Home Cooking and Grand Cru Burgundy

Had some friends over earlier this week for some fine wines and food. I cooked a bit, which can be intimidating when you hang out with dudes like EatItAtlanta and Rowdyfood. Nonetheless, I persevered and cooked a few bites including a chicken liver mousse, roasted kale chips, and Thomas Keller's knockoff Cassoulet, which is one of my standbys. But, this cassoulet could never be confused with Rowdy's insanely good rendition.

The chicken liver mousse was a combo of liver sauteed in butter with shallots and bourbon and then whipped in a processor with some mustard and softened butter.

 pics by Rowdyfood.com

I borrowed an idea from Tyler Florence (yeah, I'm man enough to admit that) and topped the liver mousse on baguette with caramelized endive and pickled red onions. The addition of the endive and pickled onions really made these little bites come to life. The sweetness and acidity playing nicely off the earthy-creaminess of the liver.

I also made some roasted kale chips that were right tasty. After roasting, the kale turns airy and super crunchy. Not a ton of flavor, but an interesting texture and fun to chomp on.

The Cassoulet was tasty as usual. Hard to go wrong with pork and beans cooked at 200 degrees for 10 hours then topped with crunchy toasted panko bread crumbs and lardons. Duh...it tastes good. 

 

We also did what we are known to do...drink some fine Burgundy. No mindbending wines this time, but very good wines all around. The 2002 Jean-Marc Pillot Puligny Montrachet Les Caillerets was the white of the night for me as it was ready to go and drinking quite well. We had some nice reds, too, as you can see from the pics, including the 1998 Jadot Clos St Denis that was still young, and an interesting 1999 Matrot Volnay Santenots. All in all..another fun night with some A+ dudes I'm glad to call friends.