Matching food and wine

Hi

Hope this topic can keep going for a while -

I am looking for a suggestion for a food to serve with "a young Margaux." Everything I see tells me what to drink with a mature Margaux!

The wine is a Chateau Mongravey 2001

I'm thinking roast chicken or other bird (perhaps game? duck?) with wild rice pilaf - nothing fancy, just some herbs under the skin and herbs and onions in the cavity.

Thanks in advance

LeeK

Leek,

This is a dinner that I made that I think would be good with a young red. I designed the recipe around some products that I had ordered from Dartagnan (Guinea Hens, Truffle Butter and Goose Fat). It's easy and such a great payout for such a small amount of effort. You could substitute a chicken, but the succulence and mild game flavor of the guinea hen is worth seeking out. I have seen them at both Whole Foods and Fox and Obel.

Truffeled Guinea Hens w/ Crispy Potatoes and Braised Vegetables

Guinea hen
Truffle Butter
Salt/Pepper
Thyme
Belgian Endive
Brussel Sprouts
Shitake Mushrooms
Shallots
Veal Stock/Chicken stock
Duck or Goose Fat
Small white creamer potatoes

Season Guinea Hen lightly at least 3 hours ahead of time.

Meanwhile, boil potatoes in a big pot of salted water until cooked through. Cool slightly, and then peel. Coat with duck fat, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Preheat the oven and a large cast iron skillet (or roasting pan) to 375 degrees. 30 minutes before cooking time, lard the birds generously with truffle butter, place thyme (and whatever other aromatics you might want) in the cavity of the bird. Truss and return birds to the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes (so that butter firms a bit).

Melt a little duck fat in the preheated skillet and line the edges with the prepared potatoes. Roast the birds in the same skillet for the following time periods:
15 minutes on the right wing/thigh side
15 minutes on the left wing/thigh side
15 minutes breast side up or until an internal thermometer reads 145-150
Make sure to rotate your potatoes at the same time you are turning your bird. After you take the bird out, let it rest, loosely tented under aluminum foil for 10 minutes.

For braised vegetables keep all vegetables whole. In a large Dutch oven, sear vegetables in olive oil until they just begin to caramelize. Season with salt, and then add liquid (half chicken/half veal stock) until it reaches about halfway up the vegetables. Then place a lid made out of parchment paper right on top of vegetables and braise/simmer for about 30-40 minutes. The parchment paper lid should keep the liquid from completely drying out, but if things start getting to dry, just add a few tablespoons of water. If desired, remove vegetables from the liquid and reduce braising liquid to desired sauce-like consistency. (Want to guild the lily? Mount the sauce with a little truffle butter.

Your potatoes and bird should be burnished brown and the potatoes will have been basted by the guinea hen/and truffle butter juices. Your vegetables should be soft, but caramelized.

Cheers,

Kristina

A bordeaux that young is liable to be quite tannic, so you might want to stick to the gamier end of the spectrum. My favorite big red wine food is Grilled duck breast cooked rare, so there is plenty of fat and blood for the wine to cut through. I wouldnt do too herbal a preparation, since the wine will probably still be a bit herbal, and you dont want too much conflict.
-Will

Stop! Don't do it. It's child abuse to drink a Margaux that young.



Actually, I subscribe to a theory espoused by the Wall Street wine folks, John and Dotty. They like to drink these wines over a long period of time, tasting them from the uncorking until gone. Others may decant and allow the wine to open up and lose a bit of bite.

I might start out with a gamier first or second course, maybe goat cheese in a salad, perhaps some BBQ lamb ribs for an appetizer...but, I think you are right on course with the roast chicken at the end. While I agree with WillG's point on the herbal note, my guess would be that the floral herbaceous notes are quite volatile and stand a good chance of having disappeared or diminished by the third or fourth course, when you are left with more prominent tobacco and woodsy notes. However, he is spot on about the tannins. Need some cream sauce with the chicken or maybe a creamed vegetable.

Just guessing here, I would love to hear about the outcome.

I got a guinea hen at Whole Paycheck, and will have creme fraiche, so I can cream the veggies if necessary (was planning to serve it over berries for dessert). I'll go easy on the herbs and make my wild rice pilaf and braise/saute' some leeks and brussels sprouts.

We got a bunch of this wine, and David wants to see how well it travelled (and make sure it's OK and all that)

Thanks for the great ideas!

I spotted this inquiry perhaps a bit too late. The fowl and wine may already be consumed. If its not too late, the wine would come around a bit faster if you decant it about an hour or two before dinner.

The wine was young, but a lot of swirling etc. got it into good shape. It will be fantastic in a few years!

For dessert I made those chocolate cakes with the soft center you serve hot. Yum!

Leek, Hopefully, you serving a Banyuls with your melting chocolate center cake. It's a perfect match.

I will remember the Banyuls tip - we didn't end up the meal with wine, just dessert.

So, to make the hen, I stuffed it with halved garlic, a bay leaf, leeks, lemon slices, and my home-made "Essence of Emeril." I rubbed it with butter and sprinkled the Essence all over. I set it in a casserole on a bed of leeks with some white wine and 1/2 a cut up tomato in the bottom and carrots around it. I roasted it at 450 for 15 mins, then put in 1/2 cup of brown stock and covered it, turned down to 350 and cooked for an hour. At one point I opened the casserole (which was not very air tight, so it didn't steam) and basted it with the juices.

It was tasty! [/i]

to expand on this topic:

I'm heading to Wholly Frijoles on Sat. Since it's BYOB, what style wine(s) should I bring to pair with Mexican fare? As I understand it, the menu is has more depth than the typical taqueria.

We're also probably bringing beer and have that covered, so wine-only recommendations are preferred.

LTH,

Speaking of wine parings, we had a few people over for Easter dinner, standing rib roast direct over lump charcoal with oak and apple wood, roast potatoes a la Mike G, asparagus and a few more things to make a nice dinner, including wine. We had a bottle of this and a bottle of that, but with the meat I served a 98 Banfi Brunello, I bought a few last month when Sam's had 20% off Italian wine.

Obviously, the Brunello was quite nice with the beef, but the real kick was the way it went with our chocolate cake for dessert. The cake, an Easter Egg shaped chocolate devils food with truffle cream from Rolf's was good, not great. Cake was just slightly dry/crumbly, truffle cream a wee bit sweet, but all was quickly forgiven when I took a sip of wine with the chocolate cake.

Sometimes after a lengthy meal, especially with rich/smoked foods, I get a bit of palate fatigue and would just as soon have sparkling water or a cup of coffee rather than dessert, but this was really a wonderful combination. Something about this particular chocolate cake and the Brunello really seemed to pop.

Yes, I've had red wine and chocolate, in fact one New Years we attempted to do a Piron/Marley/Vosges red wine taste test, though as this was conducted well after midnight, and I didn't know if I was afoot or horseback, results are still pending.

Chocolate cake and red wine, highly recommended.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sam's Wine

Rolf's Patisserie
4343 W Touhy Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
847-982-9400

Absolutely. I'm often nursing my last glass of red when the plates are cleared. Especially with a long multi-wine dinner. I happily hang onto the red straight through dessert and enjoy it. I'm not sure I would necessarily go into patisserie with a bottle of Brunello under my arm and just do the cake and wine, but as part of the whole dinner progress, I love it.

And, come to think of it, I've never been that crazy about dessert with dessert wines. I tend to find the combo redundant and cloying. The sugars in the wine, and the plain old refined cane sugar in the dessert don't help each other, IMHO. I prefer dessert wine as dessert.

I've also had Italians cluck their tongues and arch their dark eyebrows because I drink coffee with dessert. So American. I don't know whether it's the dessert of the coffee they feel is hurt by this, but I find the bitterness and roasted flavors accent a sweet dessert perfectly. I am resolutely non-continental in this regard. (I look to Antonius for the Old World rebuttal.)

mrbarolo wrote:Absolutely. I'm often nursing my last glass of red when the plates are cleared. Especially with a long multi-wine dinner. I happily hang onto the red straight through dessert and enjoy it ...

And, come to think of it, I've never been that crazy about dessert with dessert wines. I tend to find the combo redundant and cloying... I prefer dessert wine as dessert.

I fear I might be slipping and becoming far too agreeable but I can't disagree with myself and myself agrees with you on all the above points. Wine with sweets in the post-prandial mode is a perfect combination (wine with breakfast is good too but that's another matter). I, who do not especially have a sweet-tooth, sometimes love to have a dessert wine but then in lieu of an actual dessert.

I've also had Italians cluck their tongues and arch their dark eyebrows because I drink coffee with dessert. So American. I don't know whether it's the dessert of the coffee they feel is hurt by this, but I find the bitterness and roasted flavors accent a sweet dessert perfectly. I am resolutely non-continental in this regard. (I look to Antonius for the Old World rebuttal.)

tsk tsk tsk... beh, che posso dire?

No, in all seriousness, I hadn't ever really thought about this issue too much but in my family (i.e., chez père et mère), espresso comes out separately from dessert. After a big Italian meal, sometimes we have espresso (and digestifs, maybe also nuts, fruit) and then, when some room in the digestive tract has been found, dessert comes out. On other occasions, dessert is followed by the espresso. But then again, with Italian meals, an actual dessert is often not present. Chez nous, Amata Antoniusque, we usually don't drink coffee at night; only once in a while I break out my briki and have Greek coffee sans dessert.

For me, personally, I like espesso on its own (perhaps with a shot of Vecchia Romagna ) but coffee either American style or, better still, Northern European style and especially Belgian style served together with sweets is a nice combination. Indeed, the Belgian/Dutch/German/Scandinavian sweet meal, with different cakes and pies, demands coffee.

But espresso requires its own stage.

So then, I'm a swine, but a multicultural swine...


A

I find that the only thing that I find a foil for dessert wines are good non-sweet biscotti. Give me a few almond biscotti and a nice glass of vin santo at the end of a good meal, and I'm a happy gal.

Champagne is lovely with fruit or sorbet, but coffee is the way to go with chocolate, for sure.

Me too, with the sweet dessert and coffee. I like to have them together. In general I am just not a fan of sweet wines, but on their own as dessert they are fine, or complementing a savory like Foie Gras.