All my best to your family.

Christian