deVine Table

O Wines Chardonnay, Smoked Black Cod, and Quinoa Cakes

On May 6, a chardonnay worldwide virtual tasting via Twitter took place. Facilitated by Rick Bakas, the event had over 600 people the world over tasting and tweeting about chardonnay. The advantage of these virtual tastings is that you can enjoy them from the comfort of home, at a favorite hangout, or during a visit to a winery.

Roger and I opted to conduct our tasting at home in the company of our friends, Miriam, Jerry, and Bean. Each of us contributed very different styles of chardonnays including wines from Airfield Estates, Apex Cellars, O Wines, and Icicle Ridge Winery.

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Truffled Bean Puree on Fresh Fennel

Serves a crowd.

1 15 ounce can cannellini beans
2 tablespoons truffle oil

Wine Pairing

This appetizer was prepared with Chardonnay in mind. We enjoyed it with the buttery O Wines Chardonnay. My friend Bean also found this dip with fennel to be the ultimate pairing with Columbia Winery David Lake Syrah.

Compote Made with Grapes

Three things have me coming back to this recipe time and time again. For one thing, preparation is easy. Also, this is an incredibly versatile dish. Most importantly, if you are planning on serving it at a party, it can be made ahead of time.

This is inspired by a recipe from Culinary Communion.

• 1 – 2 pounds of pitted cherries*
• herbs of your choice – either a couple of sprigs of rosemary or thyme, or 1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence
• 1 head of garlic, cloves removed and peeled
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• pinch of salt
• approximately 1/2 bottle red table wine

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Place fruit, herbs, garlic, olive oil, and salt in a medium baking dish or Pyrex bowl. Pour enough wine so that it is level with the top of the fruit. Place dish in oven and cook for about 45 minutes until wine is syrupy. Check on the dish periodically, and if it is getting overly brown around the edges or cooking down too fast, cover it with foil.

You can serve this dish warm as an accompaniment to an entree – anything from chicken to pork. Or, allow the dish to cool and serve it with a cheese platter.

* If cherries aren’t in season, substitute seedless red grapes removed from the stems. Fresh figs are also wonderful in this dish; simply cut each fig in half. Or, try green grapes and white wine.

Grape Compote Before Roasting

Wine Pairing

One of the “rules” of wine pairing says that the wine you serve should be as sweet, or sweeter than, the food you are serving. It is true that I often break some of the traditional wine pairing guidelines. However, this is a rule I abide by, because food that is sweeter than the wine will tend to accentuate the acid, astringency, and bitterness in the wine. Who wants that? So here are a couple of things to consider. Are you serving this compote along side meat or cheese, thereby making the dish more savory? Then it should stand up to a red wine. Or are you serving this over ice cream for dessert? Then consider pouring a port. These factors will affect the overall sweetness of the food, so be sure to think about that before selecting what you pour in your glass. In most cases, the wine you used in the dish will likely be a good drinking companion.

Olive Puffs

My first class at the Northwest Wine Academy was Food and Wine Pairing with Chef Lenny Rede. One of our challenges was to create a pairing to share with our classmates. I wanted to pair something with a big red wine, making the task all the more challenging. This recipe came about as a result. It is adapted from one of my dear late mother’s 1960′s cookbooks, The Sunset Appetizer Book.

• 1 cup shredded aged Manchego cheese
• 3 T butter, softened
• 1 T Dijon mustard
• cream or milk, as needed
• ½ cup flour
• 1 T finely diced salami (for vegetarians, either omit or substitute cocoa nibs)
• 24 colossal garlic stuffed green olives
• ½ cup crushed hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together cheese, butter, and mustard.  Blend in flour and salami, adding cream or milk as needed to form dough.  Take approximately 1 tablespoonful of dough (you need just enough dough to cover the olive). Flatten the dough and wrap it around an olive, covering completely.  Repeat for each olive.  Roll each covered olive in crushed hazelnuts.  Bake for about 15 minutes.

Wine Pairing

I made the Olive Puffs to pair specifically with Northstar Winery’s 2005 Petit Verdot, a truly fantastic wine. Not many grape growers are up to the challenges posed by these late ripening grapes. Therefore, Petit Verdot is usually blended in to other wines and not many people have tasted the variety on its own. This pairing works because the cheese, butter, cream, and salami help cut through the big tannins associated with this robust red wine. The hazelnuts create even more of a bridge. This non-traditional pairing is bound to become a new classic!

Or stick with an old classic and try these puffs with a sparkling wine. Experiment, and let me know which pairing you prefer.