Food Thread: Chocolate Makes The World Go 'Round!

The Horde...meet Babka! Babka...meet The Horde!

Babka is a sweet braided bread (or cake?), usually filled with chocolate, although people use nuts or jam or fruit too. But...why?

Chocolate is the way to go, and a good version is delicious. There is a famous bakery in NYC called Breads that makes a good version, but most vaguely Jewish or ethnic bakeries will have one. And they are...okay. They almost never have enough butter and chocolate, so one ends up with a bland and sort of dry bread that is completely forgettable.

We had guests over for dinner last night, and they brought a chocolate Babka from a local (to them) bakery. Wow! it was fantastic. Absolutely chock full of good dark chocolate, and there was enough butter in the bread to make a dairyman smile.

And because we didn't have enough chocolate at the table, I also made Chocolate Chip Cookies from Lin-duh's recipe, which may be the best cookie recipe on the planet.

Life was good at Chez Dildo last night!

But this amateur, writing on a very popular wine app, might be angling for a position in the pantheon of pompous!

A classic, clean-lined expression of Sancerre that leans into precision rather than flamboyance. The nose opens with brisk citrus--lemon zest and grapefruit pith--followed by green apple skin, white peach, and a distinct chalky minerality that feels more stony than overtly grassy. There's a gentle herbal edge--fresh-cut hay and a whisper of tomato leaf--alongside subtle floral notes that recall elderflower.

On the palate, it's taut and linear, driven by bright acidity and a core of citrus and orchard fruit. The texture carries a faint lanolin-like roundness mid-palate that softens the edges without dulling the wine's snap. The mineral character builds through the finish, turning saline and mouthwatering, with a light touch of wet stone and lime peel lingering. Balanced, refreshing, and quietly expressive.

All I want from a wine review is some standard language that describes the flavors, and a general connection to reality. Descriptions are necessarily subjective, but there can be a basic structure of common descriptors that everyone understands.

I don't want an exposition of meaningless language and a trip through someone's thesaurus.

Keep it simple, stupid!

When in doubt, make something very simple and straightforward for dinner. No complicated recipes or exotic ingredients. Just something simple, simply cooked. Grilling is always good, but baked works well!

Hell, a good pan of gently scrambled eggs made with lots of butter and cheese is a delicious meal! Even people who don't understand the imperative of stirring Paella can make great scrambled eggs!

Cooking doesn't have to be complicated...it doesn't have to be expensive...it doesn't have to be time consuming.

Just pay a bit of attention to the technique, and use good ingredients, and the odds are excellent that you will eat well!

I have been baking sourdough for a very long time...long enough that I don't use a recipe, and I certainly don't buy into the arrant nonsense about sourdough starter that is obviously being underwritten by Big Flour.

On Thursday I decided to bake a loaf for Saturday evening, so I grabbed my starter out of the refrigerator.

Yup! That's it. The dregs from the last time I made sourdough...more than a month ago! I added 75 grams of water, and scraped the dried crap off the sides and mixed it so it was dissolved. then 75 grams of good quality unbleached flour. mixed that in, and put it on the counter for 24 hours. During the winter I put it in the boiler room where it's nice and toasty, but my guess is that the starter would eventually come to life no matter what.

24 hours later the starter has tripled! And that is very much alive and kicking.

Anyway, I made a particularly good loaf for last evening, and the only difference (aside from the typical variation) was the way I folded the dough after mixing. I usually use the slap and fold technique, and I am an enthusiastic slapper! But yesterday I tried a gentler method that I will call "lift and fold." It worked well, maybe even better than my usual technique, and the results were delicious!

And speaking of bread; how do you folks keep your homemade baked bread fresh? My aluminum foil wrap works...okay, but there are all sorts of fancy bags available that promise to keep bread perfectly fresh and tender and crispy...all at once!

Bee's wax coated bags? Really?

Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lamb

Looks good, but I think that I will try it with a rack of pork.

Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!

posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

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