Birthday Dinner

Well it was my beautiful wife’s birthday and that called for a special dinner.  Since one of her favorite foods is lobster tail (and Wegman’s happened to have a couple of them) we decided on that as the main course.  Unfortunately the tails were a little on the small size so we supplemented them with some scallops.  Combined with baked potatoes and roasted broccoli and we had my wife’s perfect birthday dinner. 

Perhaps even more surprising was that we paired the dinner with a WHITE wine.  As it turned out, the Chateau St Jean Fume Blanc was an extraordinary pairing.  The nose and taste showed fresh pineapple and lemons which complimented the seafood excellently.  In fact, we decided that this was one of the best pairings we have EVER had.  It is definitely recommended … although I can’t say it went with the chocolate very well (make note that for my birthday we need red wine for dessert).

Rainy Days and Monday ...

The rainy weather decided on the dinner tonight.  In an effort to change our mood from the cool wet evening, I decided to make a special chili.  Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili looked like an excellent alternative to the usual hamburger infused version.   This turned out to be easy to make and was both spicy and tasty (although it did not have the same appeal as a regular fat enriched chili).   If you have vegetarian tendencies, I can recommend this as a good alternative … if you are a dedicated meat eater, look for another recipe.

We paired the dinner with a Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel.  This 2009 Rubus was good for a Zinfandel, but we have gotten away from the berry and fruit flavors of a standard Zin and therefore did not like this as well as some of our other wines.  Never-the-less, the wine did pair well with the chili and especially well with the chocolate.

Playing with the New Machine

Sorry, it has been a while since I have been inspired to write on this blog, but the spring weather today has certainly inspired me!  First let me apologize for the lack of wine in this posting.  We recently purchased a “Margarita Machine” and I just had to try it (mainly to reward my wife on Mothers day … that’s my story and I am sticking to it).  First I made some BBCs with banana, coconut rum, Baileys, and Disaronno.  These were very good but I have yet to get the hang of the “machine” to make a silky smooth daiquiri type drink.  I followed this up with some home made margaritas which were of the right consistency.  I guess there is a reason it is called a Margarita Machine.

            Meanwhile I actually cooked something for dinner!  Since the basil is in, we started off with caprese.   As you can see from the picture, this turned out very well and there was enough basil to make it the way I like it and not the way it seems you get it in Italy (with just a small taste of basil).  

            We also had some left over rice which my wife had the idea to combine with broccoli, fresh lemon juice, and dried cherries.  This and some roasted onions turned out to be very good side dishes for the main course of Salmon.  

            When we last went to Wegmans (yes that is still our grocery store of choice) they had "King Salmon" for a premium price.  Although we had never had this version of Salmon before, knowing that Sunday would be a special day (remember Mothers Day?) we elected to splurge on this fish and boy am I glad we did!  The fish was melt in your mouth good and when topped with a mild horseradish sauce was truly memorable (it even paired well with the Margaritas).  

            To return to one of the main reasons for this blog, we finished the dinner with a Port from Veritas.  This is a Virginia winery which has a special place in our heart since it is where our son will be getting married this summer.  Anyway, the Port was an excellent pairing with the dessert chocolate. All things considered, I believe my wife had a good mother’s day and I know I did also.

Beets that CAN be Beat

The beets were supposed to be the star.  This weekend we found some orange beets at our local grocery store and I was excited to try my hand with them.  Looking through the internet, I finally found a recipe that looked interesting.  Roasted Carrots and Beets with the Juiciest Pork Chops by Jamie Oliver looked like a real winner.  So with grand anticipation, I merrily set to work fixing the carrots and beets for the roasting pan.  I also prepared some broccoli for roasting since we needed something green (other than the rosemary on the beets). 

Anyway, I put the beets and carrots in the oven and about 40 minutes later I put the broccoli in.  At the 55 minute mark, I started some pork chops and anticipated the entire dinner would be ready in about 15-20 minutes.  Imagine my disappointment when I checked the beets after 70 minutes of cooking and discovered they were as hard as they were when I first put them into the oven … unfortunately they were also getting quite black.  We covered them and continued roasting for another 20 minutes while I pulled the broccoli out of the oven.  I also turned the pork chops way down and covered them to stall their cooking. 

When I came back to the kitchen to check on everything, I found the pork chops swimming in a pool of their own juices (by the way, it’s never a good idea to boil meat) and the broccoli was cold.  The only fix I knew of was to put the broccoli back into the oven while I partially drained the pork chops and turned them on high.  A long 10 minutes later, I served this disaster.  I have to say it was better than I expected but not nearly as good as I had hoped.  The beets and carrots were still hard (even after more than an hour and 45 minutes in the oven) but the pork was surprisingly tender after being boiled alive.  As you can see from the picture above the plate even looked presentable.  All things considered this was a dinner which provided nourishment but was far short of the anticipation.

As a contrast, the dinner was paired with a 2008 Corbières Rouge, Grande Cuvée from Castelmaure Vineyards.   This wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan and was purchased for about $12.  It is rated 91 points by wine enthusiast and was dark and intense and paired well with the pork and (highlight of the dinner) the chocolate.

Wild Boar

One of my favorite diners in Italy was a Wild Boar Pappardelle.  This was served with fantastic Chianti and made for a fabulous meal!  I have been trying to figure out how to recreate this ever since.  My daughter even went so far as to give me a pasta machine for my birthday so that I could make the Pappardelle pasta.  I was thus only missing the key ingredient … wild boar.  You would think that finding a boar in the DC area would not be that difficult but for some counterintuitive reason it seemed to be.

Imagine my excitement when we found a Wild Boar shoulder at Wegman’s this weekend!  I could finally recreate my vision of culinary nirvana.  After a search on the internet I found a recipe by Anne Burrell.  The fact that it included unsweetened cocoa powder only served to convince me that this was the recipe I should attempt.  After three hours of cooking, it turned out very well if I do say so myself.  The boar was very tender and the sauce was thick and rich.  The only improvement I could make would be to add fresh ground nutmeg early in the cooking to give the dish a little more depth.  I even had some success with the pasta.  I have to admit that it was not as good as that memorable meal in Italy but it was never-the-less delicious and worth a repeat performance.

The dinner was paired with what has become our house wine  and a wine I have talked about before.  d’Arc from Tre Donne is a delicious wine we discovered at a local wine shop in Fredericksburg.  It is a blend of varietals from the Piedmont region of Italy and is smooth and intense and paired well with both the boar and the chocolate.

Homemade Pasta

      I have always wanted to try to make my own handmade pasta.  So, when I received a pasta maker for my birthday, I knew I would have to try my hand at the challenge!  I made a whole wheat pasta (1 cup whole wheat flour, ½ cup all purpose flour, 2 eggs, and a small amount of olive oil) and it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be … although it was also messier than I had hoped it would be.  I topped the fettuccini pasta with a homemade marinara sauce with mushrooms.  Sprinkled with freshly ground parmesan and the dish was actually good enough to be served at the Trattoria.

      We paired the pasta with a 2005 Bordeaux Superieur.  This was a very complex wine with a smooth finish that complimented the acids in the pasta excellently!  Of course it also went well with chocolate.

Nothing Special

We really had nothing special tonight.  We sautéed Mahi Mahi with some Island Fish Spice and combined it with roasted butternut squash and left over roasted Brussels sprouts from last night.  It all made for a tasty dinner with little effort.

This was paired with one of our house red wines, Les Enfants Terribles.  I have written about this $10 wine earlier and it is still as good as it ever was.  By the way, although I said it was nothing special … I may have lied because the chocolate pairing was special.