Today’s food was an all British Isles affair. I met Matt and
Mike Runnels for lunch at Two Fools Tavern http://www.2foolstavern.com/ for a lunch of Irish food. They both ordered the always reliable Fish
and Chips, but I was a bit more adventurous and ordered “Guinness Beef Boxty”,
which was a large potato pancake folded over a large scoop of beef stew containing
chunks of beef, potatoes, carrots and onions cooked in a Guinness stout sauce and garnished
with a bit of stew for color contrast. The thick dark brown sauce was delicious and I
enjoyed the roughly equal balance of meat to potatoes, onions, and carrots. The potato pancake was surprisingly light and
balanced the weight of the stew nicely. I drank a liter of Irish Magners Apple cider,
which Two Fools has on tap. The cider was fine,
not too sweet and not too bitter; just right; cold and refreshing. I realize that when we were in England last summer, we were drinking mostly Irish cider, when we were drinking Magners and Bulmers ciders, although we were distracted from that fact by the British, who would often say that these two ciders were, "proper English ciders". Yet, another important reason to visit Willy in Ireland.
I lay down at about 4:30 for short nap and did not awaken until
Suzette called me to dinner at 5:30. So
I missed all the excitement of the dinner prep.
When I walked into the kitchen, I saw a skillet filled with cabbage and
potatoes browning and another skillet that had been used to sauté pork chops that
now held chunks of apple sautéing and Suzette was chopping a large handful of greens
from our garden, which she added to the apples to braze the vegetables with the
apples.
She said, “We need a bottle of rosé for this dish.” I responded, “I chilled just the right bottle last night,” and
went to the basement fridge and fetched a bottle of 2010 Toulouse Anderson
Valley Rosé of Pinot Noir.
Suzette served a large scoop of Bubble and Squeak and laid a
smoked pork chop on it and then garnished that pork chop with a scoop of
apples and vegetables. I poured glasses
of Toulouse Rosé and we carried them out to the garden to eat dinner and watch doves fly in for drinks of water from the birdbath and the pond. The birds seem to be practically immune to our
presence and staring and only fly away when we walk near them. So our dinners in the garden are going to be shared
with doves this summer. How fun!
Recipe
Bubble and Squeak is an old English dish that was very
popular during WWII in England when rationing made everything except potatoes
and cabbage hard to get. It is made with
PPI potatoes usual from last night’s dinner smashed or chopped and fried in a skillet with cabbage until
brown on the edges. Suzette made it fresh by shredding ½ head of organic cabbage
and grating one or two russet potatoes in the Cuisinart and then frying those
small pieces in a skillet with butter and oil.
It had a fried polenta like texture, soft in the middle and crusty on
the edges and made a nice complement to
the sautéed smoked pork chop, apples and vegetables.
The wine was heavenly.
Anderson Valley, CA rosé of Pinot Noir is my current favorite American wine because it has fruitiness and is not acidic like many of its French cousins or overly sweet like many of its American cousins and projects the delicacy and deep reddish color of pinot noir. Last year when we went to the Pinot Noir Grand
Tasting in Anderson Valley, CA in May, we made a point of tasting all the rosés and agreed
that the Toulouse was the best. After the tasting we went to the Toulouse Vineyard and ordered a case of their rosé. So there will be a few more meals with great
rosé this summer.
Here are the two beds of greens that we uncovered yesterday, some of which were used for the dinner.
Bon Appétit
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