A wine merchant's Christmas dinner

Oysters from Brittany and duck out of the jail

Although we are very fond of culinary delights, as wine merchants we never manage to prepare a lavish Christmas meals. This of course does not mean that we are willing to forego the joy that a good meal can bring. Due to lack of time we thus place more emphasis on the best ingredients possible rather than on complicated dishes.

As a starter, we had fresh oysters (Creuses from Brittany, which our daughter had brought with her just before Christmas.) Some of you may say “yuk,” how can you eat something like that. We enjoy them just as they are, without any lemon or spices. By doing this, you get the creamy, nutty flavor, a bit of iodine and salty water from the sea, especially when eaten along with a piece of dark organic bread with butter. The fresh, dry Muscadet de Sevre et Maine, produced by Guy Bossard, a Demeter wine-grower close to Nantes, paired very well with them, without overpowering the delicate flavor of the oysters.

The next course was breast of duck from ducks raised on the estates of the Rottenburg prison (a Bioland operation) who are able to move freely there. My wife and I share the jobs which have to be done. She does the shopping and I do the cooking. I took the ducks apart two days beforehand, I used the legs to make a confit de canard (for later), and I used the carcasses to make a duck fond. I left the breasts to rest until Christmas. I then browned them on both sides, seasoned them and put them into the oven to roast for 10 minutes at a low temperature, after which they were still pink. I served them with gnocchi and pesto. With this dish, we decided to drink a Cannonau die Sardegna from Meloni Vini, which is of course quite powerful, but smooth as well, and we thought it was ideally suited to this course.

Since we are not used to eating so much, we decided to do without dessert and concluded our Christmas dinner with an espresso made from our Ethiopian Bonga Forest coffee.

Erich Hartl

hartl@weinpur.de
http://www.organicwinepure.com/

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