Beef Osso Bucco, Creamy Herb Polenta, Porcini Glace,
Gremolata, Root Vegetables
-Osso Bucco – (AW-so BOO-koh) an Italian dish made of veal shanks braised with olive oil, white wine, stock, onions, tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, carrots, celery and lemon peel. In Italian, it means “pierced bone.”
-Porcini – (pohr-CHEE-nee) a type of wild mushroom that are pale brown in color and have a smooth, meaty texture and a pungent woodsy flavor.
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Gremolata – (greh-moh-LAH-tah) a garnish made of minced parsley, lemon peel and garlic. It is usually sprinkled over osso bucco and other dishes to add a fresh, sprightly flavor.
House Cured Tomato, Aged Balsalmic, Olive Oil, Garlic Tuile
-Ricotta – (rih-KAHT-tuh) literally meaning “re-cooked,” it is an Italian dairy product made from sheep (or cow, goat buffalo) milk whey left over from the production of cheese. Although typically referred to as ricotta cheese, it is not really a cheese because it is not product by coagulation of casein. Ricotta curds are creamy white in appearance, slightly sweet in taste and contain around 13% fat. In this form, it is somewhat similar to cottage cheese, thought considerably lighter.
Tuile – (tweel) a thin, crisp sweet or savory cooking or wafer made of dough or cheese. Originally from France, the word Tuile means “tile,” and are supposed to resemble French roof tiles.
Picked Celery, Daikon Radish Salad, Papaya, Sea Salt
-Hamachi – (hah-MAH-chee) Japanese name for young Yellowtail, which is a type of fish with a texture and flavor similar to tuna. Ours is farm raised from Japan.
-Daikon – (DI-kuhn) from the Japanese words dai (large) and kon (root), this vegetable is in fact a large Asian radish with a sweet, fresh flavor. The daikon’s flesh is crisp, juicy and white which the skin can either be creamy white or black.
-Bourguignonne – (boor-gee-NYO/N) French term for “as prepared in Burgundy,” one of France’s most famous gastronomic regions. Meat is braised in red wine and usually garnished with small mushrooms and white onions.
-Pernod – (pehr-NOH) a yellowish, licorice flavored liquor similar to absinthe. It is very popular in France and is usually mixed with water, which turn it whitish and cloudy
-Asiago Cheese – (ah-SYAH-goh) hailing from Italy, Asiago has a rich flavor that can be pleasantly sharp in aged versions. It is made from whole or partially skimmed cow’s milk, which may be pasteurized or raw. Depending on the age of the cheese, the rind ranges from elastic and straw colored to hard and brownish grey. The interior ranges from semisoft and ivory colored to hard and deep gold.
-Tapenade – (ta-pen-AHD) from France’s Provence region, tapenade is a thick paste made from capers, anchovies, ripe olives, olive oil, lemon juice, seasonings and sometimes small pieces of tuna. It is used as a condiment and server with fish, meat, etc.
-Aioli– (ay-OH-lee) a strongly flavored garlic mayonnaise from the Provence region of southern France. It is a popular accompaniment for fish, meats and vegetables.
-Preserved lemons – lemons that have been macerated in a salt-lemon juice brine (sometimes with spices such as cinnamon, cloves and coriander) for about 30 days. They have a silken texture and a distinctive flavor.
The Mocali estate, acquired by the Ciacci family (distant relations to Ciacci Piccolomini) in the 1950s, is a setting of natural Tuscan beauty where vineyards and olive groves alternate with oak and pine forests.This harmony of man and nature comes through in the delicious, ripe and balanced wines produced here, available at prices that are incredibly low when compared to those of the more established producers of Montalcino.The wines are particularly approachable when young, well-structured with ample body and an elegant, minerally character distinct to this growing area.The Rosso "I Piaggioni" is one of the best values on the market - simply delicious Sangiovese at an excellent price.Situated to the southwest of Montalcino at an altitude of 300-350 meters above sea-level on the slopes facing Castiglione del Bosco, the Mocali estate is comprised of 32 hectares, 6 of which are specialized vineyards (5 Hectares of Sangiovese grosso), and 4 dedicated to olive groves.As over half of the estate is covered by a vegetation characteristic to the hill on which Montalcino stands, the vineyards and olive groves alternate with a landscape of woodland of ilex, oak and arbutus.The soil is rendered highly mineral; salt owing to the presence of marl and limestone.Not being overly large, the Mocali estate lies under family management with the consultation of an expert oenologist.
Sangiovese
In some ways sangiovese is to Chianti as cabernet sauvignon is to Bordeaux. Both form the base of wines normally blended with other varietals and both by themselves share a certain distinctive elegance and complexity, when well-made.
There are at least 14 separate and distinct clones of sangiovese. At one point, there was some attempt in Italy to identify two separate "families", Grosso and Piccolo, although this seemed to have more of a commercial basis ("mine's better than yours") than any compelling ampelographic or sensory evidence to justify this attempt to classify. Sangiovese makes wines that vary in quality from ordinary to superb and seems strongly affected by its environment, more than most varieties.
The fruit is slow to mature and late-ripening. With relatively thin skins, it has a tendency to rot in dampness and does not mature well if planted above an elevation of 1,500 feet. Sangiovese vineyards with limestone soil seem to produce wines with more forceful aromas.
The hot, dry climate, such as Tuscany provides, is where sangiovese thrives. Because these climatic criteria generally enhance quantity, rather than quality, it takes careful cultivation and winemaking techniques to produce really excellent wine from this grape. The official classification of Chianti itself demonstrates the widely fluctuating range of Sangiovese quality from those identified as ordinary vino di tavola to the highest classico superiore. Sangiovese is the #1 varietal in Italy with 247,000 acres, 10% of the entire wine grape crop.
The flavor profile of Sangiovese is fruity, with moderate to high natural acidity and generally a medium-body ranging from firm and elegant to assertive and robust and a finish that can tend towards bitterness. The aroma is generally not as assertive and easily identifiable as Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, but it can show a strawberry, blueberry, faintly floral, violet or plummy character.
Rosso di Montalcino
The Rosso di Montalcino DOC was established in 1984 as a means of giving Brunello di Montalcino producers the flexibility to continue the tradition of long aging of the region's flagship wine. Rosso di Montalcino is made from 100% Sangiovese grown in the same delineated region as Brunello di Montalcino. However, the wine is required to spend only six months aging in oak and 1 year total aging before release. This allows Brunello producers to make an earlier releasing wine that can generate cash flow while their Brunello di Montalcino age for their complete duration. In less than ideal vintages some producers will relegate all their grapes to Rosso di Montalcino production and not make a Brunello. Wineries can also declassify their Brunello that has already been aging 2–3 years and release it as Rosso di Montalcino if the wine is not developing to their expectations. Rosso di Montalcino is typically lighter, fresher and more approachable upon release though some producers will make wines with more Brunello like characteristics. These "Baby Brunellos" are often 1/3 to 1/2 the price of Brunello di Montalcino.
“A wine must be the reflection of its terroir and its vintage. The first step in preserving all of the different characteristics of my wines is to carry out careful and attentive work in the vineyards.
During the sixties, the Domaines Matrot did not escape the “chemical years” in winegrowing. It was not until my arrival on the estate in 1976 that chemical fertilisers were abandoned and replaced by organic products.
It was at the same time that my father and myself started to introduce a so-called reasoned approach to winegrowing (“lutte raisonnée” in French), which means adjusting the products and their dosage to the disease which needs to be treated.
It was as a result of a natural and progressive process that I began cultivating all of the vineyards of Domaines Matrot organically in the year 2000.
I grow the vines with the greatest respect for the soils using organic manure and ploughing them. Rigorous pruning and disbudding in the spring help to control the yields.
If necessary, I carry out a green harvest before the veraison (before the grapes change their colour). I carefully monitor their sanitary state, the yields as well as their maturity in order to decide on the best date for the harvest. We all know that only ripe grapes can produce high quality wines.
All of these cultivation techniques as well as the respect for the soils and for the vines confer purity of the fruit and the character of the terroir to our wines.
The controls are just as numerous during vinification. I exercise extreme care as regards barrel hygiene and temperature control during fermentation. I enjoy long and uneventful fermentations for eight to ten weeks. I also check the quality of the lees which accompany the wine during the maturing process and adjust the “bâtonnage” (stirring up of the lees) according to each vintage.
I try to avoid chaptalisation and never rectify the alcohol content by more than half a degree in order to maintain the natural balance of the grapes. It is important to know that a grape can be ripe at 12 degrees of potential alcohol one year and at 14 degrees the following year.
In a desire to accentuate the character of the vintage, the wines are matured for 11 to 12 months in oak barrels with a capacity of 228 litres.I use one- to five-year-old barrels for the white wines and 10 to 20 % new barrels for the reds. After monitoring the redox reactions for 9 to 12 months I decide on the date for bottling.
It is only thanks to the rigorous work carried out in the vineyards and in the cellars that my wines preserve their unique character. For all of the above reasons I recommend that you wait three to seven years after bottling before drinking them. Decanting the whites will allow them to breathe, to develop their complex aromas and to express their finesse and the personality of their terroir. “.
-Average age of the vines: 30 years.
-Indigenous yeasts.
-Fermentation for 8 to 10 weeks in oak barrels, 15 to 20 % of which are new.
-Temperature control (18-20 °C).
-Maturing on lees for 11 months
-“Bâtonnage” (stirring up of the lees) depending on the vintage.
-Complete malolactic fermentation.
-Bottling after one racking.
The grapes for this Chardonnay are picked near the appellation of Meursault. It is fruity and round and can be enjoyed as an aperitif or as an accompaniment to charcuterie, chicken and grilled fish. A great wine to enjoy with friends.
“Her Beaujolais is different from the rest, and when I have a glass of it in hand, I cannot imagine a better one. Hers is superbly winey, if you know what I mean. And forget any prejudice about wimpy Beaujolais. This woman makes macho wine. It is loaded! It is also super complex: mainly it smells of real, live red fruits, especially freshly crushed strawberries”
– Kermit Lynch
“Chanrion’s gorgeous cuvée is from a blend of five large old foudres housed in her earthen cellar…It shows a brilliant dark garnet hue and sports and aroma of fresh strawberries with a touch of cinnamon. On the palate it is rich, spicy, perfumed, and fine, loaded with red and black berry fruit, and it doesn’t disappoint on the long elegant finish.”
– Dixon Brooke, KLWM
Nicole Chanrion
When Nicole Chanrion began her career in the 1970s, convention relegated women to the enology labs and kept them out of the cellars—even her mother thought winemaking was man’s work—but she would not be deterred from her dream of becoming a vigneronne. With six generations of family tradition preceding her, she grew up helping her father in both the vineyards and the cellar in the Côte-de-Brouilly, one of the southernmost crus of the northern Beaujolais. Though she is mild-mannered and slight of build, her determination and conviction have consistently defied all doubts. Ever since taking over the family domaine in 1988, she works all 6.5 hectares entirely by herself, from pruning the vineyards and driving the tractors to winemaking and bottling, all without bravado or fanfare. In 2000 she became president of the Côte-de-Brouilly appellation, a position of respect and importance among peers. It’s small wonder then that she is affectionately referred to as “La Patronne de la Côte,” or the Boss of la Côte.
The Côte-de-Brouilly appellation sits on the hillsides of Mont Brouilly, a prehistoric volcano that left blue schist stones and volcanic rock along its slopes. These stones yield structured wines with pronounced minerality and great aging potential. After her formal training at the viticultural school in Beaune Nicole had a brief internship in the Napa Valley, where she learned another approach to winemaking but, happily for us, gained a deeper appreciation of the traditional winemaking techniques of the Beaujolais: hand harvesting, whole cluster fermentation, aging the wines in large oak foudres for at least nine months, and bottling unfiltered. The resulting wines are powerful, with loads of pure fruit character and floral aromas.
Gamay
Gamay noir is the primary black grape of France's Beaujolais region, where the wines are typically fermented quickly, spared from aging, and consumed young in order to appreciate their fresh, fruity qualities, with more tang than tannin.
Generally light in color with hue that usually is more blue-purple than red, wines made from gamay noir can be very fragrant, full of fruit and fresh, floral esters. Frequently tart in their youth, wines made from gamay noir tend nonetheless to be short lived. Like its distant cousins, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Gamay tends to easily lose its varietal aroma and flavor identity when blended with another grape variety. Both red wines and rosés are typically produced from unblended gamay noir.
The technique of carbonic maceration is quite often used to enhance the fruitiness of this grape. The fruit is placed whole, uncrushed, in the fermenting vessel and the fermentation begins within the individual berries, trapping the forming bubbles of carbon dioxide until the grape bursts. The resulting wine has a lighter, yet brighter color, a "banana", "candy" or "bubblegum" quality in the fruity aroma, often accompanied by a slight petillance or "tickle" to the texture.
Vineyards are on the east- and northeast-facing mid-slopes of the Côte-de-Brouilly, planted to a density of 10,000 to 12,000 vines per hectare
Grapes are hand harvested, techniques in cellar are purely traditional
Fermentation is with whole clusters and natural yeasts
The wine is aged in foudres (A large oak or chestnut cask used for aging wine, usually between 3,960 to 9,240 gallons) for at least nine months before an unfiltered bottling.
Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil droplets suspended in a base compound of egg yolk, lemon juice and/or vinegar, water and often mustard, which provides both flavor and stabilizing particles and carbohydrates. It’s the sauce most tightly packed with oil droplets – as much as 80% of its volume by oil- and is usually dense and too stiff to pour. It can be thinned and flavored with various water-based liquids, including purees and stocks, or it can enrich such liquids the way cream does; it can also be aerated with the addition of whipped cream or egg whites. As a room temperature preparation, mayonnaise is generally served with cold dishes of various sorts. But thanks to the yolk proteins, it also reacts usefully to heat. It lends body and richness when added to thin broths and briefly cooked; when layered onto fish or vegetables and broiled, it moderates the heat, puffs up and sets into a rich coating.
Traditionally, mayonnaise is made with raw egg yolks, and therefore carries a slight risk of salmonella infection. Manufacturers use pasteurized egg yolks, and cooks concerned with salmonella can now find pasteurized eggs in the supermarkets. Both vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil kill bacteria, but mayonnaise is best treated as a highly perishable product that should be served immediately or kept refrigerated.
Making Mayonnaise
All of the ingredients for making mayonnaise should be at room temperature; warmth speeds the transfer of emulsifiers from the yolk particles to the oil droplet services. The simplest method is to mix together everything but the oil- egg yolks, lemon juice and/or vinegar, salt, mustard, garlic – and then whisk in the oil, slowly at first and more rapidly as the yolk thickens. However, the cook can produce more stable small droplets by whisking a portion of the oil into just the yolks and salt to start and then adding the remaining ingredients when the emulsion gets stiff and needs to be thinned. The salt causes the yolk granules to fall apart into its component particles, which makes the yolks become both more clear and more viscous. If left undiluted, this viscosity will help break the oil into smaller droplets.
Though cookbooks often say that the ratio of egg yolk to oil is critical, that one egg yolk can only emulsify a half-cup or cup of oil, that is simply not true. A single yolk can emulsify a dozen cups of oil or more. What is critical is the ratio of oil to water: there must be enough of the continuous phase for the growing population of oil droplets to fit into. For every volume of oil added, the cook should provide a third of that volume in the combination of yolks, lemon juice, vinegar, water or some other water-based liquid.
As a base for other sauces
·Ranch dressing is made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, and minced green onions, along with other seasonings.
·Rouille is aïoli with added saffron, red pepper or paprika.
·Sauce rémoulade, in classic French cuisine is mayonnaise to which has been added mustard, gherkins, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, and possibly anchovy essence.[13] An industrially made variety is popular in Denmark with French fries and fried fish. It is quite different from most of the remoulade sauces that are frequently found in Louisiana and generally do not have a mayonnaise base.
·Tartar sauce is mayonnaise spiced with pickled cucumbers and onion. Capers, olives, and crushed hardboiled eggs are sometimes included. A simpler recipe calls for only pickle relish to be added to the mayonnaise.
·Thousand Island dressing is a salmon-pink dressing that combines tomato sauce and/or tomato ketchup or ketchup-based chili sauce, minced sweet pickles or sweet pickle relish, assorted herbs and spices (usually including mustard), and sometimes including chopped hard-boiled egg—all thoroughly blended into a mayonnaise base.
What is it about mustard that keeps a lemon/oil mixture emulsified?
Mustard seeds contain roughly equal amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and oil. When ground, the protein and carbohydrates bond with oil – coat it actually – and keep it from repelling the water in lemon juice, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, etc.
According to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, the coating of the mustard seed also contains a fair bit of mucilage (a thick, sticky, gluey substance with an icky name), and this also helps to coat particles of oil, allowing them to coexist harmoniously with watery substances.
McGee says as much as 5% of the seed weight of the white mustard seed can be mucilage in the coat of the seed. White mustard is often used in sausage-making, he says, to help bind potentially repellent bits of meat.
When making an emulsification, you’re basically cramming little droplets of oil in between water molecules, making it harder for the water molecules to move around. This creates a thick and creamy consistency, which is found in classical sauces such as hollandaise and mayonnaise.
In his book “On Food and Cooking,” Author Harold McGee refers to an emulsion as “Two Liquids: Continuous and Divided.”
“The two liquids in an emulsion can be thought of as the container and the contained: one liquid is broken up into separate droplets, and these droplets are contained in and surrounded by the intact mass of the other liquid….The dispersed liquid takes the form of tiny droplets, between a ten-thousandth and a tenth of a millimeter across…The more droplets that are crowded into the continuous phase [read emulsion base], the more they get in the water’s…way, and the more viscous the emulsion is.”
To really make an emulsion work, you need shearing power. In culinary school, the first time we made mayonnaise in our basic skills course our instructor forced us to use a metal mixing bowl and a hand whisk. No doubt this masochistic approach was to teach us how easy us modern cooks have it. The problem with using a hand whisk to make an emulsion is that it has very little shearing power.
With modern day equipment on hand, it is much easier for us to make an emulsion just because we have more shearing power at our disposal. A KitchenAid with a whisk attachment, a food processor, and a good blender all have much more shearing power than a hand powered whisk. Why is this important?
Because the more shearing power you have, the smaller your emulsified “droplets” will be, and the less chance you will have of your emulsification separating (breaking). That’s why, when at all possible, I would recommend using a blender to make your emulsions, or at the very least a food processor. But pure shearing power isn’t enough; to really make a good, stable, emulsion, you need emulsifiers.
Emulsifiers are molecules that allow oil and water to play nicely together. These emulsifiers come in two forms. The first is a string type molecule that at one end likes to bond with fat and at the other end likes to bond with water. A typical example of this is lecithin which is found in soy beans and egg yolks.
The second are large protein molecules that will basically block the oil droplets from getting to one another (aka coalesce). Since they are not able to merge, the oil stays suspended in the water, keeping the emulsion from breaking. The protein molecules found in egg yolks and the casein molecules found in cream and milk are the best protein emulsifiers.
Emulsification also affects the way your palate perceives fatty things. Think of mayonnaise. If you tasted its component parts before they were blended together, you would be just pouring oil on your tongue, and you would wonder what you'd done to deserve this kind of punishment. But once emulsified ... incredibly delicious! The emulsification causes the oil to hit you much more softly, slowly revealing its round, rich flavor rather than drown you in grease.
Lecithin
Lecithin is ideal for making airs, foams, mousses and emulsions. Most commercial lecithin is extracted from soybeans making it both vegetarian and vegan friendly. Lecithin contains both hydrophobic (water-hating) and hydrophilic (water-loving) groups, so it can also be used in making emulsions. Under normal circumstances oil and water do not mix and separate out, creating two distinct layers, but an emulsifier such as lecithin helps to combine these two layers, creating a more stable preparation.
Lecithin is typically derived from soy bean as a by-product of creating soy based vegetable oil. Lecithin is extracted from hulled cooked soy beans by crushing the beans and then mechanically separating out (via extraction, filtration and washing) crude lecithin. The crude lecithin is then either enzymaticaly modified. Lecithin can also be derived from animal sources, such as eggs and animal proteins but animal derived lecithin is more expensive than plant derived lecithin so it’s less common and plant lecithin is more commonly used.
Beurre blanc
Literally translated from French as "white butter"— is a hot emulsified butter sauce made with a reduction of vinegar and/or white wine (traditionally Muscadet) and shallots into which cold, whole butter is blended off the heat to prevent separation. Each piece of butter carries all the ingredients necessary for a new portion of the sauce, so the cook can whisk in one piece of butter, or 100. The small amounts of lecithin and other emulsifiers naturally found in butter are used to form an oil-in-water emulsion. Although similar to hollandaise in concept, it is not considered either a classic leading or compound sauce. This sauce originates in Loire Valley cuisine.
Beurre blanc will begin to separate and leak butterfat if it’s temperature rises above approximately 135 degrees. Most damaging to the beurre blanc is letting it cool to below body temperature. The butterfat solidifies and forms crystals around 85 degrees, and the crystals poke through the membrane of emulsifiers and fuse with each other, forming a continuous network of fat that separates when the sauce is reheated. Ideally the sauce should be kept at 125 degrees.
Preparation
A good beurre blanc is rich and buttery, with a neutral flavor that responds well to other seasonings and flavorings, thereby lending itself to the addition of herbs and spices. It should be light and airy yet still liquid, while thick enough to cling to food. Beurre blanc is prepared by reducing wine, shallots, and herbs, if used, until it is nearly dry. Although not necessary, cream can be added at this point to act as a stabilizer to the sauce. Lemon juice is sometimes used in place of vinegar and stock can be added as well. Cold, one-inch cubes of butter are then gradually incorporated into the sauce as the butter melts and the mixture is whisked. The sauce can separate by either over heating or cooling. If it heats past 136°F, some of the emulsifying proteins will begin to break down and release the butterfat they hold in emulsion. If the sauce cools below 80°F, the butterfat will solidify.
