Text 35511, 74 rader
Skriven 2013-03-31 04:03:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: beef-a-rama 347
=======================
I had a $7.99/lb porterhouse from Giant for breakfast
sometime in the wee hours. I'd have eaten the extra ribeye
now cold, but this steak was a bit over the hill - Annie
had done her shopping with the calendar wrong in her head
and had bought for an extra day. Aged as it was, it was
actually quite tasty, though not so fine as the butchershop
meat. Actually I had half the sirloin part and gnawed the
bone, leaving the rest for another occasion. Yuengling went
with. I am thinking of duplicating this meal now as I type,
about the same time the next day. P.S. I decided not to.

-

Our friend Dan came over for an afternoon toast in the
form of Yuengling, but Annie told him about this fancy
wine that she'd bought the last three bottles of - Sodaro
Private Reserve Estate Blend 2005 (Napa), which she snapped
up because the state store claimed it had been marked down
from $78 to $27. Not a great reason to buy something, but
as it turns out she got a good deal. So as she kept bragging
about her find, Dan asked if it was worth the price, which
we didn't know, so I decided to pop one to find out.
Blackberries and rooty smells filled the room in a rather
aggressive display of vinous muscle; the pour was dark red
- good sign. I took a sip. It was nasty acid and tannic,
though with promising fruit showing through here and there.
Dan said a few polite things, but on a little reflection I
sneaked off and cut up some leftover steak, salted it up,
and came back. With the aid of a little marbly beef, the
wine opened right up - terrific berries, just a little
herbaceousness, none of that green peppery/green beany
aspect that you often find in California Cabernets (this is
a Bordeaux-style blend of the two Cabernets plus Petit Verdot
and Malbec). There was still a lot of acid, but the meat
mellowed it out nicely. We agreed that it was well worth the
$27, might have been worth close to the marked up price, but
certainly not worth what it cost at the winery, quite a bit
more again than that. The winemakers (I looked it up) were a
husband-wife team, he being retired from being head winemaker
at Sterling, she formerly vice president and winemaker of
Domaine Chandon. Impressive credentials, those.

-

Annie's cat breeders from Maryland were supposed to show up in
the afternoon, and we were going to offer drinks and supper,
but the planned arrival time came and went, and Annie, Robbie,
and I noshed on the snacks we'd prepared - devilled eggs,
smoked shad on Triscuits, olives, peanuts. By the time Linda
and JJ showed up, it was past dinnertime and the three of us
had demolished the appetizers and didn't have much stomach
space left. Luckily, an hour and half before their arrival
they'd called, so I'd put dinner in the oven. We'd found a
rather too lean but good-looking prime rib at Weggie's the
other day, so I roasted that by the high-temperature method
(550 for maybe 20 minutes, oven off until cool - result,
outside slices medium-rare, middle rare, good flavor, not
optimal tenderness, though that may have been because the
roast was too lean to begin with). Annie made Yorkshire
pudding with butter, as there wasn't beef dripping ready, and
she didn't have any leftover extra, and I threw together quick
versions of creamed spinach and sauteed mushrooms with sherry.

A latish meal, though very festive, and the Sodaro had opened
up very nicely and shed a lot of its acid. JJ opened a second
bottle, which we decided to save for next day.

Dessert: leftover lemon meringue pie and a Granny Smith apple
pie that Annie had thrown together in the afternoon (she makes
great pies by just throwing them together).

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