September 10, 2013 Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Baked Delicata Squash and sautéed Mushrooms and String Beans

September 10, 2013 Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Baked Delicata Squash and sautéed Mushrooms and String Beans

We are still into simple and flavorful.  I thawed out a bone in rib eye steak yesterday.  Saturday we bought a delicata squash at the Farmers’ Market and Friday I had bought about ½ pound of lovely tight white mushroom caps (Sprouts $2.99/lb.).

So tonight we decided to make our usual steak dinner.  Suzette,” the Great Grilletta” salted and peppered the steak and cut the delicata squash lengthwise and de-seeded it and saved the seeds for planting next spring.  Suzette then filled each cavity with four or five cloves of garlic, some chopped red onion and several pieces of butter and baked them in a 400˚ oven for about 45 Minutes.

I asked Suzette what she wanted to drink and he said, “A good red wine.”  So I went to the cellar and selected a bottle of 2007 Londer Vineyards Anderson Valley Pinot Noir that I immediately opened to allow to breath.  Pinot Noir usually is greatly improved by breathing for ½ hour. 

 

 

When Suzette put the steak on, she asked me whether I wanted to sauté the green string beans with the mushrooms or blanch them separately and I said, “Let’s do them together.”

So I sliced about five or six mushrooms into slices and Suzette put them in a skillet with butter and the green string beans and some red onion she had chopped and I sautéed those ingredients for a few minutes and then added ¼ cup of Amontillado sherry about 1/8 cup at a time about five minutes apart.  I then picked and de-stemmed the leaves from several stalks of fresh oregano (1 tsp.) from our potted plant in the dining room window because it was still raining outside and I did not want to get wet going to the garden and put them into the mushroom and string bean sauté. Then I fetched the small pitcher of PPI Béarnaise Sauce from the fridge and put it on the stove beside the skillet to come to room temperature but not melt.  

When Suzette brought the steak in from the grill, I sliced the steak and she plated each plate with one of the baked delicata squash halves and I put four pieces of steak on each plate and Suzette garnished one half of the steak slices with the mushroom and dabbed the other side with a spoonful of Béarnaise Sauce.   I poured glasses of wine and we were ready to eat.

 Two notes.  One:  The Londer Vineyards Pinot Noir wine was delicious but a relic of the past.  Larry and Shirlee Londer sold the Vineyards a couple of years ago, so each bottle we drink now is a rather nostalgic experience with memories of visiting and staying with them at the Vineyard and tasting their amazing pinot noir wine. Here is the story as told in Wine Spectator:  Mendocino Pinot Noir Specialist Londer Vineyards Is Closing

Couple moved to Anderson Valley in 2000 to pursue a passion for wine

Aaron Romano
Posted: May 6, 2013

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After 12 years making Pinot Noir in Northern California, Larry and Shirlee Londer of Londer Vineyards in Anderson Valley have decided to close their winery's doors and exit the business at the end of May. The Londers, who turned a passion for wine into a second career, had been pulling back from the business in recent years.

The couple made their midlife move into winemaking in 2000, arriving in rural Anderson Valley via Albuquerque, N.M. Larry was a retired ophthalmologist who had been fascinated by wine since his days working in a store while attending medical school. The Londers decided that the coastal reaches of California were calling them from the desert, and with help and advice from vintner friend Dan Duckhorn, who founded Goldeneye Winery in Anderson Valley in the mid-'90s, found a property at the end of a twisting dirt road among towering redwoods.

The Londers planted 17 acres of Pinot Noir, 1 acre of Gewürztraminer and 5 acres of gardens, which Shirlee put to good use, making homemade raspberry jam and cured olives. Londer's wines debuted with the 2001 vintage, made from purchased grapes; the 2004 vintage was the first to include estate fruit. The tenacious couple went door to door trying to sell their wines, and thanks to winemaker Greg LaFollette's contacts, landed numerous placements throughout the Bay Area.

"It is great to be dumb, stupid and naive about the enormous risks involved when you make this life change into the wine business," Larry told Wine Spectator in 2005. "We made it based on a passionate desire to make great wine." Their passion showed in the glass—Londer Vineyards received two dozen classic and outstanding scores from Wine Spectator during their 12-year run.

In recent years, however, the couple stepped back from the business. They sold their vineyards in 2011, relocating to their native Colorado to be near family. The Londer brand was retained and they continued making wines, sourcing fruit from the new owners. General business manager Joe Webb, who had been with the company since 2007, oversaw management and winemaking, but the couple remained actively involved from afar.

The Londers will keep the winery open through May and plan to throw a farewell party for their fans.

I discovered Londer Vineyards Pinot Noirs around 2005, at the NMSO’s Vintage Albuquerque event where Larry was pouring his newly minted pinot noir.  I was blown away and we immediately became fans of his Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs and started traveling there to enjoy the area's wines and fresh seafood (Anderson Valley opens into the Pacific Coast about thirty miles west at Mendocino and is just over the ridge from the Pacific Ocean, that brings the damp moisture laden air that is so loved by coastal redwoods and wine plants).  If you like pinot noir, Anderson Valley Winegrowers host an annual Pinot Noir Festival every May that will allow you to taste all the pinot noirs produced in the Valley in one tasting.  It is my favorite wine event because of the wonderful quality without being pretentious or expensive.    

Two:  I was amazed by the consistency and flavor of the PPI Bearnaise Sauce.  I think I made it four to six months ago and it has been sitting in the fridge since then.  What was amazing is that while sitting in the fridge during that period of time the sauce has developed a richer, creamier consistency and more delicious flavor.  Some of the harshness of the vinegar used as an ingredient has moderated.  Suzette says, “It is because the vinegar preserves and prevents bacteria from growing in the sauce.”  Anyway, it was a delicious complement to the steak and mushroom and string beans.

After dinner, Suzette toasted slices of the baguette we bought at the Farmers' Market from Bosque Bakery ($2.50) and fetched the remaining triple cream Delice cheese from the fridge and we enjoyed slices of bread smeared with creamy cheese with the last sips of the Londer wine.

Bon Appétit