This past Saturday night, Cathy and Tom joined our usual group of four for a dinner I’d been meaning to do for a while. Tom was our contractor when we did our home renovations a couple of years ago and his wife Cathy works in the same building as I do. Tom was amazing during our renovations and I dread to think of what the process would have been like without his help. So I really wanted to do a ‘Thank You’ dinner for him.
My other motivation was Cathy a couple of times in the last six months has gone to the Keg for dinner and would always rave about how great it was. I don’t mind the Keg but the steaks we do at home are so much better than what the Keg offers.
My Menu for the night was as follows –
Lobster Chowder with Roederer Champagne
Poached Pear Salad with2009 Forster Jesuitengarten Spätlese Riesling
Beef Tenderloin and Grilled Shrimp with Béarnaise sauce and Green Beans and Baby Potatoes with a 2005 Beringer’s Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Baked Apple Tart with Almond Custard with a 2005 Henry of Pelham Botrytis Affect Late Harvest Riesling
The Lobster Chowder was a new ‘recipe’ which wasn’t an actual recipe but a mash up of a number of different soup recipes I have done before. I was looking for something rich and decadent that put the focus squarely on the Lobster meat in the soup. I bought 3 lobsters and had them steamed. I removed the claw and tail meat from them and then the bodies and shells went into a stock pot. I made a Lobster stock from this which took about an hour. While this was happening, I cooked 8 slices of bacon that I’d diced and then set it to the side. I then cooked two dice onions and five cloves of garlic in some butter until the onion were soft and slight golden in my main soup pot. I added the bacon and corn shaved from 10 ears of corn (sounds like a lot of corn but they were small ears) to the pot and then added my Lobster Stock and brought to a boil and then simmered for 20 minutes.
I set the pot to the side and let it cool and then pureed the whole thing until it was smooth. I then add ½ cup of Sour Cream, ½ cup of Sherry and 4 cups of whipping cream and mixed it all together. A touch of salt and a healthy whack of crushed black pepper and then simmered for about 15 minutes to let it thicken slightly. I then let it cool and put it in the fridge overnight.
The day just before dinner, I heated the soup back up and then added the lobster meat just before serving. I garnished the bowls with some chopped chives and a touch of cracked pepper.
The soup was very good and it certainly was rich and decadent so ‘Mission Accomplished’ there. The surprise of the night was how good a pairing the Roederer Champagne was with the soup. I thought it would be a decent pairing but it was much better than that. The Champagne really cut through the richness of the soup and had a lovely lime and tangerine flavour to it that the soup brought out.
The next course was Poached Pear Salad. The salad is a base of baby spinach with a raspberry vinaigrette with poached pears, blue cheese and spiced pecans. This was paired with a 2009 Forster Jesuitengarten Spätlese Riesling.
The nose on the Riesling was an interesting mix of soap, oil, melon and petrol. Tasting the wine, flavours of melon, pear and some tropical fruit are to be found. I was surprised, as for a Spätlese, it was nowhere near as sweet as I was expecting; it was sweet enough to deal with the sweetness of the pears and the dressing however so that was good. It was nicely balanced and had a finish that lingered around for quite a while. It was a good pairing with salad and I’m happy to say I have another bottle of this in the cellar.
Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 90, Mark - 89, Kathy – 87, Amy – 86, Overall – 88.
Here is the LCBO information on the wine –
REICHSRAT VON BUHL FORSTER JESUITENGARTEN RIESLING SPÄTLESE 2009
VINTAGES 946673
750 mL bottle
Price $ 24.95
Made in: Pfalz, Germany
By: Weingut Rvb Gmbh-Von Buhl
Release Date: Dec 8, 2012
Wine, White Wine
9.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Riesling
Sugar Content: 41 g/L
Sweetness Descriptor: MS - Medium Sweet
Tasting Note - Von Buhl pulled way back on the residual sugar in their 2009 Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Spatlese compared with other recent vintages, and the result is more than sweet enough to support both its decadent, musky floral perfume of peony and heliotrope and its very ripe peach fruit, yet discreet enough to be well-balanced even for immediate consumption. Peach kernel, green herbs, salt, and crushed stone all serve for fascinating counterpoint, and a soothingly creamy texture is allied to refreshing primary juiciness and lift. This ought to delight for at least a dozen years; though I am not convinced it is structured for longer-keeping. Score - 91. (David Schildknecht, erobertparker.com, Feb. 2011)
This was an odd Spätlese and by our ratings you can see the opinions were mixed. Mick and I really liked this Spätlese for its subtleness whereas I think Amy was looking for a more ‘in your face’ type of Spätlese. Either way it was fun to try something new.
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