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Pinot Envy
September 27, 2006

Stu Stein

September 27, 2006
This summer I participated in the 20th annual International Pinot Noir Celebration.

For those don’t know about it, here’s a short history of the event, per the Web site: “In late 1985, an informal group of Oregon wine lovers, winemakers, restaurateurs, retailers, foodies (and even the grapes themselves) envisioned a premier wine event, to be held in McMinnville, the heart of Oregon wine country. Although the creators originally had a competition in mind, they abandoned that idea in favor of a more congenial atmosphere. The magic of the Celebration is brought about by the friendly exchange between pinot noir winemakers from around the world. Each year since it was first held in 1987, the event has evolved and matured, with a commitment to staying fresh, innovative and exciting. But the original feel of the event remains constant: an intimate gathering of pinot noir lovers enjoying a weekend of wine, food and conviviality.

Naked dancing in the Linfield College fountain always has been optional.

Once again, what does this have to do with Terroir Restaurant & Wine Bar? It could be that I just love the names of the seminars: “Attack of the Clones,” “Coffee Anyone?” and “Passport to Pinot,” to name a few. But really, I’ve been both a guest chef and an attendee in the past, and this year I was asked to be the guest chef for a lunch featuring two winemakers. The lunch gave me an opportunity to showcase some of the dishes and the style of food I will do at Terroir (see menu and pictures of me plating, above, and menu items, following).

The part of the menu I want to discuss is the oxtail sous-vide that I used to crust roasted Oregon cod. Why sous-vide instead of braising? Philéas Gilbert wrote in “La cuisine de tous les mois” (Ollendorff Éditeur, 1898): “Braising is a cooking method whose objective is not only to conserve the nutritious juices and particular flavor of the ingredients prepared in this way, but also to impregnate them, to saturate them with the extractive and aromatic juices of the bases or stocks used to season them.” The key, however, is not the just time but temperature.

The objective with indirect sous-vide cooking--and the advantage over braising--is that the internal temperature of the meat should exceed 147F for the hygiene purposes (for more details, see Chapter 3 of the FDA’s 2005 Food Code) but stay below 158F to avoid the loss of juiciness while achieving tenderness and mouthfeel as collagen (that tough connective tissue) transforms into gelatin. The sous-vide method allows for this precision without the harsh protein denaturation from an initial sear. Additionally, there is no reduction in liquids due to evaporation of a much lesser degree, with a greater intensity of aromas accumulated in the interior of the product.

Did I confuse you? Let’s just say that with the sous-vide method, I obtained a more-tender, moister, more-aromatic oxtail with greater intensity of flavor. All that, and easily transportable too.

Specifically, I vacuum-sealed the oxtails with typical marinade ingredients: mirepoix, tomatoes, garlic, wild-mushroom trimmings, aromatics, salt, pepper, pinot noir and beef stock. I cooked it in a bain-marie that circulated the water at 158F, maintained an internal temperature of 158F in the meat for approximately 12 hours, and then quickly chilled it. I was then able to remove the oxtails, shred the meat for the cod crust, and use the remaining ingredients for a multi-layered pinot noir-wild mushroom reduction sauce.

Two Side Notes

I spent two full days in a kitchen of a local restaurant doing all of the mise en place and preparation for the IPNC lunch (thank you, Jake’s Famous Crawfish and Executive Chef Billy Hahn!). I also asked several culinary-school students who were at the end of their programs if they wanted to volunteer to help prepare and execute the lunch. What a great opportunity for them to experience food and wine matching and vicariously pick-up on some culinary techniques they may not have seen before.

I have hired externs from various culinary schools around the country before and have used culinary students in a number of functions I have done. This time, however, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. One of the students was a no-show, no-call on both preparation days. Another was a no-show, no-call the day of the actual event. On the last day of preparation, I left a student to finish baking off the final set of peach tartlets because I had to go teach a class. The other two batches they’d done came out as we wanted. When I came in on the day of the event to pack up and transport everything to the winery, we found out the filling of the last set of tartlets was under-baked, and the metal tartlet rings were left dirty.

I bring this up to hopefully get the culinary students out there to think about what you are doing and remember the fact that you represent your school and the industry.

A final side note: Part of the goal of this blog is to have some interaction. So feel free to contact me with questions, problems, answers or even checks, cash or money orders.

And the journey continues.

Cheers!

Stu

Posted by Stu Stein on September 27, 2006 | Comments (0)