Birthday dinner, troisième chapitre

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It's G's birthday and I'd been planning on cooking her dinner at home. I've been thinking about doing something new when a recipe was thrown in my direction. It looked interesting and was something I've never done before, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I went off in search of the main ingredient. It might sound simple, but try finding some beef cheeks or boneless short ribs, especially from wagyu. I went through 4 of the local premium supermarkets and came away with nothing. I was on the verge of giving up but decided to give my neighborhood meat shop a try. Thankfully I was able to pick up a mix of USDA Prime and wagyu short ribs.

I followed the very simple recipe and prepped all the ingredients. Unfortunately I had to resort to my stock pot as I didn't have anything in the right size. This means that some of the beef chunks were left partially exposed. For the final step, I poured a half bottle of a 2005 Chianti Classico into the pot, then shoved the pot into my oven. The apartment smelled pretty good for the next two hours.

I served the braised beef with some rye bread from Poilâne. I'm sure my execution was far from perfect, but it tasted alright. Needless to say, the wagyu was very tender, although a few pieces of the US beef were slightly tougher from being exposed to the air.

Tonight we drank a bottle of the 1971 Camille Giroud Clos de Vougeot to celebrate the birthday. I had very little expectation for the wine, for although 1971 was a good year in Burgundy and we were drinking a Grand Cru, I really wasn't sure about the winemaking at Camille Giroud all those years ago. But the wine was actually pretty nice once it opened up. Initially there was a bit of chalk, then the core of sweet fruit came out, with smoky, grilled meat notes. Later on the classic bacon fat and farmy nose really showed. Not bad.

It's a nice change to be at home for a birthday. Maybe I'll do it again next year!