Wines of Thanksgiving and Cajun-Style Dressing

Hello, everybody, and Happy Thanksgiving.  Welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Are you having a crowd over for Thanksgiving?  Are you thinking about what wine you’d like to serve?  Or are you going to somebody else’s home for the holiday and thinking you’d like to take a bottle of wine to share? 

Thanksgiving dinner is a mélange of flavors, textures, spices, conversation, and people.  Some of those people are interested in and appreciate wine.  Some don’t.  Some enjoy wine but don’t really think about it.  And some are like Cousin Louie.  He’s a nice fellow who comes to your house for the occasion.  You have provided a lovely dinner with a selection of nice wine after days of shopping and preparation.  As I read in an article recently by Matt Kramer, Louie doesn’t know much about wine, mixes the Chardonnay with the Cabernet Sauvignon in his glass, throws in a couple of ice cubes, and says, “Look I made white Zinfandel.  Now it’s good!”

Thanksgiving is stressful enough, especially for the host.  The good news is that many wines complement the meal just fine and you don’t need to spend much.  After all, it is the love of family and togetherness that are important, not the wine.  The idea is to have several bottles open with white and red choices, maybe even a rosé.  They shouldn’t cost much, but they should be fruity, preferably refreshing, and not too heavy.

We recently hosted a wine and food event to consider just these issues.  We selected three whites and three reds.  In keeping with the holiday, all but one of the wines were American.  The food choices were classically American …  turkey, dressing, gravy.  I went all out and prepared Yorkshire pudding popovers.  We had a first course of cream of butternut squash soup and a dessert course of three wonderful American cheeses and nuts.  This was literally a soup-to-nuts event.  If you’re interested in great wine choices with a traditional Thanksgiving meal, you might find our experience useful.  Here goes!

We begin our discussion with a classically Thanksgiving dish.  Dressing (stuffing to all y’all Californians) is like many dishes.  Everybody has a treasured special recipe.  Mary’s version is Cajun style in honor of our part of the country here in the Gulf South, close to Louisiana, with extravagant vegetables, seasoning, and spicy smoked sausage.  She prepares it a day ahead, allowing the wonderful flavors to integrate more than same day cooking.  Here she is to talk through the ingredients and the preparation.

Brian actually found this recipe years ago and now I make it every year.  Our family that comes for the holiday has come to expect it.  The recipe calls for smoked sausage and cornbread, seasoned with onions, celery, bell peppers, garlic and spices. I make the cornbread a day ahead so it can dry out a little.

The sausage is browned in butter, then the veggies are added: bell pepper, onions, celery -- the Holy Trinity in Cajun cooking.

Spices go in at this point and everything is cooked until the veggies are tender.  The garlic, green onions and cornbread are added and stirred to blend.

At this point, I take it off the heat and let everything cool down so I can add beaten eggs. If I have time and have made it a day ahead, I put it in the fridge overnight and add the eggs the next day. If I have enough homemade chicken broth, I definitely use it because it’s sooo much better, but this time we needed the broth for the soup and the gravy, so I used canned broth. The dressing is so flavorful that the canned broth is fine. I learned from Brian’s mother to make the dressing a little soupy when it goes into the baking dish so it doesn’t dry out in the oven.

Here’s the finished product: colorful, spicy, aromatic, and delicious!  Yum!

Brian here again.  I handled the soup course, but didn’t take photos other than this dish after serving.  I peeled, cored, seeded, and diced a butternut squash, which is actually more than needed for six portions.  I also chopped a large onion and a couple of carrots.  They all go in a soup pot with a little salt and 5 cups of homemade chicken stock.  The stock is the real secret to the richness of flavor.  The soup was kept warm in a crockpot, then half a cup of heavy cream was blended in at the last minute.  A dollop of sour cream completed the presentation.  Let me tell you, everybody loved this soup.  I got lots of compliments, but it was Mary’s homemade stock that made it magical.

I blogged last year about Yorkshire pudding, which you can find by clicking on the dates at the right side of the blog.  They are basically a batter poured into muffin cups with hot fat, which can be the drippings of a roast beef, ham, or just melted butter.  They make these wonderful little muffin-sized popovers which were a hit with the soup.  They were also terrific with the main course.

Here’s Mary to talk about the bird.  We originally thought we would roast a whole bird, but the only one I could find locally a few weeks before the actual holiday was 20 lbs!  Too big!  So, I bought a couple of turkey breasts with the skin and roasted them.  They were just fine!  They were moist, tender, and delicious and I didn’t have to worry about overcooking part of the bird to get other parts done.  These are just as good as whole birds, maybe not as dramatic a presentation, but waaay easier.  I’m doing these from now on!

Here is the plated main course.  I’m happy with how it turned out.  We got lots of wows around the table.  We had a friendly group, eager to learn together, enjoyed each other’s company, shared stimulating conversation, what fun!  Here are photos of our friends, Darren and Babbette and Sara and Lisa.

Instead of the usual pumpkin pie, we chose a cheese course in consultation with Richard Sutton at Saint James Cheese Company in New Orleans (http://www.stjamescheese.com).  Richard is truly an expert.  I tell him what food and wines we’re serving and he always recommends excellent choices.  Once again, I asked for artisanal American products.

The first cheese was Harbison cheese by Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, a pasteurized cow’s milk cheese.  This cheese is very interesting.  Aside from the delicious, mild creaminess, almost a sweetness, the way it is made is fascinating.  It is very soft and spreadable.  The small rounds are held together by tree bark!  You can see what I mean in our photos.  You might also find this video of the cheesemaking process interesting.  Go to http://bit.ly/tYhUcu.   

The second cheese was Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin, an unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese.  It was similar to gruyere, kind of an alpine character.  The third cheese was Clingman’s Tomme, a hard, raw sheep’s milk cheese from Locust Grove Cheese in Knoxville, Tennessee.  The name is a riff on Clingman’s Dome, the highest peak in the Smoky Mountains, which will be familiar to our Georgia and Tennessee family readers.

The cheese course also included a delicious combination of pistachios, local pecans toasted with butter and pumpkin pie spice, walnuts, golden raisins, and a drizzle of wildflower honey from one of our neighbors here in Mississippi, less than a mile away.

Now for the wines.  The three whites started with a California sparkling wine, Roederer Estate from the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County.  The second was a delicious Pinot Gris from Elk Cove Vineyards in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  The third white was a Napa Valley Spring Mountain District Riesling by our friends Charlie and Stu Smith at Smith-Madrone.  To me, it is the only California Riesling that is as good as a fine Mosel or Alsace Riesling.

As is usually the case, the wines were perceived and preferred differently with and without food and differently with the main course and the cheese course.  Everybody enjoyed the sparkling wine and the Pinot Gris.  The Riesling didn’t make quite as much an impression on its own.  It was mature enough to have somewhat reduced primary fruit flavors and a little more of the petroleum quality of a Riesling with some years on it, but it was delicious with food.  I imagine that would please Charlie and Stu.

The reds included one wine from France, a cru Beaujolais from the village of Morgon.  The cépage or red grape of Beaujolais is Gamay, a fruity, smooth, refreshing red wine that is perfect for Thanksgiving.  Not to be confused with the better known and exuberant Nouveau Beaujolais, a cru Beaujolais is a higher quality and more serious wine, yet easy to drink, not too complex, and complements a variety of food.

The classic red wine of Thanksgiving is Pinot Noir, of course.  For our event we selected an excellent example by Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat in Santa Barbara County.  This particular version had a few years of maturity and was specifically from Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley.  The wines of Au Bon Climat can be counted upon for balance, elegance, and food friendliness.  It was a consensus favorite of the evening, especially among the reds.  The quintessential American red grape is Zinfandel, the big red kind, not the pink.  Zinfandel is big, powerful, ripe with flavors of wild berry, cherry, plum, and chocolate from the oak barrel aging.  It is fruit-forward and high in alcohol.  As predicted, it made a big impression when first tasted, lots of smiles.  It wasn’t quite as good with dinner, but did very well with the hard sheep’s milk cheese that came later.

Here are my notes on each of the wines.

Roederer Estate Sparkling Wine Anderson Valley Brut NV.  This was a really nice sparkling wine, perhaps not as complex as a fine, more expensive Champagne, but very good, especially for the price.  On its own, I actually preferred it to the Riesling among the whites.  It paired very well with the turkey and the cheese and was well received by the group.  It had lovely aromas of grapefruit, apple, fresh mineral notes, and a baked bread quality that is common to many good sparkling wines.  The texture on the palate was fresh, minerally, smooth, with medium body.  The flavor profile additionally revealed lemon citrus along with the grapefruit and apple, plus a nice, cinnamon spice on the finish.  Beautifully balanced, nicely complex, long finishing, and excellent wine.  It was terrific with all three cheeses.  60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir, 12.0% alcohol.  We paid $21 at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.

Elk Cove Vineyards Pinot Gris Willamette Valley 2010.  This is a really lovely wine and makes me want to try more Pinot Gris from Oregon and Alsace.  The color in the glass is pale with flecks of green, nearly colorless, the aroma redolent with peach, apricot, and floral notes.  It is plump on the palate, not heavy, medium in acidity and body.  Lovely peach and perhaps even some tropical notes of pineapple and banana appear on the palate with some spicy elements on the finish.  Nicely balanced, complex, with medium length.  It was my favorite white on its own, but didn't perform quite as well with food.  13.0% alcohol.  This wine was $17 at Colony Wines in Madison.

Smith-Madrone Vineyards Riesling Napa Valley Spring Mountain District 2005.  This dry-style Riesling is the only American Riesling we've tried that we think is as good as a fine Alsace or Mosel Riesling.  As it matures, the aroma profile has a definite petroleum or organic solvent quality with a little fruit in the background.  On the palate, it shows bright acidity and medium body.  The flavors are much fruitier than the aroma with peach, pear, a floral quality, fresh minerality, and an interesting, faintly honeyed note.  Nicely complex, beautifully balanced, medium length, it is not what I would describe as a hedonistic wine, but it did really well with food, especially the spicy elements of the Cajun-style dressing and the mild, creamy Harbison cheese. 12.9% alcohol.  We paid $22 for this wine during one of our visits to Charlie at the winery.

Domaine Pral Morgon Les Charmes 2009.  The fruitiness of this wine makes it a nice choice with traditional Thanksgiving fare.  Aromas of berries, flowers, perhaps rose petals, herbs, and a delightful earthy, mushroomy quality all appear on the nose, quite complex.  The palate was medium-plus in body, had a nice, smooth texture, medium acidity, with raspberry, strawberry, savory, and maybe hints of anise.  We don't often drink Beaujolais, so we were surprised and pleased with the level of complexity.  It was well balanced and long finishing, an excellent wine.  It was not my personal preference, but it was well received by the group.  13.0% alcohol.  $20 at Briarwood in Jackson.

Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido 2005. Jim Clendenen's wines are always well received.  This Pinot Noir with a few years of maturity was a consensus favorite of the evening, with and without food.  It is just so versatile, pairing well with every course, literally from soup to nuts, as Mary says.  Medium garnet in color, it had lovely earth, forest floor, cherry fruit, and a smoked meat aroma profile.  The palate was fresh, had good acidity, silky texture, and that great mouthfilling quality of a good Pinot Noir without being heavy at all.  The same earthy, cherry, exotic mineral and spice notes appear on the flavor profile.  Beautifully balanced, complex, long finishing, tough to beat this, at least among U.S. Pinot Noir.  13.5% alcohol.  This wine cost $25.

Karly Winery Zinfandel Amador County Pokerville 2009.  As Zinfandel goes, this was very well received.  It had the exuberant berry and ripe plum aromas and flavors, chocolate, and peppery notes.  It got lots of “ahhs” when first tasted and gives that immediacy of impression.  The palate showed a rich, full texture, smooth, low acidity, and flavors of jammy blackberry, raspberry, dark, ripe plum, chocolate, and black pepper.  It was a little warm for my preference, but it was well received by the group, did particularly well with the cheese course, especially the hard sheep’s milk cheese, had moderate complexity, and medium length.  At 14.5% alcohol, it was definitely the powerhouse of the evening.  We paid $13 at Briarwood in Jackson.

Here are more memories of our Thanksgiving event.  It was such a pleasant evening for everyone.

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That’s our post for today.  We hope you like it and find it interesting and enjoyable.  Keep coming back to Cépage et Cuisine for more wine and food adventures.  In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Cheers,

Mary♥Brian

Autumn in the Berkshires – October 24, 2011

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  This is our second post about our brief visit to the Berkshire Mountains to behold the beauty of the landscape during autumn, the friendly people, fine local cuisine, and wine, of course.

Our base of operations is the Chambery Inn in the small town of Lee, Mass.  I mentioned in the previous blog entry that the Chambery Inn is a former school, moved to its present location and re-opened as a lovely bed and breakfast.

Here is today’s breakfast, delivered in a basket to our room, arranged before the fireplace, with a pot of fresh Green Mountain coffee and today’s newspaper.  Not bad!  We both had warm oatmeal and fresh fruit.   Mary had a freshly baked scone.

While I read the news, Mary went for a stroll around town.  Take a look at these beautiful images.  She’s really quite a fine photographer.  The foliage varies from trees that haven’t yet turned, through trees of various vivid colors, all the way to some that are completely bare.  The air was chilly, in the low 40s.  The grass is still a deep green.  Interestingly, as I write this blog post, the area has been hit by an early snowfall!

Lunch was at the Starving Artist Café in Lee, a delightfully hippiefied lunch spot attached to an art gallery.  I must say those artists are going to starve, though, if they expect people to pay the prices they are asking for those paintings!  The food was not so expensive, fortunately, and it was delicious and healthful.  The house specialty was crepes.  Mary had a crepe with fresh sliced pears and goat cheese called “pearfection.” 

I had a salad of mesclun, fresh apples, feta cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinaigrette.  They were both delicious!

We spent the afternoon in Stockbridge, a picture postcard of a small New England town.  Stockbridge was the home of Norman Rockwell from 1953 until his death.  We visited the Normal Rockwell museum and his studio, which is a converted carriage barn that was in his back yard. 

Perhaps you recognize this famous image from his work, which he called simply "Stockbridge at Christmas."

Mary took photos of some of the buildings that appear in the painting, which look largely the same today as when he finished the painting in 1963.

Cameras were not allowed in the galleries at the museum, but it is an American treasure…all those original Rockwell paintings, sketches, possessions, photos, Saturday Evening Post covers, Boys’ Life…wonderful and moving.

Dinner that evening was at Alta Restaurant and Wine Bar, definitely the nicest dining experience of our trip.  The owner, Aurelien Telle, a Frenchman from Évian, and his attentive staff provide a refined, relaxing experience with creative expressions of local and classic dishes.  The restaurant is small, intimate, with large windows onto Church Street in Lenox.  The wine list is compact, but offers an excellent balance of domestic and Old World wines to suit diverse tastes.  Importantly to me, the wines are properly stored, the service is elegant, and Aurelien is readily available to discuss pairings and choices.

Mary and I shared a first course of quinoa salad, a cool grain dish not unlike couscous, accented with golden raisins, garbanzos, carrots, hazelnuts, feta cheese, and served over fresh arugula.  The integration of various textures, sweetness of the raisins, and tanginess of the cheese was delicious.  Mary enjoyed fresh bread and butter.

Mary’s main course was pan-seared duck breast with a salty caramel sauce (who knew?), mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables.  The cut of the breast was different than what we usually see, but Mary said it was more tender than the duck breast we prepare at home by scoring the skin to render the fat, crisping the skin side, then searing the flesh side.  The flavor of the Alta version was the typical savory, earthy quality of excellent duck breast, but the tenderness was more like a good roast beef.  Mary said the caramel sauce was not sugary sweet, like the caramel topping on an ice cream dessert.  She said it was more like a sauce or gravy and provided an interesting twist to the duck and side dishes.

My main course was pan-seared salmon.  I was curious to see how this would turn out and whether a substantial cut of salmon could be properly cooked through by searing without overcooking the outside.  Somehow, the chef produced a fish that was perfectly cooked, flaky, still moist throughout.  The salmon was accompanied by mashed potatoes, sautéed spinach, topped with goat cheese crumbles and slices of fresh local apples.  Red pepper coulis completed the plate.  It was a delicious, memorable main course.

Monsieur Telle indulged me by allowing me to practice my limited French language skill.  “Avez-vous une assiette de fromage?”  To my delight, it was close enough to correct that he didn’t laugh and, in fact, he prepared a wonderful cheese plate of local cheeses called Maggie’s Round, Tabasi, and Berkshire Blue.  Aurelien knows the cheese makers personally, visits their farms, and selects the cheeses to serve at Alta.  The cheese course includes a jam of fig and berries, sliced apples, nuts and raisins drizzled with honey, and crostini crisps.  We haven’t seen such a nice cheese course since we left France.

Now, to the wine.  We needed a wine that had the structure to stand up to a hearty dish like duck breast, but the balance and elegance to match the salmon without overwhelming it.  Readers of the blog know that Mary and I are unabashed Francophiles, so I went straight to Burgundy and Pinot Noir.  Like most restaurant wine lists, the choices were almost all recent vintages, so I knew the wine would be young.  My approach is to use a trusted producer whenever I can.  Domaine Faiveley is exactly such a producer and I was delighted to see it on Aurelien’s list, another indication that he really understands how food, wine, and the dining experience work together.  Mercurey is a village in the Côte Chalonnaise, just south of the more famous, and expensive, Côte d’Or.  Wines of Mercurey are often just as delicious, elegant, and structured as more expensive wines.  I was optimistic about the choice and when Aurelien came to our table to personally perform the wine service, he complimented us on the choice.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Domaine Faiveley Mercurey 2008.  It is a very young wine, but has delicious aromas and flavors.  A pretty medium ruby out of the bottle, the nose reveals bright red cherry, earth, and fresh mineral notes.  The palate is smooth, medium-bodied, with bright acidity, providing an edgy quality at this early juncture.  Flavors were similar to aromas, bright red fruit, plus a nice spiciness throughout.  Beautifully balanced, moderately complex, medium length, I expect this wine will improve much more with time.  Very nice.  The pairings with the duck and the salmon were both excellent.  13.0% alcohol.  The restaurant price was $46.

Our evening at Alta was delightful.  The ambience, the service, the innovativeness, attention to detail, an excellent wine list, a dessert course of local cheeses add up to a memorable experience.  If you travel to the region, we recommend you visit Aurelien Telle at Alta in Lenox, Mass.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed coming along with us on our trip to the Berkshires.  Check back at Cépage et Cuisine for more wine, food, and cultural experiences.  Don’t forget, you can follow our nightly tweets on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cepageetcuisine.  Until next time …

Cheers,

Mary♥Brian