The Focus of the last few posts has been on what we are hunting and eating with little emphasis on what we’ve been drinking. And while the point of this blog is to encourage others (and show what fun it is) to hunt, dive, cook, and eat, all of that to me is just a means to an end. Giving a man a fish, so to speak, instead of the higher ideal of strengthening relationships. Whether the relationship is with ourselves, with Earth, with God, or with others. It doesn’t really matter, and hopefully will encompass all of the above. To me, eating food and drinking wine is like Love and Marriage (Al Bundy was one of my heroes) in the respect that the two are bonds that attract. And I thought about this for a bit – though I made many “friends” because I shared my cheetos as a kid, stronger bonds were created with bacardi 151 rubbing alcohol. It’s possible in many respects drinking brings people closer together than food. Unless you’re a Siamese twin in which case it wouldn’t so much matter. You share your shit…
Think how pissed Santa would be moving his fat ass down the chimney and to get soy milk with the chocolate chip cookies… Or batshit crazy I would be simply eating Tiramisu, with no port!@#!@#!
To that end, I wanted to highlight some of the bottles that have stood out this week, along with food. <3.
Le Serre Nuove del Ornellaia 2006 Bolgheri Rosso – This was a really nice Rosso – Ornellaia’s second growth wine still shined beautifully in the midst of errant boar parts flying around the kitchen. It was beautiful – butchering boar, drinking this.
With the continuity of drinking and eating, Ori and I did a private menu for some peeps, excellent restaurateurs. I’ve cooked in crappy kitchens (MINE with an electric stove – think you’re a good chef? come cook on this rinkydink thing), (my portable stove, which is AWESOME), and professional kitchens. The challenge of cooking elsewhere is not just the challenge of a different space – there is the challenge akin to a smart maître d’ – knowing how to entertain, but excusing yourself and being professional, putting your head down and working. That is the service front – on the food front, because we are food snobs, we taste everything, and if it’s not perfect for our liking, we don’t serve it for diners unless it’s just an experimental thing (practically every dinner at my place. Sorry, friends).
Before the action begins…taste testing the ingredients:
awesome bread, country style italian loaf, homemade duck prosciutto
Our cooking area w/ Ori & a housekeeper. So essential to cooking well! (clean area)
Drinking early on in the dinner is a sleep inducer. My view from the kitchen as the host poured us wine (more to come later)
Let’s start with the first course of the menu, shall we? Wet Scrambled eggs, country bread, w/ Perigord truffles
Moving onto wild Boar loin, rolled, flash seared, rare. Going back to a previous point on perfection: tried this sliced large (though thin) but the texture was not perfect, & so decided to cut it up smaller to mix with parsley, shallots, lemon, and make Tonnato sauce. (homemade mayonnaise with Mediterranean tuna…yum!)
the final preparation included the homemade country bread so there was a textural contrast. it was divine. So addicting someone requested to get 4 pounds to go. He got his wish. 🙂
the next step was to prepare pizzas; the menu was composed in such a way as to never be backed up and never have anyone waiting for food. So, a bread with scrambled eggs and truffles, then a cold tartare on bread, then pizzas. The pizzas in the restaurant “Bestia” will be cooked in a 900 degree wood burning oven – in order to get the highest temperature we used the broiler in the home oven. Then, cold salad, warm salad, and pastas.
After starting with a margherita, did a homemade pancetta, scallions, ricotta pizza
Perigord Truffle Pizza. Are we in Heaven yet?
The preparation of the octopus is so tender after braising for multiple hours. Then to crust it with garlic-parsley breadcrumbs for a crispy exterior is essential once you have it. It’s the brûlée to the crème. Get it?
Warm Grilled Octopus salad w/ fingerling potatos, celery, then add grilled tomatoes
I missed some pictures here and there, so here is the menu
- Scrambled eggs w/ black truffles country style loaf
- Wild boar(cinghiale) tonnato (vitello tonnato is one of my favorite dishes, but wild boar tonnato outshines) 🙂
- Homemade Pizza- Margherita
- Homemade Pizza- Home cured pancetta, scallions, homemade ricotta cheese
- Homemade Pizza- ricotta and Perigord Truffles!
- Homecured duck Prosciutto salad, mâché crispy duckskin, sherry vinaigrette
- Grilled Octopus salad, fingerling potato, red wine vinegar, celery, red onion, citrus vinaegrette.
- Bucatini w/ Italian sundried tomato, & red mullet roe (bottarga)
- Cocoa powder tagliatelle (shot and butchered in house) wild boar Russian Boar Ragu
- Lemon tart w/ whipped cream & bitter chocolate cookie
I think seafood will bring this a nice change of pace 😉 tomorrow.
-E