'Thanksgiving' Dinner at the Krueger's

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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For this year’s Thanksgiving we had a 10lb 9oz Spanish Black Heritage Turkey. Jeff Pfohl also joined us. The turkey was accompanied by mashed potatoes & turkey gravy; organic local beets & beet greens, and Alexia Ciabatta rolls with butter. The turkey was stuffed with sweet onion and Pixie Tangerines, and basted with a mixture of butter, Blood Orange Olive Oil, SI Poultry Seasoning, onion powder, and dried orange peel. The russet potatoes were boiled and then mashed with some of the boiling water, butter, heavy cream, and milk. The beets were boiled, peeled and finished with butter, coarse sea salt, Tellicherry black pepper, and chervil. The greens were steamed with garlic and finished with EVOO and Coarse Sea Salt.

All was very much enjoyed with two 1988 Pommard Epenots, a Joseph Drouhin and an Olivier Leflaive. They were somewhat different - the cork on the Drouhin was only saturated about 20%, the fill was less than a cm below the cork, and its color was a bright ruby; the Leflaive’s cork was saturated about 80%, fill was a cm and a half below the cork, and the color was a very dark garnet-ruby. Nose and flavors were similar with the Drouhin showing more richness and the Leflaive more acidity. Both had medium long red and dark fruit finishes. The Leflaive was very good with the beets (probably because of the acidity). Both were very nice with the turkey and mashed potatoes & gravy. Both wines have a long life left; they are just starting to open.

We all decided that with the richness of the meal, we didn’t really need dessert.

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Sounds very nice, Dick - and '88 is one of my favorite vintages for current drinking. I’m pretty sure I still have a few bottles of Pommard from Girardin in the cellar, although I think they are Rugiens as opposed to Epenots. [welldone.gif]

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It was a wonderful dinner and Dick & Carollee are just the greatest friends and people you will ever know.

I felt the 88s were both too hard and not yet ready. An odd thing when I say they are too hard and Dick thinks they are starting to come around. Normally it is the other way around. Both have great hope, but I would not touch one for another 5 years easily.

The food, of course, was fantastic and it was a lovely Thanksgiving among friends. My first in the USA since 2004, and I believe my first turkey since 2004 as well. We also each had one Griottines on our plates from a small sampler jar, and it worked quite well with the meal. Sort of a substitute for cranberries. I wish I had brought a larger jar although I don’t think we needed any extra food. I normally think of them for dessert, but as part of the main meal, it was an enjoyable experiment.

Not being a gravy person Dick and Carollee brought out some Balsamina Balsamic Jelly from their pantry for me to use. It is supposed to work on roasted meats, although I had never tried it that way (only on hard Italian cheeses and when the Krugers and I did the triple smoked sturgeon on the upstairs deck). It was lovely and something I’ll continue to play with.