Dinner chez C.S.

It seems that the holidays have crept up unexpectedly this year, and didn't leave me enough time to see everyone I wanted to see beforehand. J. and I did, however, make it out to C.S.'s house last night to give him and B. their Christmas presents and have one of his incredible dinners. It was great to see them – I missed them; we haven't seen them in what seems like ages, especially B. But it's the meal that's truly worth writing about for posterity.

Both J. and B. had commitments right after work, so C.S. and I hung out for a while and enjoyed a bottle of Unibroue Térrible that I brought along – a dark-brown, relatively sweet, bottle-conditioned 10.5% ABV monster of a Belgian-style ale. Not the best aperitif, perhaps, but delicious nonetheless. C.S. commented that it didn't taste that strong, but I definitely felt some warmth on the back palate. It was smooth, though. Dangerously so – good thing I only brought one bottle. C.S., being who he is, had set out some delicious chorizo, smoked salmon, and some amazing Italian olive oil.

Eventually, the ladies arrived and we sat down to dinner. C.S. had recently discovered a mail-order source of heirloom beans (how he finds these things, I will never know), so the first course was Tuscan white bean soup. It was simple but lovely. The beans were excellent. I'm not sure I could tell the difference between them and a non-heirloom variety without a side by side comparison, but they were very good, and the broth was quite flavorful as well. To my astonishment, C.S. announced that there was no stock involved in making the broth at all – just some onions, bacon, herbs and spices. So we were essentially slurping bean water. Described that way, I realize it sounds unappetizing, but it was the best soup I've had in a long time. We accompanied it with an odd white wine of unknown varietals made by Trappist monks in Northern Italy.

For the main course, C.S. made roast pork – a four-chop segment from a crown roast. It was, quite possibly, the best pork I have ever had, certainly in the top five. He had roasted it ahead of time and was just going to bring it up to temperature before serving. Turned out that it was way undercooked, so he had to carve it and finish it in a saute pan, but that took absolutely nothing away either from the flavor or the tenderness of the meat. It blew me away. His secret was brining – evidently, the technique has spread beyond Thanksgiving turkeys. And it helped that the recipe for the brine was Thomas Keller's, so it was a far cry from just salt dissolved in water – C.S. rattled off more than a half-dozen ingredients. He served the pork over some delicious braised red cabbage strongly spiked with cumin and accompanied it with an herby cream sauce. The whole combination was phenomenal – I had no compunction picking up the bone with my hands and gnawing off every last fiber of meat. We drank Oreana's “Winemaker's Mistake” -- I recently got a case of it directly from the winery (proving that I can, in fact, have wine shipped to me – yay!) and brought along a bottle. It worked well – with just a touch of residual sugar, it complemented the cabbage in particular.

The dessert – there is always dessert at C.S.'s house; I'd complain that it was too much food if it wasn't always so damn good – was chocolate cheesecake. We were in a bit of a food and drink coma by this time – to be perfectly objective, it was a little too much food, and the strong beer and pre-dinner munchies didn't do me any favors – so the subtleties of the cake were probably lost on me just a little, but it was definitely more than up to C.S.'s usual high standard. Perfect tang (why are so many cheesecakes one-dimensionally sweet?), just a hint of chocolate and – probably the most remarkable for me – custard-smooth. Not a hint of graininess to the texture. I don't know how he does it. Twelve weeks in pastry school, I guess.

We, and J. in particular, paid with not being able to get to bed until after midnight – far past both of our bed times these days, especially hers, but I'd sacrifice sleep for another meal like this any day. Great big “Thank You” to C.S. for outdoing himself yet again.