Saturday Night - Summer Time, baby!

This Saturday we were back to Mick and Amy’s house for dinner. Last time we were there, Mick did BBQ chicken wings. Everyone liked them but I was curious what they would be like if Mick substituted organic curry powder for the cayenne pepper in the recipe. So Mick decided to give that idea a go.

"These aren't your average chicken wings!"

He served the wings with lime wedges and sour cream. The wings on their own didn’t seem as flavourful as the first time but the addition of lime juice and sour cream really bumped them up a notch. The sour cream made them seem much more substantial then the original ones.

"Good, but unremarkable..."

Mick’s wine pairing to go with the wings was a 2004 ‘Vintner’s Blend’ Ravenswood Zinfandel. The wine was a good match not amazing but easy enough to drink with the wings.

LCBO Information - RAVENSWOOD VINTNERS BLEND ZINFANDEL

Vintages 359257
750 mL bottle

Price: $ 17.95
13.6% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : D
Made in: California, United States
By: Ravenswood Lynn Rogers
Release Date: Oct 13, 2007

Description - Ravenswood's Zin is ready for any occasion with aromas of spice, raspberry, and mocha. Soft and round with lots of fruit and cocoa flavour, enjoy it with pork chops or roasted duck.

For the main course, Mick did NY Strips with grilled vegetables. The NY Strips were served with Zippy Sauce. This combo is a usual Saturday night favourite in the summer. With the nice weather we had for the day and the steak, it made it feel like summer had arrived.

"Hello, old friend, hello... it's good to need you so!"

For the wine pairing with the NY strips, Mick chose to go with another old favourite – Beringer 2002 ‘Founder’s Estate’ Cabernet Sauvignon and a new challenger - a Geyser Peak 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon.

On their own the Geyser Peak was better of the two, nice fruit to start, good mid-palate and a clean finish. The Beringer’s had ok fruit to start and wasn’t bad on the mid-palate but had an odd finish. With the food, the wines were just plain weird; sometimes the Geyser Peak was good but at other times it picked up a really mean sharpness to it. The Beringer was moving between OK and just plain bad with the food.

"Life is like a box of chocolates!"

The Beringer’s 2002 ‘Founder’s Estate’ Cabernet Sauvignon was the biggest surprise; this wine with NY strips is usually a great pairing. The dish was much more peppery than usual; Mick was a little overzealous with the steak spice on either the strips or veggies so maybe that was the cause. The bottle didn’t have a musty smell or any other noticeable faults. Maybe the 2002 wasn’t the usual blend or wasn’t a great year for the wine.

The upside was the steaks were beautifully cooked and Mick also did a great job with the grilled vegetables.

LCBO Information - BERINGER FOUNDERS CAB SAUV

LCBO# 534263
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 18.30
Limited Time Offer
Was: $ 19.80
Now: $ 18.30
Save: $ 1.50 (Until May 25, 2008)
13.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 1
Made in: California, United States
By: Beringer Vineyards

Tasting Note - Ruby red colour; forward cassis and spice in the nose that follows through to the palate; dry and medium-bodied with ripe fruit mid-palate and fruity, oaky vanillin notes in finish.

Serving Suggestion - Grilled or roasted red meats, spicy chicken dishes and medium cheese.

*Note - wine above is probably 2005 or 2006 and not the 2002 in the blog

The LCBO doesn’t carry the Geyser Peak reviewed here. Mick picked this up in the US. Here is the information from the Wine Spectator on it –

Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County Reserve 1999
Rating – 86
Price - $40 US (roughly $65 after duty/exchange/tax)

Intensely fragrant, with loads of Asian five-spice, cedar, lavender and blueberry tones. Tannins clamp down quickly, with earth, tart fresh herbs and toasted oak flavors. Drink now through 2008. 5,200 cases made.

I had no idea what the price of the Geyser Peak was until I looked it up, at $40 US a bottle this one is a definite pass – there are much better wines out there for less money.

The dessert for the evening was a Truffle Royale cake. The Geyser Peak was the clear winner here as well but the Beringer’s improved from the previous course.

It goes to show how fickle wine and food pairing can sometimes be – you have a great pairing and then you do it again at another time and the dish changes slightly or the year of the wine changes and it’s a whole new ball game.

Cheers!

Mark.

Saturday Night - Honey Ginger Shrimp Pasta

I hadn’t done my gorgonzola dip in long time, so that was my starter for the evening. I usually pair this dish with a Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc, but I had picked up a bottle of 2006 Henri Bourgeois “Les Baronnes” from Sancerre (Loire) France. I tried this bottle in February during Wine Club as a counter point to the Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc.

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/02/wine-club-sauvignon-blanc.html

I really liked it then and thought Mick, Amy and my wife would like it too.

I’m finding French white wines don’t ‘blow me away’ or cause me to go ‘Oh my God! This wine is like heaven in a glass’ but instead tend to quietly grow on me as I drink them. The Henri Bourgeois is a perfect example of that. It was gently crisp and refreshing against the gorgonzola dip with a nice minerality to it. I was wasn’t knock out of my shoes by it, but kept going to back to it and enjoying each sip. The four of us killed the bottle very quickly and once it was gone I found myself looking longingly at my empty glass wishing for more.

"Steamy"

With a new recipe, I tend to be some what methodical in my approach. First do the recipe to its exact directions. If the recipe is good, I will break it down and try to make it mine by changing or modifying the ingredients. Case in point, the Honey Ginger Shrimp recipe I did last week –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/03/saturday-night-my-turn.html

The recipe was good but after we had it, Mick thought it would be good as a pasta sauce by adding some coconut milk to it. I decided he was right and so that was our main course for the evening.

I picked some fresh Angel hair pasta. I did the recipe the same as I did the last time but added a ¼ cup of coconut milk to the recipe as the pasta sauce base. I want the sauce to be a dry sauce and not drown the flavor of the vegetables and shrimp. I cooked the pasta separate from the sauce but after straining it from the salt water, I added it to the skillet with the sauce and vegetables. The pasta absorbed the last bits of liquid from the pan so I got my dry sauce I was looking for.

"Tiny bubbles!"

The Pinot Gris was a good pairing last time but not perfect so I thought I’d take a shot at another pairing. I went with the Santa Margherita Prosecco Di Valdobbiadene I had at Wine Club this past Thursday.

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/04/april-wine-club-meeting.html

"You can see the flakes of crushed red pepper... spicy"

The flavour to the pasta was incredible. I couldn’t believe how much of the flavor the sauce the pasta had taken on. It was still extremely spicy, I thought the coconut milk would have help tone down the crushed red peppers but I didn’t seem to help that much.

Mental note - cut the teaspoon of crushed red pepper down to half a teaspoon for next time.

The Prosecco was a bit of a disappointment with the dish. I wasn’t bad but something in the dish was giving it issues and making it seem very sweet. I suspect the ginger or the spice the dish might be the culprits. I think the Cava or the Champagne that we had at Wine Club might fair better.

Trying new pairings is part of the fun of wine matching – not everyone is going to be a winner.

Cheers!

Mark

April Wine Club meeting

This past Thursday was the 10th meeting of Wine Club. To stay on track with our mission statement to not repeat a grape and to try different countries and wine regions this month we took a look at sparkling wines.

Mick served a Prosecco in the recent past that was excellent with the pan-seared scallops topped with crab.

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/03/saturday-night-snow-problem.html

The Prosecco was $13 a bottle. This got me thinking that I had serious underestimated sparkling wines as a food pairing and that was how this Wine Club meeting was centered around sparkling wine.

For the wine choices we went ‘Old World’ – a Champagne from France, a Prosecco from Italy and a Cava from Spain.

LCBO Information – Santa Margherita Prosecco Di Valdobbiadene (Brut)

Stock Number – 687582
Volume - 750mL
Price: $ $ 17.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Veneto, Italy
By: S. Margherita S.P.A.
Release Date: Mar 15, 2008

Description - From the producer of the most popular wine in our Essentials Collection (Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, 106450), comes this fresh, flavourful, crowd-pleasing sparkling wine. Enjoy it as a palate refresher with which to greet guests or to accompany appetizers such as pancetta-wrapped tiger shrimp and roasted asparagus.

LCBO Information – Codorniu Reserva Raventos & Pinot Noir Brut

Stock Number – 6379
Volume – 2x750mL
Price: $ 25.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Penedes, Spain
By: Codorniu S.A.
Release Date: Oct 27, 2007

Description – Producer (tasting) notes: 'Attractive and up-scale premium Cava twin-pack includes the Codorníu Pinot Noir and Reserva Raventós. Codorníu Reserva Raventós: Bright, pale yellow colour. Interesting fruity nose due to the blend of three different varieties and complexity of bottle ageing. Serve chilled. Codorníu Pinot Noir: Pale and refreshing sparkling cherry-red colour along with fine, plentiful and perpetual fizz.' Also, from back labels: Codorníu Reserva Raventós: An exceptional wine from Spain, cava is crafted using the 'traditional method': natural sparkle, second fermentation in bottle, a minimum of 9 months ageing. Codorníu is one of the world's oldest family enterprises, innovative and passionate about cava and winemaking. Reserva Raventós was released in 1997 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Codorníu Cavas. A unique blend of traditional cava grapes with chardonnay; complex, full-bodied and elegant with fine, persistent bubbles. Codorníu Pinot Noir: Codorníu Pinot Noir is distinguished by an abundance of mature berry aromas and flavours. Balanced with a touch of fresh citrus, elegant and abundant bubbles echo persistently on the finish.' This gift pack offers excellent value and is a much better deal to buy the two together then to buy them separately. Cavas are one of the most reliable sources of good-valued Traditional Method sparkling wine. Traditional Method refers to the expensive process of secondary bottle fermentation that is employed in Champagne.

LCBO Information – Philippe Gonet Blanc De Blancs Champagne (Brut)

Stock Number – 692699
Volume - 750mL
Price: $ 47.75 (+ $.20 deposit)
Made in: Champagne, France
By: Champagne Gonet Philippe Et Fils
Release Date: Mar 15, 2008

Description – As with most great Champagne producers, Gonet selects grapes (100% Chardonnay, in this case) from two superb vintages to make their non-vintage bubbly. In this case, 30% came from the 1997 vintage and 70% from the 1998.

Tasting Note - Great fresh Chardonnay flavors give this Champagne a good lift. It is fresh, but has some good structure, as well as enticing, creamy, nutty flavors. The acidity gives the whole wine a sense of crispness. Score - 89. (Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast, Dec. 1, 2005)

There is quite a range in price with the single bottle of Cava at $13, the Prosecco at $18 and the Champagne at $49. I was interested to see how they compared to each other.

To go with the sparkling wines, Katie brought in a selection of cheese and crackers as well as a liver pâté and salmon pâté.

All three of the sparklers were ‘Brut’ or dry but there was a big difference in dryness between the three of them. The Champagne seemed bone dry where as the Prosecco almost seemed sweet in comparison and the Cava was somewhere between the two.

I liked all three of the wines as each of them had a strong showing with a different food pairing. The Champagne was really good with the liver pâté as it had some cracked pepper corns in it that spiced it up. The Prosecco went nicely with the maple salmon pâté; the sweetness of both the pâté and the Prosecco work nicely together. The Cava was my favourite with the cheese.

The breakdown on favourites were – 2 for the Champagne, 7 for the Prosecco and 1 (me) neutral. The people who liked the Prosecco, generally did not like the Champagne very much at all. The Cava seemed to be everyone’s second favourite. I think the deciding factor here was the dryness level, if you really like extremely dry, crisp wines the Champagne was your thing, if you like a touch of sweetness to round out the wine, it was the Prosecco.

I wanted to show that sparkling wine wasn’t just for special occasions and that at $13-$18 a bottle it was a very well price alternative to standard table wine. As everyone sat enjoying the wines with the different foods, I think most saw the potential there for pairing them with food courses.

Cheers!

Mark

Saturday Night – Mick decides to “wing” it

It was Mick’s turn to cook this week and he had a number of new goodies on tap for us to try.

"Not your everyday wings!"

The first course Mick dived into his favourite cooking bible known as the “Weber Cookbook” and barbequed chicken wings were the result. I’m used to chicken wings being deep fried and smothered in sauce so BBQ dry wings took some getting used. The meat was flavorful, tender and extremely plentiful for chicken wings.

"This is a Zin?"

Mick was pairing red Zinfandel with 2 of the 3 course so for the first course he poured out two Zins for us to try – a 2005 “Sonoma County” by Seghesio and 2003 “Lodi” by Ravenswood.

"The girl next door"

The Seghesio on its own was a thing of beauty, so deep and rich it almost had Cabernet Sauvignon like qualities. Very nice wine. The Ravenswood Lodi was more like a basic Zinfandel, big fruit and body on nose, large mouth-feel and a touch of sharpness to it. I think the Ravenswood biggest problem was the company it was keeping hanging out with the Seghesio – kind of like the ‘girl next door’ hanging out with a super model; she’s pretty but you don’t notice her with the super model around.

With the chicken wings the Seghesio was the clear winner as well.

These wines were both purchased down in NY state by Mick on our last wine run. The LCBO had neither listed in stock.

The Wine Spectator had this to say about the Segesio –

Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma County 2005 – Rating 90, price $20 US (33 CDN)

Jam-packed with ripe cherry and boysenberry fruit and backed up with juicy, zesty flavors and notes of spice, star anise and toasty oak. Has a backbone of ripe tannins. Drink now through 2010. 60,400 cases made. –JL

The Wine Spectator didn’t review the 2003 Ravenswood “Lodi” but they did review other years and the price was $15 US ($25 CDN) for all of them.

"A white blend that is good!"

The next course was a pan-seared Rainbow Trout with a cornmeal crust and a caper butter sauce. For this, Mick picked a Hayman Hill reserved white blend to go with it. The wine was interesting as it had such a strong lemon taste to it that I was wondering if it was made from lemons rather than grapes. This lemon flavour worked great against Trout and the butter sauce and made it a very enjoyable wine. I’m not a huge fan of white blends but this one was really good.

I could find any information on this wine from the LCBO so I’m assuming Mick snagged this baby in the US. The Wine Spectator didn’t have any reviews on this wine either but did have three other Hayman Hill wines listed and they were all around a $14-15 US price point.

"Chipotle goodness"

The main course was an old favourite of everyone’s – Chipotle pork tenderloin on a bed of mixed greens. We were back to the earlier Zinfandels for this dish and a funny thing happen – The Ravenswood was better than Seghesio. Not sure if it was the Chipotle or the mandarins in the salad but something was giving the Seghesio fits with dish. Now the plain ‘girl next door’ Ravenwood, let her hair down, tossed off her glasses and undid a few buttons and now was just darn right sexy!

I do think that the way wine changes with food is one of the coolest things ever. So the next time a wine is so-so with something, try another bottle of it with a different dish and see what happens.

Cheers!

Mark

A Montfort Friday night

We got together with Mick and Amy last night. Amy was in Las Vegas last week on a business trip, so we missed getting together with Amy last week. We went back and forth on the phone trying to decide what to eat and finally settled on Montfort takeout. I have covered Montfort before -

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2007/11/montfort-restaurants.html

Once we decided on the food, Mick and I argued over the wine. In the end, Mick had a bottle of white Bordeaux that he really wanted to try with it.

"A good blend"

Mick and Amy came by with the food and the wine and we unpack it all and sat down to eat. The white Bordeaux was a 2005 Clarence Dillion Clarendelle. Mick said it was a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion blend which I remember is typical grapes of white Bordeaux. My first thoughts upon tasting it were light, easy drinking but it was more like a light Viognier than a Sauvignon Blanc.

It was a good but not great match with the hummos, tomatoes, and Montfort chicken in a pita. After dinner I retired to the living-room with Mick for a cigarette and that it where this wine really shined – on its own. It was very easy drinking and refreshing. This would be a perfect wine in the summer sitting out on the deck with the chilled glass of this in my hand. I asked Mick the price and he said it was $21-$22 (the LCBO’s website is listing for $27 so he probably got it on sale).

LCBO Information -

2005 Clarence Dillion Clarendelle White
Vintages 28845
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 26.75
12.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Made in: Bordeaux, France
By: Clarence Dillon S.A.
Release Date: Jun 9, 2007

Tasting Note - Clarendelle Blanc is a typical blend for the region of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, about 60 per cent Semillon in this case. It has a very pale gold colour, and a subtle, fresh nose of peaches and pear, with a little floral note and just a hint of a mealy richness. On the palate it is medium-bodied with punchy white fruit flavours, and a dry, mineral acidity running through it. This is very restrained and grown-up in style, with minimal oak influence and a food-friendly, savoury quality. (Tom Cannavan, wine-pages.com, Aug. 2006)

Pros – easy drinking, great on its own.

Cons – better food wines out there, price – at $27 there are better wines out there for less money.

Cheers!

Mark

TL Lunch

I work for a mid-sized accounting firm in the Hamilton-Burlington area called Taylor Leibow LLP – http://www.taylorleibow.com. Tax season is by far and away our busiest time of year. Partners and staff this time of year are working insane hours. The odd thing is as I do the IT support for the firm this tends to be a slower time of year for me as the network during this time stays very static. So for the past 4 or 5 Tax seasons, I have done a Tax season lunch for the whole firm.

"Pasta with lemon cream and prosciutto"

The firm took over the rest of the 8th floor in our building about two years ago and in the new area they build a good size kitchen/dining area. The kitchen was done in a 50’s style dinner motif and is stunning. It has good seating and a Fridge, freezer, small toaster oven and a microwave. This large dining area is very useful as the firm has around 60 staff.

"The buffet line"

The downside to the kitchen is there is no full-sized stove in the kitchen, so it limits which hot dishes I can do. Years back I bought a portable hot plate, so my lunches usually are a huge pot of soup, salad, and various cold appetizers.

"Salads and Sushi"

This past Thursday I had this year’s Tax season lunch. This year I decided to add another hot dish to the lunch – pasta. I bought another portable hot plate and two large stainless steel chafing dishes to keep the pasta warm. Here is the complete menu –

Pasta with lemon cream and prosciutto

Carrot soup with fire-roasted chilies
Hummos with pita
Tomato and feta salad
Poached pear salad
Mixed green salad
Sushi from Hoya (Local Sushi place)

"Lunch!"

The wines I went with were –

Rosenblum 2006 Zinfadel
Bouchard, Pere & Fils 2006 Petit Chablis
Robert Mondavi 2005 Riesling

I had ten different people in the firm volunteer to make a dessert, so the selection of sweet goodies was quite impressive.

"Rolling up my sleeves and getting back to it!"

I really enjoy the challenge of cooking for 60 people. Trying to figure how much to make is probably the biggest problem. The pasta recipe I multiplied by eight and was going to make it in two batches of four. The problem was the portable hotplate I have took forever to heat anything.

I can make this recipe in about 25 minutes at home. I put on the water and started the sauce at 10:20am. The sauce wasn’t ready until 11:30am and the pasta just finished cooking at noon. The four batches just managed to fill the two chaffing dishes. I started the second batch of sauce at noon but was holding much hope in finishing it before the lunch was over. Thankfully, there was still some pasta left in the chaffing dishes after everyone went through the buffet line for the first time. Though the pasta was all gone by the end of the lunch. The second batch, I finished making the sauce by 1:15pm and broke it down in small containers for a number of people to take home (including some for myself).

"Wine goggles"

I think there was enough food as there was still hummos, mixed green salad, carrot soup and sushi left at the end of it and there were still desserts left as well. I did surprise me that the Tomato and Feta salad went as I made a ton of it. I remember that for next year and make more of it next time.

"Just finishing up"

I think the Riesling was the most popular which, as it was sweeter, didn’t really surprise me. I found the Petit Chablis was a good match with the sushi. The 2006 Rosenblum Zinfandel was sharper than I expected it to be but it still was a good match for the carrot soup. The Zinfandel was under 15% alcohol for the first time in years and I wonder if the grapes weren’t as ripe as they have been in recent years as this would account for the lower alcohol and sharpness.

"Good but not great"

All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it did provide a small break from the rigors of Tax season. It was a lot of work and in the few nights leading up to it I was questioning why I do this but the funny thing is I’m already thinking of what dishes I can do next year.

Cheers!

Mark