Rosie Makes Hummus.

I have "vegetarian" offspring.  And I have no idea how that happened.
But I roll with it, and today, I'm rolling with one of their favorites - hummus.
 
As for the vegetarianism, I think the late Anthony Bourdain said it best:
In his book Kitchen Confidential, he wrote “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.”

“They make for bad travelers and bad guests. The notion that before you even set out to go to Thailand, you say, “I’m not interested,” or you’re unwilling to try things that people take so personally and are so proud of and so generous with, I don’t understand that, and I think it’s rude. You’re at Grandma’s house, you eat what Grandma serves you.”
 
Of course, he has even worse things to say about vegans. Bourdain proclaims “I don’t have any understanding of it. Being a vegan is a first-world phenomenon, completely self-indulgent.”

Now that I have that off my chest, let's make some vegetarian hummus!

Hummus  is a creamy spread made from chickpeas along with some other basic ingredients - garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, and tahini, which is a sesame seed paste.  It's a Middle Eastern staple and the name "hummus" comes from an Arabic word meaning "chickpea."  And hummus has been around forever.  The chickpea has been cultivated in the ancient Mediterranean, Palestinian, and Mesopotamian areas for thousands of years.

Yes, you can buy a nasty tub of hummus at the supermarket, but why do that when homemade is so much better?  And with homemade, you can tailor the hummus to your own tastes.  Making hummus is not etched in stone.  I'm giving you a basic starter "recipe" and you can take it from there.  If you want more garlic or lemon flavors, add 'em in.  If you like a creamier consistency, you can add water or extra olive.  As for toppings and garnishes, that's completely up to you.  You can make a lovely little pool of flavorful olive oil in the middle.  You can sprinkle cumin and/or togarashi  over top.  (Togarashi is a Japanese blend of dried chili peppers and an assortment of other seasonings - black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, nori (seaweed), and orange and lemon zests.)   Other toppings could be roasted tomatoes, paprika, olives, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, mint, basil, cucumber, feta, jalapenoes, cilantro, lime, salsa -  you get the picture.  So many variations on a theme and anything goes.

Hummus can be dipped with tortilla chips, vegetable crudités, crackers, or pita bread.  And if you want to make your own pita bread, go right ahead with this recipe.

Now, let's get started with the hummus.
When I decide to make hummus, I want it now.  I don't want to wait to soak garbanzo beans overnight, nor do I want to use canned chickpeas.  So I use baking soda in the soaking and cooking water.  I might soak the beans in water, to cover, with a teaspoon of baking soda, for about an hour.  (If you have the time and the inclination, go overnight for the soaking.)  Then I put a teaspoon of baking soda in the cooking water when I boil/simmer my chickpeas.  The baking soda speeds up the process.  It raises the pH levels of the water, making the chickpeas more soluble, softening them, and thus they're able to cook more quickly.  It also results in a smoother, creamier texture in the finished product.  Another serendipitous effect of the baking soda results in softening of the skins, allowing one to easily peel the chickpeas.  The alkaline environment created by the baking soda helps to dissolve the cell walls by breaking down the pectin in the beans.  The skins soften and the cell walls disintegrate allowing the skins to be virtually rinsed away.

 And yes, I peel Every.Single.Bean.  

Rosie's Version Of Hummus

Yield:  2+ cups 

Prepare the chickpeas:

1 cup dried garbanzo beans, soaked in water, to cover, with a teaspoon of baking soda

Soak at least an hour.  If you have time, soak overnight.

Rinse beans, then put in pot with water to cover. Add a teaspoon of baking soda.  Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.  Simmer 30-45 minutes, then drain and start skinning to remove the peels.  Refresh water, add a little kosher salt, and bring to boil again.  Reduce to simmer and cook until very tender - another 30-45 minutes.  You can't really overcook here.

For the tahini:

1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted 

kosher salt

4 TB or so Bertolli Extra Light Olive Oil

 While the beans are cooking, make the tahini

Lightly toast the sesame seeds until golden.  Let cool.

Put seeds in mini-processor, add a pinch of kosher salt, and process.  Slowly drizzle in a neutral olive oil, processing throughout until mixture is smooth.  I use Bertolli Extra Light since it doesn't compete with the delicate flavor of the sesame seeds.  You want enough olive oil so you have a pourable finished product.

For the hummus:

prepared garbanzo beans

tahini

4 garlic cloves

juice of 2 lemons

6 or more TB neutral olive oil

1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

1 tsp cumin, or to taste

1/2 tsp red pepper, or to taste 

In a process, combine prepared garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice. Gradually add in olive oil, processing until smooth.  Add in enough olive oil until you get the consistency you desire.

Taste test and adjust seasonings and ingredients to your tastes.

To serve, I spoon out the hummus into a small bowl and make a depression in the center.  Pour in a nice flavorful olive oil to make a golden pool for dipping.  I happen to like Campo Corto extra virgin olive oil.  Then I like to sprinkle some additional seasonings on top - more cumin and Togarashi seasoning.

Notice the skins here.  I brought my water and baking soda to a boil and simmered my garbanzo beans for about 30-45 minutes.  The beans are peeling already.  You can agitate the beans with your hands, swishing the water around, to release the skins, which will float away. Pick the skins out and refresh the water, return to a boil, and simmer until the chickpeas are softened.  Maybe another 30-45 minutes.  Remove any remaining skins.

Here are my picked over tender chickpeas.

This is tahini paste.  I like it more pourable than paste.

To the tahini, add in the prepared chickpeas and assorted ingredients and process until smooth.

Add seasonings - salt, cumin, cayenne., Togarashi.

Pool a flavorful olive oil in the center.

Now, you can use scoopy dips...

...But I prefer making my own scoopies.
I decided to forego the tortilla scoops and opted for my homemade tortilla triangles.
I took round flour tortillas, stacked them, and cut into wedges.
Heat the oven to 300° and pour a thin layer of Bertolli extra light olive oil over a baking sheet and throw in about 3 TB unsalted butter.  Let the butter melt as the oven heats.
Take each wedge and dredge through the olive oil and melted butter.  Arrange wedges on baking sheet.  (Use two large baking sheets.  You're gonna love these tortilla wedges.)  Lightly sprinkle cumin, red pepper flakes, and Togarashi seasoning over the wedges.  Bake until wedges are light golden and crisp.

And scoop.

Christmas In Paris At The Saltbox Café.

 Welcome to The Saltbox Café's 

 last 6-course wine-paired dinner for 2016 -
Christmas in Paris.

The menu is the creation of Chefs Amanda and Randolph Sprinkle.

Special Guest Chef is Josh Naser.

Our servers are Mike Dinkle and Lindsey Lafferty.

Special thanks to Kelly and Craig from Artisan Wine Merchant.

Tonight's Super Saltbox Crew.

Mike, Amanda, Josh, Randolph, and Lindsey.

April, we missed you!

I'll explain a little about the wines
(All inaccuracies mine.),
but I'll give you pictures of the food.
Really, that's all you need.


Course 1:

Course 1:  Crisp Chèvre cheese with fig and caramelized onion jam paired with Chateau Petit Roubie Picpoul de Pinet 2014.

Craig's List:  This is an appellation that has gained more status over the past 10 years or so.   It is an appellation located on the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Spanish border, in the Languedoc region.  This is where the best Mediterranean oysters and mussels come from.  This is grown mostly in limestone soil with a sand and clay mixture.  Anytime you have limestone in the soil, you're going to have a nice minerality in the wine.

 Picpoul de Pinet is a large appellation and it's mostly co-ops making the wine - lots of farmers selling to one central location and everything being blended.  This wine is vinified in stainless steel to retain freshness.  This is a true family-owned château. Floriane and Olivier Azan have owned the winery since 1981 and have organically farmed since 1985 and place special emphasis on sustainable farming.

 Picpoul is the grape.  Pinet is the place, a small town (population 1300) which would have been totally unknown if it wasn't for the great white wine produced there from the Picpoul grape.  This wine is perfect for the Outer Banks - a classic pairing is with fresh seafood and shellfish.

Randolph's Menu:  The really nice minerality and acidity of the Picpoul pairs beautifully with seafood.  That's why we didn't do seafood.  (Ahh, Randolph.  You're doing it again!  The old bait and switch.  I like it!)  We're doing a nice fried Chèvre (French goat cheese) with a fig and onion relish on top and a really light vinaigrette and a little bit of bib lettuce.  The idea here is that the acidity and tartness of the Chèvre should pair very nicely with the minerality of the Picpoul.

Rosie's Ramblings:

That is all.

` 

Course 2:

Course 2:  Crabe velouté en croute paired with Domaine des Granges Macon-Fuisse 2015.

 

Craig's List:  Our next wine is Domaine des Granges Macon-Fuissé 2015.  This is a fourth generation grower, Yannick Paquet. Yannick studied viticulture and oenology, then went to work at the "family domaine alongside his father in the famous village of Fuissé.  Yannick is painstakingly conscientious in the vineyard so he can bring in fully ripe and spotless grapes.  His rigorous standards continue into the cellar where he vinifies the parcels separately and uses only the best tanks in the final assembly of the cuvées.  All the vineyards are sustainably farmed in order to protect the environment and only indigenous yeasts are used to ferment.  These wines are delicious and classic with an emphasis on showcasing the calcaire rich soils of the vineyards while presenting crisp yet ripe orchard fruits.  Fermented in 100% stainless steel, this wine comes from the heart of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation but from higher altitude vineyards which were never classified as Pouilly-Fuissé."   
The Pouilly-Fuisse appellation is the most famous area within the Macon which is in Burgundy, south central France.  Macon-Fuissé is the greater appellation of Pouilly-Fuissé.  All of the vineyards of Pouilly-Fuissé are in 5 villages - Fuissé, Chaintré, Pouilly, Solutré, and Vergisson- and all on hillsides.   Everything here is a mixture of clay and limestone.  Being on the hillside, there is very little topsoil.  This is an area that has a lot of rainfall and you have great drainage here.  In the valleys, you'll run into puddles, which are not good for the grapes.  You want to stress the grapes enough so that they're always actively looking for nutrients and water and they're not creating a lot of fruit.  This naturally keeps the yield lower.  The lower the yield, the more concentration and better fruit.  Macon-Fuissé is on the top of the hillside from vineyards that were never classified as Pouilly Fuissé.  Interestingly, it's still in limestone, so you'll taste beautiful minerality.  2015 is a very good, really ripe, extracted vintage.  You get a lot of flavor in the wine, but you can taste the minerality on the backside.  This is fermented in 100% stainless steel, so there's no manipulation, just pure juice.  According to the wine notes provided, this wine has a "brilliantly focused nose of calcaire and candied tangerine blossom; ripe skin flavors and super rich mid-palate, great concentration with balanced mineral tension."


Randolph's Menu:  With this very nice, elegant Chardonnay, we decided to go with North Carolina crab meat en velouté, or "in velvet," and a really nice cream sauce, presented en croute, or in puff pastry shells.

Rosie's Ramblings:   I love a good Pussy-Fussy, but have never experienced the Macon-Fuissé until tonight.  This is a lovely wine and I'm going to get all sentimental.  This reminds me of the "rock-licking" period I went through, when I was determined to experience minerality on all its many levels.  It was a phase; I was never able to balance that "mineral tension."

Course 3:

Course 3:    Classic pork rilletes crostini and cornichons paired with Château Cornut Rosé 2015.

 

Craig's List:  This Château Cornut Rosé comes from the rolling slopes of southern Costière de Nîmes, from the bottom of the Rhône Valley, roughly 25 miles southwest of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. 
Châteauneuf was the first appellation in France, in 1933, and is the most famous appellation within the Rhône Valley.  This is a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah.  The soils here are mostly ancient riverbed soils with round rocks and the poor soil makes the grapes go look for nutrients.  Naturally, this is not high-yield.  Also these rocks warm up during the day and keep the maturation process going on at night, so you always have ripeness.

  The Château is owned and run by Numa and Alexis Cornut who represent the ninth generation of vigneron in the Cornut family.  The wine is made using the direct press method and vinified in stainless steel.  "The wine displays bright, high-toned raspberry and strawberry aromas and flavors.  This dry rosé has a juicy, crowd-pleasing middle palate and is enhanced with hints of wet stone and slight notes of smoky herbs through the finish."

Randolph's Menu:  This is a very interesting wine.  I like the balance, the legs, the tannins.  This wine can stand up to a little meat and fat, so I made a classic pork rillette.  A rillette is like the original paté.  What they used to do was take a pig, slaughter it, use all the different parts, and the bones were put in a pot and boiled.  The remaining meat was pulled off the bones and the stock reduced. It was all puréed and usually served in a little crock with a layer of fat on top.  We didn't have the little crock, but we had pork shoulder, ribs, and pork belly boiled down, pulled apart by hand, and put on top of toast points and served with cornichons.

Rosie's Ramblings:  I'm still looking for the "smoky herbs."

Course 4:

Course 4:  Seared duck breast, bacon and corn duck wonton, seared foie gras on cranberry orange bread paired with Domaine Palon Gigondas 2014.

Craig's List:  Domaine Palon Gigondas is a very small domaine with 7 hectares in Gigondas and 5 hectares in Vacqueras, located at the foot of the "Dentelles de Montmirail."  Despite its small size,  (The entire winery, we were told, was no bigger than the dining room at the Saltbox.) the property and owners have had a significant impact on winemaking in this area.  The Palon family has been vignerons since the 1930s, but the current owner, Sebastien Palon, representing the 4th generation of winemakers, was the first to bottle the wines under the family name starting in 2003.  Jean Palon, Sebastien's grandfather, was the president and co-founder of the Gigondas Cave Co-operative and a member of the governing board from 1956-1978.

 The Gigondas 2014 is 79% Grenache, 15% Syrah, and 6% Mourvèdre.  "The wines here are pure class that highlight precision and focus.  Sebastien achieves restrained power in his wines that showcase complex soil components as much as the juicy and ripe briary fruit and garrigue flavors. The wines exude balance."  "Garrigue," in case you didn't know, which I didn't, "refers to the low-growing vegetation on the limestone hills of the Mediterranean coast, not the limestone itself. There are a bunch of bushy, fragrant plants that grow wild there, such as juniper, thyme, rosemary and lavender, and garrigue refers to the sum of them."
"Soils are mostly calcaire and mixed clay, sand with small polished riverbed stones.  A real winner, lovely and sleek, blue and red fruits with lots of plum skin flavors and a sweet, ripe core, balanced with a good amount of garrigue spice that pushes the wine forward to the long finish." 

Rosie-Note:  The labels on the second, third, and fourth wines had Craig's name on them, so I had to ask him about that.  Turns out "Craig Baker Selections" is Craig's personally sourced collection of wines.  He works with eighteen producers right now and goes out and sources it, makes the wines, makes the blends, brings them to America, and sells them.

Randolph's Menu:  This is an Amanda-inspired course and she calls it, "Duck, Duck, Goose!:"  We have three different preparations of duck - seared duck breast, a wonton filled with shredded duck, corn, bacon, and a little bit of cheese, and the last is foie gras on cranberry orange bread, all on top of an apricot/whole grain mustard sauce with garlic and sweet cherries.

Rosie's Ramblings:  This is a superior wine.  I looked at the wine.  The wine looked at me.  I know that look.  This wine thinks he's superior to me. Could it ...  Could it be ...  the terroir???

Course 5:

Course 5:  Veal and tarragon with haricot verts and pommes dauphinoise paired with Château Cruzeau St. Emilion 2013.

Craig's List:  Now we've moved into Bordeaux, the most famous appellation in France.  It's been around for 2000-2500 years, but really became famous when the British dominated it and still today, you can see the British influence there.  Bordeaux is very different than what I deal with in the Rhône and Burgundy regions.  The guys I deal with directly are on tractors and they're farmers.  A lot of the château today are owned by aristocratic families or conglomerates.  This is the most expensive wine area in the world.  The top 100 wines of this area of Bordeaux (There are sub-zones here.) don't sell for less than $250 a bottle, so this is the collector's paradise.

Bordeaux is broken up into two separate sides - the Left Bank and the Right Bank.  The Left Bank is the Médoc and this is where you have St. Estephe, Pauillac, St.-Julien, Margaux, Graves, and Pessac-Léognan.  On the Right Bank you have Pomerol and St. Emilion.  The Right Bank is dominated by Merlot.  The Left Bank is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon.  Merlot is a softer grape than Cabernet Sauvignon.  They have the same types of flavors, but Merlot will have more red fruit and less dried fruit and softer tannins than Cabernet.  You'll get more of a velvety texture with Merlot-based wines.

 The blend for Château Cruzeau St. Emilion 2013 is 83% Merlot and 17% Cabernet Franc aged for 12 months in a combination of barrels and concrete vats.  The cement or concrete tank will retain the freshness while the barrel will give you more of that toasty vanilla character and spiciness in this wine.

From our wine notes:  "The impressive château of the Cruzeau estate was built in the 16th century.  The vines encircling the château were first planted in 1785.  The estate became the property of the Luquot family in 1907.  Since then, the family has managed the property with the objective of expressing the authentic qualities of the soil.  Today, the fourth generation continues to invest in the quality of their vineyards and in their wine.  The color of the Château Cruzeau is bright ruby with carmine streaks.  The nose is characterized by aromas of red fruits, followed by ripe fruits.  On the palate it is round and velvety, with soft tannins.  This wine is well-balanced with a soft finish."

Craig explained that the last two red wines had been chilled.  When you chill a red wine, it brings out the fruit.

Randolph's Menu:  With this Bordeaux, we decided to go with roasted veal with tarragon, served with Pommes Dauphinoise, which is equal parts mashed potatoes and pâte à choux (a French pastry dough) mixed together and fried, and haricot verts, with a slightly thickened jus.

Rosie's Ramblings: Wearing a dusky red robe, this sultry wine seduced me.  It's suppleness, vivacity, and length made it excruiating.  I was entranced.  Color me ruby.

 Course 6:

 Course 6:  Crème brulée fromage with shortbread and macadamia crust over mango coconut purée paired with Mamamango Muscat of Canelli.

Craig's List:  This is a Piedmontese Muscato from Italy infused with mango nectar from India. 
From our wine notes:  "Mamamango is a creation by Sam Assaad, owner of MISA Imports.  A deep yellow-orange color with intense mango aromas and flavors harmonize with the tropical fruit, honeysuckle, and apricot jam notes of the Moscato.  The texture is rich and creamy while finishing clean and pure mango."

I liked this description I found of this wine:  "Lively citrus notes emerge on the palate."

Randolph's Menu:  Amanda put this last dish together.  She and I had the same reaction to the Mamamango.  It was a lot softer than we expected.  Amanda did a crème brulée cheesecake, assembled a shortbread and macadamia crust underneath, and finished with a mango coconut purée.

Rosie's Ramblings: There's a genie in the bottle! I tasted artisanal spring waters with undercurrents of eft and crawdad as they danced on my palate.

Enjoy the goings-on behind the scenes:

 

 

 

  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
to all of the Saltbox Crew!

 For a recap of the wonderful international dinner series  at The Saltbox Café,

 please click on the links:

October 2014, we visited Spain.
November 2014, we visited Argentina.
December 2014, we visited Paris.
February 2015, we visited Chocolate. (Why yes, Chocolate is a country.)
March 2015, we visited Italy.
October 2015, we visited Germany.
December 2015, we visited Japan.

Also in December 2015, we enjoyed a Réveillon Feast.

And again in December 2015, we visited France.

February 2016, we took a road trip to California.

Also in February 2016, we visited Italy. 

March 9, 2016, we had a lovely visit to Chile.

March 29, 2016, we visited the Pacific Northwest.

April 20, 2016, we explored the vineyards of Oregon. 

September 2016, we enjoyed South Africa. 

October 2016, we experienced Madrid. 

October 2016, we traveled the Loire Region in France. 

November 3, 2016, we got to Fall In Love With Wine.

November 14, 2016, we enjoyed a Taste of Northern Italy.
Dec 1, 2016, we experienced a Night In Italy.
December 14, 2016, we savored Holiday Reds.

The Hawthornes Enjoy A Six-Course Wine-Paired Dinner At The Saltbox Café.

Welcome to The Saltbox Café's
 latest 6-course, wine-paired meal featuring Northern Italy.

The menu is the creation of Chefs Amanda and Randolph Sprinkle.
Our servers were Lindsey and Sherry.

And Steve, Jen, and Elizabeth represented Empire Wine Distributors.

The comments and inaccuracies are all mine.


 Why can't behind the scenes at The Saltbox Café

 ever be like Hell's Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares?

Why can't Chef Amanda or Chef Randolph

bust out bad and turn into Gordon Ramsay

for just one night?
I want a Gordon Ramsay Moment!

 What I'd pay to see that!

Oh well...

One can only hope!

Let's get to the dinner.

We were first served an antipasto platter consisting of roasted chick peas seasoned with paprika, roasted red peppers, house-marinated artichoke with lemon and oliveoil, and Genoa salami and soppressata.

Course 1:  Gorgonzola Bread Pudding with House-Made Apple Butter paired with Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta Brut.

 Steve:  Our first wine tonight is Contadi Castaldi Franciacorta Brut.  If you love champagne, you need to know the name "Franciacorta."  It's a place and it's the champagne of Italy.  Prosecco is not made like champagne, but Franciacorta is, with the aging and production laws actually being more strict than in champagne.  To give you an idea of how well Italians think of Franciacorta, about 70% of Champagne is shipped not only out of Champagne, but also out of France.  About 80% of Franciacorta is consumed not only in Italy, but within about 100 miles of Franciacorta itself.  As Steve said, "You've never had a bad day drinking sparkling wine."

Chef Randolph:  We wanted to pair this with a gorgonzola bread pudding -  gorgonzola cheese, figs, pumpkin seeds, and campazola, a creamy mixture of camembert and gorgonzola,  We plated this on house-made roasted apple butter and topped it with fried basil leaves.

Rosie:  To me, this was brilliant.  It was like starting out with dessert and that's always a good thing in case something happens before you actually get to dessert.
It reminded me of a friend who would always read the last chapter of a book first.  When I asked him why, he said it was in case he died before finishing it.  I couldn't help but ask him if he'd seen the movie Citizen Kane.  But I digest...  Like I said, this was dessert to me, so I was happy.

Now the wine was bewitchingly appealing to me.  It was ready to drink, which was good, because so was I.

Course 2:  Smoked Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Risotto with Braised Calamari paired with La Chiara Gavi Di Gavi.

Steve:  A lot of people love Pinot Grigio, but if you're in Italy and ask for a white wine, you won't get a Pinot Grigio even though it's planted everywhere.  You're going to get a Gavi di Gavi, especially in Northern Italy on the French side.  This is the elite of white wines in that area, except for certain Chardonnays from single vineyards. 

This is a tremendously special wine, actually famous at one time.  Long ago, if you were writing a steakhouse wine list in Manhattan, there was one Gavi di Gavi you'd have on your list, called La Scolca Black Label.  The gentleman who owned La Scolca estate in Gavi had three children - 2 sons and a daughter.  Before he retired, he gave each of his children their inheritance up front.  The oldest one got a winery separate from La Scolca and he took over the reins of that company.  The second son took over the reins of La Scolca winery and the daughter got the vineyard that La Scolca Black Label was made from and she started her own winery called La Chiara.  That's what we're drinking tonight.

This is a tremendously elegant wine with a nice mineral component to it.  If you want to take a step away from a traditional Pinot Grigio in Italy and if you want a Burgandy style white wine, this is the wine for you - Gavi di Gavi.

Chef Randolph:  We couldn't go through a whole Italian wine diner without doing a risotto.  Risotto can be made in many ways with different products, but traditional risotto is always made with seafood, usually with a cuttlefish and a fish stock.  We decided to go with calamari.  The squid was braised in the calamari stock and has a really nice "seafood earthiness." It should pair very well with the Gavi di Gavi and its bright acidity.

Rosie:  I love a deliciously creamy risotto with tentacles;  Mr. Hawthorne, not so much.  To Mr. Hawthorne, squid is squid is squid is bait.   I heartily agreed with Steve's assessment of the minerality of this wine.  La Chiara ran all over my tongue like a cat on a hot tin roof.  I received quite the tongue-pawing, with scratch marks to show for it.

Course 3:  Lobster Ravioli with Bourbon Vanilla Cream Sauce paired with Bastianich Vini Orsone Friulano.

Steve:  This wine is from the northeastern part of Italy about 30 miles from the Slovenian border and is owned by the Bastianich family, with matriarch Lidia being the Julia Child of Italian cuisine.  Her son Joe runs her restaurant empire and also started a wine importing company to supply her restaurants.  Joe runs the company because, in Lidia's words, "He couldn't cook worth a damn."

This wine is what true Venetians would pour for dinner, for heavier courses.  It's very mineralistic and the pretty salinity of this will really bring out the lobster in the ravioli.

Chef Randolph:  When tasting this wine, we found it to be quite elegant and well-finished.  We're pairing it with Maine lobster and ravioli finished with a cream sauce with a hint of vanilla bean to bring out the characteristics of the wine.  Even though the sauce may taste a little bit sweet, there's nothing sweet added to it.  It's just the natural sweetness of the lobster.

Rosie:  Winner Winner Lobster Dinner!
I tasted floral notes in the wine...  Dare I say, "Rosebud?"
I felt an excruciating lushness of indescribable, transcendent notes and a tsunami of delightful aromas upon the entry of the Bastianich Friulano into my palatial, palatal orifice.
A voluptuous mouth-feel crept over my papillae.
I savored it.
There was at least a 45-second finish.
I do not smoke, but I needed a cigarette.
 

Course 4:  Braised Pork Cheek over Mascarpone Polenta paired with Le Muraie Valpolicello Ripasso Doc Classico Superiore 2011.

Steve:  Now, we're on to the red wines and some very specific vineyards.  The family that produces the next 3 wines is Recchia.  You need to understand the grape that makes most of the wines from the Amarone region - della Valpolicella.  That is the cortese grape.  The cortese grape has one or two clusters of grapes at the top, which are known as the orecchi, or the ears.  This particular family has been making this wine for so long, that their name actually comes from that part of the cortese grape.  

This winery didn't exist as a winery to sell to people except for the last 200 years.  For 500 years before that they existed as farmers, but they didn't sell grapes to other wineries.  They actually would grow grapes, bring them in, and dry the grapes on rattan mats in buildings until they shriveled up.  Then they crushed them and made a wine out of it.  Originally, they made a dessert wine called Recioto which we're having at the end.  That was the first wine of the area.  They also have a very light red wine called Valpolicella.  Recioto made a mistake one time about 200 years and forgot about the wine once it started fermenting and and ended up making something called "The Bitter One," or Amarone.  

So Recioto, the sweet one, was first.  Then there was the "bitter one," and then they made something called ripasso where they take regular, light red wine and they pass it through the left over stuff after they made the Amarone.  This re-pass gives a boost to the fermentation.  Everybody else in all this area passes their wine over the leftover stuff of the Amarone.  Not so Recchia.  They are one of the largest Recioto producers so they actually pass theirs over Recioto dregs which leaves enough sugar behind to give it much brighter, fuller fruits.  This family was in the business for so long of making finished wines that they'd sell to all their neighbors to finish off their production.  They were in the bulk-wine business to their neighbors to help them finish their high-end production, until finally, someone of the next generation said, "Please, you've go to put this in a bottle and branch out to the US because they would go nuts for this!"   So this is a ripasso and different from 90% other ripassos

in that it is a single vineyard from Recchia.  Recchia has about 1200 acres of the vine, with the next closest vineyard having about 100 acres.  In Italy, everybody knows who Recchia is and you will pay 3-4 more times for their wines in Italy than you will in the US.  These wines have only been in the US for about 30 years and nobody knows about them.   All the other wineries have been making this for years, but they were in the business to sell.  Recchia was in the business of selling to other wineries so they could make their wine.  

Chef Randolph:  This wine was so even-tempered, I wanted to pair it with something Fall-like and easy to eat.  I ended up braising pork cheeks with a little bit of this wine and stock and placing it on top of mascarpone polenta, finished with carrots and onions.

Rosie:  I love an "even-tempered" wine.  I find it offensive it when my wines are easily annoyed and excitable.  And I absolutely refuse to drink an irritable, peevish, fractious wine.  If a wine is going to be temperamental and unreasonable with me, I won't have anything to do with it.  Fie on them!

Course 5:  Grilled Veal with Prosciutto and Masala with Rosemary Whipped Potatoes paired with Ca' Bertoldi - Amarone della Valpolicella Doc Classico 2009.

Steve:  The Ripasso was the opening act.  Now we have the Amarone, the big brother of the Ripasso.  This is an extremely special wine.  When harvested, they bring in the grapes and single layer them on racks.  They go into large buildings where they dry for up to five weeks.  When you crush these grapes, you get a very concentrated juice and sugar content.  When you ferment the dried grapes, you get this Amarone. 

A tremendous amount of Amarone is made, since so much land is under vine.  All of their cuvée, or blends of Amarone, is what they sell to everybody else.  This particular wine is a single vineyard Amarone.  Ca' Bertoldi, the name on the bottle, is the name of the individual vineyard this wine came from.  This is extremely rare to get a single vineyard Amarone because when all the grapes are taken in and put on racks in the those buildings, this one particular vineyard has to be separate from all the others - all this while you have a hundred or so people going in and out, checking on the grapes, pulling the ones that are just the right "raisinette" characteristics.

Chef Randolph:  Randolph first asked us a question, "Has anybody here ever had something called 'saltimbocca?' "  Of course, yesses and nods went around the room.  Then Randolph does what he does a lot and switches directions.  "Well, this is not that dish.  But it's kinda like it."  Saltimbocca is an Italian dish, meaning "jumps in the mouth," and is in a roll form a lot of times.  Veal medallions were thinly sliced, topped with prosciutto, then pounded, seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, and grilled.  This was served on top of a roasted garlic rosemary purée with a marsala sauce of mushrooms, marsala wine, and a veal stock reduction.

Rosie:  This dish jumped all in my mouth and the wine was jumping all around too.
Like  Khrushchev, this is a firm, fervent, vehement, emotional, aggressive, and passionate wine.
Have enough of this and you'd experience the sharp pounding of shoe in your head the next morning.

Course 6:  Dolce Tre - Vanilla Almond Panna Cotta, Blackberry Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream and Pistachio Gelato paired with La Guardia Recioto della Valpolicella D.O.C.G. Classico 2011.

Dessert deserves two pictures.

Steve:  As I considered the first two reds brothers, this next and last wine, the Recioto, I think of as the grandfather.  I know.  It's sweet.  But I promise you with this dessert you will change your mind.  If you taste it before dessert, make sure you stop and think about the sugar you're going to taste.  Most dessert wines are 7-9% alcohol because the vintners arrest the fermentation early on.  What makes this wine so different and amazing is that the fermentation is no stopped.  This wine is 14% alcohol.  This is finished fermentation.  These grapes were allowed to "raisin" twice as long as the other grapes so you have 1/4 of the water that you normally have in wine production.  The yeast lived its entire life and died and this is what was left.

What makes the Ripasso so special is the pass over this production and not the Amarone.  All of the sugars left in there bring out all the bright fruit characters in this wine.  A lot of times, Ripassos are leathery and earthy because there's no sugar left in the re-pass method, whereas in this one, there is.

Reciotto is the first wine - the original wine from the Amarone region.

Amarone was an accident that happened 200 years ago.  This is the wine that everybody made.  The sugar isn't syrupy.  It's not cloying.   There's enough acid left behind in this to cut the sugar a bit and you'll love it paired with the dessert.  

The Venetians were as powerful as they were in the trade business because a large part of there success was due to this wine.  They traded this wine for spices from the MiddleEast.  That's how important this wine is to them.

Chef Randolph:  As usual, Randolph had nothing to do with dessert.  Usually with a red, it would be paired with a chocolate, but this has a nice acidity but not a lot of tannins to stand up to chocolate, so we decided to pair this wine with other things.  We have vanilla bean, almond panna cotta, a gelatin dessert with cream, mascarpone and blackberry whipped cream,  and pistachio gelato with a streak of white chocolate ganache.

Rosie:   This wine balanced extremely well with the dessert - like a well-seasoned tightrope walker.  It was never intrusive or aggressive like a telemarketer.  Actually, it was quite the approachable wine.  We made polite introductions, then I downed it.

Enjoy behind the scenes!

Love that Saltbox Crew!

Josh Naser is helping out again tonight.