Corkage

An Apology, Part One…

 …this Apology goes out to…

The Saturday Night Supper Club
Ricotta Gnocchi sauteed in butter
Buttermilk Pudding
Uno Malbec 2008
Genesis Meritage 2007…and… 

…Not posting in a timely manner…

Geez, I get an epic fail for posting over the last few days.  I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.  Let’s start with:  The Saturday Night Supper Club:

Appetizer: Sliced Brown Tomatoes, topped with Basil Olive Oil, Garlic Infused Salt, and fresh mozzorella
Main Course:  Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi with diced brown tomatoes in olive oil
Dessert: Buttermilk Pudding topped with Farmer’s Market Sage Blossom Honey

I had a blast making the Ricotta Gnocchi from Food52.com.  This awesome recipe calls for an entire pound of homemade ricotta.  It also calls for over 2 cups of flour, but I found I didn’t even use a half a cup to make the dough come together.  I just got down and dirty, got my hands in there and kneaded the heck out of it.  The dough came together in no time.  This was an awesome recipe and the most successful Gnocchi I have ever made.  They were little pillows of deliciousness.  Not heavy, like your typical doughy potato Gnocchi, and much more satisfying.  I would recommend this recipe to everyone.  It was quick and easy to put together.

For dessert, I made Buttermilk Pudding.  What is this?  Buttermilk Pudding?  How does that work?  Check out the recipe here.  I have a lot of leftover buttermilk from making ricotta last week, and while searching for recipes to use up all the leftover, I discovered this gem of a recipe.  Quick and easy to whip up, it chilled in the fridge while I finished off the Ricotta Gnocchi and we ate, while sipping Uno Malbec 2008.  An apology to this Malbec, which had an amazing bottle design and was an easy drinking wine, but unfortunately, due to the time lapse, I just don’t remember the finer tasting points of this wine.  Looks like I’ll be making a trip to Trader Joe’s in the near future to pick up another bottle and give it the review it deserves.

But what about the buttermilk pudding, you ask?  Well, sweet delicious buttery vanilla in a cup would be the what.  I can’t believe how fast that pudding was eagerly devoured by everyone.  I topped this cup of yumminess with honey I picked up from the NEW Sherman Oaks Farmer’s Market and the folks at Pacifica, pure virgin honey.  All of their honey is smooth and delicious.  The combination of the sweet buttery pudding with the floral honey was a perfect balance.  

After dinner, we cracked open a bottle of Genesis Meritage 2007 to enjoy while watching Torchwood and nibbling on some Gruyere and water crackers.  Yet again, I will have to open another bottle of this Genesis Malbec to give it the review it deserves.  I do remember that it was a fruit forward red with a hint of sweetness, and it was a hustle buy at Trader Joe’s last week.  What’s a hustle buy?  A much more expensive with that Trader Joe’s has managed to obtain for an absurdly low price.  So, we settled in for some late night viewing of BBC SciFi and enjoyed our yummy wine and cheese.  Overall, yet another successful Saturday Night Supper Club.

Next up:  The Apology, Part Two - Tuscan Poached Eggs, Blueberry-Lemon Buttermilk Scones, Orin Swift’s Abstract 2009.  Tune in soon, for part deux.

Punto Final Malbec 2009
Apellation: Mendoza, Argentina
The Winery: Bodega Renacer 

We’ve had this wine sitting on our shelf for a little while.  That’s pretty rare for us.  Wines don’t usually last more than a few days, at most a week before the curiosity gets to us.  Maybe it’s because we tend to favor California reds.  French and Italian wines do get some lovin’ in our house, but we don’t usually buy South American wines.

This is like most things though.  You just have to find the right one to get you hooked.  I’d have to say this bottle of Punto Final Malbec would be that bottle.  We cracked it as we sat down to finally see the movie Bottle Shock.  I’d like to thank our financial leader at the helm at work for suggesting this movie to us, it was awesome!

But, back to the wine.  The first thing I noticed was the ORANGE cork.  Hmmm…I have to say, I am a little bit of a purist when it comes to my wine.  I really do like real cork.  A twist top or a plastic cork, to me, is like going to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and seeing people dressed in jeans reciting Hamlet, or wine tasting while chewing gum.  It’s a party foul.  But I was willing to put aside my reservations and give this Malbec a try.

The first thing I smelled when I stuck my nose to the neck of the bottle was yeast, kind of a warm bread aroma.  So I took that bottle over to our Vinturi Aerator and put it through to start to open it up.  Immediately, notes of oak and warm spicy red fruit began to appear on the nose.  It had a very smooth, velvety mouth feel and as the flavors started to open up throughout the evening, there were flavors of jam, spices, vanilla and black cherry with a very smooth and lasting finish.  As I poured a glass at the end of the movie (about 2 hours later), you got notes of minerals, vanilla, oak and dried red fruit on the nose, along with spices, continuing through to the finish, which was still velvety, smooth and lasting.  This wine made me think of Manchego cheese and sunsets.

If this is just the lower end bottle, not even the Reserve, I say, Argentina, bring it on!  No longer will I hesitate when an Argentinian wine is recommended to me.

Where did I get this wine?

The Village Gourmet
4357 Tujunga Avenue
Studio City, CA 91604
http://www.yelp.com/biz/village-gourmet-studio-city