In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina (called The Storm by natives) washed away homes, lives and livelihoods.  It washed away closely-knit communities with 150+ year histories and their photos and memories.  It washed away something else that we might not think of when we try to imagine the horror — it washed away recipes.  New Orleanians are of very resilient stock.  Everywhere, people sprang into action.  Leaders emerged and groups formed (so many of them women-led) to salvage and repair the levees, the schools, the tax assessment system and more.  Another group did what they knew how to do best.  They became not only a clearing house for requests…not only a recipe lost-and-found but culinary private investigators as well.  So many of the recipes that storm-ravaged citizens yearned for had been published at some point in the Times-Picayune’s excellent food section.  Some came from the city’s most loved restaurants but most were from excellent home cooks and the paper’s own food editors.

 A couple hundred of the recipes are collected in a book called Cooking Up A Storm, edited by Judy Walker and Marcelle Bienvenu (columnist, author of several cookbooks, and cookbook collaborator with Emeril Lagasse).  I received a copy of the book as a Christmas gift from my mother and have already paged through it more than any other cookbook that I’ve owned for years.  So, just hours to go until we ring in the New Year with friends, there is a pot of chicken and sausage gumbo simmering on the stove.  The salad greens will be tossed with Bon Ton Café dressing and crabmeat.   Scott has made a decadent, but simple chocolate tiramisu from his Christmas cookbook, a gift from his older children.  Pirrie and her friends will be served a linguini alfredo dish taken from her Christmas cookbook, compiled by the makers of the movie Ratatouille (including a recipe from Thomas Keller).  It was a gift from her grandmother.  Three new cookbooks.  Three new recipes to ring in 2009!  I’ll leave the details of the wines to Scott, but I know it will begin with exquisite bubbles, including our last bottle of the 1999 Marc Chauvet Special Club.

As for New Year’s Day, a pot of the cutest little black-eyed peas (the penguins of the bean world) are soaking until tomorrow.   I picked up some meaty ham hocks from Viande (NW 21^st Ave.) and was able to congratulate Ben Dyer on his big news.  He and the Simpatica gang are opening a restaurant/butcher shop on the east side and moving out of the City Market location.  I’d be crushed by the news, but worry not.  They have sold their shop to Paula and Eric, who’ve been working at Viande for years and will rename their butchery business Chop.

As challenging as “best of” lists can be, it’s actually easy to pick where to begin this one…with one of the most recent, and truly the best meal of 2008.  Paley’s Place, last week.  What a meal, what a memory!  My top meals have in common perfectly-executed cuisine.  Some were dishes that took me on a wild ride, and some were dishes that took me right home.  And the meal at Paley’s was that and more because of the company and circumstances.  We felt positively grateful to Kimberly and Vitaly Paley for battling the elements and staying open.  A couple of days prior, we were enjoying our North(west) Pole experience – sledding, pouring kahlua and vodka over snow, watching movies, and even crossing the river to bowl at Grand Central when few cars were out.  That was fun.  (For the benefit of readers outside the region, the Portland Metro area received a fifty-year record-sized dumping of snow that literally froze and incapacitated the city). 

But then our pipes froze.  And even that was entertaining for 24-hours in a survivor-show sort of way.  Boiling water to wash dishes.  But with five people in close quarters, it was going to get gross.  Then, the return flight for  Scott’s older children was cancelled.  They wanted and needed to get to Chicago to join their mother, aunts, cousins and grandparents.  Our spirits were starting to fizzle and the meal at Paley’s Place (conveniently located right next door to the hotel) was a heaping helping of civility, comfort and excitement.  Kimberly was running front of house with just one server, and her chef-husband, Vitaly, was running plates himself.  They sent an exquisite smoked fish and fennel amouse-bouche to the table, as well as an extra two appetizers (crab melt with crab salad, and a rabbit salad), just in thanks for everyone’s patience.  We were the ones to feel grateful…that they had braved the weather and stayed open on a Monday night (they too battled frozen pipes, and were staying at the hotel next door!). 

My New York strip, pictured, was absolutely exquisite and I was forced to share more than half of it.  The pork 3-ways, the roast chicken with root vegetables, the seafood stew…all wonderful.  We drank a 2005 Huber-Vedereau Volnay which was lovely, and it was special to share a glass of wine with now-legal Allyson.  Most rewarding were the smiles and accolades and empty plates from the two older children.  They pronounced it one of the best meals they’d ever eaten.  Their culinary horizons have expanded exponentially and it’s always a pleasure to dine with appreciative campers.  Plus, Ally and I decided that pastry-chef Lauren Fortgang’s Très Leches Cake was the almond-flavored wedding cake of our dreams!

Happy New Year!  Wishing you a year filled with culinary adventures, health, friends and good wine!  More “best dining” coming soon.

So here we go with Part 2 of our mini Burgundy 101 seminar. This time it’s a walk through the Côte de Nuits - the northern half of the famed Côte d’Or, and home of the world’s finest Pinot Noir vineyards. Enjoy!

To Download the podcast, right-click here and select Save Target As

Thanks for joining us! To reserve your seats at our upcoming Burgundy seminars, contact Kelly Karr at kellykarr@scottpaul.com

Beetle under a Blanket

Well, we are now on our 8th straight “snow day”. Pirrie’s school was cancelled all last week, and we’ve had three different storm systems come in one after the other, piling up snow, ice, and essentially paralyzing Portland and the Willamette Valley. Are we having fun yet?

Fortunately our neighborhood grocery store in Portland has remained open, and we can walk there. We’ve been able to get out on the roads occasionally, but now travel is restricted to chains-only vehicles. We have chains. That’s good, because the night before last the pipes froze at our house and we have no water. So we’ve been forced to move out and check into a hotel (the wonderful Inn at Northrup Station, btw), where we will hang out for a few days until the temperature finally gets back up over freezing (maybe Friday?)

In the meantime, my kids Ally and Kevin (22, 20) are in from college, and were supposed to be out on a flight to Atlanta today. Over 80% of all flights out of PDX have been cancelled the last few days, so it is virtually impossible to get them a flight going anywhere. They were supposed to hook up with their mother in Atlanta and then drive to Chicago to spend Xmas with their grandparents. As of now, we have them booked on a flight to Chicago on the 24th - with no firm expectations that it will actually happen - but at least we’ve got the seats booked and the airline has our money (which of course means absolutely nothing these days.)

Many here are without power, and/or unable to get out of their homes at all, so we’ve got it relatively good, all things considered. Our hotel is right next door to one of our favorite Portland restaurants - Paley’s Place - and we were able to book a table for dinner tonight (probably because we’re right next door and may be the only people who can actually get there tonight!)

We’ll follow that up with our annual excursion for Holiday Tea at the Heathman tomorrow, and then we have tickets to see a musical performance of The Wizard of Oz at the NW Children’s Theater - which is walking distance from the hotel - so we will have a festive time in spite of everything - “malgré tout” as they say in France.

Thiis storm is a massive inconvenience for so many people, so much more than for us, and I am very thankful for my family and our circumstances - we are blessed indeed.

Martha has taken some great photos these past few days (as always.) Here’s our crew sledding out in the street -

Kevin, Me, Pirrie & Ally

And the snow princess, having the time of her life -

Miss P hits the slopes

I don’t need to dream of a white Christmas…we’ve got one.  At least for now.  There is a beautiful thick blanket of snow on the ground and an occasional skier whizzes past our house.  So then, I’m sitting with feet propped up in front of the fireplace dreaming of a sandwich.  I don’t feel the least bit funny saying this, because that is a tame recommendation for Bunk, Tommy Habetz and Nick Wood’s new sandwich place, compared to one I just read online.  A guy posted on a blog about a Bunk sandwich that he took to go, and when he bit into his sandwich, he wanted to tear off his clothes, run to the rooftop and SING!  He went on further to say that he felt bad that his business was tanking and so many people would have a lousy Christmas, but all he wanted to do was call family and friends and tell them about his sandwich!  Tommy Habetz is known as the Flavor Beast for heaven’s sake.  We were foiled a couple of times because of a temporary water issue that shut Bunk down.  Finally, our persistence was rewarded.  Scott and Pirrie had the Meatball Parmesan.  See photo!  I had the ridiculously tender Pork Belly Reuben.  Scott was in disbelief that I ordered it.  I don’t like reubens.  Not the corned beef, not the sauerkraut, not the dressing.  But I was incredibly curious.  And I do this sort of thing to myself quite often.  Risky, but the upside is so big.  This time, the reward was huge.  I liked it better than the Meatball Parm and so did Pirrie.  The combination and balance of flavors was absolutely amazing, and both side dishes were stellar!  The potato salad was made with egg and bacon.  The smokey red beans were served atop green rice (herbed, including mint!).  I know my red beans (so does Nick — he worked at the famous, long-established Brennan’s in New Orleans) and wouldn’t have imagined it, but it was delicious!

6 servings

1 pound mild Italian sausage, casings removed

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Salt

1 bag spinach

6-8 ounces farfalle pasta

1 26-ounce jar marinara sauce

2 cups water

½ cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese, divided

Ground black pepper

¾ cup ricotta cheese

¼ cup minced fresh basil

Brown meat in a 12-inch skillet over high heat, breaking into pieces with spoon.  Stir in garlic, red pepper flakes and ½ teaspoon salt.  Add spinach and stir until wilted.  Add noodles, marinara sauce and water.  Cover and cook, stirring often and maintaining vigorous simmer until noodles are tender, about 20 minutes.  Add a couple of tablespoons water if necessary.

Off heat, stir in half of mozzarella and half of parmesan.  Season with salt and pepper.  Dot heaping tablespoons of ricotta over noodles, then sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.  Cover and let stand off heat until cheeses melt, 3-5 minutes.  Sprinkle with basil before serving.

I did something last night that I have been doing a couple of times a week for years…I leafed through a huge stack of loose recipes, a mix of magazine and newspaper clippings, and butter-stained white notebook paper with hastily jotted sketches of recipes dictated over the phone by a friend.  I was searching for a Skillet Lasagna recipe for my 22-year-old step-daughter, Ally.  She took one look at this chaos, held together by a large tattered envelope and insisted on establishing order…immediately (she’s pre-law).  I stood by to occasionally offer a suggestion of category for the hard-to-define dishes.  When you think about it, when you allow someone to rifle through your recipe file, you realize what an intimate act it is and how much it reveals.  What does it say about you when you’ve not yet attempted a recipe that you clipped four years ago, but you can’t bear to toss it out?  Or scads of recipes involving the same ingredients (kale, brussel sprouts).  Then there are the hand-written notes that sound kitchen-gooberish, and the bad mispellings (kaluah?)  My mother once observed that I was not very controlling.  My parents had come to visit and help when Pirrie was born, and my father desperately needed something to do.  He took to the garden and I was very happy to confer on him utter authority over the yard.  In general, I really like order.  Today, the snow boots are lined up, envelopes for Christmas thank-you notes are already addressed (I know…disgusting!), photos are in albums.  Yet…the recipes have eluded me.  It’s a little like the garden, which I treasure, use and enjoy, but I am happy to concede control.  And happy to offer the recipe for Skillet Lasagna which I adapted from one adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, printed in the Oregonian!

Bitter cold and a snow & ice sorm swept through the Willamette Valley yesterday - wind-chill is 5-Below at the moment, and the roads are pretty much a sheet of ice just about everywhere. And I left Chicago at age 17 to get away from this! We drove home to Portland from our Carlton cottage yesterday, a bit unaware of how treacherous the route had truly become. Conditions only allowed us to cruise at about 25-30 MPH, but we arrived home safely, extremely thankful for 4-Wheel drive in the Jeep and a new set of tires.

All Portland area schools are off today (and I imagine at least one more - it’s not warming up enough for anything to thaw out in the forseeable future.) That gives me some time to catch up here on the blog, and to catch up on some projects at home, like cleaning out those shelves & closets that have been demanding attention for quite some time…

It was very festive at the tasting room on Friday - a photo crew from Travel & Leisure descended upon us for the day to shoot pics to accompany an upcoming article in Travel & Leisure Golf in the March/April issue. You may remember a post back in October talking about our visit from Sideways author Rex Pickett - he was in town researching for his article (as well as his sequel to Sideways, which he tells us is now underway.) We recruited a bunch of our friends and customers to be a part of the shoot - including Brandon & Denise Bohling. Brandon was kind enough to take some shots of the shoot, as it were…

Lights, camera, action!

Like movies, commercials, and making wine for that matter, most things end up being  a matter of “Hurry up and wait”. The shoot took about 5 hours - it will be interesting to see what shots (and how many) actually make it into the final piece…

The shoot in progress...

On another subject entirely, I was sent a link today to another wine blog that made an oblique reference to us, I think. (The wine he’s talking about is not one we import, btw.) Check it out.

And here’s a shot of the sign in front of the tasting room yesterday, with the first dusting of snow…

Yesterday Kelley Fox and I tasted through all of our 2008s in the cellar - our first check-in on the wines after crush. The wines have only been in barrel for 4-5 weeks, but it’s interesting to see where the wines are now, and then to follow them through to their conclusion in the years to come.

Like all of our neighbors, we were thrilled with the quality of the fruit during harvest and fermentation. We remain thrilled after this first taste-through. Great levels of acidity, nicely buttressed by rich fruit flavors, and superb concentration and length all around - it will indeed be an excellent year. The levels of malic acid were on the high side this year, so after malolactic fermentation the wines will change pretty dramatically. That said, it’s pretty easy to see where these wines are going, and it’s all good. Here’s a quick rundown of the lots -

Maresh Block 10 - Bright red cherries, very persistent, very long, my favorite lot in the cellar today

Maresh Block 12 - Silky and long, tighter on the back-end now, tannins more pronounced than in Block 10

Ribbon Ridge - Absolutely gorgeous fruit, rich and pretty, mouthfilling and long

Momtazi B - Rich black fruits and white pepper, very distinct flavors, very rich and concentrated

Momtazi J - Bright and fresh, less complex than the B

Momtazi A - Very similar to B but not as complex, less mid-palate concentration

Momtazi D - Dark, concentrated, long, and intense

In all, a really impressive group of wines which should play very well into our style of elegance and finesse. We will start to warm the cellar a bit over the holidays to get malo going slowly. We’ll keep you informed here on the progress, and our next round of tastings.

In the meantime - I owe you some podcasts! Between harvest and my November trip to Burgundy and Thanksgiving the time has flashed by, but I’ll be working on Part 2 of the Burgundy 101 podcast shortly, and hope to get that up over the holidays. I also have tastings/interviews with Romain Taupenot and Thiébault Huber to edit - those will probably end up together in one show early in the new year.

We are also now equipped to do video podcasts - I have some ideas for a couple of short pieces that I’ll try to get together over the holiday break. In the meantime, here’s a shot of Vosne-Romanée in the snow - l’hiver est arivée en Bourgogne!

Looking down on the village of Vosne-Romanée

Often during one of our holiday weekend Open House events, I’ll open up a nice Grand Cru for our team to enjoy at the end of the day, and to share with friends and customers over the course of the afternoon. This Thanksgiving weekend we cracked a 2004 Romanée-St. Vivant from J-J Confuron. To say the wine was stunning would be a major understatement.

Funky, earthy, animale aromas just jumped right out of the glass - a combination of savory, gamey scents and ripe fruits swirling together - it was truly an intoxicating nose. It was on the palate, however, that this wine went to another level alltogether. The texture was so seamlessly elegant, silky, refined and pure - it was absolutely everything I want texturally in a great Burgundy - nearly weightless in the mouth, but imbued with intensity of flavor and and endless finish. Not bad for a very young wine from an “unheralded” vintage!

One of the reasons I love the Confuron wines so much is their sheer refinement and finesse. They are smashing examples of “power without weight”, delivering more flavor intensity than their heavier-bodied and more heavily-extracted neighbors. Couple that with one of the most elegant of all Grand Crus, Romanée-St. Vivant, and you’ve got the combination for one of the wines of the vintage year after year. (I’m of the mind that only Romanée-Conti itself surpasses RSV in elegance. La Tâche is showy and dazzling, Richebourg richer and more powerful, but RSV dances the dance of angels.)

I’m hoping that Alain & Sophie can join us in Oregon for IPNC next summer - I should have an answer from them over the winter - I’ll let you know when we’ve got confirmation one way or the other. In the meantime you can check out their excellent site here.

And here they are in front of the winery in Premeaux, on a sunny November morning…