PING PING!

[Jenise]

So I decided to open my one and only bottle of Pingus and invite a few wine-savvy friends over to share it. I also decided to open a '52 Madeira, a '94 Egay and CVNE Imperial Gran Riserva, and a fine manzanilla I'd bought at Lopez de Heredia in Haro over a year ago (and stored in my garage refrigerator ever since so as not to lose freshness). Bill and Suzanne Spohn were among our guests. The purpose of this was rooted in the world of Wacky Internet Wine Personalities. The male halves of each couple have known each other since eBob days. I know and socialize with all of them, but they'd never all been in the same room. I fixed that!


Here's what I served:

A whole serrano ham (on the hoof) with knife for slicing.
Champagne

Seared U-10 scallops, garbanzo bean-pimento puree, meyer lemon and saffron reduction. My own creation in order to nail paella flavors without the rice, plus fresh/earthy/complex/intense to go with the (Pastrana) manzanilla.

Roasted leeks, piquillo vinaigrette, crumbled linquica. Funny enough, I had an 04 LdH Tondonia Blanco ready to go with this dish, but one of my guests brought one so mine's back in the cellar. Bill's 04 Artadi also went with this dish.

Black truffle tortilla, chicory salad. This was just the classic Spanish cake-like omelet called tortilla enhanced with black truffles to play up to the pair of '94's I'd planned to serve with it served on a bed of two colors of chicory, one of them being a beautiful pale baby yellow, almost white, splashed with light pink streaks. We're getting all kinds of amazing colors of chicory family lettuces in my town since there's a grower here who's fascinated with same--at the Coop where I get them, the display looks like a bowl of roses. Unfortunately, the '94 Ygay was DOA, so I subbed a 2006 Ramon Bilbao Mirto. None of us were previously acquainted with this producer but it was a fine option.

Vaudovan crusted rack of fresh, organically raised rack of lamb from Oregon, oloroso sherry and fig sauce, sauteed carrots with mint. With that, the Pingus and a 1970 Prado Enea my friend Warren brought.

After the main course, a platter of cheese, and another with fresh cherries, kumquats, marcona almonds and locally made chocolates to enjoy with the '52 Madeira.

Pretty cool dinner!

Sounds amazing, Jenise. Brava!

I have a dumb question: what does "U-10" signify about the scallops?

[Jenise]

Like shrimp, # per lb. These were quite large, prolly closer to U-8 though that classification may not even exist.

Thanks.

Yum! Do you use a prepared vadouvan blend or do you have a recipe you prefer? Not sure why, but I'm seeing it everywhere now (maybe chefs just got tired of calling things "curry"); one of our local haunts has been doing a vaudovan crusted salmon this winter that I've liked a lot.

(The wines sounded great too!)

[Jenise]

Patchen, few years back I bought a mix that I absolutely loved. Wouldn't have even wanted to make my own, and when I ran out I re-ordered. Sadly, the replacement bears no resemblance in color or flavor to the other, other than being vaguely from another part of the world, so now I'm back at square one. Like so many seasoning blends, a little more of this or a little less of that can matter quite a bit, and none are wrong within the context of their origins.

Sherry and fig sauce sounds inviting.

[Jenise]

It was quite good, Matilda. The idea came out of a book on Spanish cooking but I doctored it heavily to fit the dish. Only stupid thing was that I forgot to garnish the plates with the figs. Just about shot myself when I realized that.

Just saw this thread.

Even for you, Jenise, this was a special dinner that surpassed your normal high standard! Bravo. Ole! Two ears and a tail!

[Jenise]

Why, thank you!

Just saw this thread.

Even for you, Jenise, this was a special dinner that surpassed your normal high standard! Bravo. Ole! Two ears and a tail!

That's a lot of bull.

I'd have awarded her the 'oysters' (Rocky Mountain) too, but she'd just have cooked them.....

True, but she's unlikely to make a white sauce to go with.