Food Wine & Friends Page 310
Our friends from Sacramento were coming to the San Francisco
International Airport to pick up some travel documents ahead of their upcoming
trip to France and so we planned a little early-week meal.
The family who had planned to come dine asked for a rain-check and so it was
slightly less of a challenge to orchestrate a meal.
We sourced a few things at the weekend Burlingame's "Fresh Market," a
sort of Farmer's Market and then filled in with some other provisions.
We planned to prepare a salad to start and this featured some Smoked Salmon from
a vendor at the market.
Requiring more preparation was the next course featuring Chilean Sea Bass in
parchment paper.
We had some diced zucchini and some pepper to accompany and season the fish.
Wanting to pair this with a slightly sweet, well-aged German Riesling, we
included some bits of Jalapeño peppers as the spiciness and heat will offset
the residual sugar in the wine.
The parchment paper is cut out using the top of a pot and resembles a modest
figure 8.
It's brushed with olive oil and the fish goes in the center, surrounded by the
partially cooked vegetables.
Then it's folded with the edges crimped.
These go into a 350-degree oven on a baking sheet...takes maybe 15 minutes and
then I put them under the broiler for maybe a minute or two.
We launched the festivities with a bottle of old vintage-dated Champagne.
We've had this for ages and the first bottle we opened was odd, being oxidized
and something akin to sparkling Amontillado Sherry.
We did not open another bottle until a couple of years ago and were pleasantly
surprised that the wine was not oxidized.
The base wine is pretty good, but it's lost a bit of effervescence.
Tonight's bottle was good, happily.
You can see its color has deepened and there is not a lot of fizz.
After wetting our whistles with the Lenoble 1996 Champagne we
sat down to dine.
I had purchased a bottle of the brand new vintage of Velenosi Pecorino from the
Offida appellation in Italy's Marche region.
We greatly enjoyed the 2023 and were delighted to find the 2024 to be as
exceptional with some pineapple spice notes and a fair bit of grapefruity,
citrusy character.
It's very fruit and dry.
The salmon was but lightly smoked and it was seasoned with garlic.
This was a light and tasty start to the evening.
We then opened a bottle of 2010 J.J. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich
Spätlese Riesling.
The color had deepened with aging but there was lovely fruit with touches of
exotic fruits such as papaya and mango.
The fruit was front and center on the nose and palate with a mild minerally
tone.
The contents of the seafood packet were cooked just right and the fish was
tender and succulent.
The contribution of the Jalapeño was noticeable and worked beautifully with the
wine, obscuring a measure of sweetness in the Riesling.
It was a terrific pairing as it turned out.
I don't follow a recipe, simple seasoning things at the spur of the moment.
Nicht schlecht as they say in German.
Kareasa then set about opening the two reds, a pair of Syrah wines, both from
the 2013 vintage.
Our marinade for the lamb featured garlic, mustard and Herbs de Provence with a
good olive oil.
The chops were brushed with this mix and left for a day in the 'fridge.
We then heated up our grill pan for the lamb.
Small potatoes were roasted in the oven and we had a little stir-fry of
Asparagus & Mushrooms.
The two red wines were very good.
The Proper 2013 Walla Walla Estate Syrah is still a youthful and sturdy bottle!
It was a showy wine in its youth and has held up beautifully with good color and
bright, blackberryish fruit. There's a brown spice tone to this as well.
Medium+ bodied and fairly smooth.
The Jamet 2013 Côte-Rôtie was excellent displaying some red fruits and an
underlying white pepper spiciness. It is showing signs of maturity but
it's likely on a plateau and can be held maybe another decade.
These were two really good bottles and they paired handsomely with the lamb.
Dessert was a hazelnut/chocolate ice cream.
The cookie was from Burlingame's Copenhagen Bakery.
We greatly enjoyed this dining experience.
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