Risotto, Wine and Mahjong

Wines:

Robert Mondavi 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
Domaine J. Laurens Brut Blanc de Blancs
Caymus 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon
Tom Eddy 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon
Francis Tannahill 2001 Passito Washington Gewurztraminer



Bill and Kevin came to dinner last night. The plan was to cook, eat, drink and play some mahjong. They staggered out and home about 1:30am. The dinner was great, 5 bottles of wine were fantastic and the mahjong was fun. Bill is trying to teach everyone he knows how to play. I think the eventual goal is we start playing for money and then when he wins he can stay retired. We will see.

We started drinking with the Blanc de Blancs eating Indian Candy (a sweet smoked salmon) and Smoked Mussels. We often pick these up when we go to Santa Monica Seafood.

We then made for them the Radicchio Salad from The Zuni Café Cookbook. It is a great easy to make salad. The cookbook says it is the second most popular salad at Zuni (in San Francisco). Given all of the times that we ate there, we have never had it. It is made with chopped Radicchio, croutons, anchovy vinaigrette and chopped eggs. It is very good.

For the second course we made a special risotto. It is from The Splendid Table cookbook by Lynne Rossetto Kasper. We really recommend this Italian cookbook.

The risotto is called: Risotto of the Vigil. It is made with beef, carrots, celery, sage leaves, and salt pork. In addition, Cathy added marrow bones for extra richness. However, Cathy thought to replace the salt pork with a fatty chunk of prosciutto. It was an inspired exchange. At the end Parmesan Cheese is mixed in and sprinkled over the Risotto. We make the risotto once a year around Christmas.

For desert we had an Apple Pie with Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream. Clementine one of our favorite take-a-way restaurants, sells the frozen uncooked Apple Pie and it keeps well. When it is baked, it is just like a home cooked pie.

You can watch a movie from last night in our kitchen by clicking below.