deVine Table

Savory Sweet Potato Empanadas

When you’re looking for an easy yet elegant appetizer, this is one to consider. After all, we all love buttery flaky puff pastry don’t we? If you’re planning on serving these at a party, you can assemble them in advance as they freeze well. Or if you don’t need such a long term plan, you can refrigerate them over night.

The original recipe came from Chef Bryce Lamb, and I’ve made a few tweaks to help it pair with wine.

Makes 18

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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…)

Last Sunday Terry Theise, a leading importer of Riesling from Germany and Austria, was hosted by Wild Ginger for one of their Summer of Riesling dinners. The hubby and I are big fans of Riesling and Wild Ginger’s food. And who knows when an opportunity to meet Terry Theise will arise again? So, we decided it would be worth the splurge to attend. It was.

Not only were Terry’s comments entertaining, they brought out my inner cheerleader. When he talks about the general perception of “sweet” wines as being negative in the public eye he explains, (more…)

The Makings of Cheese Fondue

“I heart fondue,” said Vivian as we gathered around the table the night before Valentine’s Day and speared heart shaped cut outs of bread to dip into the fondue pot.  The room filled with laughter at the joke, but seriously who doesn’t love a pot of melted cheese? Plus, it’s easy party fare.

While most people take the dreary weather of winter as an opportunity to complain, I like to look at it as an opportunity to enjoy some warming comfort foods. Melted cheesey goodness is a personal favorite.  The blog Cooking Stuff has a cheese fondue recipe very similar to the one I use.

We’re not traditionalists with regard to what items to dip in it, and usually have a mix of different breads. This time we had a loaf of Tall Grass Bakery’s fougasse, Bakery Nouveau’s whole grain carrot bread, and Upper Crust Bakery’s whole wheat bread cut into heart shapes. A heart shaped cookie cutter easily does the trick, and the leftover bread scraps can be made into bread crumbs.

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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…)

Our Taste of Thai Table

Last month marked the launch of a project called Feast and Tweet. The goal of this event is to make it easy to gather around the table with friends to experiment with pairing food and wine together. We all meet up online at the same time to discuss the dishes and wines on our tables. The conversation covers how we like the dishes and the wines separately. Then, we get into how the wine and food pair with one another. Or, in some cases, how they don’t pair. It’s all part of the great experiment!

The Best of the Pairings

Shona of Woodinville Wine Update was very happy with the way the Northwest Totem Cellars Salish (a Riesling/Viognier blend) matched with Pad Thai. (more…)

Pantry Ingredients for Thai Cooking

I recently had the pleasure of taking a cooking class from Chef Toby Kim of NuCulinary after I got a great deal for it on Living Social. This class is based on easy everyday Asian cooking. Every week over the course of the summer, Toby has visited a different Asian cuisine and offered pantry items and tips to make it an easy addition to the home cook’s repertoire. The week I attended we learned how easy it is to make Thai Red Curry with Chicken and Vegetables based on a recipe from Fine Cooking. This recipe is very versatile in that you can substitute the vegetables in the recipe for whatever is fresh at the market. You can also make it vegetarian by substituting tofu for the chicken. This is a great recipe to help us prepare for our Feast and Tweet Taste of Thai!

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Food Pairings at Riesling Rendezvous

Earlier in July I was fortunate to receive a media pass to cover the Riesling Rendezvous Grand Tasting at Chateau Ste. Michelle. In the Grand Tasting Catalog handed out at the event, there is an eye catching ad sponsored by Destination Riesling that reads,

“If your food could speak, it would ask for a glass of Riesling.”

Riesling truly is a very food friendly wine. Selecting the right Riesling can be a little confusing, however, because it is made in so many styles ranging from bone dry to sweet. The drier styles are good for pairing with creamy sauces. It’s great with shellfish, too. Last winter our friend Bean served us crab paired with a variety of brands of Riesling including Hudson Shah from Woodhouse Family Cellars. The crisp clean finish of the wine lets the crab shine through. Fantastic! The sweeter off-dry styles complement spicy food such as Thai or Mexican dishes.

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White Gazpacho

My first taste of white gazpacho was served to me by John Neumark, a great chef here in Seattle. I fell in love with this soup at first bite! This version was adapted from recipes by celebrity chefs, Joanne Weir and Hubert Keller.

A chilled soup is one of my favorite things to eat on a warm day when we’re dining on the patio. Not to mention, this is a great dish to serve to company because it’s made in advance. When your guests arrive, all you have to do is dish it up.

• ¾ c almonds
• 3 cloves garlic
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 slices stale rustic country-style bread, crusts removed, about 4 oz.
• 1 cup ice water
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 ½ c seedless green grapes
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

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Curried Sweet Potato Soup

This dish was part of our meatless week menu. It is wonderful for anyone who enjoys sweet, savory, and tropical elements. To speed up cooking time, you can cut the vegetables into small dice.

Serves 4 very hungry people

• 2 cups onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 T palm oil
• 1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
• 1 carrot, coarsely chopped
• 3 cups sweet potatoes (I used garnet), peeled and cut into 1 1/2″ dice
• 2 teaspoons Madras curry powder
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 2 cups “no chicken” broth
• 1 cup coconut milk

In a large pot, saute the onion in the palm oil over medium heat for several minutes. Add the celery, carrot, sweet potatoes, and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add the curry powder and ginger and cook for another minute while stirring.

Prepped Veggies

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender and you can easily stick a fork through a chunk of sweet potato. Stir in the coconut milk. Puree the soup until smooth either using an immersion blender or food processor. Serve at once.

Wine Pairing

We paired this soup with the Tyrus Evan 2007 Viognier from Del Rio Vineyard. Viogniers that emphasize fruit over minerality are my preference. This wine produced by Ken Wright delivers primarily pineapple on the palate. It’s a nice pairing with curry.

The challenge with this soup is that it is a little sweet. You want to be sure the wine you serve is as sweet as or slightly sweeter than the food. With that in mind, an off dry riesling would be a potentially good match with this dish.