We had no enthusiasm for celebrating Halloween this year and
did not even buy any candy.
When we finished our appointment with Janice to get a second
opinion about our house remodel around noon, Suzette asked, “What do you want
to do this evening?”
I suggested, “Let’s eat dinner at the Bistro.”
Suzette, replied, “Great, I love the sautéed Brussels
sprouts with Pork Belly and will not have to cook or clean.” So we agreed to meet at the Bistro at 6:00.
When I arrived there was only the waitress folding
brochures. Suzette had brought a new selection
of Portuguese wines and was in the kitchen discussing them with the Executive
Chef, Angeloe Dixon. Soon Suzette appeared
from the kitchen holding an open of 2010 Loios, a red vinho tinto. Here is some information on the wine in found on Google.
2011 Joao Portugal Ramos Loios Vinho Tinto
Alentejo, Portugal
Well-regarded wines from the Alentejo DOC
(Designation of Origin) region have been at the forefront of growth in
Portugal's wine exports. Alentejo is a hot, dry area in eastern Portugal, and
vast acres are planted with cork trees. From the region's vineyards, red
wines are primarily produced from multiple varieties of native grapes
blended with the well-known grapes such as cabernet sauvignon and
syrah. This bottling, made from indigenous grapes, is a blend of 35 percent
each aragones and trincadeira and 30 percent castelao. The wine was
vinified in stainless steel and touched no oak. It offers jammy aromas of berry
fruit, and on the palate, one tastes red currants and more ripe, dark berry
flavors, smooth tannins, good acidity and a lightly sweet finish. Drink it
with grilled meats, red beans and rice, barbecue, fowl, pasta with tomato
sauce, stuffed pork chops and sweet potatoes. Buy it at: Pearl Wine
Co. and Keife and Co. — BRENDA MAITLAND
We sat at a table beside the window overlooking the park area at the Center and Suzette poured us each a
glass of the Joao vinho tinto and the waitress brought us the menu. I asked the waitress what the Soup of the Day
was and Suzette answered, “It is Elk Stew, I had a bowl of it for lunch and it
is fabulous.
So I ordered that.
Then I noticed an appetizer of Pumpkin Risotto on the menu
and ordered that because I have learned that Chef Angeloe makes the best
risotto I have ever eaten.
Suzette then ordered the Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with pork
belly.
The wine was very good.
It had that flat tannin, heavy and complex earthiness that I had tasted before
in good Douro de Riberas, which makes sense because these grapes are raised in eastern Portugal.
Soon a medium, I am guessing a pint, mason jar of stew was served with a lovely deep
square shaped soup bowl along with a bistro basket filled with a wedge of warm freshly
baked parmesan encrusted dense egg rich farm house bread, half sliced through
so you could have a slice or tear off a hunk from the bottom crust with aluminum
wrapped pads of butter.
I poured the stew into the soup bowl and tasted the stew. It was a long cooked tomato based stew full
of fresh tomatoes, and herbs from the garden with some additional bay leaves,
onions, garlic and canned tomatoes with chunks of and elk tenderloin instead of
hamburger beef. I would make a perfect
spaghetti sauce. It was loose and
flavorful and its light vegetable flavor and texture was well complemented by the
heavy complex wine.
We were then brought a smaller square bowl filled with
Squash Risotto. I had never eaten squash
risotto and thought of it as a bit gimmicky, but it turned out to be delicious
beyond words. I do not know what broth
or liquid was used to emulsify the rice and squash, but the result was
terrific. The kernels of Arborio rice were
plump and tender and yet completely cooked, so they did not have that al dente
characteristic that appears to be the Italians’ preference, but which I call undercooked. The chunks and short, thick slices of squash
were also cooked beautifully to the point that they were tender and yet
retained their structure and the whole seemed to be held together with cheese
and the top of the risotto was garnished with chunks of fresh herbed goat
cheese. It seems that every time I eat
Chef Angeloe’s risotto I say it is the best I have ever tasted, but he keeps
outdoing himself. Although this time I
think he hit a pinnacle that not even he will exceed, even though I dream to be
surprised again. Just the idea of using
a common fall vegetable like squash in risotto is exciting and the flavor
combination of squash with risotto shows that Chef Angeloe is a master of this
medium. 
We were excited and also saddened to look around the restaurant
and see that there were no other diners and knowing how many foodies would love
this food.
We initially thought the bowl of risotto was incredibly
large, but, as soon as we tasted it, we could not stop eating it. The most
amazing thing was how well the wine complemented the risotto. They were perfect
together as the wine blended with and helped emulsify the dense texture of the
risotto.
As soon as we scraped the last kernel of rice out of the
bowl, the waitress brought us a square plate half-filled with the halved fresh Brussels
Sprouts (I saw the Chef preparing the dish. He cut the fresh Brussels Sprouts in half and
de-stemmed them and then cut large slices off a huge hunk of pork belly.) that
had been sautéed and glazed with a pomegranate.juice glaze. Beside those was a pile of about four or five
three or four inch long and two or 2 ½ inch wide by ½ inch thick slices of pork
belly that had been sautéed to dark golden brown.
We loved the combination of hot pork fat and tender meat and
I instantly understood why folks are now attracted to pork belly in this recent
head to tail craze in the food world. This
was the first time I had had pork belly pan sautéed and loved this approach. It had that crisp exterior crunch combined
with a very soft interior, not unlike scrapple.
I tried it both ways, eating it with the fat and without the fat and
enjoyed both. Unfortunately, the wine,
for some reason was not as wonderful with the pork belly. I am guessing because the pork belly is
brined and the extra salt interferes with the flavor of the wine, whereas the
wine complemented and shined when paired with the sweetness of the tomatoes in
the stew and the squash in the risotto.
A lighter bodied wine might have been better, but that is a problem one
does not usually think about when one has an open bottle of good red wine
already open sitting in front of oneself.
We were stuffed by the time we finished the Brussels Sprouts
and Pork Belly and could not eat dessert, but we could not resist taking home
some caramel filled snicker doodles and chocolate brownies made by the new baker.
Suzette, who grew up on Snicker doodles
in rural Pennsylvania, says these are the best she has ever tasted; a real compliment
to the new baker.
The prices for these dishes are ridiculously cheap and the
portions are impressively large, so they more than make up for the cost of
driving to Los Lunas and are easy to split.
The bottle of Elk Stew was $6.50, the Squash Risotto with fresh herbed
goat cheese was $9.00 and the sautéed Brussels sprouts with Pork Belly was
$18.00. Suzette and I split the three
dishes and were stuffed for a total of $17.75 each before wine and tip, which I
consider an amazing value.
This is a back road treasure, like finding that amazing
small auberge in the French country side with fabulous fresh local produced food.
If you know and love great food, you
will be blown away. For more information go to https://www.facebook.com/GreenHouseBistro/.
Bon Appétit
No comments:
Post a Comment