The Green Balloon - The Price Of Stamps

It's around 2 o'clock in the morning and I'm sitting in the dark, reflecting, just trying to take it all in. It's actually 8 o'clock in the morning, Europe time for me, which I've been on for the last three weeks. After perilously navigating German in Switzerland, clever French (the only language I'm remotely fluent in, besides sometimes English) in Marseilles and Cassis, and Italian in the Lago di Como, I've returned home to New York, remembering that few people speak English here either.

The quandry I have hovers over how to at once accurately and concisely describe it all, to create a picture postcard with some meaning; this part of my life, this wonderful gravity whilst in flight, something beyond the price of stamps.

I want to write about the moments, so suddenly ended the minute they dissolve, the tears I feel approaching, having had to leave it all behind. I am tired but I can't sleep. It's all too rapturous, the line, the weave of something finite, a finish, yet something extraordinary and infinite that brings us around the world and back and around again:

The whistler in Cassis who would bathe on occasion in the cold Mediterranean and froth the air with his particular tune. Moody, hazy mornings as well, that puffed up to full stride, grandly offering brilliant, sunny afternoons, and evenings at La Bar de la Marine in the port itself.

The Bouillabaisse in Marseilles that I didn't like, and the neighboring horde of Texans that I liked even less.

Fondue in Zurich, past the season to have it, but marvelous just the same. With chunks of bread dipped in glasses of Kirsch, before dunked into the bubbling cheese.

Lago di Como: on the ferry, there was the breath, the incredible mountains, the surrounding Alps, as we left our hotel in the little town of Tremezzo, venturing forth to Varenna (the unexpected, glorious maelstrom there) and Bellagio.

Lunch in Como, dinner in Milan, I put my hands on La Scala Teatro. We couldn't resist Varenna again, sunset fell on St. Moritz during the way back to Zurich, and we settled into a Bier Gaarten there.

The Zurich lake! I had put on my bathing suit underneath shorts and having removed the latter on our pedalot, I dived into the refreshingly chilly water, frightened as I was, seems silly now. There was a marvelous, soaring, eruptive fountain to swim to, anchored by a ring that anyone could bask on, once reached. I did.

The richly glamorous European couple, having paused for an afternoon behind the sausage stand in downtown Zurich at Rosaly's, sipping Cynar with soda, and still smoking.

Moments, images; some imprints captured or not: the price of stamps. The rest of it left to fill a lifetime, so often solely from memory.

Everything But The...Girolle!

I first sampled the marvellously heady Tete de Moine when Reggie and I reviewed Ayza earlier this year for Next magazine. Executive chef Sean Chudoba gets all of his cheese from Murray's cheese shop here in the city and serves it alongside a host of cured meats and small plates. Translating to Monk's Head from the French, there's a lot of history behind this Swiss delight, spreading over hundreds of years. French Revolution soldiers used to scrape the cheese with a blade that would otherwise have shaved the heads of monks, thus the name (I also suppose the frilly suggestion of a monk's coiffure had something to do with it). Only about 30 years ago, someone invented the girolle, a cunning device to elegantly unfurl the cheese. Although available at Murray's, Baby and I waited and went right to the source to purchase our girolle once we'd arrived in Switzerland!

A note on the cheese: only a throroughly chilled Tete de Moine will slice with ease.

Fabulous Fondue

Sure springtime is a little past the season to have fondue, but then again, why the hell not? After all, we were in Switzerland and did imagine there was a faint chill in the air that needed remedying.

I was familiar with cheese fondue, having made it myself several times, a few of which landed with dubious results. Once when out on the town (there was a sort of fondue resurgence in Manhattan, years ago), I also tried the meat and fish kind, served with oil or broth. I'm not such a fan of that. Then of course, there is chocolate fondue, where just about anything that can be speared on the end of a fondue fork or other such similar conveyance is allowable, and usually encouraged.

This recipe for cheese fondue is a somewhat subtler bacchanal, suitable for six, where kirsch (cherry brandy) is not only an ingredient, and a digestive accompaniment but a neccessity as well, for dipping crusty cubes of country bread into first before plunging headlong unto the bubbling fray. Although not included here, a few grinds of white pepper and grated nutmeg would surely well assist.

Fondue

1 clove garlic, halved

1 1/2 cups white wine (Neuchatel or the like)

1 Tb cornstarch

2 tsp Kirsch

1/2 lb coarsely grated Emmental cheese (2 cups)

1/2 lb coarsely grated Gruyere cheese (2 cups)

-Rub inside of pot with garlic, discard.

-Add wine to pot, bring to simmer over medium heat

-Stir Kirsch and cornstarch together and SET ASIDE

-Gradually add cheese and cook, stirring constantly in a zig-zag pattern until cheese is melted and creamy

-DO NOT BOIL, stir in cornstarch and Kirsch mixture

-Simmer and cook until thick

A Tale of Two Pastas

As delirious as we were from lack of sleep with the whole time change thing upon our arrival in Switzerland, we still managed to pull a dinner party together for our hosts, Kitty and Champ, and other company--and a darned good party at that, which featured Baby's excellent, impromptu ragu!

Here's what we served:

Salted Radishes with a Side of Butter

Warm Asparagus Wrapped with Frizzled Speck, Topped with Two Fried Eggs

Tomato Flan

Baby's Ragu with Saffron Pappardelle

Serves 6

Olive oil
2 lbs. quartered marrow bones (ask your butcher)
1 large chopped onion
1 large finely diced carrot
2 cloves minced garlic
2 lbs. coarsely ground veal, beef, pork mixture
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 Tb Balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Salt, black pepper to taste
2 Tbs dried oregano
Chiffonade of basil and flat parsley (rolled and sliced thin on the bias)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Make the demi-glace reduction:
Sautee marrow bones with olive oil in a heavy bottom skillet, making sure all sides are cooked until dark brown (roughly 20 minutes). Add enough water until bones are just barely covered and simmer for one hour, adding water to keep bones covered. Discard bones and reduce liquid to 2 Tbs (another 20 minutes). Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile:
In a large Dutch oven, sautee onions and carrots in a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat until onions are translucent and yellow. Add garlic and sautee for another minute. Brown the ground meat in the mixture. Spoon out excess fat with a large kitchen spoon. Incorporate the crushed tomatoes into the meat mixture. Simmer gently for about 45 minutes, allowing the liquid to reduce, so that the meat shimmers with a light coating of the sauce instead of swimming in it. Add Balsamic vinegar and remaining spices to enliven the flavor, allowing 5 minutes time for it all to blend together.

The Grand Finish:
Add demi-glace reduction to your ragu, turn off heat. Stir in cheese and cream. Cover and let sit 10 minutes.

To Serve:
Place your drained (but not rinsed) pasta in a large bowl and spoon ragu on top of it. Using clean hands, dig in and toss together. Garnish with a pinch more cheese and parsley and present with a sturdy red wine.

For dessert we found a creamy brie that we drizzled with black truffle honey and ginger cookies.

Orata...or not a

Another weekend, when Champ suggested fish for dinner, I thought of the Mediterranean, which isn't all that far from Switzerland and as they do at dell'anima in New York, I proposed to make orata "in CARTOCCIO" with sumptuous cerignola and black olives, lemon, thyme, and fingerling potatoes in parchment paper. Cut to the Migro market, where they were pretty much out of all fish by the latter part of the afternoon, and the incredibly expensive Globus Food Hall where the orata was going to cost the equivalent of 100 U.S. dollars to feed the few of us.

We let go of the fish and the parchment when I remembered a recipe from years ago in a Saveur magazine where potatoes and green beans were tangled up with pasta (much cheaper than the fish we'd considered) and basil-lemon pesto, apparently a Ligurian tradition. Potatoes and pasta together is certainly a fine example of carb loading but the sprightly pesto lifts it all up and crunchy green beans make it a natural for a summer dish. Adding the olives, wedges of lemon and thyme truly enhanced our dish without fish! Make sure to reserve a half-cup or so of the pasta water to bind it all together.

So there we were, back at the Migro, with any number of homemade pastas before us. Tagliatelle seemed to be the right kind of noodle, somewhat broad and assertive, yet not obnoxious; it worked with the potatoes, as I thought it might--with a simple bunch of leafy greens tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, we had another memorable meal.

Next Magazine Review - dell´anima

dell’anima
38 8th Ave @ Jane St
212-366-6633
dellanima.com

So far, dell’anima is my favorite restaurant of the year. I could tell you what dell’anima means by definition but just go find out for yourself. I was enthralled by the rotating seasonal menu with some mainstays. No one’s trying to reinvent the wheel at the intimate dell’anima. It’s just a little bit of perfection, served without a lick of pretension.

First of all, they had me at Roasted Orange Negroni ($12). It’s difficult to find a well-made version of the classic, balancing the components of gin (here, Miller’s), Campari, and sweet vermouth (here, Carpano Antica). Not only did we want to kiss the bartender for his efforts, we raved over the incorporation of muddled roasted orange. Sheer heaven! My guy enjoyed the Sangiovese “A Sirio” ($17/glass) from Toscana; it was warm, creamy and peppery, perfect for a day that couldn’t make up its mind weather-wise.

Unfurled tentacles of Charred Octopus ($16) were quite good, with smoky chorizo, white rice beans (who knew?), and bitter chicory, relieved by a judicious spray of lemon.

We shared two pastas next, paired with a clean, full-bodied Sicilian Etna Bianco ($14/glass). Excellent Tajarin “alla Carbonara” ($21) with seasonal ramps, speck (similar to prosciutto), and pecorino was topped with a shimmering egg to fork into the mix. Tagliatelle alla Bolognese ($17) offered a wonderfully rich meat sauce with a peppery bite.

The Orata “al Cartoccio” ($29) was perfectly paired with a sturdy, white Slovenian Friulano “Toh-Kai” ($9/glass). The fish came wrapped in parchment, cohabitating with fingerling potatoes, thyme, lemon and plump green cerignola and black olives, which were utterly transformed. It was superb and wildly flavorful. Skirt Steak ($25) with endive braised in a sweet orange sauce with mint oil was great, paired with the knockout Damijan “Kapjla” ($15/glass), cloudy and apricot in color, served at red wine temperature. Asparagus ($13) with Meyer lemon zabaglione (a creamy what-have-you) was obscenely good with a caper-anchovy vinaigrette and shaved parmigiano.

Flourless Chocolate Cake ($10) with Lambrusco zabaglione and amarena cherries and a gripping Poli Traminer Grappe ($14/glass) left us breathless with delight—and we left completely elated!

Cocktails in Como

Well, yes, the Grand Hotel Tremezzo Palace now and again found us having a dram, a wee drinkie, a cocktail, if you will, in the bar, on the terrace, by the pool floating on the lake, traversing the gardens...honestly, the whole glorious procession just felt like it was 1922 once again, as we supposed of course from the guests amongst us having originally beared witness.

To wit: Long Drinks proffered a seriously crafted Raffle's Singapore Sling with gin, Cointreau, Don Benedictine, lime juice and cherry herring just about as Old World an offering as the Mai Tai with an assortment of rums, Cointreau, grenadine, lemon juice, and almond syrup. From the list of Cocktails, the Negroni with gin, Campari and red vermouth had become like mother's milk during our stay on the Lago di Como. The Knickerbocker Martini 1912 with Bombay Sapphire Gin and dry vermouth was knicked up a notch with orange bitters, while The Waldorf Astoria Martini 1919 with olives and a lemon peel made us feel right to home, while perhaps thinking of our own home, back in New York.

Lift a glass will you, and cheers then to the Grand Hotel Tremezzo Palace!

An Antler Cocktail Caddy

Yup, it's pretty awesome. Two deer antlers crossed together so that we may more elegantly serve rounds of drinks in highballs that bear boar, rabbits, foxes and hawks of some sort. Found at the Flea Market in downtown Zurich one Saturday. Even though the woman that sold it to us for 35 Swiss francs (about 30 bucks) didn't speak much English, nor we much German, she was at least able to convey that our antler cocktail caddy was "one of a kind."

No dispute here on that count. Live it. Love it. I imagine we'll soon have a cocktail party in honor of our fabulous find.