"Guantanamo Chicken"

Almost nothing is more succulent or comforting than a perfectly roasted chicken. For years I swore that a chicken cooked on a rotisserie was as good as it got, but then I discovered "beer can chicken" Think of it as kind of a red neck version of a spit rotisserie roasted chicken. The advantage is this dish is much less equipment intensive and the end result is just as great.
Since I am a bit of a food snoot I have been trying to figure out a way to make this dish seem a bit more refined and a little less "hillbilly". Truth be told, the ingredients are the same, the prep is the same and the end result is just as good, whether you are eating this at a campsite or a country club.
Going forward, I am just going to be calling this dish "Guantanemo Chicken". Follow the illustrations below and this will ultimately make sense . To make this easy lets lay out the menu and the ingredients and then we will introduce the main course.

Menu
"Guantanemo Chicken" (Fire Roasted, Beer Can Chicken)
served with
Grill Roasted Asparagus
&
Roasted Corn, Cherry Tomato & Black Bean Salad

First things first, a little "water boarding".....er brining, go ahead and put the entire chicken into a large bowl with 3/4 cup of kosher salt and cold water. Let the bird soak for an hour before prepping for the grill.

To prep for the grill go ahead and pull the wing tips behind the bird. This is kind of a "put you hands behind your head" thing. The wings will stay without being tied up (bondage). Take a old time can opener (why is this called a Church Key?) and punch a couple of holes in a can of beer (on top of the can). The can is going to act as a stand on the grill for the bird. My feeling is that the quality of the beer is inversely proportional to the quality of the chicken, so Pabst is about as good as it gets.












Stand up the bird on the beer can (no cavity probe jokes....please) and apply dry rub spice mixture, go head and rub hard!. I use a spice mix of:

Spice Rub
1 Tbsp Coriander
1 Tbsp Yellow Mustard Seed
2 tsp Fennel Seeds
3 tsp Spanish Paprika
2 tsp Black Pepper
2 tsp Kosher Salt
(grind the seeds and add to remaining ingredients).













Personally I only cook with charcoal or hardwood and for this preparation take a chimney of coals that you divide into two piles (one on each side of the grill) after they are good and hot. As you can see the bird is not going to cook over direct heat. Cook the bird for 30 minutes and then rotate 180 degrees and cook for another 30 minutes (extra hot coals might bump down the cooing time to 25 minutes a side). (Okay chicken, veee havve vays to make you talk)






















At 50-60 mins. pull the bird and let is rest for 10 minutes while covered with foil before you start carving.













Asparagus with a drizzle of olive oil and S& P and 2 mins per side on the grill.













A Southwest Bobby Flay-esque Roasted corn, Tomato and Black Bean salad with a red wine vinegar dressing and dinner is served.
In Season fresh corn is great for this and you can roast the whole ear with its husk and all on the grill.












This meal would go will with a Spanish or Portuguese wine. A 2005 Altano from the Douro region in Portugal scored an 85 in Wine Spectator and at Trader Joe's it will set you back all of $6.99 (this is the best bottle in the store for the price).

料理の鉄人, Ryōri no Tetsujin

IRON CHEF!


I am a HUGE fan of the Food Network, that 24/7 food channel. It is the foodie equivalent of the Cartoon Network. I can still remember accidentally discovering the "original" Iron Chef. I was fascinated and my watching became an obsession to the point that my 6 year old son (now 12) could identify Iron Chef's Chen, Sakai and Morimoto. He also could tell whether the challenger had a chance to win and even this 6 year old knew that Iron Chef Sakai was a tough hombre to beat at Kitchen Stadium.
The premise was that a wealthy, eccentric Japanese businessman had pulled together the best chef's of Japan. The idea was that chefs from around the world would come to Kitchen Stadium and challenge the Iron Chefs. The format was a cooking challenge that lasted 60 minutes and was "themed" around a central ingredient (Lobster, Bell Pepper, etc.) The Iron Chef's weren't just Japanese chefs cooking Japanese food, no, these were Japanese chef's that cooked French, Chinese, Italian, etc. As silly as this sounds these chefs were very skilled and they were very formidable opponents.
The show with all it poor production values and Chinese Kung-fu movie-esq voice overs was a ton of fun to watch. This series had literally 100's of episodes and not only did the show keep track of wins and losses, but they calculated wine percentages (like a batting average). Take a look at the link above and you can see what a BAD ASS Sakai and Chen were on their home turf. According to wikipedia the last show aired in 2003 and it culminated in a battle of Iron Chef vs. Iron Chef. Ultimately my favorite chef (Sakai) beat back the French three star chef Alain Passard in "Battle Ronkonkai Chicken"
Today we have the American version of Iron Chef and while it still is somewhat entertaining (and my son knows Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Alton Brown by sight) I miss the original.

February Confrerie Event

Greetings to all who attended the February Confrerie event held at the Oswego Lake House.
We all owe a huge "thank you" to Yvonne Smith (member and Sommelier at our February venue). We tasted Chateauneuf du Pape wines from the Southern Rhone region of France.
These wines are typically a blend of Grenache, Mouvedre and Syrah. In this appellation there are 13 grapes allowed to be used in the production of the wines. My understanding is that only Chateau Beaucastel uses all 13 grapes (Vaccarèse anyone?).

This month the tasting was a bit unusual in that we were able to sample these wines with food.
As is often the case wine goes hand in hand with food and it was a nice example of how to pair food and wine. The 2003 vintage of Chateauneuf du Pape was a very warm year and the wines should be ripe. The 2005 vintage is a top notch year and definitely a vintage to stock up on wines. Though the dollar is at a 30 year low, there are some good wines to be had from CDP in 2005 at a good value.
In case you didn't bring home the tasting notes that Yvonne put together I am including the professional tasting notes (with a few of my own comments in italics).

Wines tasted

2006 Vieux Telegramme blanc: Exotic, almost tropical of orange, white peach and jasmine. Very suave and well balanced. I thought this wine was very aromatic with a hint of sweetness. This label is the "second wine" of Vieux Telegraphe. There isn't much white Chateauneuf du Pape produced and this is a very fresh and lively example.

2005 Vieux Telegramme rouge: 2005 Domaine Lucien Barrot et Fils: Fresh red berry and cherry aromas with a subtle floral quality adding complexity. This wine is also the "second label" of Vieux Telegraphe. Their View Telegraphe is 65 % Grenache with 15% Mouvedre & 10% Syrah with the remainder made up of the allowed "odd-ball" grapes of CDP. The Telegramme is 100% Grenache and is meant for immediate drinking. I picked up some tart cherry fruit along with some spice on the nose. The wine finishes with fairly rustic tannnins.

2005 Domaine Lucien Barrot et Fils: Intensely floral aromas of fresh strawberry, red currant, lavendar and exotic dried apricot. Bright, juicy, and persistent. An excellent example of traditionally styled CDP. I picked up on the floral aspect of this wine along with the concentrated fruit and a savory component. This wine also had great structure and it should age very well. This was my favorite wine of the night.

2003 Chateau La Nerthe: Spicy, jammy aromas of blackberry, cassis and exotic spices. Round and velvety with sweet berry flavors and notes of chocolate, mocha and lavendar pastille. I picked up cassis and a concentrated, full throttle cherry fruit, maybe even leaning into cherry liquor. Great mouthfeel.

2005 Chateau Perrin et Fils: This is the second label for Chateau Beaucastel. This wine exhibits greater ripeness than the 2006 but a longer and more complete mouthfeel. Terrifically concentrated and richness for what essentially is a declassified young vine Beaucastel cuvee blened with another parcel. Rich fruit, good structure, not much character.

2005 Domaine de l Cote de l'Ange: A gutsy, structured style, with lots of fig, black currant, braised chestnut, bittersweet cocoa and espresso notes carried by robust but ripe tannins. The finish is long and smoky. I picked up a dried fruit-fig fruit character to go along with rustic tannins.

Menu

-First Course-
Chevre and tomato salad

-Second Course-
Salmon mousse crepe finished with dill beurre blanc

-Third Course-
Tenderloin pork roasted w/sauteed onions and Roquefort cheese sauce

A special bonus was that Yvonne brought out a selection of Red Burgundy wines from several vintages. These wines were remaining from an earlier tasting and were a great selection of village, single vineyard and Premier Cru wines

Once again, a big thank you to Yvonne Smith and the Oswego Lake House.

Willamette Valley Syrah?

We were out in wine country this past Sunday at a pre-Valentines Day weekend wine tasting event at Adelsheim.
David Adelsheim and his family are the "real deal" in the Willamette Valley. They are part or the original handful of of the Pinot Noir pioneers who took a mighty leap of faith 30+ years ago. David has been instrumental in grape clone development and clone importation to better match vines to soil and microclimate thus getting grapes that are fine tuned to our specific growing area. In a nutshell what this means is that in 30+ years Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has reached quality level that in Burgundy would be designated as "Premier Cru".
If you are familiar with the Willamette Valley you will know that when you talk about red wine then you are generally talking about Pinot Noir. I know that Dick Erath has experimented with Cabernet Sauvignon but i have come across a couple of producer who are making very interesting Syrah wines from the grapes grown in the Willamette Valley. At this point in time I believe that only Adelsheim with their Bryan Creek Vineyard and the Deux Verts Vineyard are the only two Willamette Valley vineyards producing Syrah grapes that go into commercial labels.
I have tasted the 2006 Adelsheim Syrah and to me it has a spicy nose with very intense purple fruit that shows itself in the glass to be one of the darkest purple wines I have ever drank (it actually tinted the inside of my glass purple). The wine has good acidity and it would be fun to set this down for a couple of years and see how the wine comes together. The intense color reminds me of Austrailian Shiraz, but the Oregon Syrah has better acid and is much more food friendly, just like a Northern Rhone Syrah, but with bigger fruit and no black pepper varietal component.
I have been exploring new world Northern Rhone wines this past year and to me the Adelsheim Syrah fruit has the acidity of the cool climate Syrah being produced along the Sonoma coast by producers like: Alban, Pax, Copain, Peay, et. al. The fruit profile of the wine is more akin to the Walla Walla Syrah. I would say if you are a fan of Walla Walla Syrah then you would love this wine. Heads up, if you want to buy some of this, they only produced 88 cases so better get it now!
The other producer making Syrah from Willamette Valley grapes is Elemental Cellars. This is the second label for Witness Tree, but as far as I am concerned there is nothing second quality about this Syrah. The 2004 Elemental Cellars has intense aromas of violets, white pepper and black fruit that gives way to supple black raspberry and cherry flavors. The wine has good acidity and is made in an old world style.

Hey, Ho,Lets Go, Hey, Ho, Merlot!

After all the bad press that Merlot wine got from the movie "Sideways" all I can say it that Miles should have been a little more specific about what Merlot he wouldn't drink. I had a chance to taste eleven wines from St. Emilion last week. All of these wines were primarily Merlot with the second largest component being Cabernet Franc and a couple had a smidge of Cabernet Sauvignon.
St. Emillion is a gorgeous mid-evil village just outside of Bordeaux. The area is referred to as the Right Bank (as opposed to the Medoc and the Left Bank). Unlike the Medoc, the scenery is stunning and the village is a World Heritage site. This area was not classified in 1855 and thus there are no 1st Growth St. Emilion wines. The area finally classified itself in 1954 and to their credit they update the classification every ten years. Without a doubt the top wines from this area would have swollen the ranks of the 1st and 2nd Growth Estates had they been included in the 1855 classification.
We tasted wines from as recent a vintage as 2001 and as early as 1966. This was a rare treat to be able to taste this many wines of this quality at one sitting.
I will list the wines youngest to oldest and include my notes.

2001 Chateau Angelus: Perfume nose, very aromatic, some cola notes. Fruit forward and needing a little more time. This was my favorite wine of the night even if it was a baby.

1998 Chateau Gracia: Very new world in nose (big vanilla) and fruit (bright cherry). This could easily be mistaken for a California wine This is a wine that Parker loves and it is considered a Garagiste wine. The fruit is from a 4.4 acre Grand Cru vineyard and the wine is 85% Merlot & 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon which is aged in 100% new French oak.

1998 Chateau Pavie Decesse: Fennel seed on the nose followed by sweet Cherry fruit.

1998 Chateau Tour du Pas St. Georges: Black licorice on the nose with a hint of mint on top of red Cherry fruit.

1996 Chateau Beau Sejour Becot: Savory nose, smoky cherry fruit, a hollow middle but a decent finish.

1993 Chateau Cheval Blanc: Tobacco on the nose with a sweet cherry fruit. Nicely balanced and a strong finish. This is one of the "Big Boys" of St. Emilion and it is the first time I have had this label (thanks Steve and Kimberly) This is the wine that Miles of Sideways fame was drinking out of a paper cup while scarfing a burger. Did he know that this wine was 66% Cabernet Franc and 34% Merlot?

1990 Chateau L'Arrossee: Savory nose, concentrated cherry liquor giving way to a cola overtone.

1989 Chateau Grand Mayne: Smoke on the nose layered with fennel/cedar. Good fruit still left from what was a great vintage in Bordeaux.

1982 Chateau Larmande: Smokey nose, fennel seed, sweet fruit and seemingly slightly thin without much finish.

1982 Chateau La Dominic: Savory nose with a floral component. Secondary fruit character is starting to show.

1966 Chateau Troplong Mondot: Smoked meat on the nose, savory, red fruit with tobacco and a terrific finish. This is why people buy and age Bordeaux wines. The level of complexity showed itself as this wine sat for over and hour. Tasting after an hour the wine still had a nice concentrated fruit character but it was showing almost a caramel sugar on the nose-Too bad I didn't buy a case of this when I was 7 years old.