Sunday Night – Holiday Weekend, Part 1

Usually when deciding on a Saturday night menu, one of three factors will drive the menu – meat, wine or peoples’ likes/dislikes; sometimes I’ll buy some nice steaks/salmon/pork tenderloin/etc. or I have a bottle of wine that I want to try or someone is coming over for dinner that doesn’t like seafood or loves seafood. Tonight’s menu was picked for a completely different reason…

My sister just bought her first house and moved in on Saturday, my wife Kathy asked her what she would like as a house warming gift (Home depot gift cards, plants, some sort of furnishing) and my sister’s answer of what she wanted – spiced pecans. My sister was by for dinner a few years back and I’d made my poached pear salad with spiced pecans and she absolutely loved the pecans.

"Poached Pears, Spiced Pecans, Blue Cheese on a bed of Spinach with Raspberry dressing"

They are very easy to make - buy a good sized bowl full of raw pecan halves, pour them out into a metal baking pan, melt a half to a full (enough so all of the pecans can be lightly coated in butter) stick of butter in the microwave and then pour the butter over the pecans to coat. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and set your rack height to the middle of the oven.

Lastly season the pecans with Cajun seasoning (probably around a tablespoon… enough so all the pecan get a very light coating of it). Place the tray in the oven. At five and ten minutes stir the pecans so they all cook evenly. Pull them out if at ten minute mark the pecans are turning dark brown. If they aren’t browned at ten minutes, give them 2 more minutes and stir and check them again, keep doing this 2 minute drill until browned (usually I find between 14-16 minutes total is about right for my oven). Once browned pull them out of the oven and transfer to a paper towel lined plate to cool. After 20 minutes put them in a sealable plastic container and refrigerate. I find these can easily be stored for up to a week.

"Not a bad wine for the price"

So as I made up a large batch of them on Saturday. poached pear salad was the first item on the menu. I paired this with a 2007 Balthasar Ress Kabinett Riesling.

The nose on the Riesling contained aromas of pineapple, peach and floral notes. Tasting the wine you noticed lively citrus flavours but a short and some what disappointing finish. The wine was nicely balanced and was a really good match for the poached pear salad. My wife described the wine as “smells pretty, tastes good.” which sums it up quite nicely. I’d describe this wine as good but missing that certain something to make it magical.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 87, Mark – 88, Kathy – 87, Amy – 88, Overall – 87.5.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine -

Balthasar Ress Riesling Kabinett 2007

VINTAGES 735241
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.95
Wine, White Wine,
10.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : MD
Made in: Rhine Rhinegau, Germany
By: Stefan Ress

Release Date: Dec 6, 2008 Description - Balthasar Ress is blessed with access to some of the finest vineyards in the Rheingau like the Schützenhaus vineyard near the village of Hattenheim. The 2007 vintage is yet another dynamic, flavourful, beautifully balanced Riesling that is made with laser beam precision. A fantastic value, enjoy this wine with a variety of seafoods, asparagus, cloved ham, vegetarian curries or just chill and sip on its own.

Click here for Part 2