Smoked Tomato Tart

Appetizers, Recipes, Red Wine Pairings, Rosé wine pairings No Responses »
Nov 052010

Good friend Vivian declared the summer of 2010 to be the summer of the smoked tomato.  So, I took every opportunity this summer to hickory smoke delicious fresh tomatoes. Smoked tomatoes were so popular that Nancy requested smoked tomatoes for her  October birthday.  My patio tomatoes made it October but a frost, just a week before her birthday wiped out the last ones on the vine.  I made this delicious tart with grape tomatoes from the supermarket. From the chorus of “mmm”s around the table I don’t think anyone minded. The colors of this tart also make it an ideal Christmas dish.

Smoked tomato tart

Smoked tomato tart

 

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups of grape tomatoes
  • 1/4 c. olive oil
  • 2 TBS fresh summer savory leaves ( if summer savory is unavailable, try fresh thyme)
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1 frozen puff pastry sheet
  • 1/8 lb thinly sliced Emmental swiss cheese
  • 1/8 lb thinly sliced prosciutto parma

Continue reading »

Posted by Bean at 12:55 am Tagged with: , , ,

Roasted Chicken for Red Wine

Meats, Recipes, Red Wine Pairings No Responses »
Nov 052010

What do you do when you want red wine for dinner but you don’t want red meat?

roast chicken

Golden and juicy roast chicken

Bridge ingredients can help you match food and wine. Nancy, at Devine Table, gives her recipe for roasted chicken with truffled butter paired with Cab Franc. When it came time for her birthday dinner, she wanted a Malbec. Knowing her meat preferences, I wanted to pair chicken with the Malbec for her birthday so I did a bit of research. After some poking around, I learned of others’ success in using baking spices to roast chicken, allowing those spices to serve as the bridge to the red wine. This recipe takes a little extra prep time, it has a 24 hour dry rub marinade, but the result is a tender, juicy and flavorful chicken that pairs great with red wines. It was such a success at Nancy’s birthday dinner with the Malbec that we had it again at Vivian’s birthday with a variety of Cab Franc wines.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 c sugar
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 1 4-5lb free range chicken

Prepare the dry rub

The day before, rinse the chicken.  Combine the salt, spices and sugar into a small bowl. Mix thoroughly. Rub about one third of the spice mixture all over the outside of the bird and the inside cavity. Using your fingers, gently loosen the skin around the neck and the butt end of the chicken. Pour spices into those openings, then very carefully with your fingers, gently push the spices deep in between the skin and flesh. Be careful not to break the skin but with patience, you can push the spices through out the breast, back and the thighs, even the top of the drumsticks. Loosely wrap the chicken in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Roast the chicken

Preheat the oven to 500°. Cut the onion in to small wedges about 1″ thick.. Slice the celery into 1″ chunks. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with the onion, celery pieces and other herbs. Place the chicken breast side DOWN in the rack of a roasting pan. Roast the chicken for 15 minutes at 500°. Reduce oven temperature to 375°. Roast for another 15 minutes. Reduce the oven heat again to 350 and roast for 30 more minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oven. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Note: There are four tricks to ensuring that this roast chicken is juicy and flavorful enough to pair with a bold red wine.

  1. Use a free range chicken. Yep, they cost a bit more but the difference in the flavor is worth it. More depth and complexity in exercised flesh.
  2. Roasting the chicken breast side down does make a juicy chicken. At home, I roast it my grandmother’s old roasting pan with a flat roasting rack and it browns beautifully on the breast as well as the back. In a “V” roasting rack it didn’t brown the breast, so if you have one of those, you may want to flip the bird breast side up that last 15 minutes of roasting.
  3. Use care and patience while applying the dry rub. I probably spend a good 15 minutes creating pockets between the skin and flesh, spooning in the spice mixture into those pockets and working the rub deep into the pockets with my fingers. I go back over the chicken a second time and as it has warmed in my fingers, I can work the spices deeper under the skin.
  4. If you have a convection oven, use it.  :)

Serving Suggestion

Roasted Potatoes with Truffled Salt

Cut 2-3 pounds of red potatoes into 2″ chunks. Lightly toss with olive oil and place in the bottom of your roasting pan under the chicken. Stir the potatoes once or twice while roasting the chicken to coat with chicken drippings. After you remove the chicken to rest, remove the potatoes from the pan. Dress the potatoes with truffle salt. Keep covered to keep warm while the chicken rests. It isn’t low cal but it is a heavenly bridge, especially for a earthy red wine.

Wine Pairings:

We first tried this recipe paired with William Church Winery’s Malbec.  Beef with Chimichurra sauce is a classic Malbec pairing so I made this roast chicken with Chimichurra sauce to pair with the Malbec. The baking spices were a delicious bridge to the spices in this Washington Malbec bursting with blueberry notes.

This roast chicken also paired well with Cabernet Franc. We especially loved it with Northwest Totem Cellars Qo-né (Cab Franc Blend) and Sheridan Vineyards Cab Franc

Posted by Bean at 12:53 am Tagged with: , ,

Yum Woon Sen - A Versatile Spicy Thai Noodle Salad

Recipes, Salads, Seafood, White wine pairings 2 Responses »
Aug 062010

Yum Woon Sen is one of my favorite summer salads, especially when the weather is hot and sticky. It was one of my go-to dishes when we were traveling in Thailand. The lime and lemongrass flavors are so refreshing in this salad that I knew that I wanted to start serving this at home. The salad can be served hot or cold but I much prefer the cold version in the summer time.

Yum Woon Sen

Yum Woon Sen

The noodles in this salad are bean threads, usually made from mung beans. Bean threads are also called cellophane noodles because they become translucent when cooked. High in protein, this salad is low in fat and doesn’t weigh you down. A perfect salad to eat when you need the nourishment but it is too hot to have a big appetite.

There are lots of versions of Yum Woon Sen but the common ingredients are bean threads, shrimp, ground chicken or pork, hot peppers and vegetables dressed with lemon/lime juice, lemon grass and fish sauce. This version has many of the ingredients of the classic Yum Woon Sen that you can find all over Thailand with a few modifications for American convenience and the addition of tomatoes. Tomatoes are frequently part of Yum Woon Sen served in Thai restaurants in the US but rarely seen in the street stands of Thailand.  If I have ripe tomatoes in the garden, I love them in Yum Woon Sen.

Don’t be intimidated by the rather lengthy list of ingredients, this salad comes together very fast, especially with a food processor to grate the vegetables. Continue reading »

Posted by Bean at 1:31 am Tagged with: , , ,

Celebrate Spring: Ham Asparagus Casserole

Casseroles, Recipes, Rosé wine pairings 1 Response »
Feb 262010

Creamy cheese sauce, savory ham and spring asparagus are a classic casserole combination. This spring time casserole is comfort food-lite. It is warm and satisfying with significantly fewer calories than most ham casseroles.

ham asparagus casserole

Ham and asparagus casserole

  • 1/2 lb  uncooked extra-broad egg noodles
  • 1TBS butter (you could use a lower calorie substitute but I really like the butter flavor here)
  • 1 small yellow onion coarsely chopped
  • 1 bunch of asparagus cut into 1-2″ segments (approx 2-2 1/2 cups)
  • 1 TBS finely minced garlic
  • 3/4lb lean, low sodium turkey ham, cut into 1″ cubes
  • 1/4  cup  all-purpose flour
  • 1/2  tsp  dried thyme
  • 1/4  tsp  garlic salt
  • 1/8  tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1  c.  fat free  milk
  • 1  c.  low fat, low sodium chicken broth
  • 1/4 lb Lite Havarti cheese cut into small cubes
  • 1/4  cup  chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 c.  Parmesan bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 450° Cook the noodles in rapidly boiling water until al denté. Drain the noodles and place the noodles in a 9″ x 13″ baking pan. Add the cubed ham to the noodles and toss. Continue reading »

Posted by Bean at 9:01 pm Tagged with: , , ,

BBQ Salmon in February!!!

Recipes, Red Wine Pairings, Rosé wine pairings, Seafood, White wine pairings 1 Response »
Feb 212010

Happiness is standing in my front yard, barbecuing salmon over mesquite charcoal in FEBRUARY! We aren’t talking cheating BBQ with propane on a covered deck, we are talking about being out in Seattle sunshine in February. I cleaned out the grill and got it set up with the last bits of mesquite from last summer. It started right up and as my coals heated, I soaked the hickory chips. I lightly sprayed my fish grill with Pam for outdoor grilling.  I rubbed a crushed garlic clove over the salmon, sprinkled some mesquite seasoning on top and squeezed a wedge of lemon.  As soon as the coals were hot, I spread them to the outside edges of the grill. I spread the cup of water soaked hickory chips over the coals then placed the salmon in the center of the grill. I quickly covered my trusty weber grill, but the yard streams of hickory  smoke escaped from the vent to scent my yard with summer.

Hickory smoked salmon

Hickory smoked salmon

Checking the grill every 15 minutes, I removed the salmon after an hour. I didn’t have time to do a traditional smoked salmon. This dish was designed to give potent hickory smoke flavor while slow grilling the fish. I wanted the smoky flavors to infuse the salmon.

I was a little skeptical about February salmon so I only purchased half a fillet of this wild Atlantic salmon. What a mistake, this was sooo tasty! I would have been very happy with this as my main dish.

Wine Pairings

The classic rule is white wines for fish but salmon gives us lots of possibilities to break the rules! Pinot noir is another classic pairing with salmon but barbecued salmon is great with Syrah! Add a bit of pepper and smoked salmon is a great pairing for a big Syrah. I also like salmon with the versatile rosé. We paired it that particular night with  a french style rosé from Lullaby Winery out of Walla Walla, Washington. Vivian thought the salmon was too intense for the this old world style rosé but once the rosé had opened up a bit, I enjoyed it with this tasty salmon.

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Posted by Bean at 11:20 pm Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Italian Bread Salad with Shrimp

Recipes, Salads, White wine pairings No Responses »
Feb 022010
shrimp salad

Italian Bread Shrimp Salad

This is not your classic Italian Bread salad, where the juices of ripe tomato saturate the bread with flavor. This bread salad doesn’t even have any tomatoes in it! Instead this bread salad was modified to pair with Chardonnay, so the tomatoes were omitted and the bread was lightly toasted.

  • 4 cups crusty Italian bread cut into 1″ cubes
  • 1 TBS regular olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic crushed
bread cubes

Bread cubes

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Add the whole crushed garlic clove and cook it until golden brown to flavor the oil. Remove the garlic clove. Add the bread cubes to the frying pan. Toss them in the oil to coat. Cook them 3-5 minutes, just enough to lightly brown one or two sides of the bread cubes. You want to have some of the cube still soft enough to absorb the dressing. We are NOT making croutons! Place the bread cubes in a large salad bowl. Continue reading »

Posted by admin at 5:19 am Tagged with: ,

Pork Medallions with Cherry Sauce

Meats, Recipes, Red Wine Pairings No Responses »
Feb 022010

Slightly sweet, this tart cherry sauce is a colorful and flavorful accompaniment to pork.

pork medallions

Pork medallions with cherry sauce

  • 1 (1 1/2 pound) pork tenderloin
  • 2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
  • 3 TBS butter
  • 2 TBS cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 c. unsweetened cranberry juice
  • 2 TBS Dijon mustard
  • 1 c. dried tart cherries
Slice the tenderloin into 1″ slices. Sprinkle the pork with lemon pepper seasoning. Melt the butter in a heavy frying pan. Brown the pork in the melted butter over medium heat. Remove the pork from the frying pan and keep warm. Keep browning all of the pork slices.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, mustard and cranberry juice.  Pour the juice mixture into the frying pan. Using a wooden spoon, stir the crispy brown tidbits from the pan into the juice mixture until it begins to bubble and thicken about two minutes. Add the tart cherries and the pork slices to the pan and cook for five minutes until heated through.
Ladle the cherry sauce over the pork to serve. Serves 4.

Pinot and pork

Pinot, pork and portabello

Wine Pairing

Pinot noir is the classic pairing when it comes to pork and cherry sauce. We paired ours with Patz & Hall 2007 Pinot Noir.
Posted by admin at 12:28 am Tagged with: , ,
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