By Greg B. With the recent release of this year’s Beaujolais bottles, and the knowledge that the girls in my lab really enjoy Beaujolais (almost an obsession, really), Gabi offered to cook Mihyun and I dinner. Something that would go nicely with the Beaujolais and is simple and French, so we could hang around and speak in bad French accents all night (well, mine is pretty good I think). On the menu tonight: 2 bottles of Beaujolais nouveau, fromager de clairines brie, laughing cow creamy swiss, and a large portion of delicious Spaghettis Bolognaise (for the recipe in French, as we got it, see the bottom of this post).

Gabi always begins the evening with a small plate of this awesome brie, that she assures us only comes from this one little fromager in France and has to be bought at the actual cheese place. Somehow, however, she always manages to have new brie wheels whenever we arrive, and as soon as I discover her secret for importing this, I’ll be willing to share it with you all! (I’ve mentioned this cheese previously, in the Oktoberfest beer tasting here.) This evening was no different, and in fact, she also opened a container of laughing cow creamy Swiss. It was at this point that I bestowed upon her the following bit of information: I love laughing cow cheeses, and that there probably would not be leftovers of cheese here tonight. It’s so creamy and delicious, with the right amount of bittersweet flavor to it. The French Brie is, of course, also delicious. It has a great texture that really went well with the toasted baguette Gabi also presented us.

Wine and Cheese

As soon as we arrived home, we opened a bottle of Georges Duboeuf 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau and let it sit for a while, to breathe a bit. While this proved very difficult to do (everyone wanted to try the wine right away), we were all able to withstand the desire, and let it sit for a while. In the meantime, Gabi started cooking. To make the recipe, you will need:

• 1/2lb spaghetti (angel hair is nice for this)
• 1/3lb ground veal
• 1/3lb ground beef
• olive oil, to brown the meat
• salt/pepper to taste

For the sauce, you will need

• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 2 shallots
• 3 leaves, whole basil
• dash of rosemary
• olive oil, to brown the shallots
• salt/pepper to taste

So, rather than butcher translating the French from the recipe I have, I’ll write to you what I saw Gabi do (sorry Celine, even though the last name is Bissonette, I can hardly speak anything in French!). Get two sauce pans, in one, heat some oil, while dicing your shallots. Give it a nice fine chop, then add to the oil to lightly brown. Add the salt (careful with the pepper, remember salt wont burn, but pepper will). In another pan, heat some oil and then add the ground beef and lamb, cooking evenly and breaking up the larger chunks of the meat. Add your can of tomatoes to the onions, spice it up with the basil, rosemary and whatever salt/pepper to taste. Don’T forget, to have a pot to boil water for the pasta on a back burner somewhere. Once the meat is cooked mostly through, turn down the heat, add the sauce from the other pan to the pan with the meat, mix and let simmer while the pasta cooks. Then, strain the pasta, and serve the sauce overtop the pasta. voila!

Browning beer/lamb & cooking the sauce

While the pasta was put into the water, we decided to pour the wine to taste with the cheeses… and on it’s own! Of the three of us, Gabi was the only one who had drank this year’s crop. It has a real deep red color which, if you held it to a light, was a bright, vibrant red. It has a mildly sweet nice with a hint of what Mike might call “pepper’, but more of a bell pepper and not a spicy pepper to it. At first sip, it had a tart flavor which slowly gained ground, almost like you are eating a tart, not-quite-ripe wild raspberry. The body was not as thin as I expected, and overall it was quite nice!

The wine with the cheeses are interesting. With the laughing cow creamy Swiss, it enhanced the ’swiss’ bittersweet aroma and taste, which was nice! And with the Brie, the wine went from tart to mildly sweet, when eating with that brie-creamy and fatty cheese. Definitely a nice and interesting change both on the part of the cheese and the wine.

When dinner was served, it was great. It was light enough, despite the beef, lamb and pasta servings, nice on the spice, easy on the oil. I think the change from normal spaghetti to angel hair really was a good call on Gabi’s part. With the Beaujolais, the tart aspect of the wine removed any bit of the olive oil or the animal fat from the dish that was in one’s mouth, and really left you with a clean taste afterwards. A great dish for a great wine!

Dinner!

After dinner, as always, Gabi likes to bring out surprises. This time, she got two ports, one which she did not enjoy and the other which she did. One of these is from New York, the other is from Portugal. Can you guess which one was preferred by the Portuguese girl? The first is Lakewoods Vineyard 2001 Port. While Gabi thought this was overly sweet (it was kind of sweet, but then again, it’s Port, after all!), I actually kind of enjoyed the taste. It had a real aroma of dark fruits and even dark, strong scented honey. It does have a sweet nose, but also a toasted oak and darkened fruit flavor as well. It was a dark reddish color, but trending towards a more mahogany color on the pour. Comes in about 12% abv.

The second port was Krohn Porto, 10 year port (I think that’s the real website… it as a .pt ending…). This was a more traditional port flavor, light mahogany in color with a sweeter nose than the Lakewoods port but a nice woody, earthy nose as well. Was sweeter in taste with a more buttery mouthfeel and a dry finish with alcohol notes on the very very end. Does have subtle dark plum notes too, but you have to really pay attention to get them (maybe a maple syrup aroma too, as one drinks more of it). Now, I suppose this may be a good USA vs European stereotype here, the more subtle, nuanced flavors in the Portuguese port and the bold, in your face flavors/aromas in the American Port. Personally, I think they each have their place in the port cabinet (and yes, I’m willing to take flak for that statement). This port comes in around 20% abv.

And there you have it! A nice opportunity to try some good food, this years good new French wine, and hang out with some friends outside of the lab. I hope you get the opportunity to find a few bottles of this wine, it’s not expensive usually, and just give it a shot. Happy (belated) Nouveau day!

En Francais:

Ingredients:

• spaghettis: 250g
• veau hache: 150g
• steak hache: 150g
• sel, poivre
• huile d’olive: 2c. a soupe

Sauce

• tomate concassee: 1 boite
• echalote: 2
• basilic: 3 feuilles
• rosmarin: 6 brins
• sel, poivre
• huile d’olive

Preparation:

Preparez la sauce: Egouttez les tomates concassees dans une passoire. Pelez et emincez les echalotes, faites-les revenir avec l’huole, ajoutez-y les tomates, le basilic, cisele et les brins de romarins.

Salez, polvrez et laissez mijoter 15 min. Faites revenir dans une poele, le veau hache avec l’huile d’olive a feu tres doux pendant 10 min. Ajoutez la boeuf, laissez encore 5 min puis ajoutex la sauce tomate; salez et polvrez.

Faites cuire encore 10 min, Pendant ce temps portez a ebullition une grande quantite d’eau boullantes salee dans une casserole. Ajoutez 1 c. a soupe d’huile d’olive et les spaghettis. Faites cuire a gros bouillon pendant 10 min, les pates doivent rester ‘al dente’. Egouttez. Melangez dans un saladier, les pates et la sauce tomate a le viande. Servez tres chaud.

recipe reference: (in case I botched the French so bad, someone wants to see the original!)

http://www.cuisineaz.com/Recettes/spaghettis-bolognaise-1628.aspx

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