Steak, Mozzarella and Orange Flatbread

Now this flatbread (although very delicious) was a bit of a challenge when it comes to pairing wine. Steak – usually paired with a deep, bold red, like a Zinfandel; but that won’t work with orange.  Mozzarella - that works well with Chardonnay but oaky, buttery Chardonnay and steak is not the best match. And orange is made for a citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, but again Sauvignon Blanc with steak or mozzarella.. no.

After a lot of trial and error (I love my job) I decided on an Unoaked Chardonnay, the Yangarra Estate Chardonnay ’08. I already LOVED unoaked Chardonnays for their fruity vibrance and smooth finish but now I love them even more because I can enjoy them with a pizza!

Ingredients (Makes 4 servings)
1 1/2 lb flank steak
1 store bought pizza dough
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella, sliced
1 large orange, peeled and segmented
1/2 small jicama, julienned
5-6 leaves fresh basil, roughly chopped
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.  Generously season the steak with salt and pepper. Add to pan. Sear on both sides, 3-4 minutes per side, until a golden brown crust forms and meat is cooked to rare (will cook again later on the flatbread).

Stretch pizza dough across a baking sheet to a thin crust.  Brush with remaining tablespoon olive oil. Season with dried thyme, salt and pepper.  Bake until lightly golden, 7-8 minutes.  Remove from oven.

Slice steak on an angle, across the grain, then into bite size chunks. Layer mozzarella cheese slices across flatbread. Next add steak. Bake again for 5 minutes until mozzarella is melted, the crust is golden brown and the steak is warmed through. Pull out of the oven.

Layer in orange slices and jicama and top with basil. Slice into large square chunks and serve it up!

Beef & Dumpling Stew with a Spanish Proprietary Blend

Soup can be a tricky dish to pair with. The main reason being texture; both are liquids. When it comes down to it most soups will pair beautifully with wine, but I like to make a soup with some added texture, something more like a stew. That added texture really enhances the food and wine experience.

That being said, this particular soup works well with a smooth, slightly spicy red wine; L’Encastell Marge 2009. The blend of Grenache, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon make for a very balanced, structured wine. Plus, it works great in the recipe for some added flavor!

Ingredients
1 ½ lbs beef brisket, fat trimmed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups red wine, L’Encastell Marge
3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 dried bay leaves
2 small shallots, diced
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 quart beef stock
1 cup cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2-teaspoon of salt.
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons seltzer water
2 tablespoons scallions, diced
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Special Equipment: Slow cooker

1. Generously season brisket with salt and pepper.  Preheat a large skillet with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat, add brisket.  Sear on both sides, 3-4 minutes per side until a deep brown crust forms. Add to slow cooker with garlic cloves and bay leaves. Cover meat with red wine. Cook on high for 4-5 hours, on low 8 hours.
2. Remove brisket from slow cooker, set aside to rest. Reserve cooking liquid.
3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, add remaining tablespoon of olive oil, shallots and red pepper flakes. Cook until shallots are soft, 3-4 minutes. Add reserved cooking liquid and beef stock.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Shred reserved brisket with two forks or with your fingers, adding the meat to the pot as you go. Continue to simmer soup, covered, over low heat for 20 minutes.  Adjust seasoning.
4. While soup simmers, build dumplings.  Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Create a well in the middle and add egg, milk and seltzer water. Stir to combine. If more liquid it needed, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. DO NOT overmix.
5. Wet your hands so the dumpling batter is easy to maneuver. Create small dumplings, no more than a tablespoon in size. When add dumplings are made, add to soup. Cover and continue to simmer over medium-low heat, 7-10 minutes, until cooked through.
6. Serve in large, deep bowls and top with scallions. Enjoy!

Light Salmon Supper

Caramelized Salmon with Honey Chickpea Salad

Doctors, nurses and health experts are always telling us how great salmon is for a healthy diet. So why aren’t we eating more of it? It’s quick and easy to prepare,  absolutely delicious and the best part is how well it works with Chardonnay – a perfect pair.  With this particular meal, its best to stick with drier Chardonnay because of the sweetness the honey and lemon bring. A great pick is Antica (Antinori) Chardonnay, medium bodied with subtle hints of vanilla and honey.

Ingredients
1 (16oz) can of garbanzo beans, rinsed and patted dry
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon turmeric
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried, ground ginger
1 small fennel bulb
1 small ripe avocado
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons, smoked almonds, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons honey
2 Salmon filets, skin removed
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Pour garbanzo beans onto a baking sheet.  Season with olive oil, turmeric, smoked paprika and ginger. With your hands, mix to coat all the beans with seasoning. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown and slightly toasted.

Season salmon filets with salt, pepper and brown sugar (split evenly between filets).  Preheat a non-stick skillet with remaining tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add salmon. Sear on both sides, 1-2 minutes per side, until caramelized.  Add pan to the oven and bake 5-7 minutes to finish cooking through.

Using a mandolin, slice fennel into thin shavings. Add to a bowl. Chop avocado into small chunks, douse with lemon juice and add to the bowl with fennel shavings.  Add almonds and baked chick peas. Top with honey and salt and pepper to taste. Mix to combine.

Untraditional Easter or Passover Appetizer

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Biscotti is a traditional Italian dessert served with espresso. But where is the fun in traditional? Biscotti is great at any part of the meal and we like to serve with wine as an appetizer.  At your Easter dinner or Passover meal this weekend, serve cranberry pistachio biscotti with Clos du Bois Char Calcaire as a starter, next to the marinated olives and crackers. Sounds strange, but the hint of sweetness from the cranberries and that crunch of pistachios will intrigue the palate like no other.

Makes 2 dozen cookies
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of fine salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. Add vanilla. Add flour mixture, in third parts, and mix on low speed until combined.

Turn out dough onto a floured surface (dough will be sticky, you’ll need flour).  Shape into a 16-by-2-inch log, and transfer to the prepared baking sheet.  With the palm of your hand, flatten logs slightly.

Bake, rotating halfway through, until the log is slightly firm to touch, about 25 minutes. Transfer log on parchment paper to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Place log on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices, cut sides down, back on parchment paper, on baking sheet. Bake until firm to touch, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven; let biscotti cool completely on rack.

A Trip to Rhone Through Wine and Food

Lamb Sausage with Crisp Potatoes
and Domaine La Garrigue Vacqueyras Cantarelle 2009

Once again the best way to pair a wine with a meal is to pay attention to it’s roots. The 2009 Vacqueyras La Cantarelle, a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah, is perfect to take a backseat (and quietly compliment) a very bold, flavorful sausage. We went with a rosemary and garlic lamb sausage but any pork or lamb sausage you can find will work well. The traditional Rhone meal is sausage cooked in red wine (we did that) and boiled potatoes with shallots (we switched that up a little bit, just to add some extra flavor).  Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 ½ lbs lamb or pork sausage
1 ½ cups French red wine
1 large (or 2 small) shallots, sliced
3 lbs small Yukon Gold potatoes
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 dried bay leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups Spinach/Arugula mix
1 lemon
Salt/pepper, to taste

In a wide pan add sausage and red wine. Add water until sausage is almost completely covered by liquid.  Bring to a boil and cook 10-15 minutes until sausages are cooked through.  Remove the sausages from the pan, place on a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven until you’re ready to serve.

Leave the remaining wine in the pan and add shallots. Continue to boil until onions are cooked through and wine is thick and reduced to 2 tablespoons.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large pan with high sides over medium-high heat, add potatoes, bay leaves, garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil and about 1 cup water.  Cover and bring to a boil. Once at a boil, uncover and salt generously. Continue to boil until potatoes are fork tender (maybe even a little bit past).

When potatoes are tender and all water has evaporated; using a meat tenderizer (or something heavy and round), smash potatoes down until flat.  Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil and reduce heat to medium. Cook until brown and crisp on both sides, 4-5 minutes per side.

Split spinach and arugula mixture between your serving plates.  Lightly dress with lemon juice and salt. Top with a piece of sausage and onions. Lay potatoes on the side.

Tea Cake and Red Wine. Try it, You’ll Love it!

Has this happened to you? You get to the end of the meal, dessert is next but you aren’t finished with your red wine and you’re not yet ready to move onto coffee.  You’re afraid that the red wine you are drinking most mix well with the dessert you order. Here is a tip: look for the least sweet dessert on the menu (does that make sense?) Red wine works great with a tea cake or pound cake because they are generally not too sweet. You want to keep a balance so the sweetness in the dessert doesn’t overpower that red wine you still want to enjoy.

Case and point: Almond Tea Cake with La Mozza I Perazzi, a deep ruby Sangiovese.

Ingredients
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
¼ cup almond paste
1 ½ cups cake flour
1 ½ – 2 cups slivered almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine salt
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare your 9x5x3″ loaf pan by fitting it with a large piece of aluminum foil, leaving excess on each side to later be used as handles to remove the cake. Spray the foil evenly with non-stick butter flavored cooking spray and set aside.

In a small food processor add ½ of the silvered almonds. Process until they are finely ground.  Add to a small bowl.  Repeat that process with the rest of the silvered almonds until you have 1 cup of almond “flour.”

In a large bowl, add 1 ½ cups cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and you’re new “almond flour.”  Whisk until combined and set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar just until combined, about 1 minute.  Add almond paste, mix again until combined, 3-4 minutes.

Add egg and egg yolk. Beat again until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three batches. In between each of those batches add ½ of the buttermilk.

Pour mixture into your prepared cake pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes until top is golden brown and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 1 minute. Then remove cake from the pan, using the alumnium foil as handles. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

$24 Date Night

Leese-Fitch Zinfandel 2008: $12
Steakhouse Sliders with Kale Chips: $12
Easy, delicious Date Night without leaving the house: Priceless

Affordable wine seems to be all the rage these days. This is a good and a bad thing. Good because you can get more for you money. Bad because it’s hard to determine which of these “affordable” wines are actually a great tasting wine. Well we’ve found you a great Zinfandel, Leese-Fitch Zinfandel 2008 – only $12 and absolutely delicious!

Now onto the food – Steakhouse Sliders. All the flavors for your favorite steakhouse within a $12 budget. The key to keeping this meal in budget (and any meal for that matter) is to only buy what you need.  Don’t be afraid to ask the budget for exactly how many pounds of meat you need and don’t be afraid to visit the cheese counter and ask them to cut a large piece of gorgonzola in half.  That’s what they’re there for!

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef (80-20)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 small tomatoes, sliced 1 inch thick
1 small red onion (the smallest you can find), sliced 1 inch thick
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese, softened
6 potato slider rolls
1 bunch kale, leaves removed from stem

Add beef to a large bowl. Season with Worcestershire sauce and combine. Form meat into one large mound in the bowl. Using your hands, first portion the meat into two equal parts. Then form each half into three equal rounds. Form each round into a flat patty.

Preheat a stove top grill over medium-high heat.  Add beef patties. Cook until caramelized on both sides and cooked to medium rare, 3-4 minutes per side. Remove from grill pan and set aside to rest.

Meanwhile, add red onion slices to the grill. Turn off the heat. Cook on both sides until caramelized.

While the onions are cooking, get started on the kale chips. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the kale leaves across a baking sheet in one even layer. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake until darkened and crispy. Yum, Yum, Yum.  (The dipping sauce is an extra, just a little mayo, garlic, paprika and lemon juice – if you’re up for it).

Build that burger. First top bun bottom with tomato, then a few rings of red onion, then the burger and finally a small dollop of gorgonzola.

A Romantic Valentine’s Day Menu

Appetizer

Blood Oranges with Cinnamon Goat Cheese

Serve with Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Main Course

Smoked Pork Chops with Fancy Potatoes and Pomegranate

Serve with Hanzell “Sebella” Pinot Noir 2009

Dessert

Raspberry Grapefruit Napolean

Serve with Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve

Smoked Pork Chops with Fancy Potatoes and Pomegranate

Serve with Hanzell “Sebella” Pinot Noir 2009

This is the ultimate easy meal that looks so fancy. Using pre-smoked pork chops adds a ton of flavor and saves you time and extra steps because they are already fully cooked. To keep in line with our Valentine’s theme, pomegranate seeds add a pop of red color and a punch of sweetness.

Ingredients
1-2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large shallot, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup half and half
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 smoked pork chops
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add carrots and cook for 5 minutes. Add potatoes and continue to cook for 7-10 minutes until vegetables are fork tender. Drain.  Immediately add potatoes to a ricer and process into a large bowl.  In a seperate bowl do the same with carrots.

Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon butter to a small skillet. Add shallots and garlic. Cook over medium heat until they are soft and translucent, 4-5 minutes. Add half of the mixture to the riced carrots and half to the riced potatoes.

Add remaining butter and half and half to the potatoes and carrots (splitting the amount between the two). Mix each until combined and fluffy.  Add to a warm oven to keep temperature until you’re ready to serve.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops to sear, 4-5 minutes per side until a brown crust forms.  Remove from pan, allow to rest before serving.

Turn off heat on the pan and add 1/4 cup water to deglaze. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, creating a simple pan sauce.

While the meat is resting, begin to plate your potatoes and carrots. Add two large scoops of potatoes to each serving plate in the center of the plate, diagonal from each other. Add two small scoops of carrot in between the potatoes to create a circle. With a knife, swirl the potatoes and carrots together, making a tie-dyed design.

To plate add pork chop on top of the potatoes. Add 1 tablespoon of the pan sauce and generously sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Blood Oranges with Cinnamon Goat Cheese

Serve with Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Let’s start this romantic meal off with a pop of color and flavor.  The citrus and sweet taste of the blood oranges brings out the best in a creamy, tangy goat cheese – just like you bring out the best in your partner.

Ingredients
1 blood orange, peeled and segmented
1/2 cup goat cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Whole grain crackers

In a small bowl, mix goat cheese and cinnamon until well combined. Using two spoons form into an oval shape and add to the center of your serving platter.

Add oranges and crackers to the plate.  Simple as that!