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Periodically I get together with a group of male friends and one of us hosts a "Gentleman's Evening" where wives and partners are left to their own devices and we can safely talk about boring stuff like cars, hifi, sport, cameras, gadgets, etc, without fear of criticism!Basically a lads night in but a bit posher, sit-down meal and fine wines followed by cigars and maybe a card game.
It's my turn to host and have lined up some good Chateuneuf-du-Pape and various super-Tuscans (Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile de Montepulciano) which my fellow Gentlemen will match with similarly full-bodied reds. I'm planning the evening menu and looking for some advice and guidance on what to cook that stands on its own but doesn't detract from the great wines. Basically limit the spices, chilli and garlic and go for earthy but not pungent flavours.
I'd tentatively thought of
Starter - grilled goats cheese salad
Main - Daube de Boeuf, boiled new potatoes
Dessert - Creme Brulee with mandarin segments and an orange ice cream
CheeseboardOn the grounds that it's stuff that, from the Googling I've done on food and wine matching, should meet the criteria, plus is variously Southern French and more or less typical of the wine regions. But I'd welcome suggestions on anything more suitable, preferably simple and able to be prepared well in advance and served by a chef who may be a bit wobbly on his feet by the time we get around to dessert :) !!
[additional note: one of the six guests is on a gluten-free diet]
Follow Ups:
What first course ( or, in the order of la tavola Italia, 'i primi') could possibly go better with celiac disease and Brunello than risotto con fungi, made with red wine? And if you can get your hands on one, some tartufi (white Piemontese truffle) shavings would put the dish totally over the top. (The truffles are strictly optional, and the dish is sumptuous enough without, especially if 'i secondi' is a tuscana, and everything and everybody is awash in heavy red wines.) Co-incidently, I made risotto con fungi for 50 people on New Years Eve a couple of weeks ago, and they are raving still. (Leftover risotti are often allowed to go stiff in the refrigerator, then formed into cakes and fried in shallow fat.)The most elemental of Tuscan cooking is also their most elementary: la bistecca alla fiorentina. So intimately associated is it with the cuisine of that food-and-wine blessed region that it is commonly called 'la tuscana.' And unlike your proposed daube, the meat is not floured, nor the sauce thickened with roux, both non-nos for the gluten-intolerant.
Of the rice varieties native to the Po Valley, Arborio is the best known and most widely available in the United States. But any short- or medium-grained rice, often labeled 'typo blue rose' in groceries catering to a Latin-American clientele, will give excellent results.
Because many of the guests at the New Years Eve party were vegetarian, I used water in place of stock, and unless you happen to have a surfeit of home-made stock on hand, I can assure you that there is no reason to do otherwise. I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment as friends just called to invite us to their home for Champagne, and I still have to make dinner for the family. But if there is interest, I will be happy to provide my recipe. My New Years risotto was made with Champagne and not red wine, probably because it was open, at hand, and unlike myself, undrunk.
As for la tuscana, you don't need a wood fire. Just ask your butcher (and it hould be your policy to find out what he likes to drink and make a friend of him) to cut you a Porterhouse 4" thick. He may give you an argument, but hold your ground. This will weigh about 4 to 4 1/2 pounds.
If you have a ridged cast iron pan, preheat it, then place the steak on it, rotating it 90-degrees after it has become nicely marked. Do the same on the second side. This operation will not cook the steak, but will merely mark the outside with the pattern the French call 'quadrillage.' If you don't have such a pan (Lodge makes the best one, it's indistructable and everlasting, and it's often on sale for $20), just brown the steak in a hot pan, then proceed to the next step.
Meanwhile, you will have preheated your oven to 250-degrees. Stand the meat up on its bone end, which will act like a rack, in the same pan. Cook the steak until almost done (I take it out when the meat thermometer registers 140-degrees), remove it to a plate, cover it with a bowl or kitchen towel, and let it rest for no less than 15 minutes, preferably half an hour. Expect the steak to take somewhere in the range of 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the oven.
Cooked in this manner, rather than by continuous high heat, the outside is a deep brown, and the interior is a perfectly even rose from edge to edge.Present the steak before you carve it, garnishing it simply with cutup lemons (carved into a crown if you're atill sober enough, which seems doubtful). On a board with a blood groove, use a sharp knife to cut around trhe bone, removing the fillet half and the sirloin half from the 'T' shaped bone.
Carve these into roughly 1/3"-thick slices, replace on the bone, season liberally with coarse salt and cracked black pepper, and anoint generously with your very best extra-virgin. Squeeze the lemons over the whole, and serve, garnished with a mound or 2 of watercress deployed around the meat that will be eaten as your salad course dressed only with the salty, oily, lemony meat juices.
Well, I must check my pancetta for tonight's pasta, then get primed for the Champagne party with a little Delamain Pale and Dry.
As the Great One used to say, 'MMMMMMMMMMMMM-BOY! That's good!'
Braised lamb shank is another idea for big reds. Easy to make and robust in flavor.Big reds don't usually go well with cheese or desserts. A good white Burgundy with the cheese.
Desserts are another matter. If you're expecting to be wobbly, forget the dessert and serve a great Sauternes or Barsac. You'll still be wobbly but you'll forgo the preparation. California and Australia also make some good dessert wines.
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