The Christmas drinking begins
On Christmas day, Gen and I will be going to a concert with Woody Allen and his band. So, we met up with some friends on the weekend to open bottles and eat heart strangling food.
The day began early enough at the marché at Rue Porcelet to pick up some pig and the like. People were frantically ordering food for Christmas, just the kind of chaos I like.
Customers at the green grocer
Geese, ducks and capons at the butcher
Truffles
Products direct from Landes: foie gras, cheese and sausages
Gen and I took our goodies over to Arcueil, in the south of Paris. Gen and I prepared things in the typical Parisien kitchen:
Preparing a pomegranate sauce for suckling pig
For the first course, I prepared Noix de Saint-Jacques avec gingembre et citron vert (Scallops with ginger and lime). This went very well with the Jacques Selosse Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut, a rich, powerful Champagne with a complex array of aromas. In the mouth, it is close to perfect.
Next, Omelette aux truffes (truffle omelette). The truffles were quite cheap and as such I didn’t expect too much. The aroma of these were good but they did not impart too much flavour. Ideally, I would have liked them sitting with the eggs for a few days – c’est la vie. Again, well suited to a complex wine like the Selosse.
Next came the foie gras poêlée avec pommes et poires, sauce porto (fried foie gras with apples and pears with a port sauce). Cooking with foie gras can be quite challenging, it must be handled very gently. In this particular case, I feel I was unable to replicate the qualities I’m fond of at restaurants: a firm surface and creamy interior, only just cooked at the centre. Pairing foie gras with port was, though, a deft move I think. The rich, slightly sweet flavour of the reduced port offset the natural bitterness of the foie gras. It worked very well. The apples and pears, fried in butter and duck fat presented a contrasting texture (firm, warm but crunchy) which I also think worked.
With this, we drank a Chateau de Myrat Sauternes 1997. This worked well but it occured to me that maybe a Loire sweet wine would have worked better in this particular case, as they’re refresher in flavour, more like apple.
Next came Cochon au lait (suckling pig). I seasoned this with coriander and fennel seed, as I often did in Australia, and my French friends were quite pleased. The pomegranate sauce, also containing a whole bottle of Burgundy, was delicious. Instead of root vegetables, Gen served a beetroot, chevre cheese, pine nut and garlic salad. Fantastic.
With this, we drank a J.F. Mugnier Clos de la Maréchale 1er Cru Nuit-Saint-Georges 2005. This was a little closed and not showing as much fruit as I’ve seen on it. It’s time to stop drinking this wine now and wait for some years for it to blossom, I feel.
At this point, we were struggling. My friend produced the small cheese plate he’d organised.
With this, we finished off the Sauternes.
Finally, a Tarte Linzer, a tart made of raspberry confiture with a crumbly sablé base. Absolutely delicious. We drank with it a Chambers Old Vine Muscadelle which worked very well with the cloves and cinnamon in the tart. I found this very well balanced. My friends felt the alcohol. I guess it’s what you’re used to.
