Friday, April 25, 2008

If You're Ever Passing Thru Goldendale, Washington...

Since the barrel tasting does not start until today (Friday), yesterday we headed south from Yakima to the Goldendale area to check out some wineries. South of Goldendale (small farming town, about 4,000 population) on the Columbia river is where a lot of new wineries are clustered. The most breathtaking views in the world - I may be a little prejudiced because my Grandparents had a ranch on the Columbia until the government took it over for the Hanford Nuclear plant, so I get very nostalgic when I'm in that area, it's so wild, and huge and craggy and beautiful!

Finally got to Maryhill Winery - we've loved their wines for a few years now. I was surprised to find they only started the winery about 7-8 years ago, so guess we found them early on. Their Zins and Syrahs are just wonderful.
http://www.maryhillwinery.com/ourwine.asp

They are building an amphitheater to be finished in a month or so and Cosby, Stills & Nash are the first venue slated - would love to come back for that. The theater has its back to the river and the seating and winery itself faces the river...oh my, the view. (can you tell I'm impressed?)

We spent so much time at Maryhill and tried so many wines, we only hit one more, Marshall winery - a dinky little place just getting on its legs. But, oh the winemaker does know what he's doing. His Syrahs are wonderful. Even if we could have tasted more and still made it home without a drunk driving charge, we spent so much time at each place, we then headed home.

But we made a little detour when we got back to Goldendale - ran across a little house with the sign, The Glass Onion out front. So, in we pulled and found a little gem of a restaurant and gallery in the midst of nothing!!
http://theglassonionrestaurant.com/

Check out their website just to see how the restaurant came to be and also the photographs that Chef Mark McGowan's wife takes.We each had a bowl of his Spring Pea soup with fresh cream and oh my, it was just delicious. On the menu also, was a spinach salad with bleu cheese, bacon, candied pecans and maple dressing! that caught my eye. I handed our server my ACF card (opens so many doors ) and asked if I might just try a little of the maple dressing and out came a little salad for us to try with the dressing. It was just delicious - the salty bleu and the sweetness of the syrup and crunch of fresh spinach and the nuts. AND, Chef Mark was nice enough to give me the recipe and I will be nice enough to share it with you, too.

Chef McGown's Maple Dressing
He uses it with his spinach salad (including bleu cheese, bacon, candied pecans)

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 T. Dijon
1/2 c. cider vinegar
1 1/2 c. olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 c. brown sugar

With our soup and salad, we had a glass of Cascade Cliff's (a winery we wanted to visit, but alas, didn't think we ought to!) Merlot and it was very good with the salad and dressing, not to mention the soup also.So, that was our day yesterday and what a nice day it was!!

Today, we start drinking (or tasting...) our way thru the Yakima Valley Barrel tasting. So many wines, so little time!

With all the great wines we tried, we almost held to our winery pledge of buying only one bottle per winery on these kinds of trips... almost, had to buy a bottle of Maryhill's Malbec for my birthday dinner coming up... we were rather proud of our restraint!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Mother Sauce - Espagnole

Our cooking friend, 'Houseboat Don', wants to learn sauces, so this weekend we’re going to work on one of the mother sauces, Espagnole and its smaller sauces. I’m making the basic brown stock and then the Espagnole sauce and wait for him to be here to work on to the small sauces.

I’m thinking I’ll have some steaks and chicken thawed out and we can just have a taste testing of the sauces – here’s what we'll choose probably 6-8 from:
Bordelaise
Marchand de Vin
Robert
Charcutiere
Chasseur
Diable
Madeira
Perigueux (this one calls for truffles, but if we make it maybe we can play with truffle salt and/or truffle oil - unless Don wants to pop for truffles.... )
Port Wine
Italian
Mushroom
Bercy
Piquante
Lyonnaise
I’m using my text book from Culinary school for reference and help in making these sauces – Wayne Gisslen’s Professional Cooking. But there are a lot of sources anyone can use, especially having access to the internet to search.

Started out with a huge problem – I forgot to tell Roy to make sure the beef bones were cut in 3 – 4” lengths. He brought home some real hummers. Meat saw, hack saw, cleaver – nothing was working, so had to resort to an impeccably cleaned table saw. But, even that was precarious, think about holding those slippery little devils safely away from the blade. Finally, between the table saw and a wedge, we managed to get usable sizes.












They are in the oven roasting, then the mirepoix will be roasted and the brown stock will begin. And the adventure goes on. This should be a lot of fun.













Tuesday, 2/12/08
I had approximately 17 lbs. of beef bones
10-12 qts. cold water
Mirepoix:
1 lb. onions, chopped
8 oz. carrots, chopped
8 oz. celery, chopped
1 lb. tomatoes or tomato puree (I used puree)
Sachet:
1 Bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
8 peppercorns
4-6 parsley stems
1 whole cloves

Roast the bones in a 375 – 400 F. oven until well browned – the browner, the more flavor for your stock. Remove bones from pan and place in a stock pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a simmer. Skim and let stock continue to simmer.

Drain and reserve the fat in the roasting pan. Deglaze the pan with water, scraping up all the goodies on the bottom of the pan and add to stock pot.













Toss the vegetables with some of the reserved fat from bones in the roasting pan and brown well in the oven – again, the browner, the more flavor.

Add the browned mirepoix, the tomato produce, and the sachet to the stock pot. Continue to simmer for a total cooking time of 6 to 8 hours, skimming the surface as needed. Add water to keep the bones covered. I made this stock over two days, 3 hours on Tuesday and brought it back up to a simmer and continued for 5 more hours.

Strain through a china cap lined with several layers of cheesecloth. Cool the stock, vented, in a cold-water bath and refrigerate.

Wednesday, 2/13/08
Wednesday, I continued the stock for 5 more hours. Then on to making the Espagnole Sauce. Now, this is where I took a slight shortcut. My amount of stock ended up being 8 quarts and the below ingredient amounts are based on 6 qts., so I added 1/3 more of everything.

Mirepoix:
1 lb. onions, medium dice
8 oz. carrots, medium dice
8 oz. celery, medium dice
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8 oz. butter
8 oz. bread flour
6 qts. brown stock
8 oz. tomato puree
Sachet:
1 small bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
3-4 parsley stems

Sauté the mirepoix in the butter until well browned. Add the flour and stir to make the roux. Continue to cook, until the roux is browned.

Gradually stir in the brown stock and tomato puree, stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and skim the surface. Add the sachet and let simmer for about 2 hours, until the sauce is reduced to 1 gal. Skim as often as necessary.

Strain through a china cap lined with several layers of cheesecloth. Press on the mirepoix gently to extract their juices.
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Now, this is where my shortcut comes in – because I goofed! I forgot I needed equal amounts of the Espagnole Sauce and the brown stock to make my Demiglaze! But, I had a little container of wonderful ‘gold’ that I used. I always have on hand a product called “Glace de Gibier Gold” from More Than Gourmet (you can buy on line). I made up the amount I needed and continued with the demi –

1 gallon brown sauce (Espagnole)
1 gallon brown stock

Combine the sauce and stock in a stock pot and simmer until reduced by half. Strain through a chinois (fine china cap) or a regular china cap lined with cheesecloth. Cover to prevent a skin from forming. Keep hot in a bain marie, or cool in a cold-water bath for later use.
Here's my demiglaze and it tastes absolutely wonderful! Luscious looking also! :)

I am now ready for Houseboat Don to arrive and continue with our small sauces.
Next blog with cover the small sauce we make from the Demiglaze, how we use them and more importanly how we all like them! I'm getting so anxious!