Ratamacue Stew

While I'm on the subject of libations and other guilty

pleasures, dark chocolate came to mind tonight as Cindee and I were enjoying her membership in the Benziger wine club. We get two bottles shipped to us quarterly. Tonight, we were enjoying the Benziger Oonapais 2006 which is a particularly excellent Meritage (Bordeaux style blend). Benziger is one of our favorite Sonoma based vineyards and we enjoy everything they send us.

The Oonapais is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot.

To finish off dinner, I often enjoy pairing a wine like the Oonapais with dark chocolate. My favorite dark chocoloate at the moment is the Scharffen Berger Mocha. A 62% dark chocolate with freshly roasted coffee infused throughout, you get a wonderful coffee flavor with the dark chocolate. Combined with the rich velvety touch of a balanced red wine (pick your poison - Meritage, Bordeaux, California Cab, Syrah, or Zin - they are all good), and much like the martini you have a match made in heaven. A great way to wind down after a long day at the office!

I am a fan of the martini.  Have been for a long time.  There’s something comfortable and soothing about the ritual of mixing gin and dry vermouth in a shaker full of cold ice, shaking it (don’t bruise the gin), and pouring the elixir into a martini glass with blue cheese stuffed olives waiting to soak up the juniper goodness heading its way.  I do like dry vermouth to soften the martini instead of a “pass the vermouth bottle by the glass” dry martini some prefer.  My martini for two recipe is five parts gin to one part dry vermouth.  Shake and pour over two blue cheese stuffed olives.  Rinse and repeat.

 

For the longest time I had a preference for Beefeater gin. I had nothing against other gins. I just preferred Beefeater for both the flavor (I like London Dry Gins) and an irrational loyalty to the Crown given I'm 1/2 Canadian. If that last part doesn't make sense to you, understandable. Canada is still considered a Commonwealth country and has an allegiance to the British throne. But I digress.

Perhaps true to my real roots (I'm German, Scottish, and Irish), I bought a bottle of Hendrick’s Gin which is distilled and bottled in Scotland. I was immediately converted. Not because it's Scottish (although that does help!), but because of the amazing flavor. The description on the back of the bottle sums it up best:

"This handcrafted gin is distilled from a proprietary recipe which includes traditional botanicals such as juniper, coriander, and citrus peel. The "unexpected" infusion of cucumber and rose petals results in a most iconoclastic gin."

I couldn't have said it any better. The nose of this gin matches the quality of the flavor on the tongue. Pair it with a nice dry vermouth and you have a martini made in heaven.

Enjoy!

As I look back on our food blog, most of the entries are from really nice restaurants or of food we've cooked at home that was fun, a bit unique, and tasted great. But, I think I've been doing a bit of a disservice to some of the small restaurants that produce great food albeit it not at the level of a Moto's. One such restaurant is the Bostwick Lake Inn. The Bostwick is a great place for a couple of reasons. One, being situated on Bostwick Lake, they have a great patio that is a fantastic place to wind down at during the warm months. Often during the week, live music is played out on the deck, you can look out over the lake at all the boats, skiiers, tubers, etc. and have a really good meal to boot not to mention a cold beer. It's also nice in the cold weather as the interior in warm and inviting and the wait staff is always pleasant and friendly. They have a reasonably good wine list and offer wine sales in the restaurant if you end up wanting to buy a bottle of what you had with dinner.

One of my favorite dishes they serve is pictured below. It's a classic meat loaf, baked in a pastry crust, served with Zinfandel jus, seasoned smashed red skin potatoes, and seasonal fresh vegetable.

The Zinfandel jus is fantastic and coupled with the puff pastry really makes the meatloaf shine. A great twist on an old classic. A meal that definitely sticks to your ribs during a cold winter's night. If you are in the Grand Rapids area, I would definitely recommend checking it out.