Sunday, August 7, 2011

Saturday night – Mick’s Mom joins us for dinner – Part 2


For the third course I did Hummus with Pita and a Tomato salad with Greek feta and fresh herbs. I paired this with a 2006 d'Arenberg “The Hermit Crab” Viognier-Marsanne. This wine we have had a number of times so I won’t be reviewing it in detail. It was its usual excellent pairing with the hummus and was good with the tomato salad.


Irene wanted the recipe I used to make the hummus -
http://mideastfood.about.com/od/appetizerssnacks/r/hummusbitahini.htm so here it is. Couple of notes, it asks for 3-5 Tablespoons of Lemon – go with 3 Tablespoons and not a drop more. I like lemon but find any more than the 3 Tablespoons and it is too much. Also it asks for 2 cloves of garlic… just do the 2 cloves as any more and the garlic will over power everything.
Irene wanted the recipe I used for my hummus -





For the main course, Mick and I decided to ‘kick it Old School’ and went with NY Strips with Zippy Sauce and grilled veggies as a side. I picked a bottle of 2002 Robert Mondavi "Oakville" Cabernet Sauvignon as my pairing for this course.



The nose on the wine was anise, cedar, raspberry, blackberry and green pepper. Tasting the wine you’ll notice big fruit flavours of black cherry, blackberry and cassis. Considering this wine was a 2002, I was very surprised at how much fruit was there. The structure on the wine was very nice with soft tannin, good acidity and great fruit; this wine has aged very well. It was a great pairing with the food.




Here is the group rating for the wine – Mick - 90, Mark - 90, Kathy – 87, Amy – 89, Overall – 89.


There is no LCBO information on this wine but I’m pretty sure I picked this up at the LCBO years ago for around $60.




For dessert I picked up a La Rocca “Ruby Red Velvet” cake for dessert which made a nice ending to the meal.

It was fun having Irene join us and it was a fun night of good food, wine and conversation and you really can’t ask for much more than that!


Cheers!


Mark

1 comment:

Irene said...

I am my usual tardy self in expressing my appreciation for a wonderful evening. What a great opportunity to learn more about wine tasting and food pairing. Prosecco is one of my favourite things, and with this fantastic appetizer, it was truly amazing!

My compliments to Amy for her beautiful photos.

Mick's spicy shrimp with mint sauce is one of my favourites.

Mark's hummus was the best I've had, and I will definitely be making it.

Were the striploins ever tasty, especially with Zippy Sauce. Thanks for the take home sauce, Mark.

I'm not a big fan of cakes, but this one was unbelievably good - chocolate with a most delicious cream cheese icing. So glad I got a piece to take home for next day.

Although I am an oenophile, I am no connoisseur, and I found the tasting comments most fascinating. As a fan of full-bodied reds, I have come to appreciate whites, thanks to the food pairings.

Once again, many thanks for the honour of participating in this most delightful evening, and for finally getting to view the lovely new kitchen Kathy.