Wine Pairing - Chateau St.Jean

Hi Everyone;

Every year or so a local Italian Restaurant, Maggiano's has a wine pairing and we always try to arrange our schedules to attend. Very good wine, with outstanding and often times unique offerings. I always try to ask the chef for one of the recipes, one that strikes me as very good, interesting and many times both. Last year was a bitter green salad with fried peach croutons with a white balsamic vinaigrette (I will share that one later) and this year it was the potato casserole that really struck us all as a great side dish to the herb encrusted tenderloin. It was paired with the Sonoma County Pinot Noir.

The other very good wines were;

Fume`Blanc - very light and crisp great wine to sip on warm evening on the patio

Chardonnay - The wine that put them on the map

Pinot Noir - soft tannins that stand up very well to food

Cinq Ce`pages - Complex and one to keep and open in a few years - it will get better and better

The chef downplayed the difficulty but again the resulting dish was anything but simple in its taste profile. He gave me the basics, and I tried to remember, so, here goes my attempt to recount it:

Russet Potatoes

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Heavy Cream

Fontina Cheese

Nutmeg

Preheat Oven to 400*

Wash and peel your potatoes. Slice in 1/4" slices. Coat with Olive oil and salt & pepper to taste.

Place on cookie sheet and place in pre heated oven for 20 minutes. This allows the potato to par-bake and become semi soft. To test for doneness, stick a knife blade into the potato slice and it should not face any resistance.

Remove potatoes from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375*

In pre-buttered or oiled casserole dish, start with a layer of the pre

cooked potatoes on the bottom of the dish. Follow up with a layer of Fontina Cheese, then a small amount of heavy cream (for my size dish I used 3 potatoes and 8 oz of heavy cream total)

Then grate nutmeg to over the first layer. Repeat the process until casserole is full (or out of potatoes :) Final layer should have Cheese and nutmeg on the top.

Place back in oven for 20-25 minutes - or until the mixture is creamy and starting to turn a nice brown on the top.... The result seem very close to a Bechamel sauce without the work... I broiled mine for about 3 minutes at the very end to get it nice and crusty on top....

Take a look - Served it with a Black and Blue Prime KC Strip.... Mmmm