A Practice in Pairing

Had a chance to get back into the kitchen this weekend in Paso!!! Am trying to apply some stricter wine and food pairing regimes to my meals, and it turned out pretty damn well.

The thing about food pairing is that there are simple rules that are meant to be broken. The traditional idea is that you pair based on the intensity and qualities of a dish. Big tannic reds go better with fattier red meat, but leaner cuts of beef should be paired with more delicate red wines because you don't HAVE to "cut" the fatty quality of the steak. Acidic and/or off dry whites pair well with spicy food to balance the heat of the dish. You can even match flavors, such as big buttery chardonnays from California with butter poached lobster. By these rules, Napa cabernet sauvignon pairs perfectly with a rib-eye, a Burgundy pinot noir with filet mignon, a riesling with smoked salmon, and Napa chardonnay with butter poached lobster in cream sauce. I know I used that analogy twice in two lines...but its just so undeniably standard.

As any wine rule ever written, this is also a malleable, or even breakable rule. On the other edge of the pairing sword is the ability to match more minor qualities in a dish to wine, which can often be surprisingly wonderful. Now this is not to say you would pair an oaky, tannic cabernet with a spicy dish. That rule should not be broken due to the natural ability of tannins to add petrol to the already burning fire on your palate. I tried it in class. Don't do it. It's just not worth the amount of milk you may have to drink afterward. Instead, think about unique aspects of a wine or a dish that are shared, and disregard the "classic" rules. This is harder and a more finnicky business than following the traditional rules, but can be more fun and thought provoking. After all, the whole point is to take your guest or yourself out of your other busy life affairs and bring them into the present through the experience of dining.

ALL THIS BEING SAID: There are foods that pair horribly with wine, just because. Eggs, asparagus, vinaigrettes, artichokes....their never going to be easy nor an "ultimate pairing." Lowering the standards there is key.

My throw together dinner in Paso was a little more traditional, but I did what I could with a small wine selection and time span.

First course was a smoked salmon, boiled artichoke heart and creme fraiche salad paired with a Kabinett (dry) Riesling. Salmon and Riesling are a great pairing, but artichoke is a toughie. I thought it would add interesting texture and flavor to the plate, but due to a compound called cynarin, artichoke is actually famous for making other things, particularly wine, taste flat, or flabby. High acid wines are encouraged in pairing...and Riesling definitely fits that bill.

The second course was a whole trout, stuffed with citrus (grapefruit, lemon) and fresh sage sprigs. I rubbed the outside in olive oil and placed on the grill to cook (very quickly, I may add). I made a grapefruit vinaigrette and tossed in watercress to serve underneath the fish, and that was pretty much it. Very easy, very yummy (but not as good as my branzino....). I didn't have a lot of wine to choose from for this, but ended on a Lieb Cellars Pinot Blanc from North Fork Long Island. It worked perfectly fine, but might have opted for a Sancerre or Pouilly Fume Sauvignon Blanc to match the kind of earthy, fishy, grapefruit flavors of the dish. Even a Sevre et Mains Muscadet Sur Lie might have been nice, with a salty, briney, stoney quality.

Had a great time exploring the Adelaida Road vineyards down there, including Tablas Creek, Halter Ranch and Dau. Dau was a little snooty for my taste but the views were unbeatable. 

Until next time, Vin Jaune is really gross....

(I know I'm supposed to be objective...but man it is just rank)

Bourgogne? BourgognYES.

The weekend past just happened to hit smack dab in the middle of my France module in school, with Burgundy straddling the days off on the Friday and Monday. The result? An extended weekend of Burgundian bliss.

Units (in school) like France and Italy really are the best, giving you the excuse to spend a little more than you normally would on tastings where you can't help but finish everything you open because it is DELICIOUS. Even some of the wierder Chenin Blancs we have tried are just so intriguing and austere that "study sessions" almost feel criminally fun :) Study shouldn't be that fun, right?! As much as I can appreciate the classic quality of a Napa Chardonnay or an Aussie Shiraz, it just doesn't have that sexy European thing going on. There may be a hidden man comparison in there somewhere but we are talking about 50 shades of purple, garnet, and ruby here....not grey.....

I guess part of the reason I love Burgundy so much is because it has one of the richest and most fascinating historical frameworks. A bottle of Burgundy is, in its purest form, a historical artifact. Terroir, in France more than any other country, is so much more than elevation, rainfall, sun exposure, soil composition...but a family history of vineyard ownership and cultural evolution. From the Cisterian monks whose detailed maps in the 15th and 16th centuries to Napoleon's inheritance laws and love of Gevrey-Chambertin....the characters of these wines are truly unique.

We've split Burgundy into multiple days, conquering Chardonnay in one, Pinot Noir (largely all Chablis and Cote D'Or examples) in the second, and the surrounding areas of Jura, Savoie and Beaujolais in the final class. The wines in class have been divine, and I've been in a sea of mushroom, leather and mossy cherry heaven. I wanted nothing more than to pull out a rare filet mignon with shaved truffles to pair with the 2006 Drouhin-Laroze Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru.

Over the weekend "The Nose" and I met up to "study" the french whites we had covered so far, with a melange of Bourgogne Blanc, Vouvray Sec, Sancerre, and some other fun "off topic" things. By the end of it we had our noses in scotch bottles to compare the "petey" smell with the "mossy" smells of the straw-dried late harvest wine I had brought and the Bordeaux style Dau Cabernet Sauvignon. I should certainly dedicate a whole different post to my ridiculous obsession with dusty dried rose bouquet of Chenin Blanc.....but certainly best left for another time.

The biggest thing that I have walked away from this week has been the importance of THE PRODUCER when purchasing or selecting Burgundian wines. Good vintages are good and bad vintages require more creative wine making, but the scarcity of Burgundy and the specificity of its AOC (Appellation D'Origine Controllee) causes prices to shoot through the roof regardless. Scarcity of wine can cause a price to rise regardless of the quality. Knowing good producers, whose quality is reliable, is therefore absolutely essential unless you want to risk spending $100 dollars on a Chablis which could be upstaged by a Bourgogne Blanc. Boutique wine shops with educated staff (or even places like Total Wine) are great places to find these wines, which if you are unfamiliar, can be guided to the good value bottles versus taking shots in the dark.

The other important thing when purchasing Burgundy is understanding that varying terroir and the chameleon like quality of pinot noir as a varietal can bring significant differences between neighboring towns, or even neighboring vineyards! Trying through different villages to develop more specific tastes is helpful for the aspiring Burgundy enthusiast, as Saint Aubin Rouge will be significantly different from a Volnay or Givry. Generally you'll get a mouthful of mushroom, minerality, and macerated red fruit (cherry, strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate), but even generalizing to that level can be a mistake.

Spent a good part of the weekend in Paso Robles wine country interviewing at vineyards. Great experience and can't wait to dig deeper into some of these career opportunities!

Until next time, remember varietal and jammy are not technically real words.

This is....Somm School!

So I haven't decided yet whether the west coast thing is driving me crazy crazy or crazy in love but I'm sure trying to figure it out. If one this is in it's favor, it's the weather. Holy mackerel....this is the third day this week that I've sat on my back porch drinking chardonnay in a bikini. Not even joking my neighbours think I'm insane but it's broaching 85 degrees there is no way anyone can make me wear pants on my own property. ***I have thick cold weather proof Dublin skin*** How the hell this can ever be considered January...it alludes me........

So I've been in wine school for 2 weeks now, and my first exam is on Tuesday. Even though I've only had eight class days...I already feel like I've been here for months!!!! **crazy eyes*

Definitely the most fun part of wine school is the blind tasting. There's something super exciting, and almost liberating, about a "mystery" glass of grape juice. The idea that, if you're not overly concerned with enjoying the wine, you can address it from a neutral stand and often notice things that might have been fleeting before. I actually find I taste better blind than if I know what it is, because, to my detriment, I tend to search for things that should be present rather than what is actually shouting at me from the bowl of my glass.

We did a blind for two to study for the test this weekend, and it really displayed exactly that. I got together with "The Nose" (her nickname for sheer skill of what that thing can pick up!) and tasted four wines blind, did a comparison of two wines from two different areas, and then just drank a few....all in the spirit of research (of course!). Whether it was luck or we're getting better, we got all of the blinds right.....but I'm pretty sure she may have been rubbing her genius off on me. They ended up being a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (medium/medium plus acid, bone dry, good tropical notes, grassy undertones), a Napa Valley Chardonnay (butter, medium acid, mild use of oak, fruit reminiscent of apple and pineapple), Barossa Shiraz (big blackberry, blueberry jamminess, mild pepper, subtle bay leaf), and a Right Bank Bordeaux (bright red fruits, new leather, chocolate flavors, medium plus tannin). They were all yummy, but the shiraz I probably won't end up drinking just because it is a little too much like blueberry syrup.

We finished off by tasting a Hungarian and Austrian Gruner Veltliner back to back, followed by a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from Conn Creek, finishing on what we actually wanted to dig into, which was a Slovakian Riesling. This Riesling was interesting because it was made by a famous German wine maker whose wife is Slovakian. He decided to make dry Slovakian Rieslings in the German style-and man is it delicioussss! This would be the equivalent of a Kabinett level sweetness (dryyyy) and would have paired excellently with some smoked salmon. If you haven't tried smoked salmon with dry reisling yet, get on it.

I've sat out on my porch for the last few nights now....I can deal with the whole shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of January!

Until next time, stay warm!

North Fork is for...Vintners?

DISCLAIMER: Yes I am in wine school and my instructors would probably yell at me for what I am about to write as it has less to do with actual quality than my own personal taste. This is more just about my general experience at the different vineyards and the wines I preferred there.

In my previous jobs in wine bars, I've never been overly impressed with New York (Fingerlike and Long Island) wines that were brought in for tastings or special events. I could appreciate what they were doing with the fuller bodied whites and sparklings, but the reds always fell a little short.

Well apparently they just don't export any of the good stuff! Right before Christmas my family decided to take the ferry over from Connecticut and spend a few days exploring this corner of the wine world, and indulge in far more oysters than is healthy for any human.

I really was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed a lot of what they were putting out. I tried to stick to the reserve lists, not out of snobbery, but as those lists generally have the wines that the vineyard prizes as their top wines. If they make anything worth tasting, those wines are going to be the best of the best examples of it.

The biggest surprise of the whole trip was how much I enjoyed the reds I tried. I really was expecting, well, to not like any of them. I certainly enjoyed the white more on a whole, but found about half the reds I tried very pleasant. Merlot and Cabernet Franc grow best in the area, so most were single varieties or blends of those two. I found a significant amount of Pinot Noir as well, but didn't enjoy them as much as their cabernet franc counterparts.

Anyhow, here are a few highlights from my trip:

1. Shinn Estate Vineyards, 2000 Oregon Road, Mattituck, New York

So on a whole, Shinn Estate was an interesting study in North Fork wines. It was our first stop on the trip. The grassy and savory quality of their house sparkling and their Haven oak aged sauvignon blanc/semillon blend was excellent. An organic quality that you miss sometimes in white wines in place of overly citrus or fruity flavors. Their coalescence blend and reds fell a little short, but the climate really isn't suited for those styles. Generally, a great start and an excellent expression of terroir in specific wines. The tasting room was also unbelievably charming. Old oak/cedar cabin style with small tables attached to a small B&B. We were the only ones there and I absolutely loved it. Very quaint...but can't imagine it in summer!

2. Lieb Cellars, 13050 Oregon Road, Cutchogue, New York

Lieb, I think, was our favorite of the trip, as far as wine quality goes. Little bit more acid and earth driven, with attempts to avoid too much residual sugar. Again, we were the only ones in there. It was great! The staff were amazing, the quality of wine, across the board (including reds) was great, and the room was large and comfortable without being stark or isolating. Just do it.

3. Lenz Winery, 38355 Main Road, Peconic Bay, New York

This was the dark horse of the trip. I had googled reviews on Lenz, seen intriguing things, and since it was across the street from Bedell.........we figured it was worth a shot. Their reds, in my opinion, were the most impressive of the lot. We got to do a little bit of a vertical tasting as well. Their whites were typical North Fork...enjoyable in the higher levels. Their team was really great behind the bar and we tasted so much more than the standard, without having to pay for it. As an aspiring Somm, this was great for me. I really got a sense for their style, range and terroir. I would highly recommend a visit here. They also had some really great wine kitch, including beautiful blown glass wine stoppers (my brother secretly bought us a bunch as presents!).

4. Bedell Cellars, 36225 Main Road, Cutchogue, New York

So apart from my brother looking extra suave, this was definitely the most "high end" tasting room we visited. I actually had featured Bedell wines at a wine tasting I conducted once, and used to sell their rose and white blends on my bottle list. It's a fancy example of North Fork wine, but it wasn't my favorite. They certainly play off the off dry strengths that the climate and terroir pushes the grapes towards, but it was VERY formal and you often need reservations. I preferred some of the other wines that were much more casually presented elsewhere, but I wouldn't count this one out for decadence.

5. Sparkling Pointe, 39750 Middle Road, Southold, New York


My last stop was a sparkling wine pairing at...you guessed it....Sparkling Pointe. They did a sushi pairing with the sparklings, which was nice. I prefer to taste things in comparison when I go to vineyards, to see the range and variety of their production. I really do like their wines and use it in a lot of my pairings, but the vineyard experience was a little overrated. They have a huge, lovely dining room, which I would prefer to be dining in to be perfectly honest.

On a whole, was a really great experience. If you like oysters.....the Peconic Bays are to DIE for. Just say yes. If you don't like seafood, or borderline off dry wine....maybe spend more money on drier climate wines with higher cattle content. 

Until next time, stay thirsty my friends.

Ink is the new....Whole Wheat?

So I love squid ink EVERYTHING. Especially when octopus is cooked in its own ink like they do in Spain/Portugal/some South American countries. At Eataly, in NYC, they have a fresh pasta bar with squid ink linguine. Not the most popular (I may be the only one who ever purchases it), but man oh man is it good. It imparts a wonderful smokey earthy briney quality to whatever you serve it with (or in).

I took the clam pasta recipe that I did for my Thanksgiving dinner (white wine, baked clam jus, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, lemon rind, reduced and tossed with pasta, served with baked clams and parsley) but served it with the fresh squid ink linguine instead of a traditional pasta. With fresh pasta, you only want to cook it for 60 seconds in salted boiling water. Don't put olive oil in your boiling water...you don't do any harm, but there is no point and you end up wasting your olive oil. An Italian cook once told me, "Americans don't have patience...they put oil in their pasta water so they can multitask....DO YOU NOT HAVE 5 MINUTES TO SIT AND STIR!?! IT'S YOUR DINNER." So....yeah what he said.

The high acid, citric sauce with the lovely clammy brine paired BRILLIANTLY with the smokey squid ink linguine. The texture of fresh pasta (when cooked right) is so much better than dried. 

Paired it with a Gavi di Gavi, very cheap, clean, minerally Italian white wine. I would even go as far to pair it with a good, grassy Sancerre to pair with the earthy, organic squid ink flavors (although it is smokey, its more organic tasting than "smoked").

Until next time, spend some time with squidword ;)

What goes with Champagne? A New Year!

It's been an absolutely ridiculous year. I abandoned my aspirations to be the female incarnation of James Bond and replaced it with a more liquid aspiration (of sorts!). I left Washington D.C. for New York, and very shortly after was re-routed an extra three thousand miles west. Since getting to California I have met so many supportive and wonderful people, I definitely have started on the right foot (whether its a three month or more permanent one!). Maybe it was the almond I got in my porridge on Christmas...ha!

ANYHOW. To ring in the new year of two thousand fifteen I combed through my Provence cookbooks for lots of little small dishes. I feel like New Years is such a marathon that an assortment of "mis en bouche" over the course of the whole evening is a better layout than a sit down dinner. Also...I don't want to miss a second of Kathy Griffin harassing Anderson Cooper live on CNN because I'm sitting at the dinner table............that's just me. I also may or may not have dressed up as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with my brother..........#Rafaelforlife

I did air on the "funkier" side with my assortment of hors d'oeuvres. Lots of anchovies, sardines, capers, olives. In the end, a pairing with a red wine would probably have been ideal (I'm horribly afraid my MS instructors will read this and harass me for questionable food and wine pairing) but....CHAMPAGNE GOES WITH EVERYTHING, OKAY?!

I made three tarts, and few extras with some leftovers from Christmas. Everything was low stress, easy to make, with accessible ingredients. The menu ended up being as follows:

1. Caramelized Onion, Olive and Anchovy Tart

For this I caramelized onions in a fair amount of butter and white wine, stirring in some anchovies and capers halfway through, and whole black olives right at the end. I filled the tart crust (pre-baked) with the mixture and laid extra anchovy filets over the top. It was like a sweet tapenade style start...soo yummy and actually fantastic with the champagne.....I don't care what the MS's say!

2. Tomato, Blue D'Auvergne and Herb Tart

This is a classic, almost a take on pizza. I prefer to use rocquefort but blue d'auvergne works too. It is STINKY though. Not for the cheesy faint of heart. Place thinly sliced fresh tomatoes on an oiled tart dough (pre or partially pre-baked) and sprinkle with blue cheese and herbs. The whole thing does not have to be covered, just a good even sprinkle.

3. Spicy Tomato and Smoked Sardine Tart

For this dish, I simply made a spicy tomato sauce and filled the tart. I laid the smoked sardines over the top (in a circular fashion for presentation) and voila! Easy.

4. Caper and Anchovy Pastries

This was largely a use for leftover puff pastry, anchovies and capers. I cut small rectangles out of the remaining dough, and brushed with a blended mixture of olive oil, capers, and anchovies. They were a little salty, I think next time I would dilute the mixture with lemon juice for balance.

5. Caviar and Smoked Salmon Blinis

The classic. Blini, creme freche, caviar, lemon juice, done.

6. Olive Tapenade

Some people like their tapenade different than others. I like to use black olives, good amount of lemon and garlic, capers, a couple anchovy filets, and GOOD olive oil. All in a food processor and voila. Served it with a little rustic baguette.

7. Caprese

Basic, easy, delicious. Mozzarella, Thinly slices heirloom tomato, rock salt, basil, GOOD olive oil. I'll do a post on my favorite oils at some point......

8. Goat Cheese Stuffed Cherry Peppers

Two words, palate cleaner. The hot cherry peppers have that sweet, spicy acidity to clean the palate in between the relatively pungent dishes on the table.

That's about it! The caramelized onion tart was my favorite, but the sardine tart seemed to be everyone else's. I used my cookbook from Provence for inspiration. Great recipes, and the whole fun is in translating it from french! 

We had an assortment of bubbly over the course of the night...trying different things. I love the Sparkling Pointe Seduction Reserve with all its toasty and leathery bits. Taittinger is also my go to Brut Champagne. Anything above ten grams dosage flirts a little too much with off dry for me. 

Anyhow, I'm off to the vineyard! I'm sure I'll be posting soon with all of my tales from my first field trip :)

Until next time, Happy New Year!!!

(I know it's a little late but shhhhhhh)

Christmas Morning Drenched in Maple Syrup

Christmas morning is for decadence!

So although I have no pretty pictures of the final product, it did taste pretty darn good. Again, thank you Bon Appetit for the idea...although my yeast was a little past its prime so the dough was a little dense...but oh well it still tasted delicious.

I made their Babkallah French Toast, which is essentially chocolate cinnamon bread rolls, braided, baked, sliced, dipped in scrambled egg mix, and seared on the stove top. Yup.

I've attached the link for the recipe HERE.

I served this with maple syrup and a dash of powdered sugar on top :)

Just wanted to throw this short little post in to share the yummm. Definitely a heavier dish though, I would always prefer this as a brunch-time brekkie when I've had a little time in the morning to prepare myself! 

Until next time, indulge :)

An Ode to Love Your Leftovers

So there's this book called Love Your Leftovers by this guy named Nick Evans. It's pretty great.

For the average home cook, especially for those with families, this really is a goldmine of creativity. I don't generally make food in large quantities, so in the past I have used it as more of an individual recipe finder than a week long "no waste" bible.

This totally changed post Christmas dinner. If you have read earlier posts, that Christmas salmon was a doozy, and we only used a quarter of the salt baked fish for the actual meal. Turns out, the salmon chapter in this book is the best one! I used Nick's idea to turn leftover salmon filets into salmon cakes.

I turned this operation into a total fridge dive. I mixed the cleaned salmon meat with sour cream, bread crumbs, chives, dijon mustard, a little dill, eggs, minced shallot and fresh parsley. I rolled the mixtures into balls, spaced them on a baking tray, and stuck them in the fridge. This fish made an entire tray of VERY large salmon cakes (this jumbo lump crab cakes on crack).

I turned these cakes into a benedict, of sorts. Because the cakes were so large, I preheated the oven and cooked them like I'd cook a filet. I seared them on the stove top, finishing them in the oven. I topped them with a poached egg, and finished them with the same citrus buerre blanc (I made a new one) that I served over the original salmon. The poached eggs were definitely a challenge, and I certainly need to work on my technique there. Something to do with a little vinegar in the water or something....I'll get there....eventually! I garnished the dish with a little fresh parsley leaves, and voila!

It turned out great, but it was a lot of food. In the future, I would make smaller cakes. I loved the whole benedict twist...especially with the bright buerre blanc sauce. The salmon was cooked with tarragon, dill, grapefruit and lemons, so the grapefruit in the sauce highlighted all the lighter, more acidic components.

No pictures unfortunately, 8 AM on a Saturday is not my most "put together" of moments.

Until next time,  enjoy your fridge diving :)