Happy Labor Day Weekend!

This week we’re going to focus on two new glass pours that we’ve brought on to the Café wine list.

We always like to keep a  Cabernet Franc somewhere on the Café’s glass pour list.  Moving on from the Philippe Grange Vin de Pays d’Oc , we wanted to return to the region best known for 100% Cab Franc, the Loire Valley.  From the Cave de Saumur, a well-known winemaking co-op, hails the 2009 Saumur-Champigny Lieu-dit Les Vignoles.  Of Cab Franc, Wine Director Cyril Frechier, “loves how it can be great aged, but also wonderfully bright when it’s young.”  In this glass you get can smell that tell-tale black and red fruit with green bell pepper, a bit of campfire smoke and a dash of menthol.  The texture is amazing though!  It’s silky, but has very distinct tannins that give a very pleasant, almost furry quality.  The flavors are heavy on somewhat tart black fruit with a good acidity to balance.  You might compare it to a Chinon Cab Franc, but this Saumur-Champigny is a little darker on the fruit, silkier, perhaps a bit less concentrated than the Chinon.

Let’s move south from the Loire to Bordeaux.  We usually have two Bordeaux reds on the glass pour list in the Café, and unfortunately the 2003 Potensac, a favorite of staff and guests alike, is no longer available.  It served the role as the more expensive, more complex of the two Bordeaux we offer, complementing the 2006 Premiére Cotes de Blaye Château Les Grands Marechaux.  To take the place of the Potensac, we would like to introduce you to a very drinkable Bordeaux, the 2006 Château d’Arcins Cru Bourgeois from Haut-Médoc.  From the same left bank region of Bordeaux as the Potensac, the d’Arcins boasts a mellower Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend.  Slighted by the outstanding 2005 vintage, a lot of people have judged 2006 as a let down.  On the contrary, the cooler 2006 season still produced some wonderful wine.  First contact with the Château d’Arcins is an earthy nose of saddle, ripe black fruit, black licorice root, a bit of cocoa and a bit of cedar.  On the palate, it’s a full-bodied, round wine with strong (classically Bordeaux) tannins.  There’s a bit of mint at the beginning with black fruit and licorice throughout.  Some left bank Bordeaux reds can be a little too strong or too high structure to be comfortably sipped on without food accompaniment; This is not one of those wines.  Each sip has just enough tannins to draw you back into another. And another.

I did Incredible Feast this year again.  The event keeps getting better and better.  This year Campagne was teamed up with Stoney Plains farm.  Patrick provided some beautiful vegetables and we served them as bagna cauda.  According to the late Richard Olney, bagna cauda is  “an import from Piedmont, Italy, by way of Nice…” which is now firmly implanted in and embraced by all of Provence.

As with so many dishes from the south of France, bagna cauda is simple and magical all at the same time.  It is basically a traditional vegetable  platter with warm anchovy sauce.

First assemble your favorite fresh vegetables.  I like to cook my green beans, but everything else is great raw. For 4 persons, combine 4 cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt and pound into a paste in a mortar. Add  10 to 15 anchovies, which have been desalted, into a mortar and pound until broken down into small pieces. Transfer paste to small saucepan and ad 2/3 cup of oil and heat gently.  Continue stirring until the anchovies have almost dissolved into the oil.

Adjust seasoning with fresh pepper if desired.  Dip vegetables into warm sauce and voila, you have bagna cauda.

Welcome to the second week our Campagne and Café Campagne’s Weekly Wine Blog!

Let’s start with wine of a new era.  This week we’ve brought our first 2009 vintage from the Rhône valley onto the wine list in the form of the Selection Laurence Féraud Côtes du Rhône. Laurence Féraud is the producer from the illustrious Châteauneuf-du-Pape Domaine du Pegau, one of wine expert Robert Parker’s favorites in the region.  ”Selection” means the wine is négociant style, a unique blend of grapes from unspecified parts of the Rhône valley, rather than being from a specific domaine or AOC.  This is classic young Rhône from a very ripe vintage (thanks to the hot, long summer of 2009).  On the nose you find the tell-tale black cherry and licorice with intense charred wood.  The palate is full-bodied with round, polished tannins with flavors of sweet black licorice, blackberry, black cherry and violet.  This wine has a long, lingering finish too, so you still savor eat well after each sip.

What does it mean to have a colder or warmer season in the Rhône valley?  With warmer weather the grapes ripen more and the wine has more of the dark fruit flavors (blackberry, black cherry) and more of the black licorice that we recognize in a lot of southern Rhône wines.  The colder season doesn’t quite get to the depth of licorice flavor, which usually comes off as black or white pepper that is so often associated with Syrah.

The other new bottle we’re really excited about is an uncharacteristic Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire valley.  The 2006 “Attitude” Sauvignon Blanc from Domaine Pascal Jolivet.  And yes, I said 2006.  It’s really quite uncommon for Sauv Blancs to be aged, largely because the fruity, primary flavors that make them so popular get lost over time, often leaving an unappetizing, overly acidic and unbalanced wine.  Interestingly, Jolivet has managed to age the “Attitude” Sauv Blanc in such a way that it remains surprisingly balanced.  The first taste brings up tropical fruit and citrus, orange peel and baked orange.  The age provides an impressive mid-palate complexity that combines peach and mango flavors with a richer, oilier texture.  According to the producer, the wine isn’t oaked at all, but there’s a creaminess to the texture that makes you second guess that.  It turns out that it is produced in stainless steel after all, and develops that characteristic from the aging alone.  The long finish is silky and perfumed. This is one of those Vins de Pays that pleasantly surprises almost everone who tries it. Made from grapes primarily from the Touraine region and produced by Jolivet in Sancerre, we’re offering it by the glass downstairs in the Café!

Here at Campagne and Café Campagne, we’re starting a new weekly blog feature to talk about the exciting new wines that our wine director, Cyril Frechier, has brought on to our list.

We’ll start with a wine that Cyril rates as “excellent, plus.”  The 2005 François Chidaine Montlouis Sur Loire Moelleux just arrived in Seattle in recent weeks.  Where to start when talking about this gem of a wine?  Let’s start with the producer.

François Chidaine is one of the foremost wine producers in Vouvray and Montlouis sur Loire.  His wines are categorized as biodynamic (a unique cousin of organic).  This wine, late harvest Chenin Blanc (the definition of “Moelleux), of course has the high levels of residual sugar you would expect from this type of wine, placing it squarely in the off-dry to sweet category.

The nose has burnt sugar, honey, anjou pear, and the citrus floral hints of lime blossom.  On the palate, Cyril describes it as “long and beautiful,” flowery with ripe honey, burnt caramel and quince.  The mouthfeel is elegant, almost ethereal.

Above all, this is not really a wine you find very frequently, but to pair with foie gras or classic sea scallops with beurre blanc would be fantastic.

The second new wine on our list is one that Cyril is personally excited to add.  An old friend of Cyril’s, David Autrey of Westrey winery focuses primarily on Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.  We’ve just recently brought on his 2007 Westrey Pinot Noir, Justice vineyard (Eola-Amity Hills).  Although the 2007 Oregon vintages weren’t particularly well-reviewed by the widespread press, Cyril, along with many others in the industry, find the cooler temperatures of that year to produce a different, very pleasant type of Oregon Pinot Noir.  Compared to other recent vintages, 2007 tends to be less opulent showing restrained alcohol and elegance.

The nose evokes dark cherry, woodsmoke and toast while the palate brings much more acidity than one might expect.  A ripe entry with a medium to full body, a cranberry and tart cherry provide red fruit notes with a moderate and balanced alcohol.  You’ll find some telltale chalk and limestone in there, with a sneak of plum as well.  The finish is medium to long, but bright and uplifting the whole way.

We hope you’ll check in next week to read about other new addtions!

Join us in Post Alley for Café Campagne’s first communal dinner as we celebrate the bounty from the farmers who provide us with the highest quality product the market has to offer.

We’re blocking the alley off and setting a table for 60 of our closest friends, and you’re invited.  Enjoy Chef Gordon’s homage to the splendors of fall produce and savor the aroma of lamb grilled just feet from your table.

First
Marinated tomatoes and sweet peppers with baby lettuces

Main
Roasted Leg of Lamb with fennel and sultana cous cous, baby carrots and lamb jus

Dessert
Plum Tarte with lavender whipped cream

Seating will be any time between 5:30-8pm, according to your reservation.

$95 per person includes your meal, wine, tax and gratuity.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer any changes or substitutions to this menu.

Please call 206-728-2233 for reservations.

I have always been curious about the weird looking geoduck. Bill Whitbeck from Taylor Shellfish has been trying to get me to use it at Campagne  for quite  some time.  Last Wednesday, Bill came by with a couple 2 pound samples and made a presentation to Randy, Campagne’s Chef de Cuisine, and me.  Well I think I am hooked.

It turns out that peeling and cleaning the geoduck is pretty straight forward.  A quick blanch in hot water and a shock in an ice bath and the skin comes off like a sock.  After separating the flesh from the shell on either side, most everything is usable. We just trimmed  the gills and the other dangling bits and we were ready to go.

Typically the siphon (the part that is outside of the shell) is used for raw or nearly raw  preparations and the mantle (body) is cooked. The mantle was sauteed, deep fried in flour and deep fried in a tempura batter (yes I know tempura is not French). The best siphon preparation was a salad of shallots, cucumber, lemon juice and organic canola oil.  We started getting this great  organic canola oil from some guys out in Snohomish.  I was very surprised at the amount of flavor in the oil.

We topped the salad with a little tempura fried mantle.  voila:

http://twitpic.com/29mjqj

We are now serving it as a special, so come in and give it a try.

Cheers,

Daisley

I have been buying lettuce from Brian MacWhorter from close to 13 years.  Brian and his wife own  Butler Green Farms located on Bainbridge Island.

The way I know that the local growing season has started is when Brian calls me from Bainbridge and Merv Dykstra calls me from Yakima.

In addition to the greens we regularly receive from Brian, he also brings extraordinary strawberries, raspberries, fennel, fantastic basil and beautiful tomatoes.  We used Butler Green Farms strawberries this year as the dessert course for our annual Bastille Day prix fixe menu and the dish was sensational.

Here are a couple links with info about Brian’s farm as well as Brian himself.

Cheers,

Daisley

http://www.butlergreenfarms.com/

http://www.soundfood.org/sfcommunity/sflocalfood-/138-butler-green-farms.html

http://www.kitsapsun.com/photos/2010/may/31/111410/?enlarge=1

Pike Place Market Sunday Chef Cooking Demonstration July 25, 2010

I love carrots.  I like the flavor and the color and the endless ways to prepare it.I like them raw, roasted marinated, baked, fried and pureed. Their tastes can range far and wide depending on the variety and how they are prepared.

In my early days as the chef at Campagne and Café Campagne my love of carrots went a bit too far.  I had prepared a summer menu to be evaluated by the owner.  He said: “what’s up with all the carrots?”  Apparently it was a menu fit for Bugs Bunny.

I had a particular recipe where I diced them really really small and blanched them in salted water and then marinated them in truffle oil.  I called the preparation vegetable caviar.  I think I tried to put it on every fish special I made for a while.  But that’s how it is when you get obsessed with things.  You do not realize that the rest of the world doesn’t love it as much as you do.

My goal now is to get you to share my obsession with carrots and give it the rightful place in you cooking repertoire.  In the summer when they are in abundance, I think it is good to have some options. These are three ways that we prepare it a Campagne and café Campagne.

Carrot Salad

1 # organic carrots

12 each garlic cloves, fresh

3 lemons, juiced

1 T Dijon mustard

Sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

Blender

Wash, then peel bunched organic carrots. Make thin slices by using a Japanese mandolin. In blender, combine 12 medium fresh garlic cloves and the juice of three lemons, 1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard, puree until smooth, and then add olive oil in steady stream until thick and creamy. Pour vinaigrette over carrot slices and marinate at least 1 day. Adjust seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. These need a minimum of one day to taste good. The day of marinating will allow the carrots to release some of their juice and mix with the marinade and then you will get this pale creamy carrot colored vinaigrette that is really delicious.

Now the magic of this dish is in two places.  First: the carrots.  Then it is in the garlic cloves.  When the garlic is relatively fresh in the growing season, it has a softer slightly moister consistency, since it hasn’t been left to dry as most of the garlic you find in the store (which are perfectly good, by the way). Most of the time when we make creamy vinaigrettes in restaurants, we use an egg or at least and egg yolk as an emulsifier (this stabilizes the vinaigrette and keeps the oil from separating). The fresh garlic is a great emulsifier, so along with a little mustard you are able to make a purely vegetarian vinaigrette which has great creamy consistency.

Currently at Café Campagne, we use this salad on salad Nicoise plate along with lots of traditional things like egg, tomato, tuna, potatoes and marinated vegetables.  We also use it on a tartine which is made with this fantastic bread from Grand Central bakery.

I must give credit to one of my culinary heroes, Joel Robuchon (  http://twitpic.com/28nen7 )as I was inspired by a preparation years ago in his first book Simply French.

Glazed Carrots

I pound organic carrots, peeled and sliced thinly, discs or sticks, your choice.

Water to cover

2 Table spoons butter, unsalted

1 teaspoon sugar

1 pinch sea salt

Fresh herbs: parsley, basil or mint

A shallow stainless steel sauté pan (straight and short sides)

The heart of the glazed carrots is the French technique of glazing vegetables.  This is one of those things you learn very early on at culinary school or in French kitchens and I think it remains very useful. It is a technique that can be used with other root vegetables: celery root, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, even beets, though I think it is best with carrots.  At the heart of things is keeping the flavor by keeping the juice.  Typically when carrots need to be cooked, they get boiled.  Boiling gets the carrots to a point where they are easier to eat and digest-meaning softer.  The problem is, when you dump the water, you dump most of the flavor and vibrancy that was in the carrots.  Glazing helps you keep that juice and that is where the flavor is.

Here is the procedure:

Place prepared carrots in sauté pan.  Add enough water just to cover the carrots; and a pinch of salt, little sugar and a couple tablespoons of butter.   Bring the water up to boil, then, turn it down to a simmer.  At this point, allow the carrots to cook gently until they just get tender.  If the water goes down below the level of the carrots, before they are finished cooking, add more water. When the carrots are ready, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and hold them on a plate.  Turn up heat and return the liquid to a boil.  Continue to boil until the liquid reduces and begins to get a little thick and glossy and there is just enough to coat the carrots.  At this point return the carrots to the pan and gently coat in the glaze.  If more time is needed to heat the carrots, add a little water and heat until hot and glazed. The combination of sugar, butter and the carrots juices create the glaze. Finally finish the dish with your favorite soft herbs, parsley, basil, mint, tarragon, even chervil.

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I love the traditional big French peasant loaves.  I first experienced them at Poilaine in the 6th  arrondissement in Paris on one of my early trips.

http://www.poilane.fr/pages/en/company_univers_histoire.php

Poilane is very serious about the traditional peasant loaf and  the third generation head of the company, Appollonia,  has even expressed a desire to have it displace the baguette which is universally associated with France.

Anyway I have enjoyed this bread many times, on it’s own and as part of a sandwich or tartine.

Some years back,  I noticed Grand Central Bakery had the bread for sale in Portland.  I started pestering them: will you make it in Seattle? Will you ship it to Seattle?  I tried lots of angles and this year, my persistence paid  off.  Apparently, some of my other fellow chefs around town wanted that loaf as well.

When  the loaf became available, I immediately put it to work by starting a long list of tartines on Cafe Campagne’s lunch menu.  At lunch we now serve tartines made with   marinated leeks and carrot salad, fromage blanc, house-made chicken and pork sausage on a base of  Comte cheese, salmon gravlax, and also beef tartare topped with  a quail egg yolk. All have a base of a little Dijon mustard.

Just last Friday we added a salmon roe tartine to  to be served upstairs at Campagne. We get the bread nice and toasty with good color, spread it with a little softened butter and then top it with salmon roe which comes from the gang at Loki.  A little grind of black pepper finishes it off just so.  Right now we we serve it with a little dressed pea vine and the combination is just fantastic.  It’s the perfect snack .

Daisley