deVine Table

A plate full of magically delicious dishes

A great food and wine pairing can be magical! Such a match takes each component to the next level. On the other hand, a poor combination can make the wine taste nasty. That’s why I’m often surprised when a winery hosts an event where something like jalapeno artichoke dip is served. Sure, it’s inexpensive to feed to the masses, but it won’t bring out the best in any wine.

Because I’ve been to so many wine events where I’ve been served the likes of pickled asparagus and other wine-unfriendly fare, I find myself especially tickled when a winery gets it right. The best example I have come across so far has been at Tyrus Evan, Ken Wright’s winery that focuses on warm weather grapes.

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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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A table dressed for a chicken dinner

If you follow me on Twitter or are a fan on Facebook, you’ve been hearing me go on about my disbelief over how only 5% of consumers purchase whole chickens. During this tough economic time, even though we hear complaints and concerns about the rising cost of food, the consumer is not making economical food choices. The consumer is choosing to pay more for parts.

This is one of the interesting and surprising facts that I learned from Jamie Peha during a Seattle Food Community Dinner hosted at the home of the charming Anne Nesbit.  Anne, a true example of the gracious hostess, had spent the last day preparing a fantastic multi-course dinner for us featuring chicken. Why? I have to admit that when I first received the invitation I said to the hubby, “I wonder if the company that uses chicken puppets in its commercials is finding that consumers don’t take them seriously?” (more…)

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…)

Thai Food Served On the Patio

We recently did a great food and wine pairing experiment with Thai food. While I had the best intentions of preparing some homemade dishes with recipes from our friend Naomi of NuCulinary, my plan derailed. Not to worry, my local Thai carryout restaurant saved the day.

On the Menu

• Phad Thai
• Swimming Rama Chicken
• Cashew Chicken
• Red Curry Shrimp
• Green Curry Eggplant and Green Curry Mussels (these were homemade by Bean)

All of these dishes were prepared with medium spiciness.

The Wine List

The varieties of wine we tasted with the food included Chenin Blanc (one from France and another from Washington state), Gewürztraminer, Viognier, and Torrontes. There were also a couple of white blends and a rosé. Here are the wines that our group of 5 tasters felt paired best with the food.

• Chateau Ste. Michelle 2008 Gewürztraminer
• Coyote Canyon 2008 Viognier
• Domaine Pichot 2007 Vouvray
• Northwest Totem Cellars 2008 Salish (a Riesling/Viognier blend)
• Del Rio Vineyards 2008 Rose Jolee (produced with 80% Early Muscat, 10% Merlot, 10% Malbec)

Coyote Canyon Viognier and Vegetable Curry

On our way home from the Wine Blogger’s Conference in June, we stopped off in Prosser to meet with Mike Andrews of Coyote Canyon Winery and Vineyard. He was so generous with his time; we spent a full day with him tasting through barrels and visiting his beautiful vineyard. Bean composed a wonderful post about that memorable day on her blog, Washington State Wine and Beer.

During that visit Mike generously donated some of the Coyote CanyonViognier so that our Advanced Food and Wine Pairing class at Northwest Wine Academy could taste it. So, last week when we were learning about pairing wine with spicy food, we tasted the Coyote Canyon Viognier with vegetable curry, gumbo, and chicken mole. All very different flavors, yet all a match for this wine. We have also found this Viognier to pair well with Thai food. Talk about a versatile wine!

This Washington Viognier has a lot of floral characteristics. Its 1.2% residual sugar is so well integrated that even Vivian couldn’t detect it. That touch of sugar helps this wine pair well with spicy food. If you’d like to taste it for yourself, it is one of the featured wines at the Fremont Wine Warehouse in Seattle this weekend, August 13-15. It is priced at $15 a bottle. Stop by on Saturday between 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. and meet Mike Andrews in person.

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.