Tyrus Evan Syrah - a house favorite

Last week Seattle Uncorked brought sexy back with the Sexy Syrah event at Salty’s on Alki. With over 58 Syrahs and Syrah blends the event definitely reminded us that Washington Syrah has many styles.  Some are bright and fruity while others are smoky or peppery. Whatever the style, Syrah is definitely a favorite around our house.

Additionally, Syrahs from other parts of the world boast a broad range of characteristics. When from France, the wine is often earthy and peppery. Known as Shiraz in Australia, the variety is often presented as big and fruity.  Keep the characteristics of the wine you’ve selected in mind when selecting your pairings.

Ingredients

Recommended proteins to pair with Syrah include:

• beef,
• lamb,
• pork, venison,
• chicken,
• game,
• duck, or
• sausage.

Another technique to effectively pair the wine with food is by using bridge ingredients. For example, herbs, sauces, and other ingredients that enhance the base ingredient or protein can create a bridge to help the wine connect with the food.

Bridge ingredients to help a dish pair with Syrah include:

• blackberries,
• cranberries,
• plums,
• prunes,
• nuts,
• roasted vegetables,
• tomatoes,
• eggplant,
• fennel,
• black olives,
• chocolate,
• Dijon mustard, and
• pepper.

Suggested Dishes for Syrah

For an easy and elegant appetizer, try truffled bean puree served with spears of fennel to go with your Syrah. It’s even vegetarian!

Washington Syrah is fairly robust making it a great wine to pair with grilled foods, so this is one of our go-to varieties when our friend, Bean, invites us over for a summer barbeque. Just keep in mind that if you’re using a barbeque sauce, you want to pick one that doesn’t have too much sugar in it, or it can make your wine taste sharp. From the bottle we like the Organicville brand recommended to us by our friend, Miriam. It’s sweetened with agave nectar and isn’t cloying. For a homemade version, I use an espresso barbeque sauce recipe from Michael Chiarello.

If you think Syrah is too big to pair with chicken think again. It’s all about those bridge ingredients. One of our favorite Syrah pairings is my Tarragon Chicken dish.

Turkey Sloppy Joes are another option for pairing with Syrah.

You can tweak my easy savory blueberry sauce recipe and substitute blackberries for the blueberries. If you do, I recommend running the sauce through a food mill before serving in order to remove the seeds. The great thing about this dish is that you can serve it over any protein of your choice.

If it’s meat you’re craving, we found a recipe for braised beef short ribs from Allrecipes.com that should pair nicely with Syrah.

Syrah and a simple hamburger make a great match, too.

So why don’t you bring sexy back and pour a glass of Syrah at your table tonight?

Related posts:

1. How to Pair Malbec with Food
2. Saving Big Pairing Pizza with Wine at Home
3. Tips for Pairing Pinot Gris with Food

Sips and Bites at Canlis Seminar

The food and wine pairing seminars at Taste Washington offer more than just a lecture on what to pair with chicken or steak. They offer guidance from a well-qualified and engaging panel, questions from an inquisitive audience, and the opportunity to actually taste several pairings. The Canlis Food and Wine Pairing seminar offered last Saturday was no exception.

With custom food creations by executive chef Jason Franey, and wines hand selected by wine director Nelson Daquip, the Canlis team offered up captivating pairings. Jordan Mackay from San Francisco Magazine joined Chef and Somm on the panel (I like a guy who says that he and his wife treat wine pairing like a team sport at home). Sara Schneider of Sunset Magazine moderated.

The seminar was peppered with useful comments and suggestions regarding food and wine pairing:

1. When asked whether a pairing starts with food or wine, Chef Jason indicated that, “ingredients are the motivation” and he starts with what is seasonal.
2. When pairing, Nelson says he considers acid, texture, weight and body, then tannin and asks himself how much he needs.
3. According to Jordan great pairings start with a hypothesis; then there has to be a lot of trial and error.
4. While on a deliberate quest to find a wine pairing for food from taco trucks, and after much trial and error, Sara discovered harmony between a chicken taco with caramelized onions paired with Abeja Viognier.
5. Although some people say “drink what you like,” you’ll never have an a-ha moment if you do that.
6. Nelson says that when you have sweetness in food you can go to acid in wine, and you need sweetness in wine.
7. Jason says Riesling is a chef’s best friend. Jordan refers to it as the Swiss Army knife of wine. Nelson feels that people are afraid to try Riesling, but when they get it they’re grateful.
8. Sara finds that protein with sweetness such as shrimp or pork can work with a contrasting acidic wine.
9. Jordan says that lighter red wines, such as the Kiona Lemberger featured during the seminar, can go with so many things.
10. Champagne is almost like Riesling; it’s so versatile. It can also provide a great textural contrast concluded Jordan.

Related posts:

1. Food and Wine Pairing with Tom Douglas
2. Food and Wine Pairing Tips from Terry Theise
3. Tips for Pairing Pinot Gris with Food

Ray’s Boathouse Bay Shrimp Cocktail with Treveri Cellars Extra Brut.

Act 3 Catering Smoked Salmon Mac + Cheese Poppers with Tranche Cellars Pink Pape Rose.

Tulalip Bay Fine Dining Dungeness Crab Cakes with Karma Vineyards Methode Champenoise Brut de Brut.

Last but not least, don’t forget dessert. Just be sure to have it last because you don’t want to drink dry wines right after consuming so much sweetness.

The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. Pancakes and Bacon (uh huh a cupcake that tasted like, well…) with Tieton Cider Works Tieton Frost (actually a cider, not a wine, but every bit as wonderful).

Related posts:

1. Top New Washington Wineries
2. Taste of Thai Review
3. Kunde Taste Live

Andouille Pasta for Malbec

Here’s an update on a classic Italian dish made to pair with Malbec.

This makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 teaspoons oil
• 2 links turkey Andouille Sausage (I get mine from the butcher counter at Whole Foods)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup dry red wine (preferrably the wine you will be drinking with dinner)
• 1 750 g box of pureed tomatoes
• 2 dashes cinnamon
• 1 squirt agave syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 8 ounces cooked spaghetti

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Remove sausage from casing and add to skillet. Break up sausage and saute for a few minutes. If the skillet is too dry, add the additional oil. Turn heat down to medium and add garlic. Saute until garlic is aromatic. Add red wine, letting the alcohol cook off a bit. Add tomatoes, cinnamon, Agave syrup, vinegar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the sausage is cooked through and the sauce is slightly reduced. Serve on top of spaghetti.

Hint:  If you put a pot of water on to boil for your pasta right before you start the sauce, the spaghetti should be cooked at the same time your sauce is ready.

Substitutions

Don’t have all of these ingredients? No worries. I’m all about using what you’ve got on hand.

The sausage I use is not precooked. If the sausage you buy is already cooked, simply slice it up. If you can’t find Andouille, try chorizo. If you’d rather eat pork sausage, then that’s what you should use.

You can use honey or sugar instead of agave syrup. The idea is to simply add a little bit of sweet to counter the heat in the sausage and the acid in the tomatoes.

As for the vinegar, you could try Balsamic instead of red wine vinegar. Just be aware that some vinegars have more tang to them to others, so start by adding a little bit at first, then more as needed. The acid in the vinegar lifts up the flavors in the dish and plays off the acids in the wines.

Wine Pairing

As noted previously, this dish was made with Malbec in mind. Malbec typically plays well with a bit of heat, and that’s why I like it with the spicy sausage. Baking spice is also a great bridge ingredient in pairing food with Malbec, and that’s why you see cinnamon in this otherwise savory dish.

If you’d like to be more experimental consider substituting a meaty, smoky Carmenere from Chile.

Related posts:

1. Spaghetti Squash Fritters
2. How to Pair Malbec with Food
3. Easy Mock Paella with Smoked Chicken

Giardiniera Salad

This recipe came about while I was preparing material for an Italian wines class. Inspiration came from the latest issue of Food Network Magazine. I’ve simplified the recipe  because I needed to easily feed a crowd. In fact, quantities can be doubled or quadrupled to do just that! So next time you’re hosting a casual spaghetti night or pizza night dinner, consider including this in the mix. It’s not expensive, and it takes just minutes to put together.

This recipe serves 4 as a starter in our house.

Ingredients

• 1 16 oz. jar giardiniera (drain and reserve brine for the salad dressing)
• 1 head romaine lettuce rinsed and torn into bite size pieces
• 2 oz. Italian salami or proscuitto, sliced into strips

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss.

Salad dressing:

• 1 T reserved giardiniera brine
• 1 T lemon juice
• 2 T olive oil

To easily mix up salad dressing, I like to combine all ingredients in a jar then shake it up. Pour over salad.

Wine Pairing

Pairing wine with salad can be tricky because of the high acid level in the dressing. If the food has more acid than the wine, the wine will probably taste dull and lifeless. The trick is to find a wine with an acid level that gently meets or exceeds the amount of acid in the food.

Tre Fili Pinot Grigio

I never used to think about acid in wine before. In fact, the thought of a high acid wine didn’t sound appealing to me. That is, until I was reminded that acid is present in fruit (that’s why we add a squirt of lemon juice to brighten some dishes right?), and is even in milk. When I went to wine school I learned that wine contains up to six different kinds of organic acids. Long story short, acid in wine is more pleasant than it might sound.

The wine we liked with this salad is the 2010 Tre Fili Pinot Grigio from the Veneto region in Italy. This crisp white wine has a pleasant fruity nose with pear, star fruit, and chalky notes on the palate. At $10 a bottle it’s a great value.

The American alternative to Pinot Grigio is Pinot Gris. It’s the same variety, yet I find it often has a bit more umph to it when grown stateside. A nice one to try from Oregon is the 2009 St. Innocent Pinot Gris Vitae Springs Vineyard bottling. This comes from the Willamette Valley.

Alternatively, consider trying a Sauvignon Blanc. The variety is known for it’s acidity and is a classic wine to pair with most salads.

Related posts:

1. A Salad for Red or White Wine
2. Peachy Curried Quinoa Salad
3. Radicchio Bread Salad for Wine

The Finished Pesto

Pesto is wonderful for it’s versatility. It can be used on pizza, sandwiches, and pasta, for example.

Tweaking traditional pesto recipes also means that different wines will work with your meal. So why not play with your food? If you don’t have any fresh basil on hand you can substitute parsley, spinach, or even kale. Or, if you don’t want as many green notes in your pesto, the Sun Dried Tomato Pesto recipe from the blog Closet Cooking is a good alternative.

My friend Vivian helped me with the ratios on this version of pesto, and for that I’d like to give her a shout out here!

This recipe makes enough for a batch of pizza or pasta.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes (I prefer the kind packed in olive oil)
• 1/2 cup roasted red peppers (out of the jar is fine)
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 T red wine vinegar
• 2 T EVOO (if you use the oil packed tomatoes, use that oil)

Combine all ingredients in food processor. Process until ingredients are well combined. You’re looking for a bit of a chunky texture rather than a completely smooth paste. That’s all there is to it!

Wine Pairing

Waving Tree Sangiovese

The walnuts in the pesto help cut through tannin in wine. The basil lends itself well to Italian wine varieties. The red peppers, tomatoes, and vinegar have a fair amount of acidity. Therefore, in selecting a wine consider the maxim that the acidity of the food should not exceed the acidity level of the wine. Considering all of the above, you can look to wines such as Barbera or Sangioevese. That means that Chianti, Rosso di Montalcino, and Vino Nobile de Montepulciano (not to be confused with the Montepulciano grape) are all in the running here since they are Sangiovese based wines.

A recent experiment found us trying the pesto on pizza along with Parmigiano Reggiano and Fontina cheeses. I’m a big fan of making pizza at home, because I know how much money it saves us. Wines we like with this dish include Waving Tree Winery 2008 Sangiovese produced with estate grown fruit in the Columbia Valley of Washington State, and Tenuta Vitanza 2007 Volare Toscana from Italy.

So, are you ready to play with your food?

Related posts:

1. A deVine Twist on Pesto
2. Saving Big Pairing Pizza with Wine at Home

Basil Pesto and Ingredients

Some people might not consider this a true pesto due to the omission of Parmigiano and pine nuts. Since I like to use this sauce on dishes such as pizza or pasta where cheese is added anyway, I find that I don’t miss the Parmigiano in this recipe. The end result is a more balanced dish.

There are two reasons that I no longer use pine nuts in pesto. The first is that I have experienced a reaction to pine nuts resulting in  everything I ate and drank tasting chalky like Tums. There’s a great post about this phenomenon on Pinch My Salt.

The second reason I don’t use pine nuts in my pesto is that walnuts are great for cutting through tannin in wine.

This recipe makes just enough for a batch of pizza or pasta.

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1 T minced garlic
• ¼ cup walnuts
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
• a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper
• 1/3 cup EVOO

Combine first 6 ingredients in food processor. Turn on processor and add EVOO until ingredients are blended. That’s it, you’ve got fresh pesto!

Wine Pairing

Renato Ratti Barbera d'Alba

We recently served this pesto on pizza topped with red pepper strips, mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano. I thought the herbs in the sauce would play nicely off Sangiovese, an Italian variety that can have some herbaceous and earthy notes. The Sangiovese we opened, however, was a little more fruit forward and while decent, wasn’t the ideal match. The match that wowed us was Renato Ratti Barbera d’Alba. Come to think of it, every wine I’ve had from this Italian producer so far has been a crowd pleaser.

Last night, I put the pesto on whole wheat pasta with smoked salmon and shelled edamame. The dish is a little earthy and smokey. We tried it with a Cabernet Franc which can develop some herbaceous and green pepper characteristics as it ages, but this one was still young and fruity. While not the best match, we enjoyed the pairing.  When the weather warms up, I’d like to try this pasta dish with a Chardonnay such as the one produced by Quail’s Gate. It’s got some butteriness and soft oak notes to it that I think would play nicely with the smoked salmon. A sauvignon blanc would be worth considering as well.

We’ll keep experimenting, and encourage you to do the same!

Related posts:

1. Pasta with Creamy Macadamia Sauce
2. Saving Big Pairing Pizza with Wine at Home
3. Risotto for Wine Lovers

Why not take that money you would spend on dinner out and splurge on some really great wine and some decadent ingredients? Now, that is romantic!

Get Your Motor Running

If you want to start with some classic aphrodisiac food, try oysters paired with Champagne or Muscadet.

Alternatively, Smoked Trout Pate makes a fantastic partner for bubbles or Fume Blanc. I have to admit, I’m usually not a big fan of Sauvignon Blanc (the grape from which Fume Blanc is made). However, the Grgich Hills Fume Blanc rings my bell!

Entrees to Rev Things Up

At home one of our favorite “special occasion” pairings combines Crab Cakes with a buttery Chardonnay. In this case, I turn to Rombauer Chardonnay for a “so good it makes my eyes roll into the back of my head” kind of experience.

For something other than seafood try an elegant yet easy Truffled Roast Chicken with a Pinot Noir or Cabernet Franc. The luscious Sheridan Vineyard Cabernet Franc would be my first choice if I could ever find it when I want it. For Pinot Noir, we turn to Ken Wright Cellars. It’s hard to go wrong with his wines.

If you’re more meat oriented, check out the Valentine Venison that foodie extraordinaire Salty Seattle has on the menu. That girl’s got it goin’ on! Serve that up with a sexy syrah such as a French Côte Rôtie.

Desserts to Bring It On Home

Chef Lenny making truffles

A classic pairing that always makes my hubby blissfully happy is Tiramisu with Moscato d’Asti. No tiramisu impostors allowed mind you! It has to be the Classic Tiramisu such as one found on allrecipes.com. Plus, Moscato is lighter in alcohol and less likely to weigh you down after drinking it.

Of course, there’s always the wine and chocolate option. This week we had the pleasure of attending a Chcocolate Truffle Making and Port Tasting class at Wine World taught by the inimitable Chef Lenny. The pairing that made me weak in the knees? The Honey Lavender Truffle with the Royal Oporto 10 Year Tawny. Surprisingly, the port didn’t overpower the lovely lavender essence in the truffle. Just the way a perfect match should be.

So, what are you waiting for? Go get your woo on and treat yourself and your sweetie to some luscious wine and food pairings.

Related posts:

1. Pairings from Seattle Food and Wine Experience
2. An Experiment with Thai Food and Wine Pairings
3. A Birthday Wine Dinner

Squash Fritters with Chimichurri Paired with Malbec

Trying to come up with of a way to reinvent some leftover spaghetti squash, I recalled a recipe for fritters in Greg Atkinson’s book, “At the Kitchen Table.” His version is based on parsnips, but I can’t get the hubby to eat those. Besides, we were in need of a side dish to pair with a Malbec.

So, after a few tweaks, this is what I came up with. When I asked the hubby what he thought of the Spaghetti Squash Fritters he replied, “There’s spaghetti squash in there? I couldn’t tell; they’re delicious.”

Makes 8 fritters

• 3/4 cup cooked spaghetti squash
• 1 tablespoon Cilantro Chimichurri, plus extra for serving
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons butter

In a medium size bowl, combine the spaghetti squash, Cilantro Chimichurri, and the egg.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the squash mixture and stir gently until all ingredients are combined.

Preparing Squash Fritters

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat and add half the butter. When the pan is warm and the butter is melted, add the batter to the pan a tablespoon at a time. Using a small ice cream scoop makes it easy to make even sized portions, and to get the batter in the pan. Then you want to flatten the batter to the shape of a small pancake. If you’re using an ice cream scoop, simply use the back of the scoop to spread the batter. Let the fritters cook about five minutes or until they’re a pretty golden brown, then flip them and cook for another 3 minutes until they are browned and cooked through. Before continuing with the next batch, melt the remaining butter in the pan.

Fritters are at their best right out of the pan, so don’t wait long to eat these! Serve them with some Cilantro Chimichurri on the side.

Wine Pairing

We served these tasty fritters dressed with a dollop of Cilantro Chimichurri as a side dish to Mole Poblano Enchilada Casserole. Our beverage of choice for the evening was the Bodega Noemia de Patagonia J. Alberto 2008 Malbec. Any fruit forward Malbec should pair nicely with the dish.

Related posts:

1. Cilantro Chimichurri
2. How to Pair Malbec with Food
3. A Birthday Wine Dinner

One of the food and wine pairing principles says, “if it grows together it goes together.” In other words, wines typically pair with the foods native to the same region. In Argentina, chimichurri sauce is often used as a condiment. Malbec is one of the well known wines of Argentina. So, when planning on drinking Malbec, I often use chimicurri as a bridge between the wine and the dish I’m preparing.

This week, I made some tweaks to the standard chimichurri recipe. You see, we’ve had a bit of snow here in Seattle, and I’m not heading to the grocery store in this weather. It just goes to show that if you don’t have all the ingredients a recipe calls for, there’s no need to panic. Just make some adjustments.

Here’s my quick and easy recipe:

• 3 cups fresh spinach, washed and dried
• 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
• pinch of dried Mexican oregano
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• juice of half a lime
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Put all of the ingredients except the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor. With the processor running, add the oil. If you’d like it wetter, add more oil until it reaches your desired consistency.

I tossed this with some spaghetti squash and served it as a side dish for Mole Poblano. You could also use it to dress up a roasted sweet potato. Tonight we might use it on homemade pizza with some pancetta and roasted delicata squash. At the blog, Tea and Cookies, you can see another version of chimichurri used on pasta. Brilliant!

Wine Pairing

As I mentioned before, chimichurri is typically my go-to condiment when I plan on serving Malbec. We enjoyed the chimichurri on Spaghetti Squash Fritters along with a pour of Bodega Noemia de Patagonia J. Alberto 2008 Malbec.

Alternatively, try it with a fruity Zinfandel. We like the chimichurri tossed with roasted delicata squash when served with Northwest Wine Academy 2009 Zinfandel which is softer than California Zinfandel yet still fruit forward. The touch of oak on this wine is soft enough that it enhances the food and wine experience rather than distracts.

Related posts:

1. How to Pair Malbec with Food