Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader received an e-mail asking how his weekend away with Mrs. Villain went. It went very well thank you. We stayed at the Willard Hotel, had dinner Saturday at Galileo, and had brunch Sunday at Georgia Browns.

Dedicated readers of this space will remember that this was not the first time your Maximum Leader and Mrs. Villain have visited these two fine (indeed among the finest) Washington area eateries.

At Galileo your Maximum Leader decided to go with a chef’s tasting menu. But rather than getting celebrity chef Roberto Donna’s tasting menu he went with Executive Chef Amy Brandwein’s tasting menu.

Here is the breakdown of your Maximum Leader’s meal:

Marinated and Grilled Baby Octopus served with Grilled Baby White Eggplant and Tomato.
Fettucine tossed with Chiodinni Mushrooms and Fava Beans.
Handmade Cappellacci filled wtih Crabmeat served with Yello Tomato Sauce and Peas.
Risotto with Red Beets and Scallop.
Sauteed Filet of Black Sea Bass served with Braised Belgian Endive and Garlic Sauce.
Roasted Rack of Lamb served with Potato Puree. Hen of the Woods Mushrooms and an Orange Anise Sauce.

He did finish off the meal with a canoli.

Mrs. Villain got a “do-it-yourself” tasting menu. Her courses were:

Sauteed Scallops wrapped in bacon and served with a Ragu of Cherry Tomatoes, Pattypany Squash, Chiceri Beans and Asparagus in White Wine Clam Broth.
Half-moon shaped pasta stuffed with Mozzarella and Tomato served with Basil Cream sauce.
Gilled Filet of Austrailian Free-range Beef served with Tomato puree, Sauteed Chantrelle Mushrooms and Black Truffle Sauce.

She finished things off with a Sorbet sampler.

Of all the dishes consumed, the best one - by far - was the Red Beet and Scallop Risotto. Your Maximum Leader could have eaten so much more of it. He is salivating just thinking of it…

So while his dinner (and brunch the next morning) were excellent, he does have one bad food thought to share…

In the area where your Maximum Leader grew up there is a bakery. It has been there for as long as he can remember. One of the baked delicacies from this bakery is their chocolate eclair. Your Maximum Leader could (and has) bought and subsequently consumed many dozens of these eclairs over his lifetime. They had the perfect pastry crust. Firm enough to keep in the rich egg custard filling, yet light enough not to feel like you were eating crusty pastry. They were topped with a generous swath of milk chocolate. These eclairs were the greatest. Your Maximum Leader has been known to drive miles out of his way to get eclairs - since he doesn’t live in the area any more.

On the way back home from his weekend getaway, your Maximum Leader and Mrs. Villain stopped at the bakery to get 6 eclairs to take back to the Villainschloss…

Later that evening, after dinner, your Maximum Leader opened (with great anticipation and glee) the box containing the eclairs.

And they had changed…

They were covered with dark chocolate frosting and white icing; not the luscious milk chocolate as they had for the past 20 odd years. He bit into one. The pastry was thick, somewhat brittle, and very very dry. It almost crunched as he ate it.

Then the last dagger into your Maximum Leader’s heart was the custard. It was no longer the thick egg-y custard that he craved. It was a thin vanilla creme.

The eclair was ruined. Your Maximum Leader nearly wept of a broken heart. His favourite pastries in the world had changed. Changed after 20 years. He is still getting choked up thinking about it.

So… While he will give the Willard, Galileo, and Georgia Browns an A+ for his weekend getaway, the weekend ended on a sad note. The eclairs of youth are passed. Long live the eclair!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is feeling a bit thin today. He believes this may be attributable to the three-quarters of a bottle of Pol Roger he consumed last night. Although it wasn’t all at once, it still was nearly a whole bottle of champagne.

This is his round-about wa of saying that blogging may be light today.

Anyho…

Loyal reader “RD” wrote in the comments of this post the following:

How long have you been drinking Bull’s Blood? If for very long(I first started in London,69) than you will know that unfortunately they have changed more than the label. The last few times I had it, it seemed as if some of the “bite” had gone out of it. This was confirmed by my favorite expert in this area, who stated that it was mellowed out for the American market. He explained that most Americans don’t drink wine as I, (and apparently you) and most Europeans do, i.e., with major meals. Rather most is consumed as either a “stand alone” before bedtime deal, or with very lite fare indeed. Hence, the watering down of our old favorite to increase sales. More’s the pity. The old stuff with a steak,
salad, and some garlic French bread (I live in N.O.) was unbeatable for the price.

A fair question indeed.

As “RD” surmised, your Maximum Leader does tend to drink his wine with a meal. If he is going to imbibe in an alcoholic beverage without food it will almost always be beer, scotch, or bourbon. Indeed the more your Maximum Leader thinks about it the more he can positively confirm that he almost never drinks wine except at meals.

And as for Egri Bikaver (or Bulls Blood as it is known), it is one of his favourites. It has a very full body (compared to other wines) and is a wonderful compliment to steaks. As RD pointed out, Egri Bikaver does accompany aromatic foods (like garlic bread) very well. It is not a meek wine that will be overpowered by other items at the table.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have the experience with Bulls Blood that RD does. Your Maximum Leader’s first taste of Egri Bikaver came in 1993 in fact. And, as RD has mentioned, he has noticed in the intervening 12 years that the wine is not as robust as it once was. It is, still, inexpensive. Your Maximum Leader picks it up for about $6/bottle.

If you come across any in your travels to the local wine distributor, and you like hearty red wines, your Maximum Leader suggests you pick up a bottle and give it a try.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been a very bad man tonight. After the culinary debacle that was Monday night your Maximum Leader recovered in grand form.

He had a perfectly cooked Delmonico from the grill. He first built up a pile of hot coals in the grill. Upon this pryamid of coals he placed an iron skillet. When the skillet was white hot, he added the room temperature steak that had been bathed in salt, pepper, and oil. 3 minutes per side (approximately).

The steak was removed from the skillet and plated next to a 2.3 pound Maine lobster which your Maximum Leader had steamed simultaneously.

He also had a cucumber salad. (He knows… Another cucumber salad… The Villainschloss garden has lots of cucumbers…)

He did decide to scratch the Egri Bikaver. Instead he opened a bottle of Pol Roger Champagne.

Now that dinner is finished and the kitchen clean your Maximum Leader will take the remaing Pol Roger and go to watch The Taming of the Shrew with Burton and Taylor.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader got to do some cooking tonight. And it was fun. But at the same time it reminded him that his form is slipping a little. And the experience prompted him to write about food and drink…

Cooking Stuff

So Mrs. Villain called tonight after picking up one of the Villainettes from camp and said she’d really ike to have some fried chicken. Once she mentioned it, your Maximum Leader suddenly had a craving for it too.

Now normally your Maximum Leader likes to have a little more prep time before frying chicken. The old tried and true method of frying chicken requires use of buttermilk in your liquid bath. So the normal process is to get out the old iron skillet, melt a few cups of shortening in it. While the shortening is melting you prepare your buttermilk bath and dredge. Your Maximum Leader generally mixes buttermilk and a beaten egg together. Puts the chicken in that liquid mixture for a few minutes before dredging it. Your Maximum Leader uses a dredge of corn meal, flour, salt, pepper, a good shake of paprika, and a bit of chili powder. The dredged chicken goes into the iron skillet where it cooks for 8-12 mins.

Excursus: Your Maximum Leader loves iron skillets. Has he ever mentioned this before? He thinks they are the greatest piece of cookware ever in all of history. Your Maximum Leader’s favourite iron skillet has been in his family for a while. In fact, your Maximum Leader stole the skillet from his sainted mother. His sainted mother got it from her mother. Your Maximum Leader’s maternal grandmother got it from her mother, who in turn had gotten it from HER mother. Your Maximum Leader’s maternal great-great-grandmother bought the skillet in Philadelphia before getting on a covered wagon and moving to Dayton, Ohio around 1855ish. Damn. That is a great skillet…

Anyho…

Tonight your Maximum Leader had no buttermilk. So he stole some of the wee Villain’s whole milk. Instead of shortening in the iron skillet it was peanut oil in your Maximum Leader’s cast iron wok. He figured that it might decrease the cook-time a little.

Your Maximum Leader was a little disappointed in himself tonight. He found it difficult to control the oil temperature. It fluctuated between 275 and 375 degrees. 350 is ideal for frying chicken. 275 is way too low. And frankly 375 is too high.

Damned electric range.

Yes… He hates to admit it… His range is electric. He had gas for nearly his whole life. But the Villainschloss uses electricity for cooking. Which is odd. Because the Villainschloss is hooked up for gas. Indeed, the Villainschloss has gas heat. He needs to get that line extended to the kitchen…

In the end the chicken turned out fine. But it wasn’t quite the same as the regular way…

Drink Stuff

As long-time readers of this space know, your Maximum Leader is a big Scotch drinker. Indeed for many years your Maximum Leader’s alcoholic beverage consumption consisted of beer and scotch. The Air Marshal turned your Maximum Leader on to some nice bourbons last year. This isn’t to say that your Maximum Leader hadn’t had bourbon before, but he didn’t try a variety of them before.

Well that has changed. Indeed, he now has just as many different bottles of Bourbon in his bar as Scotch. He’s got some Makers Mark, some Knob Creek, and some Wild Turkey Rare Breed.

Recently your Maximum Leader has been taken to drink some of that Knob Creek on the rocks with a splash of coke. He knows that a true bourbon connisseur may find that disgusting just as your Maximum Leader would say that adding anything but ice made from spring water to Scotch is disgusting. But he likes it. That bourbon and coke seems to be a very refreshing summer drink. In many ways it is more refreshing than a beer.

Perhaps, if you are lucky, your Maximum Leader will write a more comprehensive review of his bourbons in a later post…

On that note, your Maximum Leader is going to sign off and pour himself a bourbon and coke. Until tomorrow my minions.

Carry on.