Wright Eats

It’s the time of year when many of us are hosting out of town visitors and family.  With the holidays, you may be planning a brunch, perhaps for Christmas morning, or maybe for New Year’s Day.  I’m curious: what are your favorite things to make for brunch?

I like to look for make-ahead recipes, so that I don’t have to wake at the crack of dawn, and can relax with my guests over a cup of coffee.  I’m a big fan of these cheese-filled blintzes from Chef Robin Leventhal.  Make them the night before, and all you have to do is fry them up, pop them in the oven, and set the table.

Or how about a granola parfait?  I’m so addicted to Molly’s homemade granola recipe that it’s an every-morning kind of thing for me to layer granola and yogurt together for breakfast.  But add some layers of fruit and serve in a trifle bowl, and it would make a lovely addition to a brunch buffet.

For something savory, an egg soufflé is a great dish to make the night before.  I’ve enjoyed this Greg Atkinson recipe, published in the Seattle Times a few years ago.  Made like a bread pudding, it was the centerpiece of our Christmas breakfast last year.

Citrus fruits are like jewels on the holiday table.  My favorite make-ahead side dish is a bowl of vanilla citrus fruits.  The fruit infuses overnight with vanilla bean and a touch of honey which mellows the tang, and it is beautiful served in glass goblets or a pretty holiday bowl.

I’m always looking for new brunch ideas.  Feel free to add your suggestions and links to the comments below.

Vanilla Bean Infused Citrus Fruit
Serves 8

5 oranges
4 ruby grapefruit
1 vanilla bean
Honey

Segment the fruit:  Slice off the top and bottom of the fruit, exposing the flesh inside.  Set the fruit on a cutting board, and slice off the skin and white pith in strips, by following the curve of the fruit with your knife.  When all the skin is gone, hold the fruit in your hand over a bowl and gently slide your knife between the membrane walls to release the segments.

Before discarding, squeeze any remaining juice out of the membrane and into the bowl of fruit.

Cut open a vanilla bean and extract the seeds with a knife.  Stir the seeds into the juice to evenly distribute them.  Place the vanilla pod into the bowl, too.

Stir in a few spoonfuls of honey, to taste.  Refrigerate overnight.  Serve chilled.

On these cold winter nights, there’s nothing quite like an after-dinner digestif to warm up with.  My spirit of choice for many years has been armagnac, a brandy from southwest France with complex aromatics and a wide variety of tastes.  Armagnac is France’s oldest brandy, distilled as early as the 14th century, and yet it it remains largely unknown today in the States, with few quality offerings available at restaurants or liquor stores.  Sadly, given the recent trend of many producers replacing their grape vines with more profitable crops, it’s hard to say how long this fine spirit will even be available.  But while it’s here, it’s worth sampling some of the amazing offerings.

I first tried Armagnac fifteen years ago at my friend Keith’s house, who himself had discovered it on a business trip to France years before that.  That first taste was a mixed experience – at 40% alcohol content, it burned my throat and made me cough like a neophyte, but the finish left a subtle mix of sweet and spicy flavors tingling on my tongue.  I was intrigued, and tried some sips on subsequent visits, and slowly I began to see that this spirit that many refer to as “an acquired taste” might indeed be worth the effort.

Over the next few years, armagnac fell off my radar while I moved cross-country and worked long hours during the heady dot-com days of the late ‘90s.  Then in the early part of this decade, a coworker and I were talking about some of the digestifs he had been collecting – cognac, calvados, armagnac – and suddenly I recalled my lost interest.  After trying a not-so-good bottle from the Washington state liquor store, I decided to do a little more digging online to see what my options were.  This led me to Charles Neal’s book on armagnac.  His book, appropriately subtitled “The Definitive Guide to France’s Premier Brandy,” clued me in to its history, and provided a wealth of detailed tasting notes for over 700 armagnacs.  Armed with my armagnac bible, I searched for a suitably interesting vintage for my next purchase, and read this tasting note:

Fruit on the nose nearly soars from the glass; honey, coffee, white chocolate, apricot, ginger.  Vanilla, coffee, prune, cinnamon, and a hint of smoke in the mouth.  A seamless texture and also very long.  Nearly perfect armagnac.

The bottle?  It was a 1973 from Domaine de St. Aubin, distributed by Francis Darroze, aged 24 years in oak before being bottled.  I managed to find a bottle for sale, and the first whiff alone was a revelation: this is what it’s all about.  I understood why someone would even want to aspire towards being an armagnac connoisseur.  I was hooked.

At this point, you might be wondering, “What exactly is armagnac?”  Charles Neal has lots of detail on his website, covering grapes, soil, distillation, aging, blending, labels, vintages, and even how to drink it.  The short version is this: if you grow one or more of four particular wine grapes in a small region of southwest France, distill it, age it in oak, and let it evaporate and reduce a bit along the way, you might find yourself with a barrel of armagnac.  So how is it different than cognac?  Cognac is double distilled, and almost always blended with cognacs from multiple years to smooth out inconsistencies and achieve the same taste.  Armagnac is commonly offered as a single vintage, though you can find blended armagnacs for sale.

I found myself fortunate enough to chat with Charles Neal here in Seattle in early October at a wine dinner at Licorous.  I must admit that I am quite envious of his lifestyle, traveling France for several months every year, meeting with wine, calvados, and armagnac producers to sample their products and import them into the States.  In fact, he’s currently working on a 500-page book on calvados, due to be released in late 2010, which I look forward to already.  I may find myself with another habit then!  But I digress.  I mentioned to him that the best Armagnac I’ve ever tried was a 1973 Domaine Boingnères, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Charles agree that Domaine Boingnères is one of the top producers.  He explained the sad reality that the current owner, Martine Laffite, will be retiring in a few years and has no one to pass the 200-year-old family business on to, and it’s unclear as to what will happen to her armagnac.  My outlandish daydream: uproot the family, move to Gascony, somehow convince Ms. Laffite to teach me the old family secrets, and carry on the banner of this preeminent chateau.  Who’s with me?

A glimpse of the wall of vintage armagnacs at Les Caves Augé, Paris.  This store is an excellent source, with bottles dating as far back as the 1940s.

But while I’m still in Seattle, finding good Armagnac in the state’s liquor stores is a challenge.  They typically only carry three or four ho-hum blends (XO or VSOP), and possibly a single vintage bottle at one or two stores in the entire state.  One option is a road trip to a good store in Portland.  But my favorite mail order source is D&M Wines and Liquors in San Francisco.  They typically have 70+ armagnacs in stock, with most of them being very high-quality vintage bottles.  Not surprising, since Charles Neal used to work for them and helps source their bottles.  These bottles aren’t cheap, but I can tell you that the good ones are worth it.  The spirit doesn’t age once it goes into bottle, so I’ve gotten my money’s worth by having little sips here and there, allowing me to keep bottles open for years.  Drop me a line if you’re interested in trying a glass!