Saturday Night – It’s a Surprise – Part 1

I had been feeling under the weather all week as I was shaking a cold. On top of this I worked Friday night until midnight and it was after 2:00am before I got to bed Friday. I woke up at 10:00am but hadn’t slept well through the night so I was bagged and after lunch I went back to bed. I woke up at 4:00pm (not meaning to sleep that late), had a shower and started to think about dinner when the phone rang at 4:30pm. It was Mick, wondering what the plan was for this evening, to which I replied “Dinner here, 6:30pm”. Mick’s next question was what was on the menu and my reply was “It’s a surprise”. The conversation ended a minute or two later and I hung up the phone and thought “It’s a surprise alright, as even I don’t know what we are having yet!”.

"Born to go with hummus!"

I browsed over my trusty recipe book and found the appetizer – hummus with pita but didn’t figure out the main course. I decided to wing the main course and used a sauce base from “pasta with lemon cream and prosciutto” to do a lemon cream sauce. In the original recipe, the sauce is finished off with canned peas, fresh mint and prosciutto, I left these out and finished the new sauce off with just thyme instead. For the pasta the original recipe is penne but I want to go with fresh pasta instead and went with cheese filled tortellini. I picked up 4 skinless/boneless Maple Prime chicken breasts and marinated them in Italian dressing once I got home and 16 large frozen shrimp which were de-thawed and then lightly coated in olive oil. To finish the dish off, I picked up a container of cherry tomatoes and some green onions.

"Really good but too filling!"

I just finished up prepping everything as Mick and Amy arrived. We started with the hummus and pita and a bottle of d’Arenberg Viognier. We have had this combination before -

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-years-eve-2009-part-1.html

Once we finished the main course, I grabbed the chicken out of the fridge and fired up the outside BBQ. The sky while I was out there was getting very dark and I knew we were in for a heck of a storm. I just finished grilling the chicken and got back inside when it poured. I tented the chicken and got the water going for the pasta and started on the sauce. 15 minutes later the sauce was done, the pasta was done and shrimp were grilled (on the indoor BBQ thus saving me from getting soaked!) and I was serving up the food.

"Oakland isn't just a city in California but also a wine :)"

To go with the pasta, I picked a bottle of 2004 Toasted Head Chardonnay. Mick had poured this out for the table while I was cooking and him and the wives were trying it. Mick’s first comment about the wine was “holy oak monster!”. I smiled to myself as he said it as that was the exact reason I picked this wine; the lemon cream sauce is very lemony and there is Cayenne pepper in the sauce which gives it a pretty good kick and with the cherry tomatoes and green onions this dish has some pretty big flavours to it and I felt a subtly oaked French Chardonnay would disappear against it hence the big oaky California wine as the pairing.

The nose on the wine Mick described as musty vanilla bean. There were also aromas of nectarine, caramel and floral notes. Tasting this wine before the food, I agreed with Mick’s assessment of “oak monster” as there was nothing subtle about the oak on this wine. There was also a sharpness to the wine that surprised me. Trying the wine with the food was whole different story, my god was it good; smooth, nice fruit and the food mellowed the oak flavour right out. I was stunned by the difference between the wine with food and without; it was like they were two different wines.

Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 88, Mark – 88, Kathy – 85, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.75.

One note I should put in here, for my rating I tend to heavily weight the wine on how it pairs with the food and I think Mick tends to do this as well where as the ladies tend to rate the wine on its own merits. My 88 rating would drop to about an 83 if no food was involved.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

Toasted Head Chardonnay (V)

Vintages 594341
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 17.95
Wine, White Wine,
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : D
Made in: California/Californie, United States
By: R.H. Phillips Vineyard and Winery
Release Date: May 23, 2009

Description - The name Toasted Head refers to the barrels used to age this wine. Usually, only the barrel walls are charred, but, in this case, the heads are toasted too. The resulting wine is filled with aromas of smoky apple-cinnamon, pear, vanilla and toasty oak. Full-bodied with a medium-long finish, it's a perfect companion to roast pork with apples, or a Wellington made with smoked salmon.

A quick note on the main course, it was quite good but there were a few suggestions made. Amy suggested penne and Kathy suggested angel hair pasta as the dish was extremely filling and the cheese filled tortellini were overkill. Mick’s suggested the leave out the shrimp or to quote “The shrimp were good don’t get me wrong but the chicken and the way it soaked up the sauce was excellent”. I will redo this dish in the future and change the pasta and leave out the shrimp as I agreed with everyone’s suggestions.

Click here for Part 2