Monthly Archives: June 2010
Shavuot with friends enjoying a Hamachi Sushi dinner and some Four Gate Wines
On this past Shavuot my wife and I prepared a sushi dinner for a crowd of 12. The work was crazy long because we bought super fresh Hamachi (yellow tail). The name yellow tail comes from the fish’s yellow tail, as can be seen on Wikipedia. The fish comes in different sizes, but we bought a 2+ kilo fish – which is about 4.3 pounds. I also bought some Sushi grade salmon to pair with the Hamachi. There is a very incorrect and unfortunate misconception that Hamachi is a tuna – it is NOT! Hamachi is actually an Amber Jack of the Jack family. Now the fish has two parts the back and the belly. The back is quite flavorful but not so rich in fatty oils. The belly on the other hand, is packed and dripping with oils, and it beyond compare.
Shavuot is famous for being the day when the Jews received the Torah from God. It is also famous for cheesecake and dairy foods. I am not a huge dairy food fan, but I do love cheesecake. So to compromise with my friends we make sushi and eat cheesecake! We have done the sushi night before, and I always remember why we do not do it more often, because it is a REAL PAIN to make it for 12 people. I love my friends, but my wife and I both spent a good 4 hours each preparing the fish. We are both experienced sushi hands, but breaking down that much fish and vegetable, cooking the rice, rolling the rolls, and preparing the accompaniments, is a real chore. Thank goodness that the gang shred both the price and work or gathering all the food stuff for this meal.
It starts with buying the freshest Hamachi you can find. We bought ours from the Japanese store, next to my work called Nijiya. I loved the store and the fresh fish. The folks were very nice and put up with me. I wanted to buy a 4+ pound Hamachi, NOT cut up or prepared, and they gladly let me do it, which was very nice. I broke the fish down at home, but wow the quality was OFF the charts! Well worth looking for them when you cannot make it to Mitsuwa in West San Jose.
Once the fish was skinned, boned, and separated, it was on to breaking down the vegetables (English Cucumber and avocado) into thin strips. Then cut up the Hamachi back into strips as well. At this point we are ready to roll the rolls. The rolling is quite simple, but doing 27 or so of them , takes some time.
I must say that pre-rolling was by far the best idea we have had when preparing sushi rolls or Sashimi for so many guests. Originally, we rolled and cut the rolls in front of our guests at the table (like we do for ourselves), but that is slow and painful, though cool. So the pre-rolling is a no brainer. However, we learned a new fact, cutting up sushi rolls is not so hard and many of the gang were happy to chip in and do the final slicing, so that left me sometime to actually taste the stuff. If there is one downside to all this work, is the stupid feeling that you are doing all this work, cutting up some 15 rolls, and getting to taste none of it, because the platter come back empty. Worse, is that by the time you cut up the next round of rolls, most of the folks have eaten, and you do not get a chance to enjoy the sushi with your friends. To fix this problem, we now have the simple plan or giving everyone (or whomever wants to help) 5 or so rolls, and have all the rolls cut up in no time, so that we can all enjoy the sushi together.
Once the sushi rolls are taken care of, we are on to the Sashimi. My platter did not look as nice as the ones on Wikipedia, but hey, it tasted darn good. Sashimi is all about fresh fish and good fish. Sashimi is raw fish cut into byte size pieces. However, the joy of Yellow Tail is the fatty belly. Once you eat that Sashimi style, you are not going back to Tuna any time soon. The oily goodness of the fresh Hamachi was off the charts and all the Sashimi disappeared in almost no time.
There was green salad, pickled ginger, and the sushi/sashimi. To pair with the fish, Benyo brought over some older Pinot and a vertical of the small bottles from the 12 barrels he had of his Four Gates 2000 Chardonnay vintage. The older Pinots were really nice, but they were already past their time, except for the recent N.V. which is awesome. The 2000 Chardonnay(s), were nice, but I really loved the super oaked version and the un-oaked version. It gave me a chance to taste the difference between oak and unoaked wines – of almost the exact same grapes – really cool and fun.
Overall an awesome event, sorry for no wine notes, but the wines were not really for note taking, but rather for entertainment value.
Lentil Rice Pilaf, Lemon & Pepper Roasted Chicken, Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc
The last time I was in Israel (for my Nephew’s wedding), I picked up some oily pilaf mix for rice from a spice dealer at the shuk. You can make it yourself, it is really simple. It is a combination of olive oil, raw lentils, dehydrated raw onions, and a couple of spices. The spices were not initially obvious, but the ones I could pick out were curry, cumin, paprika, and maybe cloves or ginger, though I could not be sure. Either way, we threw a cup of it into two cups of brown basmati rice, and it was ok, but it needed more of the mix, as the rice overpowered the minute amount of the pilaf mix. My wife made her famous lemon hot pepper chicken, and we had a nice relaxing shabbos.
To match the brown rice and lentil/onion pilaf, chicken, and fresh green salad, I opened a bottle of the Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc. I must say that I never really get tired of Goose Bay wines. They are a bit more expensive than when they came out, but they still keep a fine QPR (Quality to Price Ratio), and the ripe, floral, and perfumed nose and flavors of their wines, make them unique and wonderful to just enjoy.
The wine note follows below:
2007 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc – Score: B++
The nose on this light straw colored wine was hopping with ripe gooseberry, light petrol, lemon, green apple, lychee, melon, oak, and lemon/orange peel. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich with tart apple, lemon, gooseberry, and lychee. The mid palate is bright with bracing acid, light oak, and citrus peel. The finish is super long and tart, with lemon, gooseberry, and citrus peel lingering long on the palate after the wine is gone.
Parve French Onion Soup, Meat Lasagna, Roasted Green Beans, Spinach Kugel, and Many Kosher Red Wines
Some five weeks ago found my wife and I gathered around the table with our dear friends, good food and wine. Wow, the blog has been in the basement for a bunch of weeks, but hopefully we will get back into the swing of things soon. So now on to the food! We wanted to have some friends over that we did not see for sometime, and they brought over a guest from the east coast. The funny thing is that the guest did not eat certain foods, which foods – the VERY ingredients that we were using to make the courses that would grace our table. Thank goodness we had other menu items that met her food needs.
Anyway, the meal started with a Parve French Onion Soup. The core of this recipe came from a cookbook called Spice and Spirit, but the recipe in the cookbook called for too few onions, brown sugar, and no wine! So instead, I modified the recipe so that it looks more like what is found below. The recipe used to be a serious pain in the neck, because of the need to thinly slice the onions. Well that is easy now! How Because my wife bought me this wonderful contraption called a mandolin. The device is a God send! It easily makes quick work of 8-10 onions, which used to make me cry, and not just because of Syn-Propanethial-S-oxide. With the ability to easily slice onions, recipes like French Onion Soup, vegetable additives for you lox & bagel or burger, become a joy and almost a game, to see how thin and how nicely you can slice the onions! Thank you so much Oxo! Not only does the mandolin, it was cheap and stores away easily. The only con is that it does not slice tomatoes so well, and it cannot handle very large items, which should be avoided anyway, as on the average, the larger a vegetable gets, the less flavorful it becomes. A quick note, if you are sick of peeling and crushing garlic, get some of this stuff! It tastes great and is always waiting for you in your freezer, as long as you buy some! Trader Joes has some along with other supermarkets. Another note, this is an obvious twist on the classic French Onion Soup, but there is no animal product to be found, so no Gruyère cheese. However, in an attempt to mimic the cheese like consistency, we throw in rice, which when it swells up thickens the soup and gives it that sticky and gelatinous like structure.
Parve French Onion Soup
3 tbsp oil
8-10 thinly sliced white or sweet onions
3 tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried Oregano
2 tsp dried parsley
3 or 4 bay leaves
4 or more cloves of garlic (frozen is easiest)
1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
2 cups of red wine
4 cups of vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 a cup of brown rice
Put the oil in a Dutch oven and heat it up till the oil starts to shimmer. Then throw the sliced onions into the pot and sauté them till golden brown. One they are truly brown, add in the nectar and spices, and sauté for another 10 or so minutes, or until all the liquid is gone. Toss in the rest of the ingredients (except for the rice), and simmer for 30 or so minutes until the soup reduces by 20% or so. Then toss in the rice and cook for another 15 or so minutes or until the soup looks and moves semi-gelatinous.
The meal started off with a bottle of the 2006 Ella Valley Ever Red. A nice bottle, and one that is ready to drink up. It was followed by my wife’s not-classic (and THANK GOD for that) whole wheat challah. The challah did not survive past the soup course, which is par for the course, and totally appreciated by the table. We paired the 2008 Elvi Wines Matiz with the soup. The extreme acid base of the wine paired nicely with the tomato note high acid) soup. Normally, when pairing one wants to not fight fire with fire. However, that rule is only for extreme cases. For instance, when pairing spicy food with wine, I recommend you use a nice sweet yet acidic wine, like Hagafen White Riesling, which has enough acid and sweetness in harmonious balance to counteract hot peppers. However, when the flavor in the food is not as extreme as hot pepper or chocolate soufflé sweet, the correct course of action is to fight fire with a bit more or at least the same amount of fire. So, when enjoying a tomato based food like Tomato soup, that has no animal products in it (that help to balance the flavors), you are left with a tart/acidic soup whose best bet is to balance the flavors with a bit of sugar and starch. Still, the soup is still acid in nature, and is best paired with an acidic core wine, like almost any estate bottled red from Four Gates Winery (whose wines always have a natural acidity to them), or an Italian Chianti, or a lovely Tempranillo like the Matiz, which packs more than enough acid and tannins to keep up with the tomato soup.
For the second course we served meat lasagna, parve spinach quiche/kugel, roasted green beans, and a fresh green salad. The guest could not eat the lasagna or the spinach kugel, but she brought some chicken over for herself before shabbos. Some of our friends who joined us that evening do not eat meat, so we also made a lovely Quinoa Mushroom Pilaf – recipe below. To pair with this menu we opened two other bottles, a 2003 Château Labégorce-Zédé and a 2006 Castel Petite Castel, the wine notes are found below. making the meal was a blast as was the company.
Quinoa Onion Mushroom Pilaf
Sauté onions until golden brown and then sauté mushrooms until they have released most (but not all of their liquid). The excess liquid will be appreciated by the quinoa. Throw in salt, garlic, and some basil. Throw in 2 cups of quinoa, and let the quinoa soak up all the liquid and just start to toast. Then throw in a cup of white wine and then three cups of water, and let the quinoa cook till fluffy. Then let cool, and add oil, toasted almonds, and optionally some craisins to boot.
Wines notes follow below (listed in the order they were tasted):
2008 Elvi Wines Rioja Matiz – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine has raspberry, black cherry, rich plum, stone mineral, oak, herbs, and kirsch. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is rich and mouth coating with black cherry, kirsch, tart cherry, and raspberry. The mid palate is bright with heavy acid and not yet integrated tannins. The finish is spicy and long-lasting with black cherry, coffee, and nice tannins. NOTE: This wine has sediment, not sure why such a young wine has so much sediment, so keep the wine upright for a couple of days and make sure not to pour the wine till the last drop, as the last poor person, may get a slushy or chunky glass of wine.
2006 Ella Valley Cabernet-Merlot Ever Red – Score: B+ to A-
The nose on this dark garnet to mahogany colored wine starts with some blackberry that over time blows off, along with ripe raspberry, plum, oak, cherry, crushed spices, tobacco, and smoke. The mouth on this medium to full-bodied wine is ripe with soft caressing tannins that give the wine a fuller mouth, along with ripe raspberry, plum, and cherry. The mid palate is a bit fat though balanced with just enough acid and oak. The finish is long and smoky with ripe red fruit, tobacco, soft tannins, and oak. Drink up as this one is ready if not already on its way down, if only from its color and length of life in the glass.
2003 Château Labégorce-Zédé – Score: A-
The nose of this garnet colored wine is hopping with rich oak, truly lovely ripe and rich raspberry, blackberry, ripe black plum, lovely blueberry, tobacco smoke, herbs, and slight stone minerality. The mouth on this full-bodied wine is super rich and layered with lovely tannins that gives you a full mouth with ripe and rich raspberry, plum, and blackberry. The mid palate is balanced with rich oak, tannin that shows nicely, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is long with oak, tobacco, herbs, mineral, and blueberry. A really lovely wine that is at its peak and worthy of drinking.
2006 Domaine du Castel Petit Castel – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is a beautiful and rich experience with rich tobacco, ripe and rich plum, rich cedar oak, crushed/roasted herbs, blackberry, and chocolate. The mouth of this full-bodied wine has a rich full mouth that has lovely mouth coating tannins, rich oak, ripe plum, and blackberry. The mid palate is balanced with rich oak, integrated tannins, and tobacco. The finish is long and luscious with tobacco, black plum, rich oak, chocolate, and herbs.
