March 11, 2014 Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak with baked potato and steamed broccoli

For all of you Netflixers, I saw a pretty good movie last night on cable, “The Painted Veil” with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.  Actually it is the best performance by Naomi Watts, I have ever seen.  A Somerset Maugham novel directed by John Curran beautifully set in rural China of the late forties.

Last night Suzette was suffering from a cold, so we ate bowls of PPI Cioppino refreshed with chopped fresh kale and garlic greens from our garden.

Today, I did not leave the house except to go to the garden to pick fresh tarragon and garlic greens for my dijonaise dressing for my salad at lunch, until 5:30, when I decided to go to Albertson’s to buy Rib steaks for $5.97/lb.  I also bought asparagus for $.98/lb., a pound of fresh farm raised salmon for $5.99/lb., a 1 lb. carton of sour cream for $1.25 and Blue Bell ice Cream for $3.88/half gallon.   It is hard to see how they earn much profit off me.

Before I left home, I washed and pierced holes in three Idaho Russet potatoes and put them on a cookie sheet in a 400˚ oven for 1 hour.

When I returned Suzette was home and the timer on the oven showed 11 minutes.

I asked Suzette if steak and a baked potato would be okay and did she want broccoli or asparagus for the vegetable.   She said broccoli and started the grill, while I de-stemmed flowerlets from a stalk of broccoli ($.69/lb. at Pro’s Ranch Market).  We selected one of the thicker 1 inch thick steaks to grill.

I had PPI dijonaise dressing from lunch and ½ of a large slicing tomato (Sprouts $.99/lb.) and she said it would be nice to have sliced tomatoes.  So I sliced the large ½ tomato into about ten slices and laid them on a salad plate and drizzled them with the dijonaise dressing.

Then we sliced three white and three shitake mushrooms and sautéed them in butter and olive oil with 2 Tbsp. of garlic greens and three fresh sprigs of tarragon and doused them with Red Vermouth and viola, we were ready to plate up.  Suzette made crosshatched slits in the potatoes and squeezed the potatoes open and put a slice of butter into each.  I ran to the garden and picked five stalks of chives and came back and chopped them finely and put sour cream on the potatoes and some of the mushrooms and forgot to garnish with the chives, because we got into a hurry to eat.

  

Since it was sitting on our kitchen table we decided to drink the 2010 Le Colombier DomaineCuvee ‘G” that Doug and Crystal so graciously brought us on Sunday.

  

As it turned out this 50% Grenache 50% syrah wine from Appelation Controlée Vacqueyras in the Southern Rhone did not measure up to the other more interesting Southern Rhone reds we have drunk lately.  I guess we were spoiled by the Chateau Beaucastel at the Winter Wine Festival in Taos in January and even the Kermit Lynch Côtes de Rhône we drank at Joseph’s last week.  The wine tasted like the wine had suffered some oxidation and had a slightly bitter taste.  It definitely lacked that brightness that I suspect Mouvédre and Cinsaut grapes provide.

For those who are confused about the grape varieties used in Rhone wines, which includes me, here is a chart that explains all the different appellations and their main, alternative and supplemental grape varieties. Use of other grapes is prohibited by law.

Grape varieties[edit]

Different grape varieties are allowed in the different Rhône appellations; a few appellations are single variety appellations, while the regional Côtes du Rhône appellation allow 21 different varieties. In most cases, Northern Rhône appellations allow many fewer varieties than those of Southern Rhône. In many appellation regulations, a division is made into main grape varieties (indicated by "M"), supplementary varieties (indicated by "S"), and accessory varieties (indicated by "(A)").

Variety	Northern crus
	Condrieu,[9] Château-Grillet[10]	Cornas[11]	Côte-Rôtie[12]	Hermitage,[13] Crozes-Hermitage[14]		Saint-Joseph[15]		Saint-Péray[16]
				Red	White	Red	White
Marsanne				(A) max 15%	M 0-100%	(A) max 10%	M 0-100%	M 0-100%
Roussanne				(A) max 15%	M 0-100%	(A) max 10%	M 0-100%	M 0-100%
Syrah		M 100%	M min 80%	M min 85%		M min 90%
Viognier	M 100%		(A) max 20%

Variety

Regional appellations

Southern crus

Côtes du Rhône[17]

Côtes du Rhône Villages[18]

Beaumes de Venise[19]

Châteauneuf-du-Pape[20]

Gigondas[21]

Lirac[22]

Muscat de Beaumes de Venise[23]

Rasteau[24]

Tavel[25]

Vacqueyras[26]

Red and rosé

White

Red

Rosé

White

Red and rosé

White

Red

Rosé

White

Bourboulenc

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

M

Brun Argenté (locally called Camarèse or Vaccarèse)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

Calitor

(A)

Carignan

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

Carignan blanc

(A)

Cinsaut

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

Clairette blanche

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

M

Clairette rose

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

Counoise

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

Grenache blanc

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

M

M

(A)

(A)

M

Grenache gris

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

M

M

(A)

(A)

Grenache noir

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

Marsanne

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

Marselan

(A)

(A)

Mourvèdre

S

S

S

(A)

M

S

M

(A)

M

S

M

Muscardin

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains

M

Muscat Rouge à Petits Grains

M

Picardan

M

Piquepoul blanc

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

Piquepoul gris

M

M

Piquepoul noir

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

Roussanne

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

Syrah

S

S

S

S

M

S

M

(A)

M

S

M

Terret noir

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

Ugni blanc

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

Viognier

(A)

M

(A)

M

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

(A)

M

 

 Try to read down the page because the columns are all in order but just stretched down the page.

Anyway, more is usually better in Southern Rhone.  For example, there are thirteen varieties mandated for Chateauneuf du Pape and Chateau Beaucastel uses all thirteen in its wine.

The fresh tarragon, kale and garlic greens we are picking in the garden are exciting indicators of the abundance of fresh ingredients to come and encourage us to plant lots of vegetables this summer.

Bon Appétit