deVine Table

Sure, we’ve all heard by now we don’t have to abide by the old rule of drinking only white wine with chicken or fish. Yet, how many people know how to go about pairing red wine with these dishes? One method is to pay close attention to what you prepare to accompany the dish. Put a sauce on it.

In our house, we typically put these sauces over simply roasted chicken or a hearty fish such as salmon or halibut. Sometimes, we improvise and put them on pizza or pasta. It’s that simple.

Here are some of our favorite sauces to pair with red wine.

1. Romesco Sauce, such as the version from the reliable food blog, Simply Recipes,  stands up to Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon.  Try the Romesco over prawns sauteed in garlic.
2. Savory Blueberry Sauce pairs wonderfully with Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
3. Mole Sauce can top everything from traditional roasted turkey breast to anunexpected pasta dish and has a complex flavor profile that plays nicely with Malbec.
4. Sun Dried Tomato and Red Pepper Pesto make a delightful accompaniment for Sangiovese.
5. A deVine Twist on Pesto pairs nicely with Barbera.

Do you have a favorite sauce to serve up when you’re pouring a big red?

We are fortunate in Seattle to have so many wine events taking place at any given time. How to choose which to attend? This is our take on some of our favorites that inspire our palates.

Chef Wayne, Me, and Rick Small of Woodward Canyon at a past Andaluca Wine Dinner

Mosel Wine Merchants Riesling Tasting at the Wild Ginger in Seattle August 29 5-7 pm

What’s so great about it? At just $15 this wine event is a terrific value. Wines from Clemens Busch, Peter Lauer, Stein, Spater-Veit and Steinmetz will be accompanied by light appetizers. Riesling from the Mosel and food from Wild Ginger all for $15 – what’s not to like? Besides, the International Riesling Foundation tells us,

“By drinking Riesling, you become a better person.”

Is this event for you? Whether you’re already a Riesling fan or Riesling curious, this is a great opportunity to sample a number of different tastes. If you’d like to explore wines that deliver everything from a touch of sweet apple and pear to a dry minerally finish, this is one of the best ways to do it. The two Summer of Riesling events we’ve attended so far have been fantastic. (more…)

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?

Jeffrey Saad and Exhausted Me

“Trust your mouth. You know what you like; enjoy it.”

So says Jeffrey Saad, The Next Food Network Star runner up, 25-year food industry veteran and restaurateur. I recently returned from the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference where I had the great pleasure of seeing this dynamic personality give a presentation on food and wine pairing.

Jeffrey asked us who in the audience would pair a Coke with pizza so that he could make a point about why the combination works together. A big laugh came from the crowd when not even one hand went up and he mused, “Wow, you guys really are a bunch of winos!”

Key pointers:

• Pair acid with acid, such as salad with vinaigrette paired with Grüner Veltliner.
• Pair fat in food with acid in wine, such as goat cheese in buttery phyllo cups with Argentine Torrontes.
• Pair protein or animal fat with tannin such as Kobe beef with Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Pair sweet with sweet. Sweet food spanks the fruit right out of the wine if the wine isn’t as sweet.
• Pair spice with sweetness. Spice does not like tannin; it accentuates it.
• Make funky ingredients a part of a dish, not the main flavor.

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The Rib Fest Table

Food and wine bring people together. Here is a perfect example. It was barely a year ago that Bean, Vivian, Ed, and I met through the Northwest Wine Academy. Shortly after that, we began getting together for food and wine pairing experiments. Since last summer, we have become fixtures at each other’s tables. Now, we are celebrating birthdays together. Just as we did last Saturday for my husband Roger’s birthday.

Menu planning for this event could not have been easier for me. These three folks who have known my husband for less than a year were able to get him to reveal the favorite at home dishes he’d like to eat on this occasion. I find that impressive. When I ask what he wants for dinner, I don’t get any specifics. Not even a hint.

Dinner Time!

The Menu

• Spinach Salad with Candied Bacon prepared by Ed paired with Walter Dacon 2008 Roussanne
•  Costco Ribs, as requested by the hubby, contributed by Vivian and Ed paired with Sheridan Vineyard 2005 Syrah
•  Risotto and Roasted Veggies prepared by the Missus and
• Smoked salmon, smoked tomatoes, smoked mushrooms, and “Seattle Slugs” prepared by Bean paired with Mount Baker Vineyards 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon
•  Tiramisu paired with Moscato d’Asti

Pesto Risotto

I love that these friends of ours took such great joy in soliciting a menu from my husband. Then they went on to plan, purchase, transport, prepare, and contribute food and wine to a dinner to celebrate the most important person in my life. It was a wonderful evening that we will always treasure.

So, are you feeling inspired to invite friends to your table to share food and wine? I bet it will be a night you won’t soon forget.

"Seattle Slug" aka Portabello Piece

 Preparation

It’s easy enough to pick up some ribs from Costco! Unless, of course, you don’t have a membership. As Vivian learned from this experience, however, chances are we all know someone who does.

The risotto is prepared by tweaking my recipe, Risotto for Wine Lovers. Simply substitute 1/4 cup of pesto for the garlic cloves, and use beef stock rather than chicken.

Bean’s preparation for salmon can be found on her blog, Fairbanks Fantastic Foods and Feasts. Her ”Seattle Slugs” can be duplicated by making her recipe for Portabello Pieces.

Tiramisu has long been one of Roger’s favorite desserts. I learned to make a traditional version from Iole Aguero. She provides authentic Italian recipes and teaches with passion. Classes with Iole  can often be found in Seattle at the PCC Natural Markets and Blue Ribbon Cooking School. It’s great to have Tiramisu in your party repertoire, because it needs to be assembled the night before.

Wine Pairing

At Roger’s request, we opened a bottle of the Walter Dacon 2008 Roussanne this evening. It is his favorite white wine. We are grateful that Vivian was willing to transport this back from the winery in Shelton for us!

Party Wines

Not being a rib eater, I turned to Bean and Vivian for a suggested variety to pair with the hubby’s eagerly anticipated meat fest. Taking their advice into account, we opened a Sheridan Vineyard 2005 Syrah to go with the ribs. Only they can tell you how the two paired. However, I can tell you this Yakima Valley Syrah is terrific with roasted leeks. Vivian somehow managed to save a splash of the Roussanne for her ribs, and said the two were delicious together.

Since we enjoy experimenting with food and wine pairings, we also opened a bottle of Thurston Wolfe 2006 Petite Syrah. This turned out to be Roger’s favorite red wine of the evening.

Continuing on in the spirit of experimentation, a bottle of Rex Hill 2005 Jacob-Hart Vineyard Pinot Noir made its way onto the table. After all, Pinot and portabellos are a classic pairing. This Oregon wine offers bright cherries on the nose and palate.

The Mount Baker Vineyards 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon was a recent purchase of ours. We bought a magnum of this wine during a recent visit to the tasting room after Roger learned that the winery still had this vintage available. Back in 1999, he had brought a bottle of this Washington Cabernet Sauvignon to a dinner party I hosted, and the wine still haunted him! The wine has aged remarkably well, and it was wonderful with the risotto. Then we tried it with roasted tomatoes and, discovered a match made in Heaven!

We always seem to have a bottle of Moscato d’Asti in the fridge. Serve it with Tiramisu and you have a classic pairing.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to open as many wines as we did to have as much fun. Experimenting with wine and food pairing just makes it more interesting!

Risotto Topped with Mushrooms

I resisted making risotto for years, thinking it would keep me tied to the stove all day. After a cooking lesson with Johnny Zhu, I discovered that’s not the case and have been making it ever since! It’s a great dish for a dinner party because the day before your event you can cook it half way, put it on a baking sheet to cool, cover, and refrigerate it overnight. When your guests have arrived, put the remaining stock on the stove and bring it to a simmer. Put the risotto in a large pot, and finish the dish.

This is what I call a great “base” dish. Start out with the risotto, then combine it with something that will help it pair with a wine. For example, top the finished risotto with some sauteed mushrooms and maybe a drizzle of truffle oil, and you have a great dish to match with a Pinot Noir. This recipe is adapted from Nick Stellino’s Glorious Italian Cooking.

• 3 cups chicken stock

Bring the chicken stock to a boil, then reduce the heat to low to keep it warm. You will be adding it to the risotto later.

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggianno cheese
• 3 tablespoons mascarpone cheese (shhhh, Johnny says this is the secret ingredient!)

In a large pot over medium heat, heat the olive oil and butter. After the butter has melted, add the minced onion and cook until it is translucent. Reduce heat to low and add garlic, cooking until it is fragrant. Add the rice and stir about 2 minutes so that it gets coated by the oil. Increase the heat to medium high and add the wine and salt. Stir until the wine is evaporated. Add a ladle full of the warm stock, and stir until almost evaporated.Continue to add a ladle full of stock at a time until the risotto is cooked. You can take a test bite after about 15 minutes to see if it’s still too tough, in which case you would add more stock. When the rice is tender, take the pot off the heat and stir in the cheeses. Let the risotto rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Wine Pairings

The best approach here is to first decide what wine you plan on serving, and then figure out what herbs or sauces will create a “bridge” between the food and the wine.

To enjoy this dish with a Merlot, add Herbs de Provence during preparation, then top the finished risotto with a braised fennel sauce. We like this preparation with Northstar Merlot.

Prefer a white wine? Top the finished risotto with langoustines or prawns that have been sauteed in garlic and butter, then serve with a Chardonnay such as Rulo Winery’s Birch Creek Chardonnay.

Top the risotto with Fairbank’s Portabello Pieces and serve an earthy Pinot Noir alongside.

Feel like drinking a Cabernet Sauvignon? Pair your cab with risotto cakes made from leftover risotto, and a romesco sauce for dipping. Simply form risotto into patties using a 1/4 cup measuring cup (I use the measuring cup like a mold). Dredge each patty in breadcrumbs then refrigerate for about 15 minutes. Fry the patties on each side in about 1/4 inch of oil until golden, drain on paper towels, and serve with romesco alongside.

Have fun experimenting with different pairings.  You could even make a party of it! Select several different bottles of wine,  make one pot of risotto, and pass around several sauces or bridge items for your guests to try on top of the risotto. Your guests can help you decide which pairings work best. What a fun, easy dinner party!