I gotta’ tell you, this is a fact: I absolutely love my in-laws. No kidding. They are the creme de la creme of humans - kind, generous, intelligent, loving, and most of all great appreciators of all things delicious. Which, by the way, happens to include me, but that’s another story entirely. As it so happens, my lady T hopped a jet to see the folks this week. Sandi and Charlie are located in beautiful Estes Park, which is located in the Rocky Mountains just outside of Denver. If you’ve never been there, it is well worth checking out: landscapes that look like a painting, teeming with wildlife. Plus, that clean mountain air. It’s awesome!
Sandi and Charlie love to have traditions, be it hitting their favorite cafe when in Paris, most loved wine shop in Sienna, or indulging in the occasional over the top snack. Some may call them creatures of habit; I call them habitual enjoyers. They know what they like, and they stick with it. So, one of their little traditions is to celebrate the visit of their daughter with a snack of Caviar and Champagne. Just about every time she (or we, when I’m lucky enough to tag along) visits the folks, a night of noshing on expensive little fish eggs, accompanied by Charlie’s famous toast points and all the fixin’s, is on the schedule. All washed down with copius amounts of sparkling wines. I know what you’re thinking, this is a terrible habit these people have! Last night was Caviar night, so being good Foodies, they chronicled the meal to share with us here at Degustation Nation. Enjoy!
Our wonderful daughter, Teresa, arrived yesterday afternoon to spend a few days with us in the remote regions of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. To celebrate her arrival Sandi and I ordered a half-pound of domestic caviar which was promptly and conveniently delivered overnight by our new best friend from FedEx. The nice thing about good quality (you always want Malossol caviar, which refers to caviar with very little salt added, not the horrible salty stuff Tom Hanks spit out in the movie “Big” and some of us have had at company Christmas parties – very bad stuff) American caviar is that it is quite tasty and also relatively inexpensive. We like the American Hackleback Sturgeon caviar, which tastes remarkably similar to Caspian Sea Osetra. Another popular choice is American Paddlefish caviar, but we happen to prefer the Sturgeon for its somewhat buttery and nutty flavor. The price allows you to truly indulge yourself with a minimum of guilt and lots of fun. For example, Russian Osetra goes for (as of this writing) approximately $93/oz, Iranian Osetra goes for approximately $130/oz, while good quality American sturgeon caviar can be had for $21/oz. Thus for less than $200 you can get your half-pound of caviar delivered to your isolated location and three or four of you can just have a dandy time. We served the caviar with toast points and the following, optional, ingredients: crème fraîche, chopped, hard-boiled egg, and chopped chives. Although by the end of the feast we were focused on heaping mounds of pure caviar (see photo).
Caviar on Toast Point
As an aside, here’s a toast point tip. After much trial and error, here’s what I do. I use Pepperidge Farm Very Thin White bread which I bake in a flat baking pan at 400 deg. F for about 7-8 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may need to turn them over for an additional minute or two. The key is you want them just slightly brown. Dark brown will shatter when you try and cut them. I then cut them in half (forget cutting them in fourths - you want a large landing strip for that caviar) and leave the crust on (it’s yummy). Voila! We also took the opportunity to compare a nice French Champagne (Jean Laurent Blanc de Noir Brut, n.v.) with one of our favorite domestic sparkling wines (Domain Carneros by Tattinger, 2004). In addition, a good selection of chilled vodkas were available, which is always a favorite (by the way, stay with Russian, or Russian style, vodka – pairs great with caviar; apologies to all of you Grey Goose fans but not with caviar), but we were all enjoying the sparkling so much we bypassed the vodka this time. After the caviar feast we settled on some chocolate truffles (imported from France and found locally?!) with some nice cognac (Pierre Ferrand Selection des Anges). All in all, a lovely and fun (and decadent) evening!
PS: a plug is in order here. The folks (and us) get our Caviar delivered via FedEx from www.911caviar.com. We’ve had nothing but positive experiences with them as a provider, and their prices are very, very good. Check them out next time you feel like pampering your palate.
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