Cooking Chat Does House Calls & Other Tasty Treats

I do house calls!

House calls may have long gone out of favor, but I've made it an annual tradition to do a house call in support of Social Capital Inc., the nonprofit I founded 10 years ago. Once again, I'll be heading to the home of the highest bidder on my 3 course meal for 6, with wine pairings. Let me tell you more about what that will entail so that you might consider getting into the bidding action. But before I do let me point out that the bidding ends at 9 p.m. Sunday, October 30!

This will be the 3rd year I've offered this meal. Last year this item was won by the same couple that had it the first year, a good testimonial I suppose! If you win this year, we will start by talking about your food interests and what your guests might like. I then take that info and come back with some proposals for each course, usually a couple of options for each course. Once we get the food pinned down, I go about selecting the wines that will match the food. I have a pretty good knack for that, but I typically get input (and the wine!) from my friends Lori and Ray Schaefer at Pairings Wine and Food.

Enough about the process, let me tell you about one of the past meals to give you a taste of the possibilities. We started with a round of "Preliminary Nibbles" (didn't count as part of the 3 courses), with my pesto crostini (my homemade pesto is something I get asked to bring places consistently), spicy dip and chips (dip homemade of course) and assorted cheeses. We sipped some Prosecco as we nibbled and chatted, a great way to whet the appetite for the meal.

This meal took place in the spring, so I naturally gravitated toward asparagus for the first course. So I served  Shaved Raw Asparagus Salad with Pecorino Dressing. The dinner guests really enjoyed this, and few had had raw asparagus, so there was quite a bit of chatter about it. Now, asparagus is notoriously difficult to pair with wine...but the trick with this dish is that the cheese in the dressing creates a bridge, making it work well with various white wines. I went with a Verdicchio, this Italian white worked nicely with the cheese.

Our hosts love salmon, so when they saw I had several recipes for it here on Cooking Chat, it was a natural choice for course #2. Two years ago, I used the awesome preparation from Barbara Lynch's cookbook Stir (a must have book, BTW): Seared Salmon Topped with Olive-Lemon Relish, served with white beans and spinach. They loved it, and we quickly decided salmon needed to be featured again the next year. This time, I made it with my own mixed mushroom sauce, which sets up perfect for a Pinot Noir pairing. For Pinots, I generally go for either Burgundy or Oregon's Willamette Valley. Please note: though I'm flexible on a lot of things, if you want salmon I will insist on wild salmon from Alaska--no farm raised for me!

I offered steak as a third course, but my hosts noted I also had a lot of pork dishes here, and they thought that might be more interesting. And interesting they got: Lime-Cilantro Marinaded Pork Tenderloin with Chipotle Cream. As good as that was, what had people talking even more was the Sweet Potatoes with Cumin-Sage Butter. The third course items were all my original recipes; my favorite compliment of the night was when one of the guests asked "Where did you train?" [that would be my own kitchen!]. I served this with a Quivira Dry Creek Zin. I'd had a chance to meet the winemaker at Pairings a few weeks before the dinner, so it was a nice conversation piece as well as a good match for the food.

Well, if you're counting you may have noted that's 3 courses already. The host likes making desserts, so we agreed that I'd leave that part to them. But the idea is, you place the winning bid, we can chat and figure out what works best for your meal. I aim to please!

Beef Burgundy I had @ L'Espalier!

A few other quick notes about the foodie items on the auction. There's a great made-to-order wine & gourmet basket from Pairings. We have a lineup of great restaurants featured, including one of the best in Boston (L'Espalier and No. 9 Park), two of my favorites in the Woburn area (Beacon Grille & L'Andana Grill) and a bunch more I need to try.

If you have any questions about the 3 course dinner item, drop a comment--I'll be sure to keep an eye on it this weekend!

Chatham Squire: Still Tasty After All These Years

So how does a restaurant thrive for over 40 years in the restaurant business? A visit last month during our Cape Cod vacation to The Chatham Squire may provide some insights. Our family stepped into the bustling scene on a weeknight toward the end of the summer, and settled into the convivial atmosphere. Dark wood panels and plenty of decorations with a nautical theme definitely speak to its Cape location.

Most of us ordered the clam chowder to start, and it was definitely a very good rendition of the classic. Flavorful, nice amount of good clam and potato, not overly salty. So the Squire solidifies its base of loyalty with classic Cape fare like chowder in an atmosphere to match.

But then they can also branch out and do some creative items well. I ordered Pan Seared Tuna, which is described on the menu as served with a "Cajun spice rub; served over baked cheddar grist and finished with a five bean tasso ham ragout." It might sound like a lot going on, but it work out very nicely. The tuna was nicely spiced, and the beans and cheddar added a good hearty quality to it.

Beer might be the beverage of choice at the Squire, but I was able to find some pretty good wine selections to go with mine. I'm finishing this post quite some time after enjoying the meal, so simply recall that it was a Washington state red blend that was a good pairing for the tuna dish.

There were three generations of us sharing this meal, and everyone seemed quite pleased--not easy to satisfy such a range of tastes. This included being able to accommodate my son with multiple food allergies; they seemed quite attentive to his issues and served him up a burger he enjoyed.

Let's hope that the Squire manages to keep balancing the tradition and creativity so that we can all enjoy many returns! Thanks to my sister Pam for the photo of my son showing off his burger, flanked by my mother and me.

Post #300: Top Dish Boston!

Wow, just noticed that I've written 299 posts prior to this one! Seems like #300 ought to be some kind of "best of" or reflective piece, but alas, I simply want to quickly recap the fun time we had at Top Dish Boston Friday night. Many thanks to Tim Stansky of the new Exhale Magazine for inviting us to this event that they sponsored in support of the Greater Boston Food Bank.

We knew we'd arrived at a food event when we saw this plate in the parking lot at the Epi Center in South Boston (home of Artists for Humanity). Upon arrival, Jodi and I got to choose signs for our mug shot.

Top Dish Boston featured locally sourced food, as indicated in my sign--and yes, it all tasted very good. There were dozens of restaurants and other food vendors on hand to showcase their dishes. We started Beef Empanadas from El Centro. The chef explained the beef came from his father's ranch in Mexico--now that's a family business! Very tasty, paired with a nice organic Spanish Monastrell wine. He had quite a few other items to offer, some pictured below, but we knew we needed to save room for other tables.

We went on to sample some what may have been my favorite dish of the night: pan-seared gnochhi with local goat cheese and mint filling, served with an heirloom tomato sauce. Wow! Made by the Tuscan Kitchen--they are based in Salem, NH. I anticipate heading north for more of this soon!

Another interesting dish was Frico with Speck and a White Nectarine Relish. Speck is an Italian cured pork, the frico referred to parmesan crisps. Creative and tasty combo, presented by the chef from Erbaluce, shown below.

People had been raving about the pumpkin hummus that Wilson Farm was serving, so we finally made it over there for our last stop of the night. That was very good, but I'd say I liked their wild mushroom stuffing better--so tasty that they were serving it on its own! But the real testament to how good the stuffing is comes from the Twitter confession of Todd Heberlein a.k.a. @WilsonFarmChef that he'd eaten the leftover stuffing for breakfast!

I've only touched upon a small sampling of the good food available at the event...hopefully enough of a taste to have you want to try for yourself next time!

Value Wine Shopping List

I sampled a few good wines recently that I wanted to make note of so that I'd remember they are ones I'd like to buy again. Then I recalled I'd started a similar list a few months again and not gotten around to publishing it. So I've merged the two for a handy list of moderately priced, good value wines. Nothing fancy on the tasting notes; basically I'm sharing my wine shopping list with any passersby here that might be interested!

I should note I also have found some wines that are pretty good lately that are even less expensive, in the $10 range. That probably warrants a separate post. For me, something in the $15-$30 range is still pretty accessible (i.e. doesn't need to be limited to a special occasion). One can find some very good wines in this price range, but also wind up pretty disappointed. Thus I share this list!

2009 Poppy Chardonnay ($16) A bit of oak and butter, but more restrained than some CA chards.
2009 Hahn Chardonnay ($15) I had the Poppy awhile back, just sampled the Hahn this weekend. Very similar description to the Poppy. I like this kind of restrained style in a Chardonnay.

2006 Helix Pomatia ($22) Blend of cab, merlot, syrah, cab franc. From Reininger in Washinton state. Was enjoying this in colder weather but would be great with grilled meat too.

2008 Cantina del Pino Nebbiolo ($25) Good value for a nebbiolo.

2007 Cave de Tain Crozes Hermitage ($19) Approachable for a young Crozes Hermitage. Good structure, enough pepperiness to pair well with the Chimichurri that was served on our grilled steak.
2009 Justin Cabernet Sauvignon ($30) This big cab from Paso Robles has nice, well-rounded berry fruit. Good cab for the price.
2008 David Bruce Petit Syrah ($22) I realized upon leaving Pairings the other day that somehow I forgot to buy this Central Coast Petit Syrah after sampling and enjoying it! So it makes it to the list to help me remember to buy it soon.