Sometimes You Just Want to Eat at Home

by Everett Hutt
February 9, 2009

Much as I love meeting my friends out for a good night at restaurant, sometimes I get tired of it. Still we continue, often with little passion for the food, as we all delude ourselves that we don’t have time to cook at home, especially not on a weeknight.

A few weeks ago, three friends and I could not get a reservation anywhere we wanted to go. So we decided, spur of the moment, to meet at my apartment at 9pm to cook dinner. The only problem was that almost all good food stores in Paris are already closed by this time, so we could only shop at convenience stores, which meant the wines would not necessarily go with whatever we purchased. No matter! The result was a cheaper and much more fun evening than we would have had out.

The star of the evening was the flounder filets my friends Steven & Janne brought. They pan fried them in a simple mixture of lemon, butter and estragon then served them over penne that had steeped for 1 minute after draining in the remains of the lemon butter and estragon sauce. The flavors of the pasta and the flounder married perfectly. To cut the rich taste of both, the dish was accompanied by a simple lamb’s lettuce mâche salad with a light mustard vinaigrette.

My French friend Xavier brought the cheese and bread. (This is France; you cannot have a dinner without a cheese course!) The aged Conte was sharp and bitter and fragrant. The Rochefort blue cheese was creamy with the classic tanginess of mold from unpasteurized milk. Dessert was simple: a fruit salad of grapes, pears, strawberries, peaches and vanilla ice cream.

Our wines did not match the food at all. The 2000 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru “Les Folatières” from Henri Clerc was rich and full-bodied with tastes of honey and apricots. It completely blew away the flounder. The 2000 St. Julien from Fiefs de Legrange was a better match for the cheese, but the 2000 Margaux from Rauzan Ségla completely overpowered the fruit salad.

But those criticisms completely miss the point. The company was great. The spirit was fun. The food was hearty. The wine, on its own without pairings, was excellent. And it was all organized at the spur of the moment. We should all do this more often.