dinner « (y)our food choices™

In April, we spent a quiet morning in the Champagne vineyards just outside of Reims before venturing into the village of Verzenay where we were introduced to the Godmé matriarchs and sipped their stunning Godmé Père et Fils wines. After touring the family’s caves, our O’Chateau guide, Trong, schooled us on the mechanics of Champagne production before returning us to the surface where we were seated at a guest table and served generous pours of the house’s flight of grand cru and premier cru bottlings. We were transfixed by the complexity and finesse of each bottle we tasted so we brought back three bottles for celebrations throughout 2010 and 2011. Never, in all our years of sparkling indulgence had we tasted anything quite so exquisite!

A collage of photos taken at maison Godme.

A collage of photos taken at maison Godmé.

Our 18^th anniversary was Friday, but we ended up celebrating it at home on Saturday. We wanted some sort of French themed menu to go with the special bottle of Champagne and ended up at Tartine Bakery, in San Francisco, for their wonderful walnut bread, to be used in a Zuni Cafe–inspired roast chicken and bread salad, and a couple gougères, which are the tastiest, and biggest, gougères we’ve eaten. The air-filled puff of savory pâte à choux is peppery and cheesy and … you get the idea. Tartine’s gougères are giant specimens – crisp and golden brown on the outside, airy and tender on the inside. But these round puffs of pastry goodness make great hors d’oeuvres when baked up in smaller, bite-sized portions. We’ve made gougères at home before with great success but we find it much easier to stand in line to get our hands on Tartine’s version. It also gives us a chance to order many other baked goodies that they make so well.

The gougères paired perfectly with the crisp Godmé Père et Fils Premier Cru Brut Rose. As we ate the gougères and drank the wine we talked about how spoiled we are when so many of us aren’t doing as well as we all should be doing. We have great lives and we are thankful everyday for them. That we were able to bring together two of our favorite food/wine producers in our celebratory meal speaks to the kind of year we’ve had.

We finished the Godmé just as we were ready to eat our roast chicken and bread salad. With that we drank a very modest bottle of Freixenet Carta Nevada Cava. We’ve been drinking Freixenet for years because we like its classic cava finish, but the taste of the Freixenet brought us back to reality with its bold flavor and unmemorable finish, and because it’s one of the least expensive good tasting wines on the market. But for those few moments with the Godmé earlier in the evening we felt like we were back in France. It may not be every day we get to sip Godmé Champagne and eat Tartine gougères, but we do know that we’ll have at least two more experiences with the Godmé before it’s gone. As for the gougères, we’re lucky enough to enjoy them so long as Tartine produces them.

Cheers!

Gougères from Tartine

310g (1-1/4 cups) nonfat milk (or water, or half whole milk and half water)
140g (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
140g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs
115g (4oz or 3/4 cup grated) Gruyère cheese, grated
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced

Topping:
1 large egg
pinch of salt
grated Gruyère cheese for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Line a sheet pan with parchment.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the milk, butter, and 1-teaspoon salt and place over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a rolling boil. Dump all the flour in and stir madly with a wooden spoon until it forms a smooth mass that pulls away from the sides of the pan, leaving a thin film of dried dough on the bottom, about 3 minutes.

Place the dough in a large mixing bowl and beat for about a minute, then add each of the 5 eggs, one at a time, beating at medium speed until smooth. Stir in the cheese, pepper, and thyme. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip and pipe 3-inch rounds about 1 inch high onto the baking sheet about 2 inches apart (if making hors d’oeuvres, make 1-inch mounds 1-1/2 inches apart).

In a small bowl, whisk the egg and salt together and brush the tops of the mounds with the egg wash. Lightly sprinkle each with a little grated Gruyère. Bake them for 35 to 45 minutes (25 minutes for the small versions), or until golden brown. Puncture the bottom of each with a knife and cool in the turned-off oven until serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Zuni-inspired Roasted Chicken and Bread Salad

1 small whole roasted chicken, approximately 3 lbs, boned and cut into 2 inch pieces, skin on
8 ounces crusty country bread (not sourdough), cut into 1 ½ inch cubes
4 – 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 – 3 garlic cloves, slivered
¼ cup slivered scallions, including a little bit of the green part
2 tablespoons slightly salted water
1 tablespoon dried currents or raisins
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon warm water
2 handfuls mixed lettuce greens
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bread Salad

Preheat oven to 450. Place currents in a small bowl and cover with red wine vinegar and warm water. Set aside. Heat 1-tablespoon olive oil in a small skillet and sauté garlic and green onions until fragrant and slightly soft but before they color. Remove to a small prep bowl and set aside. Toss bread cubes in two tablespoons oil, spread on a baking sheet and bake until just slightly toasted, approximately 3 – 4 minutes. Remove from oven and pour in to large mixing bowl. Pour pine nuts and currents with their vinegar and water over the toasted bread cubes. Add sautéed garlic and scallions and toss to coat. Pour the bread cube mixture into a baking dish and tent with foil. Set in oven and bake approximately 15 – 20 minutes or until the bread starts to dry out and darken. Remove from oven and set aside.

Assembling

In a large salad bowl, add Champagne vinegar, 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and a bit of freshly ground black pepper. Whisk to combine and taste, adjusting for balance. Add lettuce, chicken and bread salad and toss until thoroughly coated with the vinaigrette.

On Monday I spent the morning listening to the 9th Circuit oral arguments for and against Prop. 8, the voter initiative that amended the California constitution to discriminate against people who wish to enter into a same-sex marriage. The history of gay marriage, or more correctly the history of the fight against gay marriage, is long and confusing. But the reason we’re writing about gay marriage on our blog is that we are one of the 18,000 couples that were lucky enough to legally wed in California during that brief window in 2008 when same-sex marriage was legal. We’ve been married now for two years and, this Friday, December 10th, we celebrate our 18th anniversary of the night we met at The Trapp (insert joke here), a gay bar in Salt Lake City.

As I’m listening to the court case I’m also thinking about, what else, food. Rummaging through the fridge, I spot a pizza dough just waiting to be transformed into something delicious. Then something one of the judges said struck me as an odd question: “What makes gay marriage gay? Isn’t marriage just marriage?”

My mind started to wander back to my college days with thoughts of late night pizza and philosophical discussions like, can a man truly be a feminist? and what makes art gay? Is it the subject matter or the artist creating the work that makes something gay? I thought about this a little more. Since I’m gay and I’m baking a pizza, am I making a gay pizza? I never really thought that pizza, or any food, could be considered gay or straight, but with the question posed about marriage, art, and life on my mind, why not food?

As I searched through the fridge for fixings to top the pizza it dawned on me that what I was selecting were things most people wouldn’t put on their pizza or even have in their fridge. What makes our pizzas different? For starters, we don’t do delivery. San Francisco is not known for it’s pizza, and we haven’t discovered a pizzeria that makes a better or faster pizza than our homemade ones. Next, the crust is always thin and whole wheat. No tomato sauce goes on top, just olive oil and garlic. Next, we’ll usually throw on some veggies (on this one, shaved fennel). And, instead of sausage, pepperoni, and ham (insert meat lover’s pun), we prefer a little prosciutto. To finish, we top with a little goat and Parmesan cheeses (or whatever we have on hand) and that’s what we call pizza. May sound sort of gay to folks in the red states, but some would argue that it’s just California cuisine.

Adding the layers.

Is our marriage or our pizza gay? We don’t think so. We view marriage and our pizzas as choices, neither gay nor straight, just our choices. We hope that the judges on the 9th Circuit will do the right thing and rule to secure for everyone the same choice we were given two years ago. We should all have the right to to marry whomever we choose just as we get to choose what we want on our pizzas, even if they both give us heartburn from time to time.

Marriage equality – and pizza – for all!

Pizza Dough

Watch those fingers.

Top the pizza however you wish, it’s your choice.

1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
1 – 1 ¼ cups water
¼ cup olive oil

In a stand mixer with a dough hook, mix the yeast with the flours and salt. Add the water, 1 cup to start, and olive oil and mix on medium speed for about five to seven minutes. If the dough is too dry add a little more water, a tablespoon at a time. If too wet, add a little flour, again a tablespoon at a time. Once the dough comes together cover the bowl with a damp towel and let sit for a couple of hours to relax.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Cut the dough in half at this point you can either make two pizzas or refrigerate or freeze one of the pizza dough. Using a rolling pin, lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out until it fits the diameter of the sheet pan. Alternately, if you’ve worked in a pizzeria before you can try to stretch the dough with your hands. Top with your favorite sauce, fixings, and cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is slightly toasted.