deVine Table

This is a great recipe not only because it is quick and easy, it’s also elegant enough to serve on an occasion such as Valentine’s Day. Your sweetie will think you spent all day on it! Plus, this versatile sauce can be served with a variety of different proteins from tofu to pork, whichever your heart desires.

Inspiration for this dish came from a recipe provided by the Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Alliance. Makes enough sauce for at least 4 entrees.

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If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to throw a fun party, consider hosting a salami pairing. Here’s how it works. Select three to five different types of salami with different flavor profiles. Offer at least one type of beverage for each different salami. Throw in some cheese and crackers and you’re ready to party! Read on to learn how we did it.

Wild Boar Salami with Rosemary Crusted Pecorino

The Salami

We served 5 different flavors of Creminelli salami*.

Americano Salami, inspired by the American dish, pork chops and apple sauce.

Barolo Salami, made with generous amounts of Barolo wine.

Musica Salami, with a strong flavor due to the addition of pork liver and clove.

Wild Boar Salami, seasoned with cloves and juniper berries.

Salami Tartufo, with black summer truffles.

Wines Ready to Meet Their Match

The Favored Beverages

2007 Aventino Tempranillo

Finnriver Farmstead Apple Cider

2006 Forgeron Cellars Chardonnay

2006 Kiona Zinfandel

2008 Ceci La Luna Lambrusco

2009 Montinore Estate Borealis

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Prawns Poached in Cream Over Couscous

If you think being a student at the Northwest Wine Academy sounds like fun, you’re right! One of my current assignments is a group research project focused on a meal paired with wine. The “task” is to dine together with other students, then describe the meal, the wine pairings, and overall impressions of the meal. As luck would have it, my friends were planning a multi-course meal to celebrate my birthday in our traditional way. That meal has become fodder for this project. The topic happens to dovetail nicely into the theme for this blog, so I am sharing it here as this meal exemplifies what I consider the be the ultimate in food and wine pairing. (more…)

A Sampling of Indian Food to Try with Wine

The deVine Table is all about the spirit of experimentation when it comes to food and wine pairings. Thankfully, my friends enjoy this approach. As a result, a group of us recently spent 8 hours over lunch (I know, I can’t believe it either!) sampling a variety of Indian food while tasting through a mix of wines to see what pairings we favor. The dishes included some of Veena’s unparalleled homemade Indian fare, take out food, and a chicken cooked in a prepared sauce from Costco.

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Radicchio Bread Salad for Wine

While at the International Food Bloggers’ Conference (IFBC) I had a conversation with a couple about radicchio, and pairing it with wine. As I was strolling through the produce section of the supermarket a couple of days later, I saw some beautiful radicchio. The memory of that conversation still fresh, I couldn’t resist snatching up that red colored head bearing a resemblance to an infant cabbage. After all, it is one of the few vegetables I can get the hubby to eat. Or so went my rationale. In any case, I find that it also stands up very well to red wines, bringing out the fruit in the wine. Armed with that radicchio, and determined to get the hubby to eat his veggies, I created this version of a bread salad.

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Today is #Cabernet Day, a social media event organized by Rick Bakas. People near and far will be drinking Cabernet Sauvignon and sharing their experience on Twitter, Facebook, or perhaps even a blog.  Just in case you need an excuse to drink some wine and join the fun, check out the post from Vinotology offering Eleven Reasons to participate in #Cabernet Day. At our place we not only drink and Tweet, we also get our feast on! If you want to up your game and add some food to the mix, perhaps our menu will give you some inspiration.

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How will you be celebrating Virtual Cabernet Day on September 2nd? We’re going with the same format we used for the Virtual Chardonnay Tasting.  In fact, it is pretty much the same for all of the virtual tastings we host. We invite friends to join us to “pair and share” food with the wine. While we’re tasting we’ll tweet about the wines as well as our favorite pairings.  Hopefully others will be doing the same so that we can compare notes and get inspiration for future tastings.

The Wine List

Januik 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Glencorrie 2006 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Snoqualmie 2001 Rosebud Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

We haven’t quite figured out the menu in its entirety. I’m pondering Pesto Risotto. What do you like to pair with Cabernet Sauvignon?

Earlier this year Chef Sabrina Tinsley of Osteria la Spiga taught a cooking class at PCC that I was delighted to attend. One of the dishes she introduced us to that evening was Zuppa di Finocchio e Noci – also known as Fennel Walnut Soup. It’s easy to prepare, vegetarian, and pairs well with wine.

I recently prepared this soup for a dinner party we hosted at which we were serving Merlot. Ed claimed that this dish along with the Northstar 2002 Columbia Valley Merlot created his absolute favorite pairing of the evening.

This recipe is reprinted with the kind permission of Chef Tinsley.

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Tabbouleh Salad

This quarter I’m enrolled in the Advanced Food and Wine Pairing class at Northwest Wine Academy. The topic of last week’s class was earthiness. Among the 12 food items served to us this evening by our instructor, Chef Lenny Rede, was tabbouleh salad.

Tabbouleh initially makes me think of lemon. Lemon makes me think of Pinot Grigio. So, I usually drink Pinot Grigio with tabbouleh.  In fact we enjoyed the 2008 Elk Cove Vineyards Pinot Grigio with our tabbouleh at dinner the other night. While that is definitely a white wine option, there are possibilities beyond white wine with this salad.

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Photo courtesy of Veena Prasad

I often say that food and wine bring people together. This is another example of the magic that comes from sharing a meal.

It started when Veena joined us for the Kunde TasteLive event we hosted in June. With all the wine talk that took place that evening, Veena was sure that Vivian and I would hit it off with her friend, Laine who is Director of North American Sales for Ontañón, a Spanish Winery. So, here we are a month later all having dinner together at Veena’s downtown abode.

As we sit down with our appetizers and wine Veena says, “Isn’t it hard work being a foodie? We have to work out so much!” How could I deny it. After all, here we are – four women with four bottles of wine on the table. In my mind it’s worth it, though. Case in point, this paella feast we are about to enjoy.

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