Staying Hungry

I was compelled to head up to Eaglecrest early this morning to look for some untracked snow after the two day closure, but by the time I was done with some morning business on the computer it was snowing like mad. Now I don’t feel so rushed to get up to the mountain and enjoy some fresh runs. Yesterday afternoon I returned to Montana Creek Trail with my friend Jill, but out of excitement for the gorgeous day I headed out earlier to ski in the sun. Dan Moller trail was fully bathed in bright light and I set out to make it to the cabin in the mountain meadow at the top of the trail. The journey through the valley was fairly gradual with forays in and out of the trees that allowed for long views that are sometimes difficult to behold in the thick forest cover of Southeast Alaska. The last part of the trail fanned out enough that I overshot the cabin and found myself in a wide basin between conjoining mountain peaks. A skier who was getting ready to skin up for another fresh run directed me to the Dan Moller Cabin which was mostly covered in snow as pictured above. The trip down was a bit hairy at times and the snow was so light, it didn’t slow me down when I would leave the tracks. My long narrow skis were not made for turning and the narrow track made it difficult to snowplow. I felt like a bit of a gaper, but managed to make it down in one piece.

When I return from the mountain this afternoon I plan on setting out to make a dish that I have been craving. Francis Lam shared this recipe during his days at Salon.com and I am so glad to have found it. The article that contains the recipe, What Eggplant Really Wants To Be: Pasta Sauce, is not only delicious, but I think it will add to your eggplant cooking technique. Eggplant can be a tricky vegetable to cook and if you don’t take the time to sweat out the excess water with salt before cooking it, you will end up with a tough and bitter result. Lam shares a nifty method for doing so.

This eggplant pasta is a great side to any meat protein and I think it would be great with any fish protein that does not have too strong of a flavor identity, such as halibut, cod or scallops. When it comes to wine, I think that eggplant is more versatile than most vegetables. Eggplant is light enough that it can work with a dry rosé and meaty enough in texture that it can bear the heft of a dark red. This leads me to think of the wines of Bandol and, more specifically, Domaine Tempier. Bandol is a small fishing town in the South of France that is close to Marseille and is best known for its dry rosés. The wines are made with the Mourvèdre grape and Domaine Tempier has proven that world class reds can be produced from their various single vineyard sites, in addition to their stunning rosé. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse developed quite a strong bond with the Domaine matriarch, Lulu Peyraud, in the early days of Chez Panisse and has featured the wines of Domaine Tempier on her menus ever since. Kermit Lynch is the U.S. importer of the wines.

Mmmm, I am hungry for the pasta already and its hard not to salivate from just thinking about it.

Mel