In the Kitchen with DKDetective and InCali: All Things Food, Wine, and Spirits, Etc.

[DKDetective]

Fascinating. I would love to see more and more Holstein beef. It is excellent quality and using steers from the dairy industry would reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions from maintaining a separate beef cattle industry.

 

[DKDetective]

Since @InCali has failed miserably to pick up the slack while I was on parental leave, here is a slew of food porn for you all:


Harissa-Blackened Rack of Lamb with Mustard Yogurt Sauce and Vegetable Mosaic


Homard Grille with Beurre Cancalaise
and Rice Pilaf


Filet Mignon with Shallot Sauce and Sauteed Cremini Mushrooms


Roast Saddle of Lamb with Jus and Gratin Forezien


Bistecca Fiorentina with Sauteed Spinach


"Porcini and Pauillac Lamb": Rack of Lamb with Porcini Dust Persillade Crust, Mushroom-Infused Bordelaise Sauce, Sauteed Mushrooms, Garlic Confit, and Gratin Savoyard


Entrecote Dix Sur Dix with Pommes Gaufrettes


Entrecote Bordelaise with Pommes Frites

 

[InCali]

Don't nobody speak good English around here?

I've been dealing with some family issues myself, but guilty as charged. I can, however, pronounce buffalo wings, guacamole, artichoke/spinach dip, shrimp cocktail and other Super Bowl finger food. I guess everything sounds better if you don't know what it means?? It all looks pretty damn good though......

I think we should really be pointing fingers at @MissMarvelous . All she's been doing is lollygagging around and breaking people's ankles over minor misunderstandings.

 

[DKDetective]

Don't nobody speak good English around here?

I've been dealing with some family issues myself, but guilty as charged. I can, however, pronounce buffalo wings, guacamole, artichoke/spinach dip, shrimp cocktail and other Super Bowl finger food. I guess everything sounds better if you don't know what it means?? It all looks pretty damn good though......

I think we should really be pointing fingers at @MissMarvelous . All she's been doing is lollygagging around and breaking people's ankles over minor misunderstandings.

Sorry to hear you are still having a tough time with your mother. I hope she is doing okay. Speaking of family issues, we lost Snoodini's furry brother to FIV this week. It has been a symphony of wailing tears all night every night between her and our other cat.

But here they were enjoying some food during happier times:

Spoiler

Yes, Daddy's Little Carnivore is triple fisting lamb ribs here. While a glutton, she does know how to share:

 

[InCali]

Sorry to hear you are still having a tough time with your mother. I hope she is doing okay. Speaking of family issues, we lost Snoodini's furry brother to FIV this week. It has been a symphony of wailing tears all night every night between her and our other cat.

But here they were enjoying some food during happier times:

Spoiler

View attachment 62149 Yes, Daddy's Little Carnivore is triple fisting lamb ribs here. While a glutton, she does know how to share:
View attachment 62150

I wish I was still having a tough time. My mom passed away and, looking back, it seems like taking care of her was like taking up residence in the Garden of Eden. I've mainly been trying to navigate contractor, trust, and assessor issues. Anyway, I'm okay. I miss her terribly and spending the last 3 years of her life with her was really a blessing, but it probably made her passing that much harder.

Nobody gets out of life alive and life does go on. It probably hit me harder than anyone in my family, but I'm okay with moving forward. I was at her side when she passed and a couple of her beloved doggies were curled up at her feet. Very peaceful, painless and about as good a way to go as there is. She had clearly made peace. Just two days before she was up in bed laughing and talking with her grand and great grandchildren. After that, she just didn't want to keep going on.

 

[DKDetective]

I wish I was still having a tough time. My mom passed away and, looking back, it seems like taking care of her was like taking up residence in the Garden of Eden. I've mainly been trying to navigate contractor, trust, and assessor issues. Anyway, I'm okay. I miss her terribly and spending the last 3 years of her life with her was really a blessing, but it probably made her passing that much harder.

Nobody gets out of life alive and life does go on. It probably hit me harder than anyone in my family, but I'm okay with moving forward. I was at her side when she passed and a couple of her beloved doggies were curled up at her feet. Very peaceful, painless and about as good a way to go as there is. She had clearly made peace. Just two days before she was up in bed laughing and talking with her grand and great grandchildren. After that, she just didn't want to keep going on.

I'm so sorry for your loss, InCali. I apologize if I missed you mention it around here. I haven't been been on very consistently the last year. I'm glad you two had such quality time towards the end and that she passed so peacefully surrounded by family, that is the most we can all hope for.

 

[MissMarvelous]

New Don't nobody speak good English around here?

I'M TRYING!!!

I think we should really be pointing fingers at @MissMarvelous . All she's been doing is lollygagging around and breaking people's ankles over minor misunderstandings.

Lolly what?

The ankle thing, yeah... sorry for that.

So, what's for dessert?

 

[InCali]

I'm so sorry for your loss, InCali. I apologize if I missed you mention it around here. I haven't been been on very consistently the last year. I'm glad you two had such quality time towards the end and that she passed so peacefully surrounded by family, that is the most we can all hope for.

No worries over here. Thanks. I guess life happens outside The Hype LOL

 

[InCali]

I'M TRYING!!!


Lolly what?

The ankle thing, yeah... sorry for that.

So, what's for dessert?

Well, you SHOULD be sorry....that hurt like hell.

Your English is fine.....lollygag....wandering....aimlessly.....being idle and not keeping up the integrity of the thread.

We're all very disappointed.

 

[DKDetective]

We kicked it very old school last night for Family Day here in Canada with a menu of classics from Fernand Point at La Pyramide:

"Filet of Beef from the Banks of the Rhone": Roast Beef Tenderloin with Tarragon Mustard Butter, Stuffed Mushrooms, and True Gratin Dauphinois. Paired with a 2014 Cornas Syrah from the Rhone Valley.

Point was the greatest French chef of the first half of the 20th Century, who trained an entire generation of great chefs. He was the primary model for Chef Gusteau in Ratatouille. Here are a few pearls of wisdom from Chef Point, some of which will like give @InCali a heart attack:

"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."

"When I stop in a restaurant I don't know, I always ask to shake hands with the chef before the meal. I know if he is thin, I'll probably eat poorly. And if he is both thin and sad, the only hope is in flight."

"Butter! Give me butter! Always butter!"

"Before judging a thin man, one must get some information. Perhaps he was once fat."

"Cookbooks are alike as brothers. The best is the one you write yourself."

"A good apprentice cook must be as polite with the dishwasher as with the chef."

"The duty of a good chef is to transmit to the generations who will replace him everything he has learned and experienced."

 

[MissMarvelous]

I think we have discussed this on a few occasions, but how much do you guys pay for a *good* bottle of wine?

And besides the price and vineyard: what do you pay attention to? (For example: I check that the lavel reads: estate grown and bottled)

 

[InCali]

My wife and I went away for a few days for her birthday and are staying at a hotel near the ocean.

We had breakfast by the pool the other day with a bottle of champagne. I got scrambled eggs and potatoes. The potatoes were really good. I think what they did was boiled some small gold potatoes. After they are soft, they season them pretty heavily (salt, parsley, etc), smash them and fry them until crispy. They were really, really good. Crispy on the outside and nice and soft in the middle. You kind of peel off the crispy skin and some of the soft inside comes with it. I need to try that at home.

 

[MissMarvelous]

My wife and I went away for a few days for her birthday and are staying at a hotel near the ocean.View attachment 62490

We had breakfast by the pool the other day with a bottle of champagne. I got scrambled eggs and potatoes. The potatoes were really good. I think what they did was boiled some small gold potatoes. After they are soft, they season them pretty heavily (salt, parsley, etc), smash them and fry them until crispy. They were really, really good. Crispy on the outside and nice and soft in the middle. You kind of peel off the crispy skin and some of the soft inside comes with it. I need to try that at home.

Happy birthday, Mrs InCali!!! Looks like a beautiful place to spend a very special day.

May she have a great year!

 

[DKDetective]

I think we have discussed this on a few occasions, but how much do you guys pay for a *good* bottle of wine?

And besides the price and vineyard: what do you pay attention to? (For example: I check that the lavel reads: estate grown and bottled)

I typically pay $15-$35 USD for a good bottle of wine. The more expensive tends to be the fuller bodied reds. Lighter whites tend to be easier to find cheaper in my experience.

But Canada is not really a winemaking country so you have to factor in imports and those prices also include our domestic sales taxes and the like. I expect that in a wine growing country like Argentina you can get great local wines for a good deal less.

Other things to look for are a vintage year. Wines from a particular year tend to be higher quality than a wine from a mix of different years, which will not be explicitly stated on the label.

The other things I look for is I look for wines that are from a good vintage from the region where it was grown. Some years are better than others. Wine Spectator and other publications have convenient vintage charts that tell you this info:
Vintage Charts | Wine Spectator
The vintage charts are also useful because they tell you if a wine is ready to drink or not. Good red wines take time in bottle to age and reach maximum potential. A good Cabernet is often like rocket fuel just after being bottled as the tannins need time to settle down and mellow. Generally speaking, never drink red wines less than three years old or white wines over three years old. Really good whites can age for longer and there are some reds that drink really well young, but they are exceptions.

Next, I look for wines with good scores from critics I trust. For me that is typically Wine Spectator, Decanter, and James Suckling. I have subscriptions to their websites so I have full access to their review databases.

However, a lot of vineyards will actually put stickers on the bottle advertising the score or the store will post that information on the shelf. Here, we have a government run monopoly on liquor stores (a result of prohibition here), and it publishes catalogues for the new wine releases every two weeks and they will often give the scores for wines in the catalogue.

So in short, if I see a red wine from the Left Bank of the Bordeaux, France from the year 2010 for only $30 USD, with a score over 90/100 from Wine Spectator, that is an easy buy for me because 2010 was the vintage of the decade for Bordeaux, it is old enough to drink well, and it has a good review from a critic I trust.

About as clear as mud?