Le Cheval Blanc – Worth Every Penny

A corner of the main dining room

Crémont - the justly famous Alsace bubbly

Well, perhaps not every penny.  You must put aside a bit here and there, for rent, gas, and keeping the odd cobweb out of your wine cellar.  Nevertheless….

We threw money to the wind and had dinner at Le Cheval Blanc (The White Horse) in the half-timbered Alsatian village of Lembach.  (scroll all the way down for full address and tel)  From the moment we were greeted by the receptionist, shown to our table and offered wine, until we left some three hours later, we were never disappointed for even a fraction of a second.

What do you look for when you go out to eat?  I’m talking about you personally.  Ambiance?  A quick bite?  A dining experience?  If I’m spending more than pennies, I want it all and I want it better than anything I could cook at home.  As a friend of mine put it:  If you have an expensive meal and walk away thinking you could have done that yourself, you’ve wasted your money.  I may add, you’d also like to walk back in with a shotgun and suggest the Chef-in-Thief return your silver shekels, or lose what’s left of what he so proudly calls his brain.   But, of course civilized people don’t do that. We know when we’ve been robbed fair and square.   We tell all our friends to make reservations under different names and cancel at the last minute.

No worries at Le Cheval Blanc.  I guarantee that unless you are a master chef, with your own Michelin starred restaurant, there’s no way you can match this cuisine.

Delicate, little finger sized vegetable creams 

Which brings us to the whole question of La Guide Michelin and the meaning of their stars.  Without putting too fine a point on it (pun intended), one star means “a very good restaurant in its category.”  Two stars means the restaurant offers “exceptional cuisine and worth a detour.”  The coveted three star ranking means you should bow down and thank your lucky three stars that you could get a reservation this century and that you could afford it.  As of late 2009, there were 26 Michelin three star restaurants in France and 81 in the world.  Some have carried the distinction for years and others have just arrived and the kitchen staff is still drunk and celebrating.

Proudly carrying one Michelin star, Le Cheval Blanc offered one of the most superb meals I have ever had, for décor, service, and unbelievable deliciousness.  I walked away after happily parting with my money, armed with a broad smile that stretched across my face and down to my belly

Le Cheval Blanc offers an a la carte menu and also several compete menus. We decided on The Gourmand menu, which had so many courses I ran out of fingers, but you can count them yourself on their web site: http://www.idealgourmet.fr/930-restaurant-ideal-gourmet-presentation_mr-gb.html.  No meal in France begins without wine.  We selected a Crémont, the Alsace version of Champagne and were not disappointed, with it’s crisp, yet soothing taste.

 

Shaved slices of smoke cured beef

Beer bread and local farmhouse butter

Foie Gras - silky smooth and melts on your tongue

Cannelloni as you've never had it.  A glass of local, light Pinot on the side.

Rather than test the limits of language and endurance, I will exhibit great restraint and restrict myself to impressions of the cannelloni.   Why pick pasta?  Common point of departure. Everyone knows pasta and we all have our favorites.  None are in the same category as Le Cheval Blanc’s version of this Italian staple.

The pasta we’ve all eaten is doughy, heavy, with a mostly predictable topping of cream or tomato and beaucoup cheese.  Le Cheval Blanc’s cannelloni was as light as a crêpe.  The filling of duck foie gras and slivered, wild mushrooms rested in a reduction of black truffle emulsion, frothy and heavenly.  Each ingredient was individual, with nothing overpowering the effect of the whole.  Flavors soared!  I have never tasted such a divine blending of tastes and perhaps (depending on my investments and whether or not I choose to ever drive a car) never will again.  And yet, the cannelloni was only one of a parade of delicious surprises, many photos of which I had to exclude for reasons of space.

Each course and the many palate cleansing intermediate courses arrived like works of incredibly wonderful, stupendously interesting, tongue slapping works of art.  In truth, I had to restrain myself to capture the moment on film before reaching for my fork.

This was not a good restaurant, or even a great one.  It was far more.  Le Cheval Blanc was a dining experience that will live on my palate and in my dreams for decades to come.  If there are better restaurants, neither my taste buds, nor my wallet are prepared for the challenge.

Stuffed zucchini flower, with crawfish in a light, herbed cream.

Roasted lamb chop with purée of carrots.

Roasted duck breast

A spectacular cheese tray with some twenty selections.

Dessert:  Peach four ways, roasted, sorbet, mousse, and in egg custard

Le Cheval Blanc

4 rue de Wissembourg

67510 Lembach - France

Tel : 00 33 (0)1 45 72 07 14

House made, hand dipped chocolates, cookies, and gelées

Jazz for a Lazy Sunday - Autumn Leaves- Jazz Violin

I've always loved jazz violin.  Stéphane Grappelli, Joe Venuti.  This selection features an Australian, Retaw Storer Boyce.  First take.  No score.  No practice.  Haunting and beautiful.  Retaw plays all kinds of music and you can checkout more at http://www.retawboyce.com/

If you like jazz, this man is a real find.  Jazz lives!!!

Spargel Soup: Too Delicious For All But Very Close Friends

Nick off about a half inch of each stalk.

Peel off the coarse husk.

Cook the reserved tips.

The end of spargel season is rapidly coming to a close in Germany and the tears in my eyes are not tears of joy.  But, there’s still time for one more taste before you lose the spargel pot in the undisciplined tangle of your overflowing cupboard.  Go ahead and put it away now.  You won’t need it for this dish.

Here’s a very simple recipe for a very special soup that serves you, your significant other and two greedy guests.

Spargel Soup

1 Pound (about 1/2 kilo) white asparagus (spargel)

1 Medium onion, chopped

4 Tablespoons butter

1 Tablespoon all purpose flour

4 Cups chicken broth

1 Teaspoon sugar

1/2 Cup heavy cream

Chopped chives for decoration

Nick off the ends of the asparagus stalks (see photo above) and peel off the tough outer layer of each stalk (see photo above).

Cut the stalks into 1/2 inch pieces, reserving about two inches of the head of each stalk (See above photo of cooking asparagus tops).

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven, add the chopped onion and cook over low to medium heat until the onion is translucent.  Do not let it brown.

Add the pieces of asparagus, except for the reserved tops.  Cook about 6 minutes.  Again, heat should be low enough to prevent browning

Dust the mixture with the flour and mix well.  Allow the mixture to cook long enough for the flour to lose its raw taste and pick up the tastes of the other ingredients, about 2 minutes.

Add the chicken broth and stir well.  Allow to cook for ten minutes.

In a separate pan, add a pat of butter and a few tablespoons of the cooking broth. Place the reserved asparagus tops in the pan.  Stir and allow the delicate tops to cook a couple of minutes.  You want them cooked, but not mushy.  Set aside.

Use either a hand-held blending wand or a blender to purée the chicken broth mixture. (Not the asparagus tops!) If using a regular blender, blend only one cup at a time to keep hot soup from splashing all over you and your kitchen counter!

Return the blended soup to the big pot.  Add sugar to taste.  Add the heavy cream.  Soup should be only very mildly sweet.  Add the asparagus tops and stir.

Decorate each bowl of soup with the chopped chives.

Serve with a crusty baguette and your favorite white wine.  Listen as the dinner conversation drops off to a low, appreciative whine.

Voilá!  You’ve just created one of the most delicious soups in the world!

A German Garden: the inside scoop

Even a quick glimpse is a pleasure.

A little serendipity always helps.

A carelessly beautiful arrangement.

Germans, like the English, are wonderful gardeners.  Don’t believe it?  Drive through any German village, town, or city and see that every nook and cranny is bursting with flowers.  Must have been women who did those.  Window boxes.  Front yards.  Back yards. Along driveways.  Flowerpots by the door. Bicycle baskets still on the handlebars. Yes, I have seen these.  Inspiring. 

I am not a gardener, but I have friends who are and some are even German men.  For a bier and a wurst, they’ll willingly share the secrets they’ve gleaned from their years of playing in the dirt; which is a polite way of saying, put a beer in their hand and they’ll spill their gardening guts.  But, after a few hours of pils, who’s equipped to remember Latin names, or the best time to plant rhubarb, and why slugs don’t make good escargot? 

Well, I remember a few secrets, such as:  plant flowers in the sunshine, except for impatiens, which apparently adore some shade, as I do.  Details fade.  Beauty lingers.

Which brings me to the expression ‘nook and cranny.’  Anybody know what that means?  Nooks are small, out of the way spots only women know about, and crannies are small crevices even more difficult to find.  All of them are evil.  Would I use the phrase in a sentence?  Of course.  My wife finds nooks and crannies to be great organizational tools, which is why I’m developing a nook and cranny eradicator.

In fact, men are born hating nooks and also express great distain for crannies, preferring to place eyes-only items, such as the receipts for the new shotgun and full surround sound media center, in more secret places.  Twice locked strong boxes, labeled ‘Only to be opened in the case of my death,’ for example.

But, back to my friend’s garden, which is a delight and shows great foresight in avoiding the use of nooks. Also, back to two of his best secrets.  Secret one:  When you have a bare spot in your lawn, lightly till in some dark earth.  Next, put grass seeds in a watering can and fill it with water.  Then water the patch and the grass seeds will spread evenly.  Secret two:  To figure out where best to plant flowers in your garden, take twenty years of trial and error, and never give up hope. 

You can tell if you have a really good garden.  It’s like a living painting you can sit and stare at for hours.  A place to enjoy your morning cup, or to relax with a sherry at dusk.  The question is, what makes a garden good?  What takes a little greenery and a few bursts of color out of the realm of mere plantings and into the world of living art?  One thing I’ve noticed is that pockets of single color anchor a well planted garden. Diaspora of types and colors is great, but only if balanced by strong monochromatic patches that draw the eye.  There must also be a balance of differing heights and backgrounds of various shades of green.

If none of this comes naturally to your eye and imagination, visit some professional gardens, check out internet photos, or diligently spy on your neighbors, while ignoring their habit of nude sunbathing.  Careless balance, of form, size, and color is the key.  Yep, takes a lot of time and work to achieve carelessness.

Time for another beer, while you lovingly gaze at some photos of a wonderful backyard garden.  Meanwhile, I’m taking a fly swatter to those beastly crannies.

See how the heights, colors and shades of green come together!

A wonderful unbalanced arrangement compliments a well trimmed hedge

Visitors Welcome!

White Asparagus – Spargel – The Queen of Vegetables

The peeling

Making the Hollandaise

Straight out of the steamer

Who could resist?

Spargel truly is vegetable royalty, for any number of reasons.  First of all, unlike it’s tasty, green brothers and sisters, white asparagus is far more rare.  It also has a short growing season, and requires more attention in the growing and the cooking.

I could go on and on about asparagus as a member of the lily family.  White asparagus ‘mounded’ with dirt to prevent sunlight from forming chlorophyll in the plant, preventing them from turning them green, a practice dating to the 1600s, etc.

Time to forego the history and get to the cooking and eating.  For the cooking, I left it to the sensational cook I mentioned with almost worshipful reverence in my last post.  She makes the difficult look easy and the easy look effortless, all without a strand of her locks out of place, and nary a wrinkle in her tasteful attire.  Oh, be still my heart and listen to my stomach.

White asparagus requires two things that green asparagus does not, cutting and peeling.  The cutting is a simple matter of slicing about a half inch off the bottom of the stalk end.  After that, use a vegetable peeler to remove the tough, outer stalk. (see photo).  If you do not remove all of the outer stalk, revealing the soft core, you not only get un-chewable cattle feed, but also a bitter taste that goes down well only if you’re starving or drunk.  But, remove that ‘husk’ and you have a delicate delight for the taste buds.

One additional hint: If you’re not going to cook the asparagus right away, before peeling, wrap it in a damp tea towel and place the bundle in the refrig.

Cooking the Asparagus

About a pound of white asparagus (spargel) per person

An asparagus pot – don’t have one?  Steam the stalks lying down.

Put the asparagus in the pot; add enough water to cover about half way up the stalks.

Add a teaspoon of salt and a half-teaspoon of sugar.

Boil for about 12-15 minutes, or until the stalks are tender, but not mushy.

Remove from the cooking water and place on a plate.

While the asparagus is cooking, make the Hollandaise Sauce.

 Hollandaise Sauce

1 stick of butter, melted

3 egg yolks

3 Tablespoons dry white wine

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon of salt (this will give a slightly salty taste, but will stand up better to the almost non-salted asparagus)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Off heat, whisk the egg yolks in the top of a double boiler, or in a stainless bowl that you will place over a pot of boiling water.  Add the wine, salt, and sugar, and continue to whisk.  Place the mixture over boiling water and continue to whisk.  If you stop whisking, even for seconds, you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.  As the mixture cooks, it will thicken.  When it’s thick enough to coat a spoon very well, it’s done.  Remove it from the heat and whisk in the melted butter, a little at a time.  Add the fresh lemon juice and more salt, if needed.  Whisk again and pour the Hollandaise Sauce in a gravy boat for serving.

Serving suggestions:

Potatoes- peeled and boiled in salted water.  Flecked with finely chopped parsley.

Several varieties of ham, all thinly sliced.

Melted butter, as an additional topping for the asparagus.

A light, but dry white wine.

Dessert

Simple.  Elegant.  Colorful.

Three layers:  sweetened yogurt on the bottom, a purée of fresh strawberries with a touch of sugar for the second, whipped cream, mixed with a bit of yogurt on top.  Sprinkle the top layer with nuts and seeds.

As an ardent cook myself, I find something very special in having someone cook for me.  Maybe it’s because I realize the planning, time, and effort it takes.  It’s such a courtesy.  Or, maybe it just because I’m a man and besides wine, women, and naps, eating is what I like best.

In A German Kitchen - a tale of woe

The soul of the tasteful kitchen

No corner left unchallenged by art.

The eggcup collection

When you step inside a German kitchen, you’re afraid to touch anything.  Afraid to take a step, in case there’s a wrinkle on your shirt, or a scuff on your shoes that might spoil the magic of almost mythical perfection. Immaculately spotless.  Organizationally correct.  Scoured, polished, and decorated to the height of nonchalant art.

“Come on in,” says a woman who is dressed in a classically, tasteful style. Adorned in bright colors that accent her short coiffure, dazzling blue eyes, and perfect complexion. 

Pity that disorganized hag, Martha Stewart.

As she cooks, everything seems to be at her fingertips and HOLY BEAST OF FIRE, there’s enough counter space.  When and where in the world have you ever seen enough counter space?  When have you ever cooked without having a short, but powerful conversation with the almighty, to help you locate that one important tool, or that single ingredient that was just on the shelf only moments ago?  And yes, you’re sure it was there because you just bought it at the supermarket and put it RIGHT THERE!

But, alas, although you will never attain culinary perfection yourself, without a brain transplant and strategically placed mousetraps that keep unwanted hands from reorganizing your partially functional chaos, you somehow feel better knowing perfection does exist somewhere, in a kitchen far away.

Overcome by awe and raw emotion, I sinfully ask, “Will you marry me?”

“You’re already married.”  God, how women love to humiliate and abuse!

“Well, let me rent a discrete apartment where we can meet in tawdry secrecy and you can cook for me, feed me from polished spoons, and take me to culinary heaven, if you know what I mean…and I think you do.  It’s spargel season!  Oh my lusty spears!  Feed me stalks of that ambrosial white asparagus, lashed with hollandaise!  I promise your brutish husband will never find out.”

Soon, I will relate the vivid and inspiring detail of how she did just that, minus the rented apartment.  Of course, her husband and my wife were there, but what is a man without his dreams?

What is a kitchen without a view of the garden?

Prost!

Jazz For A Lazy Sunday - La Vie en Rose

One of the most beautiful love songs!  La Vie en Rose, which I believe is pronounced La Vee In Rose. At least that's what a French speaking friend told me.  Louis Armstrong tries out several pronunciations, none of which quite fit, but that doesn't detract from the loveliness of the lyrics or the flowing beauty of the melody.

Louis Armstrong, as I'm sure you know, began his playing in New Orleans.  Too long a story to relate here, but over his career he certainly transcended any labels.  His short, almost staccato bursts of trumpet, let you know it's Louis and the growling vocals identify him anywhere.  One jazz critic was asked who his favorite trumpet player was and he immediately said, Louis Armstrong.

The response was, "So you think he was the best?"

"Not at all," the critic replied.  "Lots of better trumpet players, but that's not what you asked me."

The same applies to the vocals.  Who would have guessed Louis Armstrong could sell records with his one octave growl?  He never would have lasted on American Idol, but still his voice compels you to listen and feel.  His version of La Vie en Rose comes from the heart...and goes right to your heart.

What does La Vie en Rose mean, anyway?  The closest English equivalent is 'looking at the world through rose colored glasses.'  Another way to put it is seeing beauty in life because you're in love.

In the end, who cares about a translation.  The words and melody tell it all.  There's nothing quite like being in love and there's nothing better than hearing Louis Armstrong play and sing about it.