Hell in a Bucket!

 
Anyone can cook up some pasta, toss it with Italian dressing from a jar, and drag it to a pasta night potluck. And then take it home because no-one eats any. But Rebbecca throws in perfectly blanched, fresh green beans and serves it in a pink bucket - cleverly disguising the fact that it cost $3 and took 14 minutes. Presentation is everything!

Fork You, Part 2

 

So this is what the Pasta with Vidalia Onion Sauce looks like as a finished product, at least if you choose to serve in a a cheesy chartreuse melamine bowl. Which you'd do if you were bringing it to a pool where glass isn't allowed.

This time I used 1/2 Chevre, 1/2 crumbled Feta. Better than the original - the saltiness of the Feta is a nice addition.

The Crossings Sauvignon Blanc (06), always a great deal, is a perfect complement to the pasta. There's enough fruitiness - kiwi maybe - to play off the sweetness of the vidalias without getting cloying, and the mineral and sweet pea undertones of the wine go great with the thyme, parsley, and the veggy notes of the onion. This is one of the great wine bargains out there IMHO - a standard bearer for NZ SB, like Cloudy Bay, but at less than half the price. For both of these wines, 03 was a stellar year which the last 2 bottlings didn't quite live up to. However, the 06 Crossings might well (haven't tried the 06 Cloudy Bay yet).

Fork you!

On June 25^th of 1630, the fork was introduced to the colonies by John Winthrop, the then governor of Massachusetts. This was huge. Without the fork the repertoire of sports announcers and trash talking athletes would be light a crucial cliché when there was a decisive event late in a contest. We’d also be forced to say there’s a “Y” in the road, so giving directions would frequently degrade into an Abbott and Costello skit: “Why in the road? Cause I’m trying to get to Albuquerque.” And you’d look totally uncool eating spaghetti. Chopsticks are OK for short distances (which is why the invention of the takee-outee carton was also huge as it not only provides transport from the restaurant but also a perfect container to elevate noodles closer to your mouth). To get all the way from the table you’re at distinct risk of staining your shirt, and if the noodles do make it to your mouth some will invariably hang out, which makes you look like a slob and necessitates uncouth slurping to finish the job. With the fork you can twirl your pasta and get it cleanly and couthly into your mouth.

Even though it was nearly 400 years ago we know the precise date because Governor Winthrop obsessively journalled his travels and travails. If he was around now he’d have a great blog. He documented his journey across the Atlantic in 1630 in fabulous detail. And lots of other interesting things. Like the death of a pervert in 1640: “A wicked fellow, given up to bestiality fearing to be taken by the hand of justice, fled to Long Island, and there was drowned. He confessed to some that he was so given up to that abomination that he never saw any beast go before him but he lusted after it.” And the conviction and hanging of a supposed witch (Margaret Jones of Charlestown), for a slew of reasons including being able to spontaneously grow extra tits (!!!): “she had (upon search) an apparent teat in her secret parts as fresh as if it had been newly sucked, and after it had been scanned, upon a forced search, that [teat] was withered and another began on the opposite side.” That trial would have made a great YouTube.

In honor of the day: a spaghetti recipe that takes advantage of the fact that Vidalia onion are at their peak, and that would be just about impossible to eat without a fork.

Pasta with Vidalia Onion Sauce

1.5 pounds spaghetti or other long pasta
4 large Vidalia onions
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chicken stock; plus additional
1 Tablespoon sugar
8 ounces goat cheese
1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
Parmesan-Reggiano for grating
S&P

Chop 2 of the onions into chunks coarsely; slice the other 2 thinly. Sweat the chopped onions in a tablespoon of oil until tender and translucent; about 5 minutes. Puree in food processor with the stock; add more if you need to get a good sauce consistency.

Saute remaining onions with the rest of the oil and the sugar over medium hear for about 20 minutes until they’re nicely brown and caramelized.

Reheat the sauce gently, cook and drain the pasta, and add it to the sauce and let it heat through for a few minutes. Crumble in the goat cheese, add the thyme, and mix to get the cheese somewhat melted but still a bit chunky. Transfer to a platter, top with the caramelized onions, sprinkle with the parsley, and grate some parmesan over the top.

A Curveball

Why didn't we do hot dogs and beer last night? Cause Phil always brings great wines from his cellar that hot dogs wouldn't do justice to. So what does he turn up with? The 2 wines on the left - Trader Joes specials. Cause his cellar's already packed.

The Contadino Pino Grigio was OK; generic white wine with no remarkable qualities one way or the other. The Cantina Zaccagnini was awful. Sort of like red water with a crappy aftertaste. The Pinossimo, some gifted wine from my grab bag rack, was marginally acceptable as an apertif.

To go with the ribs we grabbed my last bottle of '02 Shotfire. God that's great wine. Inky, complex, chocolaty, lots of blackberry and pepper, just fabulous. And it's all gone. Sniff.

The 2004 Torbreck Woodcutters Shiraz was fine. Jammy cherry with a real spiciness and peppery finish. As I recall about a $20 bottle and if so it's a solid deal.

The ribs were smoked baby backs, with a finishing sauce. On a scale of 1 to 10, these were an 11. The sauce was a new one and it was a home run - concept was a basic sweet BBQ sauce with the addition of 2 of the things I think best complement pork: peanuts and black beans. This is so good I'm not even sure I want to share it. But I will cause I'm that kind of guy.

Peanut Butter Black Bean BBQ Sauce

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons fermented black beans
½ cup molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Colemans mustard powder
2 jalapenos, chopped fine
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup red wine
Salt and freshly ground pepper

The Birth of Baseball

161 years ago today the first organized baseball game was played in Hoboken between the Knickerbockers and – how’s this for a catchy name – the New York Base Ball Club. The Knickerbockers got crushed 23-1 – in a 4 inning game!. Sounds like a New York Knick basketball game from last season.

That had to be a pretty boring game. In fact the games had to pretty boring for another 35 years – because they didn’t serve beer at the ballpark yet. Face it - the raison d’etre for regular season baseball is to give you an excuse to sit outside on a nice summer day, drink beer and eat dogs. It wasn't until 1881 that an enterprising St.Louis saloon keeper called Chris Von der Ahe bought the St. Louis Brown Stockings so he could sell beer at their game (the owners had previously refused him permission). You can read about that here. Brilliant! Lore says he was also the first to introduce hot dogs at ball games, in 1893. And further that he’d sit in a special owners box behind 3^rd base with a whistle to get players attention or signal someone to get him a beer.

I’m putting Mr. Von der Ahe on my list of departed I’d like to meet should it turn out there is an afterlife, he and I are in the same place, and they have networking events there.

We’re having folks over tonight and while it’s tempting to celebrate the birth or baseball with dogs and beer that’s not in the cards. We’re graciously helping clear out my friend Phil’s awesome wine cellar before he moves next week, and hot dogs just won’t do justice to anything we're likely to drink. More on the menu later.

Lobster and Tacos!

In a classic Simpsons episode (really I guess they all are), Moe requests the restaurants finest food stuffed with the second finest. To which the waiter responds "Good choice sir, that's lobster stuffed with tacos!" Brilliant! That's the essence of this blog - combining the simple and not so simple pleasures of life - with a twist.

I'm an avid amateur cook who's been told by dozens of people to open a restaurant, I think not because my food is good (although it is, at least usually) but because I'm always looking for a new angle to avoid the mundane and trite. I think it's easy to cook good food - but it's hard to find things that are new. Here Savarin was right on the money: The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star. That's what this is all about: creative food (like Lobster stuffed with Tacos!), interesting drinks, and diversions from the everyday.