WORK SITES AND TEA CAKES

It’s not all fine wine and travel chez nous!  Though we do shift gears a lot (last month we were entertaining wine importers here in Burgundy; next month we’re off to Aix en Provence to research Fall 2010 Papillon tours), this month we’re up a scaffold taping dry wall.

It’s hard to admit, but we’ve been working five years on this restoration.  It was a tiny traditional Burgundian farmhouse built above a cellar with two big barns attached behind.  We took the roof off of one barn, put French doors and windows in to other, then opened the one onto the other to make a fantastic terrace with an unbroken 270° panorama across the fields to the distant hills.

But we only work on it when we have the time and the money…hence the five year plan.  But it will be done this summer (it’s a weekly holiday rental and we’ve taken the first deposits, so we have no choice!)  This means redoubled efforts…with the invaluable help of an English friend.  This in turn means lots of tea.  And in our present sanitary conditions, the tannin builds on mugs and spoons, and the sink is stained brown.

But we look on the bright side.  We’re also writing and testing recipes for the upcoming Italian book, so tea-time is a chance to try some variations on Italian cakes and biscuits.   Here’s a recipe for an olive oil lemon cake that has been particularly appreciated by the electrician!

From the upcoming and as yet untitled Italian book by Eleanor Garvin (author of At Home in Burgundy: The Papillon Recipes)

Torta all’olio d’oliva al profumo di limone
Olive oil cake perfumed with lemon

8-10 Servings

It is important to use a good fruity olive oil for this cake as it is the flavor that really stands out.  Best eaten at room temperature or slightly warm, it can be kept up to 4 days tightly wrapped at room temperature. It also freezes well. Just defrost in the fridge a day before eating.

We like this as a tea time cake but you could also serve it with mixed berries and a little sweetened ricotta for dessert.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¾ cup granulated sugar4 large eggs
2 cups flour all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup mild runny honey such as acacia honey
⅔ cup fruity extra virgin olive oil
Fine zest and juice of 2 organic lemons

A pre-heated 350°F oven.

A loaf pan lightly oiled and lined with parchment paper.

In a small saucepan melt the butter and continue cooking it until it goes nutty golden brown.  Remove from the fire and let cool.

In a large bowl whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and fluffy.  Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda and mix well.  Next add the honey, olive oil, lemon juice and zest and finally the browned butter.  Put the mixture into the lined loaf pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until a knife blade inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cool before unmolding.

THE CLASSIC BURGUNDIAN MEURETTE

When we first arrived in Burgundy, we were surprised to find lots of old recipes for dishes like ‘Coq au Chambertin’.  We’d laugh: ‘coq au vin’, ok; but who would ever use ‘grand cru’ wine for a stew? Then, one day, while tasting with Jean Raphet in Morey-St. Denis, we had an epiphany.

Jean and his wife like their food, so we often talk about cooking.  When we brought up the ‘coq au Chambertin‘  question, Mme. Raphet asked us if we wanted some of their Charmes-Chambertin lees.  And the little light came on… she was asking if we wanted the bottled sediment of a ‘grand cru’ wine!  And up she comes from the cellar with these crusty bottles of well-aged (she said they had to be well-aged) Chambertin lees.  And ever since, we’ve had a little stash in our cellar of the best cooking wine you’ve ever tasted.

Of course, that’s one of the perks.  No one is really going to bubble-up a rabbit in a bottle of big-name Burgundy.  That said, much of  Burgundian cuisine is based on the classic red wine sauce known as meurette. So what’s the answer?

Here, in an excerpt from Ellie’s book  At Home in Burgundy, is a good starting point.

ŒUFS EN MEURETTE
Poached Eggs in Red Wine
6 Servings

This is the best known of the red wine meurette sauce recipes, probably because it is such an unusual combination: poached eggs in red wine sauce.  Served with pearl onions and bacon ‘lardons’ over a garlic crouton, it’s a seductive classic.  This same meurette sauce is also delicious served with fresh water fish.

Your choice of wine for the sauce is important.  If you can, use an inexpensive Pinot Noir or maybe Beaujolais. You want fruit; you want good acidity.  Color is important, but something like a Cabernet would just be too strong.  This sauce reduces very slowly by two thirds its volume, and ends up brilliant and sheeny.

When choosing eggs for poaching, freshness counts.  Poach them in plenty of unsalted water (salt thins out the whites) with a splash of white wine vinegar.

Traditionally, you would poach the eggs directly in the sauce.  But what if one breaks? Safer to poach the eggs apart and add nap them with the sauce before serving.

For the sauce:
1 bottle of fruity red wine
3 shallots sliced (failing that, an onion)
1 carrot sliced
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 tomato quartered
1 bouquet garni (fresh parsley, thyme and bay leaf tied with kitchen twine)
A few black peppercorns
2 cups water

For the thickening agent, a beurre manie:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, kneaded with 2 tablespoons of flour

For the garnish:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ pound of button mushrooms or larger ones quartered: optional
2 slices of ¼ inch-thick un-smoked bacon, cut into lardons
24 pearl onions peeled (plunging them into boiling water for 2 minutes makes peeling easier)
1 teaspoon sugar
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped parsley
You will also need croutons that are large enough to hold a poached egg.  Cut six two- inch rounds out of good quality dense bread, brush with a little melted butter, season with salt and pepper and bake for 10 minutes in a hot oven.
6 large very fresh eggs

Prepare the sauce: Put the wine into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and ignite the wine with a match.  Stand back when you do this as an entire bottle of wine sends up some impressive flames.  It should continue to flame for nearly 5 minutes.  If it goes out too quickly, try turning the heat up and igniting it again.  When the flames subside, add shallots, garlic, tomato, bouquet garni, carrot and water.  Reduce slowly over a low heat by two thirds (this will take 30–40 minutes).  Strain through a fine sieve, pushing on the solids, and reserve in a clean saucepan.

For the beurre manie: Knead the butter and flour together in a small bowl.  Chill.

Finishing the sauce:  In a sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms over a brisk heat until their juices have evaporated.  Remove the mushrooms from the pan and reserve.  Add the lardons and pearl onions to the pan, cover and cook over a low fire for 10 minutes until the onions are cooked.  Return the mushrooms to the pan, sprinkle over the sugar, deglaze with a small ladleful of the sauce, cover and keep warm while you thicken the sauce.

Reheat the sauce; when bubbling add the chilled beurre manie a teaspoonful at a time, whisking until all lumps are dissolved and the sauce naps a spoon nicely.  Add the onions, lardons, and mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  If the sauce is too acidic, add a pat or two of cold butter.

Poach the eggs for 3 to 4 minutes until the whites are set and the yolks soft to the touch.

Warm 6 shallow bowls or plates.  Place a crouton in the bottom of each.  Top with a poached egg and spoon over the sauce.  Garnish with parsley and serve immediately.

WINE

You might think it obvious that you would want to drink the same wine with this dish that you used to make it.  Funnily enough, this is not always the best choice.  A fruity Pinot will seem tangy against the meurette sauce.  Egg dishes are notoriously difficult to pair with wine.  I’ve found that I prefer a good round Chardonnay, rich but not oaky, with a hint of minerality like Pouilly-Fuissé or Saint Veran (Denis Barraud makes both really well) or perhaps a village Chassagne-Montrachet from the Domaine Borgeot.

CHABLIS 2008
…and STUMP-WHOPPED CHITTLINS

The annual Concours de Chablis took place last Saturday, and hundreds of samples of Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru (from the 08 vintage) and Grand Cru (from 07) were judged by tasting panels of peers and pros.  We tasted the gamut… from over-cropped crap to sublimely crafted bijoux. I was on a jury tasting 20 AOC Chablis 08. And while I was expecting high acidity, I was truly surprised at how winemakers tried to manipulate their way around it.  There are basically two camps: those who let their yields get out of control and hence harvested hard, green, fruitless juice; and those who did their vineyard work to a respectable level, and brought in ripe but tangy fruit.  The former de-acidified and ended up with a thin and grassy tristesse; the latter added sugar and showed just how close 08 came to being an over-all good year here.

And then there are the winemakers who never get it wrong.  For them 2008 is a vintage true to type for Chablis with a balanced center, discrete fruit, smoky rock… and acidity that makes you think that the big guns of 2008 will be still be with us in 15 years.

And here….hot off the presses….the results of the 24th Annual Concours de Vins de Chablis…..

Petit Chablis 2008

Médaille d’Or
Stéphanie et Vincent Michelet, Montigny la Resle

Médaille d’Argent
Domaine du Chardonnay, Chablis

Médaille de Bronze
Domaine de la Motte, Beines

Nominés
Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, Chablis
Pascal Bouchard, Blancs Cailloux, Chablis
Domaine des Marronniers, Préhy
Domaine Hamelin, Lignorelles
Domaine Les Temps Perdus, Préhy
Domaine Gérard Tremblay, Poinchy
Domaine Yvon et Laurent Vocoret, Maligny

Chablis 2008

Médaille d’Or
Roland Lavantureux, Lignorelles

Médaille d’Argent
Domaine Gilbert Picq et ses Fils, Chichée
Domaine Vrignaud, Fontenay près Chablis

Médaille de Bronze
Domaine Servin, Chablis

Nominés
Domaine Jolly et Fils, Maligny
Simonnet-Febvre, Chablis
Domaine Vocoret et Fils, Fleur de Vigne, Chablis
Domaine du Chardonnay, Chablis
Les Temps Perdus, Préhy
Domaine de la Motte, Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, Beines
Domaine de la Tour, Lignorelles
Christine et Patrick Chalmeau, Chitry
Domaine de Chantemerle, La Chapelle Vaupelteigne
Domaine Pinson, Chablis

Chablis Premier Cru, Rive Gauche, 2008

Médaille d’Or
Domaine de la Tour, Monts-Mains, Lignorelles

Médaille d’Argent
Sylvain Mosnier, Beauroy, Beines
J.Moreau et Fils, Montmains, La Croix Saint Joseph, Chablis

Médaille de Bronze
Domaine des Malandes, Côte de Léchet, Chablis
Domaine J.Collet et Fils, Vaillons, Fûts de Chêne, Chablis

Nominés
Domaine Bernard Defaix, Vaillons, Milly
Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, Vosgros, Chablis
Domaine Oudin, Vaugiraut, Chichée
Domaine Servin, Les Forêts, Chablis
Domaine de la Grande Chaume, Vau de Vey, Chablis
Domaine du Chardonnay, Montmains, Chablis
Thierry Laffay, Vaillons, Chablis
Jean-Marc Brocard, Montmains, Préhy
Domaine de Malandes, Vau de Vey, Chablis
La Chablisienne, Beauroy, Chablis
Francine et Olivier Savary, Vaillons, Maligny
Domaine du Château du Val de Mercy, Côte de Jouan, Val de Mercy
Sylvain Mosnier, Côte de Lechet, Beines
Domaine Servin, Butteaux, Chablis

Chablis Premier Cru, Rive Droite, 2008

Médaille d’Or
Domaine J.Collet et Fils, Mont de Tonnerre, Chablis

Médaille d’Argent
Lamblin et Fils, Mont de Milieu, Maligny
Christophe et Fils, Fourchaume, Fyé

Médaille de Bronze
Domaine Charly Nicolle, Les Fourneaux, Fleys
Domaine Vocoret et Fils, Montée de Tonnerre, Chablis

Nominés
Domaine de la Mandelière, Mont de Milieu, Fleys
Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, Fourchaume, Chablis
Domaine des Genèves, Les Fourneaux, Fleys
Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, Mont de Milieu, Chablis
Domaine Pascal Bourchard, Fourchaume, Les Vieilles Vignes, Chablis
Christophe et Fils, Montée de Tonnerre, Fyé
Domaine du Colombier, Fourchaume, Fontenay près Chablis
Domaine Yvon et Laurent Vocoret, Fourchaume, Maligny
Château de Viviers, Vaucopins, Viviers
Jean Durup Père et Fils, Fourchaume, Maligny
Domaine Séguinot-Bordet, Fourchaume, Maligny
Domaine Corinne et Jean-Pierre Grossot, Les Fourneaux, Fleys
Domaine de la Meulière, Vaucoupin, Fleys

Chablis Grand Cru 2007

Médaille d’Or
Domaine Laroche, Les Blanchots, Chablis
Domaine du Colombier, Bougros, Fontenay près Chablis

Médaille d’Argent
Domaine Pascal Bouchard, Les Clos, Chablis

Médaille de Bronze
La Chablisienne, Vaudésir, Chablis

Nominés
Garnier et Fils, Les Clos, Ligny le Châtel
Lamblin et Fils, Les Clos, Maligny
La Chablisienne, Bougros, Chablis
Domaine Long-Depaquit, Les Vaudésirs, Chablis
Domaine William Fèvre, Les Preuses, Chablis
Domaine William Fèvre, Valmur, Chablis
Vignoble Dampt-Dupas, Les Preuses, Collan
Jean-Marc Brocard, Bougros, Préhy
Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, Vaudésir, Chablis
Domaine Jean-Paul et Benoît Droin, Valmur, Chablis

…and finally, thanks to the BIVB in Chablis for a fantastic post-concours tasting and pig roast….with hand-made andouillette!! (stump-whopped chittlin’ quality, believe you me)

BURGUNDY SNAILS

This Saturday (16 Jan) is the annual Concours des Vins de Chablis, where the Chablisien come together to taste, judge and award medals for last year’s wine. It’s been a starred date on our calendar for almost 20 years, so in the days leading up to the tasting, we’ve been pulling a bunch of different Chablis out of the cellar to try to tune the chops (or as the French say ’se mettre en bouche’…).  And when there’s Chablis in the kitchen, we think: snails.

Snails are so closely associated with Burgundy that the prime species is called the Burgundy snail. And that  bubbling garlic and parsley butter that we smother our snails with here in Burgundy is called beurre d’escargot. People who would not otherwise eat anything… ‘weird’, often say they love escargots. But is it just the garlic butter?  Want to find out…?

Many popular recipes seem concocted to hide the snail.  But it’s in those preparations that bring them to the fore that we feel the pull of Chablis.   Both are mineral, even gravelly. So grab a bottle of good Chablis and a jar of real escargots, and give the following recipe a try. It’s from Ellie’s book (At Home in Burgundy by Eleanor Garvin).  Quick to execute and full of subtle earthy flavors, this is an argument for keeping a tin of snails on the pantry shelf.

Be careful when purchasing snails.  There are really only two species worth looking for: the Burgundy snail (called helix pomatia) and the petit gris from Provence (called helix aspersa).  These taxonomic names should be clearly marked on the label. Look for medium- (‘moyen’) or small- (‘petit’) sized snails for most recipes. Almost anything else you’ll find is likely to be the dreaded giant Asian snail (Achatina fulica, often labeled ‘achatine’) that’s questionably comestible.

VELOUTÉ DE NAVETS À LA MIREPOIX D’ESCARGOTS
Turnip Soup with a Mirepoix of Snails
10 Servings

This mirepoix (a very fine dice of mixed vegetables and herbs), made mostly of carrots, cabbage and mushroom, gives an earthy quality to this winter soup that heightens the mineral, gravely flavors of the escargots. It’s a great vehicle for appreciating the snail.

For the turnip soup:
2 ½ pounds fresh small turnips
6 cups chicken stock
¼ cup crème fraîche or heavy cream
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground white pepper
A grating of nutmeg

For the mirepoix:
2 carrots peeled
¼ Savoy cabbage (the curly leaf type)
8 firm mushrooms
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic minced
5 dozen small Burgundy snails (‘helix pomatia’)
2 tablespoons crème fraîche or heavy cream
3 tablespoons minced chives or chervil, or both

For the soup: Heat the chicken stock and add the peeled and coarsely chopped turnips.  Season with salt, and cook covered over a low heat for 20-25 minutes.  Puree the soup in a processor or with a hand-held blender; add the cream, season with the salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste.

While the soup is cooking, make the mirepoix.  Slice the carrots thinly lengthwise, stack and cut into strips, then cut crosswise into a fine dice.  Slice the savoy cabbage thinly and then slice crosswise into a fine dice.  Slice the mushrooms, and then chop them finely.  In one tablespoon of the butter, sauté the mushrooms until all their liquid has evaporated.  Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and reserve.  In the same pan melt the remaining butter and add the finely diced carrot, cabbage and garlic.  Season with salt, cover and cook over a low fire until soft.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, heat the escargots with their liquid and enough water to cover just until they come to a simmer.  Strain the snails, rinse briefly under cool water and, if they are large, coarsely chop them.  Add the snails to the mirepoix with the mushroom mixture and remaining cream.  Let this cook covered over low heat for 5 minutes.  Reheat the soup.  Taste the mirepoix for seasoning and add the herbs.  Ladle the hot soup into warm shallow bowls and spoon the mirepoix into the center of each bowl.  Serve immediately.

WINE?

We live 45 minutes’ drive from Chablis, so we know it well and have many winemaker contacts there.  Chablis is a town divided: oak or stainless.  We’re in the stainless camp; why cover such unique terroir with wood?  It can’t be a question of longevity…most vintages in Chablis have enough acidity to last a decade if not more.  It’s really just a matter of taste.  But give me river rock and honeysuckle anyday.

A few of our favorite producers: Nathalie and Gilles Fevre; Didier Picq; Jean-Claude Oudin; Sylvain Mosnier; Gerard Tremblay and the Domaine du Chardonnay all come tripping off the tongue.

All the best from Burgundy!!

BOTTARGA

It’s not a complaint, but we rarely travel when it’s not work-related. Last year though we went to Sardinia … and just for fun.  We’d heard they eat well there.  So we did the research: wine,  specialties, restaurants, sites to see…

…and it’s true. Sardinia is one of those places where ‘peasant’ is not yet a pejorative term, and where authentic isn’t just folklore.   Hence, there are a slew of  gastronomic treasures…and we tried to try them all!  We stayed on the south coast, just below Cagliari, the ‘big city’.  There are quite a few restos  in town that might attract your attention (though we particularly draw yours to Sa’ Piola in the narrow Vico S. Margaherita just above Piazza Yenne).

One of the best things you’ll put in your mouth is an old fisherman’s preparation. Bottarga (what we here in France call  poutargue) is the salt-cured, dried roe of  (in Sardinia) the flat-head  gray mullet (Mullet cephalus, locally called muggine or cefalo.  In Sicily they do the same thing with tuna roe…but that’s another story). You’ll find it dried and powdered; but the real delicacy is finely sliced from the whole roe (that’s been preserved in a thin bee’s wax coating and can last for months). Simply served with lemon and oil (on thin Sardinian pane carasau (’music paper’) bread) or tossed with hot spaghetti, it is like a caviar paste.

We made some fine taglialini on New Year’s day and tossed it with the two lobes of bottarga you see in the photos, a big bunch of flat-leaf parsley, lemon, new olive oil and a bit of pepperoncini. It was luxurious, suave, rich…like too much of something good.

Note too the jar in the photo.  That’s dried bottarga.  It’s easier to find, less expensive, and more likely what you’ll find in spaghetti alla bottarga on the menu.  Because it’s salt-cured, powdered bottarga has a high salt content.  In fact, we use it as a salt in some recipes.  A great example: replace salt with powdered bottarga when you sweat vegetables for  a crudo sauce for pasta.  We did one earlier last summer with fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden, split, sprinkled with a small handful of powdered bottarga and left a half-hour to develop its juices.  We then tossed hot pasta with oil and lemon and the bottarga-tomato crudo.  Simple and surprising.

Here’s something a bit more imaginative….

CASERECCE WITH ZUCCHINI FLOWERS, CAPERS AND BOTTARGA

6 Servings

You can either use tuna or mullet bottarga for this recipe.  The sauce can be made while the pasta water is coming to a boil.

1 pound caserecce pasta
3 ounces bottarga
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus extra for finishing
3 cloves garlic halved
24 fresh zucchini flowers rinsed if sandy, cut in half and patted dry
½ cup desalted capers
Juice and zest of one organic lemon
Small handful parsley chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
Fine sea salt

In a large pasta pot bring 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil.

Peel the skin off of the bottarga and grate half of it finely.  Thinly slice the remaining half and reserve.

In a large pasta pot bring 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil.  Add 3 tablespoons of coarse salt and the pasta.

Heat the olive oil and garlic cloves slowly in a large covered sauté pan.  When the garlic cloves turn lightly golden remove them from the oil.  Add the zucchini flowers, capers, and the grated bottarga and cook over a fairly high heat.  Add a ladle full of the pasta cooking water and let simmer for a couple of minutes.

Drain the pasta and add to the warm sauce.  Season with the parsley, lemon juice and zest, freshly ground black pepper and a little salt if needed.  Drizzle over the olive oil and be sure that each serving has a few slices of bottarga. Serve immediately.

BURGUNDY TRUFFLES

In a classic example of anti-climax, here’s the stuff we’d been planning on posting after the Dijon branch of Slow Food’s Burgundy Truffle symposium and tasting that took place last week.  Well, we got snowed in; the organizers sent us back our check…and all we got for xmas were Chinese truffles!

Tuber uncinatum (or Tuber aestivum) is called the Burgundy truffle in Burgundy (…’chauvinism’ is a French word!), but it’s grown all over the center-west of Europe and down into the north of the Italian peninsula (where its bark-like skin gets it tagged ’scorzone’). It likes limestone soil and lots of shade, and it bridges the gap between late-summer and mid-winter.  So it shows up here during the holidays.

Nowhere nearly so powerfully pungent as its cousin from Perigord (Tuber melanosporum), neither is it nearly so expensive. Which means you can use it more lavishly…which is exactly how it should be used.  For what the Burgundy truffle lacks in power, it makes up for in finesse. (Sort of like Pinot Noir!)

You don’t really ‘eat’ a truffle; it’s more like it invades your sinuses.  And you don’t really cook a truffle; you shave it onto something already cooked and let it infuse.

And as for those Chinese truffles that showed up at xmas….that’s Tuber sinensis (sometimes called Tuber indicum), and they do come from China.  They are among the most bountifully productive of all species, and not too bad on the culinary front either.  The Chinese never took to truffles though, considering them pig’s food.

You’ve heard about truffle hunters using pigs to root out these subterranean treasures.  They use dogs too, and though dogs have to be trained, pound for pound, they are easier to control than a hog. You certainly don’t have to train a pig to hunt truffles.  On the contrary, they go into a feeding frenzy. There’s a compound within the truffle similar to androstenol, the sex pheromone of boar saliva, to which a sow is keenly attracted. So while finding truffles is not a problem; getting them away from the pig can be trickier.

Here’s a recipe from At Home in Burgundy by Eleanor Garvin.
Out on Amazon.

VELOUTÉ DE POTIMARRON AUX TRUFFES ET AU PAIN D’ÉPICE
Potimarron Soup with Truffle and Spice Bread

10 Servings

For more on Potimarron, see our post from 28 October called
….Bigger Than Your Head!

This is not meant to be a ‘hearty’ soup. It is light in texture, allowing the distinct flavors of the squash and truffle to come through. You get a touch exoticism with the toasted spice bread croutons.

½ cup chilled heavy cream
3 tablespoons minced truffle
4 slices of spice bread, cut into matchstick and cubed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 pounds peeled and cubed potimarron or butternut squash
8-10 cups of water
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground white pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fresh sprigs of chervil or chive for garnish

Beat the heavy cream until fluffy.  Season with salt and pepper and add the minced truffle.  Cover and chill.  This is best done a few hours ahead of time to allow the truffle flavor to infuse the cream.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.  Toast the spice bread croutons lightly.  Reserve.

In a soup pot melt the butter, add the squash and season with salt.  Cook for 5 minutes then add the water. Bring to a boil and simmer the soup for 30 minutes.  Puree the soup with a hand held immersion blender or in a mixer until completely smooth. Strain the soup through a fine sieve and return to the pot. Season the soup to taste with salt and white pepper and swirl in 2 tablespoons of butter.

In each shallow serving bowl ladle in the hot soup and add a few croutons.  Top with a tablespoon of the truffle cream and garnish with the chervil or chive.   Serve hot.

CAVOLO NERO

Part of our vegetable garden here in Burgundy is a transplanted corner of Tuscany. As we spend much of the Spring  in Italy, we often bring established plants home with us in the hope of getting a head start on our farmer neighbors.  It never works!

But we do have varieties of tomatoes and squash, pumpkin and peppers that many folks around here have never seen.  We also bring back seeds for beans and greens that keep us in Italian mode the year round. One of our big successes has been cavolo nero… best known to Burgundians as a decorative plant found in municipal flower beds.

A Tuscan cabbage in the kale family (Brassica oleracea acefala viridis serotina), cavolo nero has dark green pointed leaves and a strong, earthy almost fruity flavor. It can be used in any cabbage recipe; but it’s particularly good in soups.  The classic Tuscan ribollita is traditionally left to sit for a day before re-heating and serving (hence ‘ri-bollita‘); and much of the over-night improvement is due to the mellowing of the cavolo nero.  It is also great simply blanched and then sauteed in olive oil with garlic and chilies.

This is another soup that I learned from Marta Cardoni in her kitchen in Vorno just outside Lucca in Tuscany.  I make it at home all winter long with vegetables from the Tuscan corner of the garden.  Bietola is a small-leafed variety of swiss chard (Beta vulgaris, but there are lots of varieties) and again you can use the green leaves of  any chard in its place.  The other important ingredient, the cannellini beans, gives the soup a silky texture.

Marta serves this soup layered in a bowl with slices of rustic bread, toasted and rubbed with crushed garlic. Season the soup with plenty of new-pressed olive oil, sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

We grow a variety of beans every year.  Barlotti, cannellini and wonderful coco’s are all a staple in our diet.  We eat fresh what we can when they come in; and then, what we can’t eat, I shell and freeze raw.  You can then cook them like fresh beans during the winter months.  When buying dried beans, make sure that they are from the most recent harvest.  Old dried beans will never be tender…remember that.

ZUPPA FRANTOIANA

2 cups of dried cannellini (Great Northern) beans
3 garlic cloves peeled
1 bay leaf
a couple of fresh sage leaves (or mint sprigs)
2 plum tomatoes halved
2 leeks cleaned and coarsely chopped
2 carrots peeled and coarsely chopped
12 cavolo nero leaves coarsely chopped
¼ head savoy cabbage shredded
3 leaves swiss chard shredded
2 small zucchini coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery diced
3 small potatoes diced
10 slices of dense rustic bread, lightly toasted and rubbed with crushed garlic

Soak the beans overnight in 2 quarts of water.  Drain, rinse and put them in a large pot.  Cover with 10 cups of cold water and bring to a boil.  Strain off any scum that may rise to the top; then add the garlic, bay, sage (or mint) and the tomatoes.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 45-60 minutes until tender.  Add 2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt, and leave the beans to cool in their liquid.

Clean and chop or shred the remaining vegetables for the soup.  Put them in another large pot and barely cover with water.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 40 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf, sage (or mint) from the beans.  Spoon out half of the beans and puree them with a bit of the liquid with a hand-held immersion blender or in a food processor.

Add the pureed beans and then the remaining beans with their broth to the simmering vegetables.  Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.  Taste for salt.

Put one ladleful of soup in a shallow soup bowl.  Top with a slice of the garlic toast; drizzle with olive oil; season with black pepper; then add another ladleful of the soup.  Season again with olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve hot.

MUSHROOMS !

We’re just back from four days of ‘prospecting’ for Papillon down in Aix-en Provence.  A confluence of Tuesday and glorious autumnal weather pulled us into one of the great Provençal markets.  And you can tell from these photos what’s on everyone’s mind this time of year.

On everybody’s plate, too.  Here in Burgundy, when chefs roll out their Fall selections, mushrooms are a centerpiece of course, but the emphasis is on game, foie gras and root vegetables from elsewhere.  Provençe however can still draw from the sea.  At the Chimere Cafe in Aix we had a simple fricassée of wild mushrooms beneath a piece of rare grilled tuna tied up with a red wine reduction. It worked.

Here in Burgundy, I have done fresh-water fish with mushrooms at this time of year.  Here’s a recipe for sandre with black trumpet mushrooms from my book  ‘At Home in Burgundy’ out now on Amazon

SANDRE AUX TROMPETTES DE LA MORT
AU JUS DE TOPINAMBOUR
Pike-Perch with Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Jerusalem Artichoke Sauce

6 Servings

Sandre (Sander lucioperca) is arguably the finest of the fresh water fishes.  It got its English name (though the English themselves also call it ‘zander’) because it looks like a perch and hunts like a pike.  It also has the blue-white flesh of the perch, and the flavor of the pike, but without the million little bones.

If you can’t find the ‘pike-perch’, substitute a delicate white-fleshed fresh-water fish such as perch, or walleye pike (Sander vitreus).

The ‘trumpets of death’ (as the French translates) are the dark-brown to almost-black craterellus mushroom.  I’ve seen them called ‘horn of plenty’ or ‘black trumpets’ in English. They are plentiful, fairly inexpensive and incredibly tasty.

I like to serve the fish on a bed of braised leeks and Belgian endive. A recipe for this follows the main recipe.

For the sauce:

8 firm fresh Jerusalem artichokes scrubbed and peeled
2 cups water
Pinch of fine sea salt
Ground white pepper
Fresh chives or chervil minced
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup seasoned all purpose flour
2 pounds of sandre filet, de-boned, skinned and cut into six portions

For the mushrooms:

1 pound trompette mushrooms, bottoms removed and picked over
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Slice the artichokes and put them in a small saucepan with the water a pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.  Puree in a mixer or with a hand held immersion mixer.  Season with white pepper and salt to taste and reserve warm.

In a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan heat the butter and oil until foaming.  Dredge the fish pieces in the seasoned flour patting off the excess flour with your hands and put them in the sizzling hot fat.  Sauté until browned nicely on one side; carefully turn with a spatula, trying not to break up the pieces.

If the mushrooms are gritty dunk them in a large bowl of water and remove immediately and drain on paper towel.  If they are fairly clean just wipe them with wet paper towel. While the fish is cooking, in another sauté pan cook the mushrooms in butter and season to taste.

Reheat the sauce and add the heavy cream.  With a hand-held immersion mixer, blend again to foam the cream, or whisk until frothy.  Taste for seasoning and add the minced chives or chervil.

When the fish has browned, squeeze a little lemon juice over each piece.

On six warmed shallow bowls, place a bed of the leeks and endive.  Top with a piece of the fish and then the mushrooms.  Put a few tablespoons of sauce around and garnish with chive sprigs.

For the braised leeks and endive:

3 medium leeks
4 Belgian endive spears
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fine sea salt and white pepper

Remove most of the dark green top of the leeks.  Cut them on an angle into ½ inch slices.  Soak in a large bowl of cold water to remove any grit.

Rinse the endive and slice into 1 inch pieces lengthwise.  Push out and discard the hard inner core.

Bring a medium saucepan of the lightly salted water to a boil and add the leeks and endive.  Let blanch for 2 minutes then drain.  Add the butter to the warm saucepan.  Return the vegetables and season.  Cover and reheat the vegetables when ready to serve.

WINE ?

This is a recipe that will support a dry, steely white or a light, fruity red.  I think Chablis goes really well yet at the same time, I do like a light Pinot with some of these flaky fresh-water fish.  Why not try both as an experiment?  It’s astounding how much a wine can effect your appreciation of a dish.

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Burgundy 2009….ends in 9!

If you care about such things, you may have already heard that the 2009 vintage in Burgundy is going to be fabulous…capital F.

Up until the end of last week, we had only tasted raw bubbling juice.  But the visit over the weekend of one of our US importers took us into the cellars of some of the top producers at just the moment when the new wine is finishing its alcoholic fermentation, but not yet started the malo-lactique.  In layman’s terms, the young wine is at a stage where you can taste its basic structure without too much stink of the ferment.

Structure’s not the word!  Both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from north to south sing with bright precise fruit.  The Chablis at the Domaine Nathalie and Gilles Fevre is honeysuckle and river rock.  Old-vine Savigny at the Girard estates is wild black cherry and pure floral violet.  Vincent Rapet’s Pernand and Corton whites are suave, smoky and nutty; the reds, a nugget of concentration. David Moret once again nails the terroir of his Meursault and Puligny premier crus in a year of riotous fruit. Alexandrine Roy’s practically perfect Gevreys are kicked up yet another notch (if that’s possible).  And Bernard Gros’ nonchalance in the face of some almighty Pinot is a study in self-control.

You have to remember that most producers usually won’t let you taste wines at this stage in their development.  They tend to be all over the place, and only trained palates can cut through the mire. This year the winemakers are shoving a glass into your hand and leading a conga line through the cellars.   Comparisons are being made to 2005, 1999 and 1990, all great years; all years where the wines were accessible right from the outset.  Why?  Vincent Rapet explained it best.  All (including the 2009) were reasonably hot growing seasons.  Not so hot as to cook out acidity altogether; but the first acidity to get absorbed by the plant is malic acid.  That’s the acid that gets transformed into lactic acid in the upcoming second fermentation.  So if there’s not a lot of malic acid in the first place, there won’t be all that much difference between the wine now (just after the first alcoholic fermentation) and after the malo.  So the wine at this stage tastes almost like it will then.  The beauty of it all is that the most important acid (in terms of balance, structure and longevity) is tartaric acid.  And here in 2009 (as in other great vintages) we’re at just about ideal levels of tartaric.

So remember, when it comes out in the bottle, that you can drink it young and lustily (with a capital L); but think too what it will give you back for 15 years patience.  Remember, it’s 2009…..ends with a nine….the legend lives on!

Out of Italy and back into Wine.  We’ve been putting together our Fall shipments and we can report that Burgundy is abuzz.  Because we ourselves pick up most of the wine that we ship, we spend a lot of time shuttling around the region.  But that’s one of the joys of the wine business.  A couple of times each year, we get to visit our favorite producers and have time to check out new prospects. Like colporteurs of yore, we hear the news and spread the word. The harvest in Burgundy (as we predicted in the Fall issue of ‘Elden Selections’) was stupendous. So we’ve been running into some pretty happy people. There’s nothing that winemakers like more than folk tradition, and the conditions for the 2009 vendanges were sunny and calm, giving the traditional party-part of things a once-in-a-lifetime movie-like glow that will last a generation in local memory.

Our pick-ups usually take us as far afield as the Maconnais, where we stop with Denis Barraud for his St. Veran and small-parcel Pouilly-Fuissés. This year we went further south, over the hill and into the Beaujolais. Last Spring, we met a young producer of Moulin a Vent, Richard Rottiers, at an open house at Domaine Tremblay in Chablis.  Turns out that Richard, despite having only three vintages under his belt, is making world class wine with a sensibility that’s won us over.  Grown-up stuff.  And it’s yet another sign that things are changing in Georges Duboeuf country (tell me…what other region promotes itself with its bottom-of-the-range wine!?!).  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that we are witnessing a renaissance in Beaujolais.  Wine drinkers have had enough of the banana-flavored soda pop and chitty-chitty-bang-bang marketing of Beaujolais Nouveau.  We’ll be back to the terroir and structure of  Beaujolais cru before you know it.  These things happen fast.  Oh, and we also met another great producer based just outside Fleurie, the Domaine des Marrons.  Beaujolais lovers unite!