Tuna Niçoise With 2018 Groundwork Picpoul Nouveau

Glou-glou, chuggable, smashable (my most-hated), fresh, open, fun, patio-pounder (feels like hyphened words from 2004).

Whatever term you want to use for an easy natural wine (or something on the natty spectrum), the wine still HAS to be interesting, have a second and maybe third level, and offer some sense of grace, even quirk.

It can't just approximate the grape's essence while not tasting like butt, particularly since glou-glou is going for upwards of $40 a bottle of late. I'm looking at you, Broc.

That's not really a slight on Broc Cellars. We've drunk and enjoyed the vast majority of their wines. But $40 for a picpoul, a Broc wine we've loved in the past, it runs against the nature of what picpoul is. It might be priced right for the economies of making it, but that doesn't take away the lament we felt when their wines went from "we have our bargain Cali-Natty deliciousness!" to "we simply can't afford this on a regular basis anymore." That's our economies, especially when many of Broc wines have pairing competition from Chinon, Portuguese baga, Beaujolais cru, Italian weird, Spanish juicy, and frankly anything off-region Frenchy. If you drink wine regularly, the $8-10-20 difference is hundreds of dollars over the course of the year.

On that note, here's one we can afford on a regular basis. It's from Sans Liege, the Paso-based winery that plays in Rhône-y grapes with dalliances elsewhere, like here. the 2018 Groundwork Picpoul Nouveau is carbonic picpoul blanc, with 10% picpoul gris for color. It's $18 at Vin on Elston, and the entire Groundwork line is $20 and under. With a delicate floral note weaving in and out of creamy berries and touch of bitter watermelon rind, the wine kept changing with each bite of the tuna Niçoise (potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, onions, parsley, olives, capers, A's do Mar oil-cured tuna...the usual - a delicious version).

This wine brings The Interest, approaches a third gear (but needs the right food to get there), transcends the sum of its parts, drinks like a four-season wine, and with this food it all tasted like a vacation lunch somewhere on a sun-drenched bay.

For $18.

Christmas

Let's kickstart this here blog back up.

The 365 Days of Food and Wine experiment, while interesting, sapped my ability to accurately describe the delicious food Mrs. Ney made. It got to the point where my word canon reached the very end of its description limit. I'd re-read things I'd written and think, "Hot damn that's boring!" And that wasn't doing any justice to the time and effort Mrs. Ney had put in to researching, thinking about, and making dinners.

The break was needed, but it's time to step back in, because while we hope anyone searching for food and wine pairing advice - a vexing and frightening proposition for many - comes across this site and comes to understand that it's not that frightening, mostly we want and need the reference. We also like to see how our year and tastes flowed and changed.

Christmas seems a good place to start.

Food: Bittman Lamb Osso Buco with Sean Brock Grits and Rapini

Mark Bittman osso buco recipe, from NYT Cooking. Lamb osso buco from D'Artagnan, seared, then cooked for 90 minutes on the stovetop with garlic, anchovies, sage, marjoram, rosemary, white wine, salt and pepper until tender. Meat removed, sauce reduced, served on the side. Cracked pink peppercorns sprinkled on top of lamb. Sean Brock grits, from Heritage: A Cookbook (page 74 - "How to cook grits like a Southerner"). Simple rapini done up with salt and pepper that somehow didn't taste so simple.

Luscious lamb. Frenchy touches with northern Italian guts. Osso buco is never going to be the best meat I've ever had in my life, but when it hits, like here, it's a meat-melty wonder. Rather perfect grits, as Mr. Brock seems to offer with most anything he offers (see burgers, patty melts, steaks, grits, griddle cakes...he's one of our house food guiders to the delicious). Silky, but corny and buttery, with a surprising jump and lightness. A great balance and vacillation between all the flavors. When some of the anchovy pan sauce bled into the rapini, it was maybe the best rapini we've had in a good long time.

This was a dinner worthy of Christmas, after a shockingly easy Christmas Eve visit to the family.

Wine: 2015 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Vineyard RRV

We loved the poop out the 2014 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris, first had at Chez Panisse two Septembers ago. So board and giving. The 2015 is more sturdy and focused in its flavors. It gets more directly and quickly to the point it's trying to make. Bitter orange peel galore, like Chinotto or Aperol in presence and aggressiveness. Wispy touches of herbs and minerals, particularly on the back-end, even something tea-like thrown in there on occasion. This one needs to warm up significantly in order for it to stretch its legs and become more elastic and playful. The 2014 was all ethereal, sunshine-y goodness, but sputtered with some food. The 2015 is more punchy, and that over the course of the next year might make it more suitable to the flavors we love.

Pairing: Once it reached the right temp...nothing wrong with that.

I opened a 2005 Gourt des Mautens Rasteau (Jérome Bressy) and decanted couple of hours before dinner, but it didn't budge from its hairy-backed, tannic self, and would have been just terrible with how delicate the lamb was. But the Jolie-Laide served us quite well. Not perfect, not by any means. Once it warmed up though, there was enough weaving in-and-out with the grits and lamb together to say, "Slap Daddy! That's just fine!"

Lunch: Homemade duck pâté with Rogue Flora Nelle Blue Cheese, fig marmalade, baguette and salad, served with 2011 Matthiasson Vermouth. Mrs. Ney whipped up A LOT of duck pâté, this one more country in style with its small chunks of duck meat. Turned into one of those pâtés one eats and thinks THIS is how all pâté should be. Every flavor bouncing and jiving with each other. Rogue Flora Nelle has that ideal touch of blue streaks while still retaining a clean brightness to it. House fav.

All served with a Matthiasson Vermouth that's been sitting in this house way too long, and it was great here. Smoky tangerine peel, blood orange and bark. Still going quite strong. A bite of cheese and fig marmalade on baguette with a sip of vermouth was as pairing-perfect as it gets.

Damn good (and lazy) Christmas Day! We didn't get to the "Feast of the One Fish" (brandade). It's in the works for New Year's Eve. With bubbles. We need bubbles. So we'll have them. Because bubbles are essential in life.

After the jump is a list of all the pairings we've had since this blog stopped, some of it in shorthand. It's for our reference:

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #44

Here's a nice little reminder from D'Artagnan that air-chilled chicken is the only chicken. Whole Foods carries them as well. Worth the extra greenbacks.

In the novelty food products world, for which I'm a huge sucker, the new Pepsi 1893 line is an...effort, but not worth the greenbacks. And Milky Way brownies are an abomination.

Down week in the wine world but not in the food world.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $105 for food and $119 for wine = $224

Total food and wine cost for the month: $442 for food and $439 for wine = $881

Sunday: Naan Pizzas with 2013 Regis Minet Pouilly-Fumé Vieilles Vignes

Food Details: Naan bread topped with leftover asparagus pesto mixed with cream cheese, ham, onions, leftover smoked mozzarella, peppadew peppers, and a big handful of dressed arugula.

Did We Like It? They're a weeknight house dinner platform for leftover stuff. And it's always, in the least, a satisfying dinner. Tack on "very" to satisfied with this batch.

How Was The Wine? Went fancier for weeknight wine here, and gee-whiz, the acidity and flinty minerals were just lovely. More straight-forward than other vintages of Minet, with predominantly lemon citrus notes, followed by minerals, all wrapped inside a coat of bright acid. But golly that package had all the fanciness of a great piece of furniture. Like when you see something in a living room and say, "Damn, THAT's a great chair!"

And The Pairing? Fairly ho-hum, but fine food and fine wine made for a great end of my week, especially after spending five minutes explaining to a customer who could eat tomatoes but not tomato sauce that our sauce is ONLY blended tomatoes. She wasn't having it.

Cost: $12 for food, $21 for wine = $33    

Saturday: Kielbasa-Potato-Kale Hash with 2014 Charles Smith Velvet Devil Columbia Valley

Food Details: (recipe from The New Spanish Table). Loosely based on that recipe, turning it from cake to hash. This time, using kielbasa as meat. Historically, this recipe is used as a bit of a blank slate to mix together left in the house, with potato and kale as a base. Pecorino cheese to finish.

Did We Like It? The kielbasa took it out of the Spanish realm and into a more generic "hash" world, and it served quite well as a weeknight, "warm you up" plate of food, particularly when it was 38 degrees in mid-freakin'-May here in Chicago.

How Was The Wine? Mostly merlot, with a little cab, malbec and cab franc mixed in. A dancing little number on its own, with pretty, bright, round, dark red fruits with a bit of tobacco underneath and balanced, prevalent, happy acid. But...

And The Pairing? BRU-TAL. Really, quite terrible with this food. But good to find a bargain merlot that offers...something. And this offers much more than just "something," as Mr. Smith typically does.

Cost: $5 for food, $10 for wine = $15

Friday: Tuna Pick-n-Choose with 2015 Baskoli Txakolina 

Food Details: Leftover olive oil-poached tuna from Wednesday, with peppadew peppers, onions, avocado, dressed arugula and mini-ciabatta. Rip, top with everything, and eat.

Did We Like It? Sorta great! If there's a bite of food that represents the bridge between food we ate 5-7 years ago and now, this would be it. Spanish-influenced simplicity with a tapas-pintxos nod, where a bite has all the acid, fishy, bitter, onion-pepper pop, cream and starch you need.

How Was The Wine? It's $9 Trader Joe's txakolina. And nothing here is really in proper txakolina order here. The sea spritz and mineral is off. The fruit perk is nearly nonexistent. Its slight sparkle shows up at weird times, hiding what could be good underneath, but...

And The Pairing? It's $9, half of the cost of a good Txakolina. And with this food, it offered more than enough Basqueness for us to be very satisfied.

Cost: $8 for food, $9 for wine = $17    

Thursday: Green Chorizo Tortas with NV Evolution Sparkling White

Food Details: Melissa Clark green chorizo, made into tortas. Chorizo mixed with black beans, with chihuahua cheese as the meat-cheese base. Habanero vinegar. Marinated onions, sliced avocados and arugula on top. All that inside torta bread. Mexican Bugles for side. Made four big sandwiches.

Did We Like It? We could sell these out the apartment window and make a silly amount of money. Had that perfect meat-cheese melty-ness, freshened up by the avocado and arugula, and an overall composition of delicious.

How Was The Wine? Nine grapes done up Champagne-style. Muscat, gewürztraminer, pinot gris, white riesling, chardonnay, pinot blanc, sylvaner, muller-thurgau and semillon. You read that list, particularly since it leads with muscat and gewürztraminer, and you'd think this would be sweet-ish. At least highly fruity. It's not. It's quite dry, with some very pleasing bitterness and herb stem notes. More pinot blanc and muller-thurgau than anything else. Quite nice, and we'll be buying it again.

And The Pairing? Didn't really go with the sandwiches, but we weren't displeased. Good food and surprising wine that don't ultimately go together but don't horribly clash can be Just Fine.

Cost: $14 for food, $14 for wine = $28  

Wednesday: Scaccia with 2012 Paringa Sparkling Shiraz Barossa

Food Details: Saveur recipe, and will be had six times a year henceforth. It's lasagna bread, but has none of soupy boringness that, for me, comes with lasagna. Semolina dough, San Marzano tomatoes, sharp provolone and smoked mozzarella to approximate caciocavallo, basil and garlic. Arugula salad to finish.

Did We Like It? It's our new Sunday night dinner! Fairly simple, just takes (mostly inactive) time. It's tastes like my first experience with good Italian food as a child in the 80's. Better, of course, but quite evocative. Everything is in proportion and everything is offered at the right level. Not bready, not too cheesy, not too tomatoey. Just DE-licious.

How Was The Wine? Shiraz likes basil and we had to drink this sparkling shiraz. Licorice, black fruits and froth. Fine enough, nothing super-duper by any means.

And The Pairing? Same with the food. Fell into the category of "nice to have wine here." That's really all it offered.

Cost: $15 for food, $13 for wine = $28

Tuesday: Tuna Niçoise with 2014 Terrasse du Moulinas Blanc Elégance Languedoc-Roussillon

Food Details: Olive-oil poached tuna Niçoise on butter lettuce with gaeta olives, capers, onion, grape tomatoes, haricots verts, fingerling potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs for me.

Did We Like It? A less delicious version of home tuna Niçoise. The on-sale butter lettuce sat there, limp and tasteless, offering nothing. Made it feel like there was a hole in the meal.

How Was The Wine? Started with an older 2010 Domaine de la Pepìere Quatre Muscadet and it offered little in the way of anything resembling enjoyment. Moved on to this year's house white, a grenache blanc, vermentino, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc blend from the Languedoc that has the acid and sparkle we do enjoy. Thought it was fading when last drunk, but here it matched up rather beautifully in the way regional food and regional wine tend to do.

And the Pairing? This tasted purposeful together. Not spectacular, just Provence Purposeful. With that, we found tons of enjoyment.

Cost: $23 for food, $31 for wine = $54

Monday: Hanger Steak and Watercress-Shishito Pepper Salad with 2012 Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc Central Coast

Food Details: (recipe) Whole Foods hanger steak (medium-rare) with a salad of watercress, shishito peppers, celery and leaves, and Rogue Flora Nelle cheese. Potato pancakes for starch.

Did We Like It? Our third time having this deliciously meaty-bitter-creamy dinner and it's still is all kinds of lovely. A bite with everything - hanger, watercress, shishito and cheese - is stupid how great it is. Get good cheese. Rogue is essentially our only source for blue cheese-like cheeses now. The fresh edge it offers is perfect.

How Was The Wine? Last had with Persian beef and barberry sauce, it's full of shiny red fruits, violets and cinnamon on the nose, a bit less in the intensity of that on the palate for the first 2/3, then finishing with something like a rum raisin smack. Still chugging along quite nicely. One left.

And The Pairing? Not as good as the La Posta Malbec with this meal, but there was a grace here that was welcome. And it showed some guts with the bevy of bitterness on the plate.

Cost: $28 for food, $19 for wine = $47

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #25

Top...Whatever Number...Pairings of 2015 (no order except the top few, so a bit of an order):

1. Ottolenghi Fish, Cocount-Peanut Salad and Rice with 2013 Darting Muskateller Kabinett Trocken

2. Tuna Niçoise with 2014 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard Russian River Valley

3.  Roasted Chicken and Fennel Panzanella with 2014 Broc Cellars Picpoul Blanc Luna Matta Vineyard Paso Robles

4.  Fava Bean and Ricotta Salata Strozzapreti with 2014 Quinta de Porrais Branco Douro

5. Sausage, Zucchini, Tomato and Cream Cheese Surprise with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

6. Lamb Chops, Charred Shallots, Yogurt, Tomato Vinaigrette and Pita with 2014 Charles & Charles Rosé Columbia Valley

7.  Yakitori-marinated hanger steak, yuca fries and Tuscan kale salad with 2006 Quinta do Vale Meão Douro

8. Lamb Salami, Feta spread, Arugula and Ciabattini Buns with 2014 João Portugal Ramos "Lima" Loureiro Vinho Verde

9. Big. Greek. Salad. With Lillet Sparkling Rosé

10. Bee-Pollened Pork Shoulder and Griddle Cakes with 2009 Jean Bourdy Côtes du Jura

11. Galician Tuna Empanadas With 2012 Forlorn Hope "Que Saudade" Sierra Foothills

12. Argentinian Skirt Steak and Shishito Pepper, Inland Cress and Frisée Salad with 2012 Luca Malbec Uco Valley

Was this our best food and wine year, Mrs. Ney? Probably, I say. I missed a few. There's still a couple of vague notions of "Wow, that's good!" meals rumbling around in my brain that I can't specifically remember. Odd there's no goat meal. Just wasn't an amazing goat-wine year.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $185 for food and $229 for wine = $414

Sunday: Smoked Chicken and Sprout Sandwiches with 2014 Alloy Wine Works Grenache Rosé Central Coast

Food Details: Whole Foods packaged smoked chicken slices, mashed avocado, kumatoes, pickled onions, Monterey jack cheese, mayo, and alfalfa-fenugreek sprouts, on Mariano's Italian-style batard bread. Olive oil potato chips.

Did We Like It? A nice batch, wet overall due to the pickled onions but the crusty bread helped a bit. Fine and good Sunday night sandwich-and-chips meal.

How Was The Wine? $8 grenache rosé in the can. We've been over this. House fav.

And The Pairing? But not here. A bit astringent and a tad boring here, probably due to the copious amount of mustard seeds and peppercorns floating around in the sandwiches from end-of-batch pickled onions.

Cost: $30 for food, $16 for wine = $46

Saturday: Argentinian Hanger Steak and Shishito Pepper-Living Cress-Arugula-Blue Cheese Salad with NV La Posta Tinto Red Blend Mendoza

Food Details: (David Beran recipe) A recreation of this meal from September, using hanger instead of skirt. Overnight hanger marinade of basil, thyme, shallot, peppercorn and olive oil. Salad of living cress, arugula, celery and leaves, mint, charred shishito peppers and Rogue Creamery Blue Cheese. Dressing of charred lemon and olive oil. Trader Joe's potato pancakes for starch.

Did We Like It? I don't know what it is about this meal. There's a lively ping-ponging of flavors, mostly lightly bitter and always popping. Just when you want it taken down a notch, here comes the blue cheese to offer creaminess and depth. Brilliant meat marinade. One of the best we've had. I cooked this one. Notes: use the cast-iron. Easy on the dressing.

How Was The Wine? Laura Catena manages five of her family's wineries in Argentina and owns two of her own (Luca and La Posta), all while working as an ER physician in San Francisco. So...yeah...geesh... We had her Luca Malbec with this meal last time, a classy, polished malbec that liked the food enough. Her 2013 La Posta Tinto, a malbec-bonarda-syrah table wine blend, was better as a pairing with this food prep. Smoky herbs and happy fruit, it tastes wildly similar to the unpretentious non-vintage red blends that we love so much, like the Marietta Cellars line. Blackberry bush notes with a touch of cherry that starts to trend sweet, but takes a quick turn to dry at just the right time. A real personality here. We loved it. And will buy more.

And The Pairing? As I said, we really liked the Luca, but it demanded our attention too much and went a bit pear-shaped with the salad. The La Posta Tinto wants one thing. It wants beef-centric food with other food toys to show off how versatile it is. One of the better table-style wines we've had of late. Big thumbs up.

Cost: $32 for food, $14 for wine = $46

Friday: Green Goddess Chicken Panzanella with 2014 Berger Grüner Veltliner Kremstal

Food Details: First, a few notes on lunch. Caviar and crème fraiche on potato chips with pear-celery-hazelnut salad quickly turned into pear-celery-hazelnut salad with potato chips because the caviar was too fishy. Nice salad, but the real winner was finding our new house Champagne - Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut. When trying to find a $50-ish Champagne that simultaneously will bring elegance without breaking the bank, we've gone from Gaston Chiquet to Ayala to Paul Bara to Pierre Peters to just trying just about every $50-ish Champagne out there. Liked them all to a certain degree, went through phases where we drank multiples of each, but Bollinger tasted like "This is what we want right now." Such elegance and grace with this drinking. Egly-Ouriet is 'for the special' so 2016 will probably be a good amount of Bollinger.

The panzanella...was an enormous amount of food! Whole Foods chicken marinated in Ms Clark's green goddess dressing, roasted. Heaping plate of fava, roasted ancient red pepper (seriously, "ancient" is its variety name), charred red onion, arugula, scallions, crushed marcona almonds, Pugliese bread croutoned-up, and more green goddess dressing tossed with all of it.

Did We Like It? Not the best version of panzanella but a damn good one. The fava beans took center stage here, taking everything into a realm of a fava garden-warmness (if that makes sense). Juicy chicken, different flavor combination with each bite, all that you'd want from Food.

How Was The Wine/Pairing? A bit off. Grüner is typically a workhorse with food, but this bottle, while technically fine, seemed a bit tired when drunk by itself and offered the same with the panzanella. Opened a bottle of cheap Trader Joe's La Granja Blanco Rioja and found a surprisingly nice matchy-match with the food, tasting like they were oddly made for each other. Much better than the Berger and not even close.

Cost: $58 for lunch and dinner, $70 for wine = $128  

Thursday: Persian Beef, Barberry Sauce and Buttered Almonds with 2004 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva

Food Details: (Recipe, with beef shank instead of chicken) Last had in April, this is essentially Iranian stew that doesn't resemble any stew we'd ever had before first eating it. Beef shank, tons of marrow, barberries, almonds, cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, rice, snap peas, mint.

Did We Like It? It's perfect stew, because every ingredient constantly bounces off each other in every bite, going deep but staying bright and lively. A wonderful back-and-forth between the dark, deep beef-marrow that played with the spices, then the barberry sauce tart-sour lifty perk. Buttered almonds that calmed all of that down with a huggy-bear nutty finish. It's brilliant stuff.

How Was The Wine? Stupid Spain. You're lovely. And you feel and taste like Home. Fruit remained in the background with this drinking, offering only a roundness and occasional cherry punch. This one was all about the sweet spice, vanilla, cedar, tobacco and Spanish air that makes good, old-style Rioja so great. We took one drink and we were back in Villabuena de Álava.

And The Pairing? This stew is right in our wheelhouse for the wine we like, but the barberries can be tricky. A graceful red with sneaky guts is needed. This one was just that. We loved it.

Cost: $15 for food,  $33 for wine = $48    

Wednesday: Chiarello Chicken Tacos and Jicama Slaw with Argus Cidery Tepache Pineapple Wine

Food Details: Michael Chiarello chicken taco recipe. Basic. Chicken thigh meat slowly simmered in onions, garlic, serranos, both paprikas, cumin, and oregano. Jicama slaw made with herbs, mayo and sour cream. Lime to spritz. Hot sauce to douse. As basic and minimalist as great tacos get.

Did We Like It? After having these, this quickly jumped right to the top of our "I want tacos that are easy and cheap, but delicious" list. We have mostly everything to make these tacos on hand at all times. The juice alone I'd drink. Loved it.

How Was The Wine? Pineapple wine made in Texas. We're fans, ever since having it at Minero in Charleston. Spicy grilled pineapple in a bottle. Frothy, almost beer-like but never all the way there. It demands you to pay attention to it in the best way.

And The Pairing? Here's a meal that settles things. No much futzing about with various fancy sangrias with tacos for us. Chill and drink this. It's everything you want-need from a taco-pairing beverage.

Cost: $16 for food, $16 for wine = $32

Tuesday: Ottolenghi Tuna and Blood Orange-Black Olive Salad with NV Philippe Glavier Rose Idylle Celeste Champagne

Food Details: (tuna recipe) Half-pound of Whole Foods tuna oiled, seasoned, seared, chilled, coated in mustard and ground pistachios and blood orange zest, chilled, sliced. Charred fennel and shallots, blood orange supremes, nicoise olives, raw mustard greens. pink peppercorns, fennel fronds and pistachio oil on top.

Did We Like It? We have a bit of a thing for blood oranges and black olives with rare tuna. Typically, Mrs. Ney studs it heavily with various shades of peppercorns, cardamom and ginger. This meal was a switch-up, looking to Mr. Ottolenghi for a different tuna prep. We liked it muchly, digging the mustard and pistachio goodness that got deep into the tuna. But it wasn't the superlative love we find from white-pink-black peppercorns, coriander, cumin, cardamom, ginger and fleur de sel. Nice change of pace, though. This meal had everything anybody would ever want from "Flavor."

How Was The Wine? Roasted carrots and curried-up watermelon rind. You read that right. That was the biggest, most clear impression we got from it. For $50, meh.

And The Pairing? Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Like stadium popcorn, "It's neutral!"

Cost: $22 for food, $50 for wine = $72  

Monday: Anne Burrell Chicken Milanese with 2014 Matthiasson Tendu White California 

Food Details: Recipe here. Make it, eat it, and you'll make it 200 more times throughout the course of your life. It's that good.

Did We Like It? Top-third of all the Anne Burrell Milaneses we've had. Not the best, but a very strong version. This meal just has that extra something that makes you say, "THAT's perfectly balanced food!"

How Was The Wine? We haven't loved the 2014 version of the Tendu White, feeling that the chardonnay toned down the spritely bounce that the 2013 offered. Mr. Matthiasson said the vermentino - which is the vast majority of the three-grape makeup here, along with French colombard - didn't have the requisite acidity to go 100% vermentino in 2014. But this drinking was adequate. While still not getting as much distinction as the 2013 had, nice acid-vague fruit back-and-forth to be happy enough.

And The Pairing? Fine. Frankly better than I expected.

Cost: $12 for food, $30 for wine = $42

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #17

Pastoral opened up a store and restaurant in Andersonville this week.

We've always liked Pastoral. While the Broadway store hasn't been an "only stop" kind of destination, mainly due to the distance and us not being cheese people, their wine selection was always right in line with where our tastes were going. Even with a markup of $4-7 more per bottle than around town or on the internet, they've always has a couple of things you simply can't find in Chicago.

Their new location has 2-3 times the selection of Broadway and you can tell the people that stock it like their wine. It's a few blocks away and on my weekly errand route. We'll be regulars.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $80 for food and $126 for wine = $206

Sunday: Lamb Salami, Feta spread, Arugula and Ciabattini Buns with 2014 João Portugal Ramos "Lima" Loureiro Vinho Verde

Food Details: Feta cheese blended with pepper relish from last Sunday and mint oil from Monday. It's spicy feta cheese spread made from leftovers! Paulina Market "spicy lamb sticks," sliced. Arugula salad dressed with white vinegar, olive oil, s/p. Mini-ciabatta buns. It's PICK. AND. CHOOSE. Bread+feta spread+lamb salami+arugula. Eat. Repeat. Greeky.

Did We Like It? Jebus! Yes. Yes we did. Best weeknight meal this week. It's right up there with sausage, zucchini, tomato and cream cheese surprise in the world of taking bread, topping it with creamy-spicy goodness, and repeating it about 40 times. Kick back and relax for about an hour with food that's your friend.

How Was The Wine? Lightly fruity, lightly floral, lightly acidic. It's $8 loureiro.

And The Pairing? As Mary Berry would say, "That's scrummy." The Lima gives the impression of having lighter acid, but there's a strong backbone underlying everything with this one, which was perfect here, as it wasn't going to be pushed around by the spiciness in the food. Great meal. Might have it for Christmas lunch.

Cost: $10 for food, $8 for wine = $18 

Saturday: Ottolenghi Pumpkin Soup and Portuguese Corn Bread with 2015 Viñas Chileans Reserva Rosé Valle Central

Sources: Ottolenghi pumpkin soup here (at the bottom), David Leite's Portuguese Corn Bread here.

Food Details: Pumpkin soup of canned pumpkin, chickpeas, harissa paste, shallots, garlic, cardamom, cumin, dried apricots, preserved lemon, rose water, etc., topped with yogurt and cilantro. Portuguese corn bread made with fine-ground cornmeal, flour, yeast, salt and water, formed into loaves and baked.

Did We Like It? Probably a one-off. But fine and good soup that became rather fancy with the wine. Peasant-style, mountain-type bread that looked great but was a bit dense due to me working it too much. I'm not a soup eater. But this was good soup and made better by $4 Chilean rosé.

How Was The Wine? Cabernet-syrah blend done up rosé style. $4. Trader Joe's. 2015. Incredibly fresh; big, upfront swirl of bright cherries and strawberries, beautifully bouncy acid, fuller body, delicious in every freakin' respect. Big surprise. We thought this was a bad rosé year, but the end of the year has brought some pretty gosh-darn good ones.

And The Pairing? If this wine wasn't present, this meal might have been 30% worse. It's what a happy wine can do to food: Make. It. Immensely. Better.

Cost: $6 for food, $4 for wine = $10

Friday: Orecchiette, Sausage and Rapini with 2012 Trader Joe's Barbera Lot #88 Mendocino County

Food Details: Orecchiette with sausage, rapini, onion, red pepper flakes, parsley, bread crumbs and evoo.

Did We Like It? Once or twice a month dinner. Has been for years, mostly because it's classic Italian that has what we want on a work-night: meat, bitter, carbs, a little heat and herbs. A Big Bowl of Good.

How Was The Wine? Juicy, darker red fruits, a lil underbrush, spicy finish. Medium body that grows fuller, punchy acid for a red, something barbera done well. It's become a case-a-year type thing. 

And The Pairing? Italian with Italian. It's always happy. If you're stumped on a pairing for Italian food, start with Italian wine and you're halfway there.

Cost: $7 for food, $10 for wine = $17

Thursday: Potato-Chicken-Serrano Naan Pizzas and Arugula with 2013 Charles Smith VINO Pinot Grigio Columbia Valley

Food Details: Leftover chicken, leftover serrano, artichoke hearts, onion, grape tomatoes, nicoise potatoes and herbed cream cheese on naan. Arugula salad to put on top.

Did We Like It? It made 10 of them! For five extra dollars! No flavor dominated. They became a nice mélange of subtle flavors that elevated itself to something much more than "leftover food put on a bread-like platform." Yes. We liked this. A very fine weeknight meal.

How Was The Wine? This is the last of the 2013 VINO. Just bought six of the 2014, because this is "house white" in the best sense. Fruity, persistent, juicy, silky, peppy and clean. Has the 15% more attention to detail that takes this wine out of the "oh, pinot grigio...sure...why not" realm. $10 right now at Binny's.

And The Pairing? Nothing that made us think about the delicious nooks and crannies here with the grub and juice dance. Just nice food, wine we like, and nothing that turned pear-shaped.

Cost: $5 for food, $11 for wine = $16

Wednesday: Tuna Niçoise with 2014 Jolie-Laide Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard Russian River Valley

Food Details: Niçoise salad of A's do Mar oil-cured tuna, grape tomatoes, mustardized potatoes, onions, green beans, Niçoise olives and capers, with a dressing of tarragon, shallot, anchovy, garlic, dijon, extra virgin olive oil, hazelnut oil, white balsamic, a touch of lavender, salt and pepper, all over arugula. Baguette and butter on the side. It's a heaping mound of healthy, delicious goodness.

Did We Like It? We think this night's Niçoise, a meal we've eaten dozens of times, might have been the best yet. Everything was so perfectly seasoned! And something about leaving the lemon juice out made everything else pick up the slack here, turning it into a meal playing in the lower, more earthy levels of flavor, letting each element show off their punch. Something about that let the tarragon pop. And the lavender. And textures took center stage. This was wonderful. But this wine is the best wine we've had this year.

How Was The Wine? We first had it at Chez Panisse Café in September and were blown away (read about the wine here). "Such prettiness and purity. Shimmered and sang a beautiful song. Dirt, flowers and stars." A tough to find wine, but we found it. I'm not telling where until I get over there and buy more. I could use 12,000 superlatives that describe the loveliness of this wine, but why spend the time? It's simply The Best. Utterly complete, beautifully floral, perfect acid...tastes like your favorite author's prose.

And The Pairing?A close second to Ottolenghi fish and cocount-peanut salad with 2013 Darting Muskateller as the pairing of the year. It tasted like watching a dog dig a huge pile in the yard and watching how much fun they're having doing it. "She's gettin' down there! Going' deep! God, she's having a blast." This wine dug into this food so perfectly that we did a lot of swearing while eating it. Wow! Terrific with the food, and frankly stupid-perfect with the baguette and butter.

Cost: $18 for food, $37 for wine = $55    

Tuesday: Greek-ish Chicken, Ottolenghi Corn Cakes and Celery Root-Apple Salad with 2014 Quinta do Porrais Branco Douro and 2014 Trader Joe's Cuvée Azan Picpoul de Pinet Languedoc

Source: Ottolenghi corn cakes and salad here (at the bottom) using celery root instead of beetroot for the salad.

Food Details: Chicken marinated in evoo, onion, lemon juice, white wine, garlic and oregano, roasted.

Corn cakes - that were more like corn soufflés - flavored with tarragon, celery seed, fennel seed, cumin, etc. (see recipe), with a nugget of feta in the middle of each.

Celery root, apple, celery leaf salad with a dressing of yogurt, celery-fennel seed, sherry vinegar and lemon juice.

More dressing on the side to dip and dunk (great with the chicken).

Did We Like It? Mrs. Ney thought the chicken might be more of a meat side, but this was quality chicken; juicy and bright. The corn cake-soufflés were little corny pillows of deliciousness. Very soft, but never gooey. Like bread pudding and a soufflé had a baby. Freaking great salad, with an earthy celery root hit and tons of crunchy goodness. Very good meal.

How Was The Wine? We love the Quinta do Porrais Branco, Vale Meão's entry into white wine. It's the best Douro white we've had. Cool climate gaseousness and acid. Plenty of space offered to enjoy its subtle hints of flowers and spiced pears at your leisure, with only of hint of honeydew and talc, things that typically take Douro whites to a rather basic, boring place. This isn't a fancy white. It's just all the Douro white parts in all the right places. But here, with this food, while it was quite pleasant, even delicious in spots, it couldn't hold a candle to the complete pairing loveliness that the Trader Joe's picpoul brought.

And The Pairing? We liked the Porrais here, but it got clipped by a few bites, and had its legs swept out from underneath itself on others. We would have been fine and happy if we stayed with it, but one sip of the picpoul with this meal confirmed that something was missing with the Porrais. Fireworks with each bite and a sip of picpoul, with each element exploding into the fullest version of itself. That Trader Joe's picpoul...man...it's one of the best values out there. At it's $8!

Cost:  $14 for food, $22 for wine = $36

Monday: Serrano-topped Endive, Red Pepper-Manchego Crostini and Pea Shoot-Persimmon Salad with 1999 Domaine Aux Moines Savennières Roche aux Moines

Source: Ottolenghi Caramelized endive with serrano ham here (eliminating sugar and subbing pecorino for parmesan).

Food Details: Endive, seared in cast iron, topped with a blend of breadcrumbs, pecorino, thyme, cream, salt and pepper. Topped with serrano ham, baked.

Baguette slices, brushed with rabbit oil, topped with fresno/red pepper relish from Sunday Sandwich Day and manchego, toasted into crostini.

Salad of pea shoots, persimmons, charred scallions, parsley, candied walnuts and pomegranate seeds.

Mint, blanched, puréed with olive oil, strained; drizzled over everything.

Did We Like It?  Yeah. Kind of a lot. When trying something new, there's always an initial debate going on in our heads over whether we'd have it again. It's a "Hey, this is quite good! But would we have it again?" Halfway through, it was an unqualified yes. It's light, but never too light, and feels like 50 different flavors that all get along very well. The endive-serrano was the star, tasting like little pillows of lightly-caramelized clouds with serrano adding just the right meaty substance. Good crostini with a touch of manchego sheepy-ness and surprising heat. Fantastic, persimmon-led salad that tastes very Ottolenghi, even though the recipe didn't come from him. Matched up with the Ottolenghi endive-serrano perfectly in weight, texture, and Ottolenghi-ness. We REALLY liked this.

How Was The Wine? $27 for a 16 year-old Saviennières, so not too shabby. Plenty here to be of interest. Very alive, even youngish for its age. Nice pear and honey, olive oil and salt. Moderately intense, good acid. But...

And The Pairing? Finicky little bugger with food, as Saviennières can be. Flat with the endive-serrano, BRU-TAL with the salad, but very complete, jumpy, and layered with the crostini, so we stuck with those and the wine. Opened a Trader Joe's Albero Cava Brut to matchy-match with the elemental Spanishness of the manchego and serrano, and it led to a more happy, less persnickety pairing.

Cost: $20 for food, $34 for wine = $54      

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #11

If some vine disease hit cabernet and malbec (and touriga nacional for me), our wine lives wouldn't be upset one bit. Like people, it's a personality thing. The personality expressed by those grapes don't offer the grace and quiet we want. It's not that they don't possess very own particular grace and quiet, just not the type we want.

With a somewhat limited wine budget, the flurry of fascinating grapes/blends/expressions out there today, and the fact that we don't eat beef five times a week, those grapes don't need to have a place in our wine life. We aren't left wanting in the least without them. 

But, at times, in order to challenge our preconceived notions so we don't become aging, grumpy, uncompromising curmudgeons, we have to drink cab and malbec on occasion so we don't become the people we hate. So we did. 

But you can go to hell, touriga nacional! You go to hell! You're great in a blend, but yourself, you go to hell!

Total food and wine cost for the week: $102 for food and $81 for wine = $183

Sunday: Meatballs in Date Sauce and Kale-Smoked Almond Salad with 2014 La Paca Garnacha Calatayud

Food Details: We're still sick, but getting better. Freezer date-kielbasa-tomato sauce. What do you do with that? It's sweet. It's sweet sauce. We don't want that! But this worked. Pork meatballs in date sauce, kale salad with smoked almonds and pecorino. A ton of parsley dumped over both the meatballs and salad. Mini-ciabatta buns. Rip a bun in half, top with meatball and kale salad. Eat.

Did We Like It? Kind of a lot! Tasted like a fall Italian mountain meal in a basic sense. Not sweet. Mrs. Ney toned down the sweetness to a point that the taste of date without a ton of date sweetness came through, and the kale provided a cut and lift quite nicely. No diminishing of results as we ate either. This was a big surprise.  

How Was The Wine? $7 Trader Joe's Spanish grenache. Bright cherries and plums. Ripe. A bit of smoked meat and tobacco. Low tannins. Medium-to-light. Easy-breezy Spanish drinker. Friendly for $7.

And The Pairing? The low-level sweetness from the dates and ripeness of the fruit in the wine matched up and cancelled each other for the most part, allowing all the other flavors in the food and the wine to shine. We found a bevy of fluctuating flavors in each bite and sip. With both of us ill, this seemed like a perfect time to get rid of the date sauce we didn't particularly want. But this turned into a meal that was more than just "food to fill a hole." It tasted intentional, like people somewhere in the Italian mountains eat this in the fall and someone passed along the recipe to a cookbook as a meal indicative of the region. We liked this.    

Cost: $7 for food, $7 for wine = $14


Saturday: Pan Bagnat with Leftover Wine

Ours was less bursting with ingredients than this

Source: Recipe here, via Mr. Bittman in NYT Cooking

Food Details: Now I'm sick. Mrs. Ney recovering well, I take her place. More easy food. Pan bagnat, essentially tuna Niçoise in picnicky sandwich form. Ciabatta loaf filled with kumatoes, red peppers, marinated artichokes, capers, Greek olives, onions, basil and As do Mar jarred tuna. Drizzled with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Entire loaf smushed flat.

Did We Like It? Yes. One note: don't skimp on ingredients. Load that baby up! I put on a simple layer of all of the ingredients. This needed an overflowing layer of each. Tasted like French street food from a park food cart that isn't going to be generous with everything. But we'll be making this again. We usually have most of these ingredients on hand.

How Was The Wine? Leftover fridge wine from the last two days.

And The Pairing? The malbec rosé served merely as basic "wine" matcher, but the picpoul was quite nice, tasting like regional food and wine dancing like they typically dance. Sad we only had one glass left.

Cost: $10 for food, $0 for wine = $10

Friday: Arroz con Pollo with 2014 Innovacíon Rosé Mendoza

Source: Recipe here, Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday

Food Details: Mrs. Ney still can't taste anything, so easy food that has texture, something she can taste. Mexican rice, black beans, chicken, onions, chile, garlic, cilantro, chicken broth...click on the recipe. It's a good one. Sour cream on top for me. No dairy for Mrs. Ney. Hot sauce. 

Did We Like It? Fine. Rice and chicken went a little over. Big bowl of Mexican goop. Served us well enough.

How Was The Wine? Wine. A Whole Foods liter bottle of malbec-syrah rosé that we've loved this summer for its cheapness and liter-ness. This bottle had a church wine quality. Not...the...best.

And The Pairing? Barely registered.

Cost: $8 for food, $8 for wine = $16

Thursday: Pick-n-Choose with 2014 Trader Joe's Cuvée Azan Picpoul et Pinet Languedoc

Food Details: Harvesttime Roasted Chicken, Tomatoes, Pepper salad, Ciabatta and Mayo.

Did We Like It? Mrs. Ney is still sick. And there's gonna be a lot of "Let's just buy a chicken and bread and use up tomatoes and greens" meals on Thursday through the end of the year. Mrs. Ney's job and the upcoming holidays associated with that job demand it. Buy a chicken, char up some bread, use up tomatoes and greens in the house, open up some mayo, go to town. It's open-faced mini-sandwiches that has everything you need. We ditched the herb butter made for the bread rather quickly and moved on to something we love more than most people: mayonnaise.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's picpoul, another house love. Has the nose of pit fruit, the dryness of rosemary, the tart, puckering crispness of Muscadet, and the minerality of basic albariño. There's a minimum quality here that's always welcome for $8.

And The Pairing? This bottle showed more of its alcohol than it usually does. Wasn't unpleasant, but didn't show as well as it has.

Cost: $14 for food, $8 for wine = $22


Wednesday: Southern Biscuits and Gravy with NV Trader Joe's Reserve Brut Sparkling North Coast

Source: Alton Brown. Biscuits here. Gravy here.

Food Details: I'm a sucker for novelty food products created by multinational conglomerates. To the letter, they're terrible, though Lay's jamon chips have a vacation taste. When Lay's came out with their gyro/reuben/biscuits and gravy-flavored chips, my sucker impulse kicked in. Finally found the gyro and reuben, but not the biscuits and gravy. So with Mrs. Ney sick and no dinner joneses after the past few days of ridiculously great food, we had biscuits and gravy.

Mariano's breakfast sausage. Rice milk with a little flour subbed for milk in gravy.

Did We Like It? It was just fine. Satisfied the jones of biscuits and gravy, a food I think I've had only three times in my life. I've never been a breakfast person and this has ALWAYS the third choice in my world growing up so it simply never made it onto my plate.

How Was The Wine? Trader Joe's, $10, fresh bubbles done well.

And The Pairing? This TJ's sparkler isn't fancy, but it has an fresh breeze quality, herbs and fuzzy fruit, and accommodating structure that goes well with food, particularly buttermilk or biscuits or buttermilk biscuits. It's our default, cheap, house bubbles.    

Cost: $10 for food, $10 for wine = $20


Tuesday: Ottolenghi Fish, Cocount-Peanut Salad and Rice with 2013 Darting Muskateller Kabinett Trocken

Source: Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from The Guardian

Food Details: Whole Foods whitefish (substitute - we don't love mackerel), salt-pepper-seared. Salad of fresh coconut, peanuts, manzano pepper, scallion, mint, cilantro. Dressing of mirin, rice vinegar, coconut sugar, ginger. Rice. Charred lime spritzed on top of everything. Go to the recipe and buy all the specific ingredients. Don't get creative. Don't get lazy and say, "Oh, it doesn't need mirin." Just make it to the letter. Your fish substitute isn't a big deal. Fish is background here. This is Mr. Ottolenghi. You DON'T screw with it. He knows.

Did We Like It? This meal is a statement piece. This is Armani worn well. This is the first spring breeze. This is perfect food.

This is the best meal AND pairing we've had in a LONG TIME.

How Was The Wine? The color of the wine with this meal ALONE! Smelled like gewürztraminer, tasted like gewürztraminer and Muscadet had a baby. We've had Darting's muskateller before and liked it, even sort of loved it. Here, after having this - along with picpoul and Gavi - it's all I want. Grapefruit, peach, floral, herbal, medium-light, dry. Sparkled. A second bottle of 2014 Selbach Incline - cheap, well-made, representative German riesling - only told the story of how perfect the muskateller was with this food.

And The Pairing? As pretty, classy, and jumping out of the glass as I've had in, again, a LONG time. This was very nice on its own, but with this food, utterly complete. This wasn't just a pairing. This was perfect food with a wine perfectly tailored to this food. We can't think of a pairing we've had where that was more true.

Cost: $15 for food, $18 for wine = $33

   

Monday: Argentinian Skirt Steak and Shishito Pepper, Inland Cress and Frisée Salad with 2012 Luca Malbec Uco Valley

Source: A David Beran recipe in this month's Food & Wine, a publication we have a love-hate relationship with, but a recipe like this pops up once an issue, and the $12/year seems worth it. 

Food Details: Whole Foods skirt steak (very pretty beef), marinated overnight in rosemary, thyme, garlic, shallots, peppercorns and grapeseed oil, seared medium-rare. Salad of blistered shishito peppers, inland cress, frisée, mint, celery and leaves, and Rogue Creamery Flora Nelle Blue Cheese crumbled on top. Dressing of charred lemon and evoo. Using the apple peeler, potatoes run through, creating thin, long, narrow potato crisps, fried. Garlic-parsley mayo for dipping. 

Did We Like It? There was a lot of swearing. Perfect meat with a marinade that was so gosh darn delicious. A salad that ran right up against the wall of the high-end of bitter, even breaking through at times, that we nonetheless loved, mostly because it was flavors we like and enjoy while being entirely new. Potato crisps and mayo dip that offered a carb to the meal while coming off light. If we saw this meal listed on a restaurant menu, we'd blow right by it, dismissing it outright. Skirt steak-shishito pepper-watercress salad? It'd probably be $32 and not conger up anything resembling "I gotta have that!" But this was freakin' stupid-great.

How Was The Wine? Malbec. We're not friends. But with food you like, like here, you can offer an enjoyable conversation, especially when you're made by Luca, a great house. Classy fruit. Very classy. So polished and spit-shined; never overripe, heavy or burdensome. Always buoyant and on the right side of the savory-sweet line. Two-hour decant and it helped. becoming a wine of medium length but proper presents parsed out at a pretty pace. Black cherry/berry and plum, smoky meat, cola and a wee hint of roses. A very nice wine. Does it change our mind about malbec? 3%. We're 3% more open. 

And The Pairing? That's where the 3% comes from. It felt like this food and this wine were made for each other/belonged together, making for a stellar two-hour meal. The wine loved-loved-loved the crisps and a bite of beef and blue cheese. Less so with the salad but never obstinate. A very good meal.  

Cost: $38 for food, $30 for wine = $68

365 Days Of Food And Wine: Week #3

Vietnamese brioche sandwiches from La Patisserie is a freakin' game-changer.

Why it took us so long to get to this beautiful place is a mystery to me, particularly when it's about eight blocks away and you can buy ten sandwiches that have the diameter of a softball for about $12.

Ham and cheese, curry chicken, curry beef, chicken pot pie, bbq pork for this order.

Buy them, make a salad, pop a sparkler (Luis Pato this time), and poof! Great Monday Lunch.

Total food and wine cost for the week: $97 for food and $197 for wine = $294


Sunday: Cornbread Panzanella with 2014 Trader Joe's Petit Reserve Pinot Grigio Monterey County

Source: Adapted from this recipe, via The Smitten Kitchen. Used the basic idea, including the buttermilk-lime dressing (adding anchovy, tarragon, and a bit more acid). Cornbread here, via Cooks Illustrated. Made the day before, halved the recipe, used rice milk.

Food Details: Crouton-ed up the cornbread, toasted them off. Mixed together black beans, onions, avocado, heirloom tomato, croutons, huge handful of arugula, and the dressing. Put it on the table, pop your wine, take your time, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Did We Like It? We thought it was going to be taco salad panzanella, but this turned into more of a California-style panzanella. And we loved it. Bright, herby, filling, end-of-week flavors. Big fans.

How Was The Wine? We don't hate this pinot grigio. Light, breezy, lightly creamy, peachy. Not too shabby at all on its own. Not with this food.

And The Pairing? A creamy element in the wine matched up with the buttermilk, but there wasn't enough bouncy acid to cut through the bevy of flavors on the plate. It was merely present and didn't turn ugly at any point. Best that can be said. Mrs. Ney switched up to the Espiral Vinho Verde and at least found the acid I didn't have.

Cost: $13 for food, $7 for wine = $20


Saturday: Kielbasa, Lentils and Frisée with 2013 Schloss Gobelsburg "Gobelsburger" Grüner Veltliner Kamptal

Source: Recipe here, via Epicurious.

Food Details: Lentils cooked up with carrots and celery, fennel sweated tender-crisp, kielbasa sliced and warmed up with lentils and fennel. Dill rat-a-tat-tatted and mixed in. Warm mustard-fennel seed dressing tossed with all of that. A big pile of frisée thrown on top of ALL that. Mini-ciabatta, buttered.

Did We Like It? Felt like it's been a couple of years since we've had this. Used to be rather prominent in the food rotation. The kielbasa and lentils are always good, but it's the mustard and fennel for me that makes this meal stand out. We probably eat fennel once every 6-8 weeks. That break between consumption allows fennel to taste fresh and new every time. With the kielbasa and lentils backing it up, warm mustard floating around, and the frisée cut bringing a superlative degree of 'RAW,' it tastes New-School Bavarian/Austrian in a great sense (I barely know Bavarian-Austrian, but...).

How Was The Wine? One of the better $14 wines out there. It's entry-level grüner veltliner that gives much more than most entry-level wines in their respective categories. Nice fruit, energy, roundness and edge. Less of the distinctive grüner flavors that you get from higher-level, single-vineyard stuff - like some that say "LENTILS! - but this offers a simplicity and refreshment along with some of that, particularly on the gaseous finish.

And The Pairing? Very nice. That'll do. A basic happiness was there. The Schwarzbock or Berger might offer more here (and their one-liter-ness is appealing). Schwarzbock, with its oodles of minerals and grassy-green notes, is quite good. And the Berger brings a guzzle quality that's always welcome. But this worked.

Cost: $10 for food, $14 for wine = $24                   


Friday: Savory Potato Tart and Salad with 2008 Domaine Sylvain Langoureau St.-Aubin

Source: Recipe here, from David Tanis at NYT Cooking.

Food Details: Make a pie crust, sauté up some leeks in chicken stock (addition to the recipe), use the fancy mandolin to cut the potatoes into paper-thin slices, assemble your pie and bake it off. Make a simple salad. Put pie slice on the plate, salad next to it, done. It's Paris bistro lunch food at its freakin' best.

Did We Like It? It made us swear, we loved it so much. I challenge anyone to eat this and not think, "I should be paying a lot more for this! It's delicious!" The addition of leeks offers a French country garden note and chicken stock brings the slightest hint of a background meaty lilt (tried bacon fat with this once. Weighs it down a touch). Slicing the potatoes this thin is key, making for a restaurant-quality texture to the entire pie. It's next-level stuff. Herb salad blend to mix and match in between bites of pie. Don't finish with the salad. Mix this one in. It brings more of The Joy, especially when a wine of this quality is at the table.

How Was The Wine? It's been sitting in the house for over four years, bought at Wine Discount Center when it was still Wine Discount Center. Probably recommended to us by Amy or Sean, and probably bought as a sort of inventory wine with little more thought behind it. I sorta forgot it was even here. We also burned ourselves out on white Burgundy a couple of years ago and took a break. Then, almost by accident, we ran into a wine of this caliber. Lordy! $25, made in the same way as the more spendy white Burgundies, and it's all sorts of lovely. Typical pear-apple fruit, but the love came in the oh-so pretty use of oak on the mid-palate here. Like a delicate, bouncy balloon on a breezy spring day. Simply sparkled. Like Auxey-Duresses and Viré Clessé, in Saint-Aubin, you find $25 white Burgundy that tastes like wine at twice the price. Loved. It.

And The Pairing? Nearly perfect, particularly when we take into account that this was a weekday meal for us (we're not Mon-Fri people). Coming home to this washed away all my workplace $&#^@.

Cost: $8 for food, $25 for wine = $33
                

Thursday: Chicken, Tzatziki, Kumatoes, Arugula and pita with 2014 João Portugal Ramos Lima Loureiro Vinho Verde

Food Details: Harvesttime roasted chicken, homemade tzatziki, salt and peppered kumatoes, arugula and pita. Open a pita, throw all the stuff above inside the pocket and go to town.

Did We Like It? Yes. It's pick-n-choose with a Greek bent. Well, not so much pick-n-choose. We used everything for each bite. More of an easy-peasy dinner. No cooking. Just whip up a tzatziki, slice some sort of tomatoes, dress some arugula, put it all on a plate and eat it. Feast. Good batch. Harvesttime chicken was lacking in skin-glaze goodness, though.

How Was The Wine? It's $7 at Binny's. Lightly fruity, lightly floral, happy acid, cheap as hell. Loureiro is delicious. We like it. We've had some fancy ones, but this is the loureiro we drink the most...by far. Mostly because it has all the loureiro goods for $7.

And The Pairing? Good enough. All the basic elements were there. Lift, nuance, snap, pause. Nothing superlative. Just nice.

Cost: $11 for food, $7 for wine = $18


Wednesday: Moroccan Goat Meatballs, Farro And Barley with 2013 Broc Cellars Carignan Alexander Valley

Source: Recipe for Moroccan meatballs here, via Leite's Culinara. We use a lot of Mr. Leite's recipes, because he likes food. Mrs. Ney used the recipe as a guide. Alterations: ground goat meat, buttermilk/butter instead of crème fraîche, shallot and parsley instead of cilantro, manzano pepper instead of cayenne, orange juice instead of lemon, and used one 14 oz. can of tomatoes to beef/juice it up.  And the big one: farro/barley pilaf instead of rice, with the addition of dried apricots, almonds and scallions.

Food Details: See above and see the picture to the right. Arugula salad to finish.

Did We Like It? Mrs. Ney didn't want it/didn't want to make it. And it turned into such a pretty, bright, spicy, slow North African dinner with flavors we love bouncing around all over the place. This capped off a pretty great food and wine weekend (see below). On the wine...

How Was The Wine? Broc being Broc. We want everything they make. And are working to make that happen. They make nero d'Avola? Sparkling cabernet franc? Valdiguié in multiple forms? I. Want. All of it. Loved the 2012. The 2013 is less floral, more concentrated red fruit - smoked dark raspberries here - with a beautifully angled slender body, great lift and a spicy finish. All with a background feeling of walking through a garden set right on the ocean. Clean, herby, and cool. Vacillates so nicely between being svelte/tender and showing an attitude/having a chip on its shoulder.  Tailed off a touch after 1.5 hours, but it's delicious. We need more very soon.

And The Pairing? LOVES. GOAT. It's perfect. Goat and this wine play in the same weight region, with both able to pick up what's happening around it and take everything to a better place. And I'm beginning to think Broc just makes their reds to like Middle Eastern-inflected goat. The valdiguié loved goat-stuffed artichokes last November. Their style and light Middle Eastern flavors... Gee whiz, that's good. Big surprise dinner here with a wine that really loved the food.

Cost: $12 for food, $29 for wine = $41                     


Tuesday: Tuna Niçoise with NV Pommery Rosé "Brut Aganage" Champagne

Food Details: Niçoise salad of A's do Mar oil-cured tuna, grape tomatoes, baby potatoes, onions, green beans, Niçoise olives, capers and one hard-boiled egg for me with a dressing of tarragon, dijon, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, white balsamic, salt and pepper, all over arugula. It's a heaping mound of healthy, delicious goodness. Whole Foods ancient grains bread with butter to round it out.

Did We Like It? Oh, my, yes. Not the greatest version of Niçoise we've had, but that's like saying that playoff win wasn't the best playoff win your favorite team has won. Still a playoff win. Who cares? It's a win in the playoffs. And using this oil-cured tuna instead of cooking up some rare tuna from Whole Foods cuts the cost of this meal by about $18, with virtually no loss in quality, because we just want the vegetable bounty anyway. We'll get our rare tuna experience from Szechuan peppercorn-crusted tuna at some point. It's better.

How Was The Wine? Champagne Rosé, nearly half-off at Binny's (down to $50 from $90), and quite good. Plums, blood orange, figs, dry as all get-out, rolly bubbles, nice gas. A damn good Champagne rosé that was clean and moderately complex. Never would have guessed this was 60% chardonnay. Red grapes at the fore, with pinot noir serving as the guider and meunier bringing the interesting weirdness. Nothing wildly extravagant or great here, just Champagne rosé done well. And nice to have it again. Been awhile for us. And we want it by the bucket now.

And The Pairing? Niçoise and rosé, in any form, brings the love. No exception here. Wasn't "slap-my-face" great together, with flavors bouncing off the walls, but we had zero complaints.

Cost: $25 for food, $50 for wine = $75
      

Monday: Marinated Hanger Steak, Cold Sesame Noodles and Cucumber Salad with 2000 Clos Fourtet Saint-Émilion

Source: The Silver Palate Cookbook and The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook. It's a thowback dinner! A remake of the first "fancy" meal Mrs. Ney made a month after we moved in together 13 years ago.

Food Details: Hanger steak marinated in olive oil and homemade yakitori sauce from the freezer, basted in the same sauce. Cold sesame noodles from SPC (page 79), using 1/4 of the mayo the recipe calls for. Nobody needs two cups of mayo in their noodles. Cucumber salad with Asian flavors, from NYT Cooking, placed on top of the noodles. Carrot-garlic-ginger topping for the steak, from SPGTC (page 275). The result tasted like a well-done time warp back to 2002, then back to 1978. We loved it. Made us think, "Okay, they weren't stupid eaters back in 1978. They made good food, representative of a region, with what was available." Growing up in Iowa, eating a lot of meatloaf and pot roast, sometimes I forget that might have been true for the rest of the country.

How Was The Wine? Stupid-great, silly-good! We have a boatload of Bordeaux that has to be drunk quite soon. This begins that journey. One-hour decant. We were surprised how Old-Old World it was, and French specifically. No compromises here, very Frenchy-French from a great year in Bordeaux. Blackberry liqueur on the nose to start, turning into something like walking through a well-kept old house. We could smell the years. Not dusty, really. Just old. As if you can smell the attic. Nice flowers. Ripe-ish fruit, full-bodied, but never a bully. A bit of Jack Daniels at times. Happy length, fine tannin perking up on the finish, nice acid. This was big, and texturally a touch more flamboyant than we typically drink, but golly, we loved it. Had those pauses and breaks that allowed us to think about it for a bit instead of being bombarded with a bombastic, bellicose, belligerent nature that comes from so many aggressive fruit bombs. A 15-year-old Right Banker, from the house that originally got us into Bordeaux, and it's simply great right now. Could have waited on this one, didn't, and loved it. Real presence.

And The Pairing? That's probably what made us love the wine even more. Slipped right into this food that came off Asian only in a Silver Palate sense ("Apparently cilantro didn't exist in the 70's"). Held its ground beautifully. Different with each bite while maintaining its core goodness so nicely. Big winner here.

Cost: $18 for food, $65 for wine = $83