Wild Game Feast, Napa Style
Nov 19th, 2008 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Out & About, Wild Game | Comments | 8 Comments |
When in doubt, go with what you know — and plan ahead.
Last weekend we returned to the Napa vineyard and winery where Holly shot a turkey this spring to see if we could score one in the fall season for our Thanksgiving dinner. Alas, the turkeys were nowhere to be found. Pity.
But we weren’t there just to hunt. We were finally going to repay our gracious hosts Pam and Carl with a wild game dinner, a dinner that had been long in the planning. Pam wanted things simple, so I left my ideas about a seven-course tasting menu in Sacramento.
Pam had also mentioned that she loved doves, so I decided to grill them the same way I did at Dovapalooza, stuffed with herbs and dusted with smoked paprika (here is the recipe).
There would also be a green salad with a dressing of warm wild duck fat and lemon juice, some crusty bread, homemade pickles, my Cretan olives, smoked shad aioli on toast, and some thin slices of cured antelope loin.
And for the main course, I decided on a trio of homemade sausages: Loukaniko made with lamb and pork, wild boar chorizo, and an herbed wild boar sausage. To go with them I made a trio of homemade mustards, the coolest of which was made with saba — boiled down grape must.
For dessert, Pam made a creamy persimmon dish with pomegranates, which was a perfect end for an autumn meal.
Now I’m pretty much in my element when cooking, even in someone else’s kitchen. Plus, I’d done all of these dishes before so I was reasonably sure Pam, Carl and the couple they’d invited — Bob and Paula, who’d just returned from an English pheasant shoot! — would like the food. The only esoteric thing I had wanted to serve, some duck giblet sausages served in duck’s necks, I’d forgotten. Rats.
Despite all this, I will admit to being mildly nervous about the meal. Not freaked or anything, but I wanted everyone to have a good time and eat well; after all, this was the first time I’d cooked for them. So when Carl, who has spent much of his life in the Napa Valley wine business, asked, “what wine should we have?” I blanched. Meats I can talk to anyone in the world about, no problem — and I can choose wine with most. But Carl’s forgotten more about wine than I will ever know.
“Um, something light. Ish.”
“Like a Pinot Noir?”
“Yeah, that’d be good. I drink a lot of Sangiovese with food like grilled doves.”
“We don’t have any.”
“Um…”
“Let me choose three wines and we’ll see what we like best.”
Carl did just that, and as it happened, the 2005 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir was perfect with the grilled doves. A Malbec I can’t remember went well with the sausages. We also downed a bottle of 2003 Barbaresco and another Italian red varietal I can neither remember nor had I ever heard of before. A shame, because it was very, very good.
When I began thinking about this dinner, I had all kinds of crazy ideas — ducks served three ways on a plate, carpaccio of goose gizzards (No, really. It’s good!), 12-hour braises, etc — but in the end I am glad Pam said keep it simple. It made the night easier, and far, far fuller.
Those of you who host dinner parties know that we are always torn between two poles: The desire to feed our guests good food (and, dare I say, show off?) and the desire to be a part of the evening. Too often the host cannot do both. I run around at our big parties working more than drinking because I have decided that I prefer to have 60 people say they ate well than to swill a dozen beers and put Funyons on the table.
Our dinner in Napa was a perfect balance, for two reasons. First, the actual cooking was extremely simple: I grilled doves and sausages, and caramelized some onions. Not exactly a high-wire act. Second, most everything was done beforehand. I made the sausages long ago. The doves had all been cleaned. The mustards and pickles were made ahead. In fact, the only miscalculation was making the smoked shad aioli on the spot. Picking the bones is a fiddly job that always takes longer than you think.
So what could have been a mere show-off-y night with me in the kitchen, separated from everyone else, became one of those memorable evenings where I could talk, laugh and listen as well as eat good food and drink great wine. It is a lesson I won’t soon forget.
That menu sounds incredible!
Your point about the desire to put on a really nice (and intricate)meal vs. getting to enjoy the evening is a good one. One of my favorite social events the last few years is having some friends over for a night of duck gumbo. The gumbo is prepared ahead of time, baguettes sliced, and rice cooked just before people begin to arrive. Guests fill their bowls and glasses as they choose, making me a bad host but a happy participant.
Great article, and one that speaks home to many a cook!
It is all too easy to get caught up trying to make impressive food for your guests.. guests that you don’t end up seeing since you spend all the time in the kitchen. Been there, done that, check it off the list – never doing it again.
Looks like you got the perfect balance. Great food, quickly cooked, and a wonderful evening. Keeping it simple really is the best way in the end!
I felt like this cooking for all my colleagues at that Foodbuzz thing. Pinot Noir is the universal game wine, I think (although I like a bigger red like Bordeaux with venison).
Everything sounds wonderful – next one you do might have to be a little further north, though.
Happy Thanksgiving, Hank! Your dressing sounds so good..duck fat..yum:)
My preference is to be out of the kitchen by the time the guests arrive. If you get to spend time with your friends while also serving spectacular home cooked food, that’s perfect in my opinion. But I guess it depends on who’s coming for dinner, doesn’t it?
A man after my own heart, what a great blog. No matter how well I prep days before hand, I find myself in the kitchen as guests enter my dinner party. I for some reason enjoy this, I guess it is my line cook roots coming out, although I am sure some find this rude it is where I feel most comfortable. I relate most with the part where you write about all the ideas swirling around the menu to create and finding that balance between exciting, unusual, distinct and not getting too complicated (or showing off too much where only you can understand those slight flavor nuances). I have only been reading your blog for a couple week but I will continue to follow your journeys and be regular to comment. Thanks for your insignt!
Thanks, Nick! And I am planning something of a “show-off” meal for the near future, truth be told: It’s for a bunch of duck hunters and I want to show them something they’ve not yet seen…