Bearnaise-mission accomplished

On the historic date 11.11.11 MK turned . . . 7, which on the date was celebrated throughout her extended family – and will be celebrated on several days to come. On friday we – T, K, M, MK and Fine – went to a local (Helsingør) Italian family restaurant, Ciao Ciao. This is a place we often return to as the kids love it and other options are few in this area.
M and MK had bruschetta for starters, Fine, T and K Antipasti Misti. The bruschetta for MK was classic tomato and mozzarella, M got the extended version which also included one with cured ham and cheese and one with tuna and capers. The plate of antipasti had melon and prosciutto, vitello tonnato, carpaccio, marinated bell pepper with cheese and a giant shrimp. All was made traditionally and was very tasty. To drink a chardonnay from Casa Girelli. For main course M and MK had Rigatone all Tartufo with sliced beef and the rest of us had Scallopine al Tartufo – Lots of cream and truffles. The Rigatone tasted as though some Ricotta had been added to the cream for texture. It was very rich and good. With the main course the waiter persuaded us to try a 2004 Brunello from Pinino, whomever that is.
Finally two times pistachio ice cream and three extended dessert plates; chocolate mousse, tiramisu and ice cream.
Ciao Ciao is a hot favorite with the kids and despite the heavy use of cream in their pasta dishes we also kind-of-like it. The staff in particular is splendid and as such it feels authentic.
On Saturday evening the family comes to celebrate. MK has chosen the menu, well almost. In her early years MK's favorite dish was Spaghetti alle Vongole and T hopes it still is, even though he suspects that given the choice MK would go for Pasta Pesto. For the secondo MK wants Bearnaise. And since we have neglected the challenge for too long this is a welcome opportunity to make another attempt.
The vongole is by now familiar, but nevertheless we succeed in cooking the pasta in too small a pot and we have to throw away some of it as it sticks together. Let that be a lesson about cooking pasta, but we also have to concede that pots for 14 people is not part of our stock. Despite this mishap everything is eaten and the sauce is scraped off by our guests.

Coming up next is the Boeuf Bearnaise. The roast has been out at room temperature for a couple of hours and placed in a dish with some salt and oil and a few rosemary stalks on top. In this way it is not cold when put it into the oven and also the gas that is used for keeping the meat fresh in the plastic wrapping tend to need to vaporize. It is put in a hot oven (210°) for 10 min, then turn down to heat to 180°. Cooking time for a 2 kg roast is about 45 min for medium rare.
The potatoes is a K-speciality and doesn't take a lot of work. Leave the peal on, half or quarter the potatoes to friendly sizes. Boil in salted water with lots of unshredded garlic cloves and rosemary for 10-15 minutes. Drain and put in a dish in one layer. Add a generous splash of olive oil and bake in the oven until lightly brown. When finished sprinkle with flakes of salt.

When all this out of the way we turn our attention to the bearnaise. Actually we have had to prepare the butter and vinegar reduction in advance.
For 4-6
First melt 250 gr butter at very low temperature so the fat and whey is separated. Set aside.
Next vinegar reduction. Stalks of tarragon and one shallot, chopped, in a pot with half white wine vinegar and white wine (app. 1 dl all-in-all) and crushed pepper. Reduce to a couple of spoonfuls. Set aside.
Now place the reduction-pot in a larger pot for a bain-marie. Whip in the egg yolks (4 yolks) until foamy and thickening. Now s-l-o-w-l-y add the butter while whipping. Finally add chopped tarragon and chervil.

It turned out beautifully. But just to make sure that it was not a one-time-happy-go-lucky we decided to repeat the dinner on tuesday – and it turned out even better – if possible. Now on to the low-fat dishes....

We like grenache for this kind of dish and so we had Clos de l'Oratoire 2008 Chateauneuf du Pape on the evening of MK's birthday and a 2009 Ogier Chateauneuf du Pape on Tuesday. It is a good match (8,5/10). T preferred the former.

Beaune - Encore fois

For the third time in a year we arrive at Beaune in Burgundy and as again we are treated with a sunny day. As usual we arrive a little late in the afternoon and have to try different places in order to get lunch.

We end up at the Grand Café Lyon and predictably we order Meursault et Escargot. This may not be the recommended combination, but we like the sound of it and since will surely be the last summer day for us for some time we have enjoy the feeling of sitting outside at a cafe table, drinking white wine. The snails (escargots) are disappointing and have a earthy taste. Maybe they were not tortured long enough on a salt tray or maybe they have gone bad. The latter may not be the case as we suffer no long term effects. The Meursault is ok.

We also have Le Plat du Jour, which today is Coq au Vin with Tagliatelle. This is ok, but K believes we can do better ourselves one day in the not too far future (so look out for that). Another problem is the Tagliatelle, which she don't think is the proper compagnon for this dish, just like it isn't for Beouf Bourgignon, despite the fact that the rest of Beaune thinks so. Well, almost. But more on that later.

Overall we have become spoilt and for lunch this is quite nice. Overall we rate the lunch as a 6,5/10 and the wine as 7,5/10.

The afternoon is spent researching which wines we should purchase and also to find some more clothes for T who has not packed sufficiently. The research has two steps. First we read up on the latest vintage and the producers who have done well. In Burgundy this means getting a list of wines of €100+ which actually doesn't help a lot, but is enough to make us envious. Secondly we visit the various wine shops and in Beaune there are many. We try to find a wine that can serve as a benchmark (in Chateauneuf it was the Beaucastel). In Beaune it is more difficult because the variuos producers are sold by various shops. Often we end up at Denis Perret who also has the best location on the town square. Another wine shopping/research activity is to go to one of the supermarkets. In France we have often made good purchases in a supermarket and it also gives us some more prices for our benchmark. On this occasion we find a bottle of 1997 Chateau Lynch Bages and the price given underneath is €11. Clearly this must be a mistake and we discuss what to do. In the end we opt for taking one and if it indeed only costs €11 we will re-enter and get the rest. As it is we conme to the counter and when scanned it costs €57. We point out that it should cost 11 and a clerk follows T down to the shelf and takes out the price tag and so we get the bottle for €11, but as she has removed the tag we cannot get the remaining 5 bottles. Incidentally a local man behind us in queue nodded approvingly despite the fact that we were purchasing bordeaux in burgundy.

In the evening we go to Caves Madeleine. This is a return visit as we were here in March and enjoyed it hugely. It is a small place with a good basic kitchen. 

Wine-wise the concept is a little special as you can select your wine from the shelves to bring home or have it with your dinner at an additional cost of €6. On the face of it this seems like a good deal, but our general research suggests that there already has been added €5-10. Nevertheless as we are Danish we are used to huge markups on wine bought at restaurants (300-400%). Still, we like the concept and we spend some time selecting a 2007 Meursault from Albert Bichot and a 2006 Pommard also from Albert Bichot. Both are very good, but of course you can get better. In Burgundy the cap on your credit card quickly becomes the limiting factor and by now we fear that the magnetic strip has worn off.

The menu is small, but this is in our view by no means a bad thing. There are 3 entrees and 3 main courses to select and then we can choose between cheese or dessert.

K is the most adventurous by far and she choses the Terrine Campagne de la Maison for entree, while T selects a Cassoulet Escargot. K's terrine is good and rustic. The combination of a piece of toast, sonme terrine and on top a conichon is a deligthful mouthful. But alas, there is much too much. It is a big piece of terrine and we have to leave some. 

T's cassoulet is good and much more the size of an entree. The garlic sauce is just perfect with sufficient garlic and not too fat. And then there is a potato in there, which has not been overcooked! We rate the terrine as 8/10 and the same for the same for the cassoulet. The Meursault is good and this time we actually manage to save some for our cheese, but it was a close call.

For the main course K waver, but in the end she gives in to her adventurousness and orders the tongue in a broth with vegetables and served with Sauce Bearnaise. K is positively surprised and enjoys her meal. The bearnaise is very well made, but somewhat surprising to get a sauce served to a soup, but the acidity and richness of it suits the dish well. 

T who is not as adventurous choses the Beouf Bourgignon and this time it is even served with poatatoes and a small piece of toast. It is a nice solid dish and the sauce is very nicely powerfully concentrated.

Finally le fromage. Not much to say - just eat.



Overall we rate our meals to 8,5/10 each. K later analyses the meal and concludes that she might have been carried away by the positive surprise of liking tongue and perhaps this is a dish that would be nice as a smaller part of a menu with more courses.

It is good that this is our last day on this vacation. But our reckoning we should be so inebriated that we might have problems finding our way to the Hotel la Cloche 200m away, but we are not. The hotel, by the way, is quite nice and affordable. Good size rooms, clean, right on Place Madeleine and both the coffee and the croissants served for breakfast were good.

Margaux

After visiting old friends in their lovely home in Luxembourg we drive to Bordeaux in France. We arrive at the Relais de Margaux a little late after driving through heavy rain we had hoped to have left far behind – in Denmark. Luckily we emerge on the other side and even if the weather cannot measure up to the lovely day in Luxembourg and its 28 degrees centigrade and a long evening sitting with good friends and looking down on the small town of Echternach it is still fair weather.

We order (predictably, since we are now in France) foie gras with fruit bread and a rib-eye steak, bearnaise and chips. To this we have half a bottle of Rochemorin and a bottle of Marquis de Terme 2004.

The fois gras was served in two generous slices with some pickled figs and the fruit bread. Coarse salt was sprinkled on top. Very simple and very nice

The bearnaise was served cold – almost as a herbed butter – the chips were good but a bit soft and finally the meat was cooked perfectly – if we had ordered perfectly.

A little lesson in french... saignant is VERY RARE (but not bleu, which is even more raw)
The waiter misunderstood the medium rare ... and we took her word for it....

For future reference –
Rare: saignant

Medium rare: à point

Medium: cuit
Well done: bien cuit

For dessert we had creme brulée and a three-kind-of-chocolate cake and to drink a sauterne.
The sauterne – much to our surprise – went better with the cake than the pudding...

The dinner at the 'Brasserie du Lac' (the restaurant of the hotel) did the trick for the two tired travelers. We are quite satisfied and going back to both the hotel and the restaurant,  not only one more night, but probably in the future as well.

The Bearnaise Challenge

Alas, we do not comment on meals by friends, and we will not, except to state the unacceptable truth: K cannot get the sauce bearnaise right.... This time it never thickened.
The one thing K was asked to help with – at an otherwise great setup – and she failed.



T was given the less challenging task of picking tomatoes, which he still seemed to have problems solving.

Expect a lot more Bearnaise on these pages in the future – until we get it right. And eventually also a long line of low fat meals ....

Even if we do not rate meals when we are invited as guests, let us suffice to say that it was excellent and the wine that we brought ourselves was:
A bottle of Meursault (8/10) which we enjoyed with K's Aioli and with the dinner we drank a Casalferro 2001 from Ricasoli (8,5/10) and a Stonewell 2004 Shiraz from Lehmann (8/10)