While the thrust of The Naked Vine is largely inexpensive
wines, I’ll admit that I don’t “live on bread alone.” I have a wine cellar,
although it’s not some cavernous 3,000 bottle temperature-controlled, hermetically-sealed,
heavily-fortified safe room. My closet down in “Le Bistro Below”does provide
protection, though, for a few bottles that fall outside my typical price range.
While every day wine is good for every day, once in a while, you’ve just got to
dig into that special stash…
Nine weeks.
That’s how long the kitchen remodel took. Nine weeks made
manageable by the seating area in the Bistro and a makeshift kitchen that we cobbled
together using the washer/dryer as a countertop, the utility sink, a steamer, a
microwave, a single-element burner, a slow cooker, and the grill. Honestly, we
ate pretty well, but we were plenty ready to cook on an actual stove again.
For comparison's sake, a few "befores..."
And what a stove we now have. A big thumbs up to The Howland Group for doing such a
wonderful job on the remodel. They were as professional, organized, and on task
as we could have wanted. The final product was (at least so far!) everything we
wanted.
So...without further ado...
(Pretty cool, no?)
Celebration time, then! We cooked a few meals in the new
kitchen to get a feel. Like any new restaurant opening – chefs need to get used
to their new equipment, right? It didn’t take long. The Sweet Partner in Crime
had done a wonderful job designing placements for our utensils, pans, and prep
stuff. Everything in easy reach, especially with the new island. We worked out
the kinks and decided to have our “grand opening” meal.
The most important question, of course, was what wine to
have. We figured we’d be able to put together a menu around it. We descended to
the catacombs and came up with:
Roederer Estate 2002
L’Ermitage Brut
We’d picked up this bottle of bubbly on our 2010 trip to Mendocino
County.
It ran us around $50 and we intended to open it at New Year’s as a “10 year
vintage bubbly” thing, but there was too much Mod
Oz tastiness lying around. We decided we’d make it our “next special
occasion” wine, and this event certainly qualified.
Late afternoon last Friday, while taking a break from our
annual college hoops overdose, we put together a little appetizer plate of
items that go well with quality Methode
Champenoise sparkling wine. (“Methode Champenoise” is the method for making
Champagne…real Champagne…and other high-quality sparklers. Read more about that
here.)
We had some very salty Parmesan-esque cheese, toasted almonds, some crackers,
and some caviar. Yes, caviar. Like I said, it’s a special occasion.
We popped the cork and poured a little. The Roederer is one
extremely delicate sparkler. The flavor was feathery and creamy, with a little
toasted almond and apricot. Honestly, that’s as far as I’m going to go into the
tasting note. It was good. Just really, really good. With our little small
bites – I expected it to go well with everything, and it did. But honestly, we
thought it was better appreciated on its own.
At least at first.
Emboldened by the new Bosch cooktop, I wanted to overcome
one of my personal failings as a cook. I absolutely adore seared scallops, but
I’ve never been able to do them particularly well. I can be a pretty impatient
denizen of the kitchen, honestly – and I have an irrational fear of burning
things. Seared scallops are so tricky. Undercooked scallop isn’t appealing and
overcooked scallop tastes like Firestone. I was bound and determined to create
a great entrée for the remainder of the bubbles. And with that magical blue
flame crusting the little guys perfectly, I felt like Mario Batali’s scrawny
second cousin.
Alongside the scallops, I’d put together a can’t miss side –
my mushroom risotto. My ancestry may be German & Swedish, but I make as
mean a pot of risotto as any non-paisan
out there. A little truffle oil, a little of that grated salty cheese, a dash
of this, a smidge of that, and a whole lot of stirring yielded one of my best
batches ever.
To the table we went, bubbles in hand, lights low in the new
kitchen. Gazing at the new architecture, we dug into the little feast, sipped a
little bubbly and…
…
…
OK. Well, I’m supposed to describe this now? Best I can come
up with, although I’m going to sound like a total square referencing a movie
made wayyyyyy back in 1994:
We watched Pulp Fiction (yes, it came out in 1994…feelin’ old, buckaroos?) the other day. Recall
the scene where Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) goes to the bathroom in Jack Rabbit
Slim’s to…er…”powder her nose?” Do you remember her quote when she raises her
head?
 |
| "I said god DAMN!" |
Yeah, it was something like that. I mean, minus the cocaine.
It is a pretty bad ass kitchen. And it was a pretty kick ass meal.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…
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