We have dinner parties and cook food at least once a week. This week, we had 12 friends over for dinner and wanted to cook food that paired with champagne and our 2011 Grenache. We decided on an asparagus risotto and halibut over a bed of cherry tomatoes and Leeks. We started this dinner the best way possible by popping bottles of Champagne.
The smoothest most delicious bottle we popped was a 2004 Grand-Cru Marion-Bosser.
We started in the kitchen after indulging in a few glasses of Champagne, sourdough baguette and an amazing stinky “Brie De Meaux” a guest brought who later explained was illegal in California. We kept the appetizer simple and made a fresh Caprese with heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil from our small planter box out of our San Francisco window.
Next we started on the halibut. We chopped up 8 large leeks, put them in the pan and cooked them for 10 minutes. We then took them out and added the tomatoes, halibut, salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon.
With the halibut prepped it was time to get started on the risotto. Since there were 12 of us for dinner, we made a huge pot of risotto, which turns out is a lot of physical work. This meant employing our guests in shifts to stir the risotto and shred cheese. We used our favorite pot in the world, the “le creuset”. 1 hour later with everyone’s help, we had a delicious asparagus risotto ready to eat.
Here are a few plating shots and the final product. The 2011 Idle Cellars Grenache is ready to drink and going up on the website very soon.
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