Happy birthday to Nancy!
So around this time every year we pass the reigns to Nancy to choose some of her favorite wines, and we pair the food accordingly (as opposed to the food first, then the wines, like we typically do). This year was definitely the best Nancy birthday dinner to date.
This year Nancy picked a great Reisling then three amazing reds that could have been matched with a ton of different dishes. We chose these three dishes we hadn’t tried before, and a couple proteins most people would normally shy away from. The Domaine des Chanssaud was great but because we’ve done tartare before we thought beef tenderlion carpacio would be a similar but different take on the same idea. We realized when you pound out the meat it became much more silky and delicate, which was perfect for the wine.
We learned that unless you’re a butcher, it’s next to impossible to source chicken hearts in a relatively small quantity. So this week we ended up with twenty pounds of chicken hearts, which honestly looked a lot like genocide. But they came from one of our favorite farms, Ashley Farms in North Carolina, so we felt better about it. The idea behind this was to pair offal with an earthy Pinot. I think a lot of people were nervous when they saw it on the menu at the beginning of the night but they ended up being the tastiest little meat morsels we’ve made all summer. It’s always our guilty pleasure to get a vegetarian to compliment a dish like deviled chicken hearts.
We missed the world famous, self-proclaimed “upper management” dishwasher Noah but had our friend Patrick from Roots Farm… got to make a great contact at a great local farm.
PS
MENU:
Peach Gazpacho w/ Crisp Serrano Ham, Vanilla Chili Oil
w/ Boxler, Riesling, DE ‘06
Beef Carpaccio w/ Black Currant Compote, Riccotta Salata, Watercress,
Worchestershire Viniagrette
w/ Domaine des Chanssaud, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, FR ’01
Deviled Chicken Hearts w/ Buttered Toast, Peashoots
w/ Jouard, Chassagne-Montrachet, FR ‘06
Lamb T-Bone w/ Summer Squash and Basil, Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, Oregano
w/ Veglio, Barolo, IT ‘03
“Beer and Cookies” w/ Chocolate Walnut Biscotti, Peanut Caramels,
Lemon Poppyseed Shortbread and Blackberry Jam Cookie
w/ Southern Tier, Creme Brulee Stout, NY NV
PHOTOS (courtesy of Chrissy. Criddyreed@gmail.com):
Tags: Beef Carpaccio, Beer and Cookies, Biscotti, Black Currant, Blackberries, Buttered Toast, caramel, Chicken Hearts, Compote, Gazpacho, Hen of the Woods, lamb, Lamp T-Bone, Peashoots, ricotta, Serrano Ham, Shortbread, Squash, Vanilla Chili Oil, watercress
[...] didn’t have my camera with me on the first trip in August & really enjoyed the food and wine I enjoyed that night. An incredibly inventive menu, from goods procured at the local farmer’s [...]