Saturday Charcuterie

Last night we did the big charcuterie evening over at Cati and Jons. We had rillettes and pate from last weekend, some duck confit that I made this week, and three types of sausage (red wine and garlic, hot italian, and sweet italian) that Cati made. To go along with that there was potatoes roasted in duck fat (with thyme and rosemary), a green salad, bread, a beautiful cheese plate, sauteed asparagus, and copious wine.

Since there wasn't enough other food, Cati made a couple of very nice cakes for dessert.

The charcuterie all turned out pretty well:

1. the rillettes were undersalted and a bit subtle in this company
2. the pate was ugly until Andrea decorated it, but it tasted fabulous
3. it's hard to go wrong with duck legs cooked in duck fat; I didn't get the crispy skin I wanted, but that was no huge tragedy.
4. Andrea and I both *really* liked the garlic sausage. The italians sausages were good, but they didn't compete with the garlic. I'm kind of curious to see if my opinions there change after the sausages have a bit of time for flavors to meld.
   

The specific wines I remember are:

1. Prosecco from AG Ferrari
2. a white bordeaux that was nice, but a massive change of gears from the prosecco
3. a malbec
   
4. a zinfandel
5. a CDP (1999 Quartz)
6. a sauternes

but I think that list isn't complete and I should ask Cati for more details.