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.

Cannelloni Beans from Italy

The last time we were in Italy we purchased a bag of dried cannelloni beans.  These are basically a white kidney bean which we use for one of our favorite dishes … Tuscan Chicken with White Beans and Wilted Greens (see a previous blog).  This time we decided to make something different with the beans so a search on food network dot com came up with Tuscan Shrimp with White Beans by Michael Chiarello.  We teamed the shrimp with roasted Brussels sprouts for a great and very filling dinner.

            The most difficult part of this meal preparation turned out to be the cannelloni beans.  We soaked them overnight but they were still hard so I put them in a skillet and added some water and let them simmer and simmer and simmer.  After about an hour and a half, the beans were finally soft and ready to serve.  As a contrast, the shrimp took about 10 minutes from initially putting the pan on the stove to putting the shrimp on the plate.

            The dinner was paired with a 2005 Valserrano Reserva.  This excellent red wine from Spain is an Alfio Moriconi selection from Total Wine.  It went very well with the dinner and of course paired well with the inevitable chocolate.

Wine was the Star

Our daughter is very partial to pumpkin so October is her favorite culinary time of year.  Therefore, when she found a recipe for pumpkin gnocchi she insisted that we make it and of course, since I like pasta, I readily agreed.  Although the dish used roasted butternut squash instead of pumpkin it surprisingly had the flavor and texture (and of course the color) of pumpkin.   This turned out to be unfortunate since when combined with the gnocchi it made a truly horrible (sticky and far too sweet) combination which could not be saved even when topped with toasted walnuts.  We were able to save the dinner somewhat by serving roasted tomatoes and onions on the side.

We paired the dinner with a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  “Cult” is an excellent wine with full body and very flavorful.  This complex wine was fantastic but even it could not bail out the disaster that was the gnocchi.  It did however go very well with the chocolate.

Missing New Orleans

It has been several years since we have been to New Orleans and I guess we were just missing it.  That is the only explanation I offer for why we were drawn to a Shrimp Creole with savory sautéed rice for dinner.  This was another volunteer from our Cuisine for Two cook book and it turned out to be just what we were interested in.  The seasonings on the Shrimp were perfect with just enough of a spice kick to give a little Creole burn.  The rice was sautéed in the pan with chunks of ham and green peppers and the cooked shrimp.  We added some roasted broccoli for a perfect meal and just let the good times roll.

            We paired the meal with a 2009 French cuvee which we purchased for about $10 per bottle.  Les Enfants Terribles is a blend of Mourvedre and Syrah which was a perfect compliment to the dinner.  The wine makers named the wine in honor of their 5 children and I can only guess at the mischief they must create.  Since the wine also compliments chocolate very well, I have to believe the “terrible children” must like chocolate which makes them all right in my book!

Coconut Fish

Tonight we decided to have Grilled Cilantro Fish in Coconut Broth.  This was another selection from our Cuisine for Two cookbook and was another winner.  The halibut was marinated in a cilantro and garlic marinade before it was grilled.  The recipe also included a sauce made with ginger, coconut milk, and serrano chile peppers.  We included black rice and roasted brussel sprouts for a delicious meal.  The halibut was great but the sauce was amazing and the black rice lent some body to the dish. 

It was a fantastic meal which we paired with a Vouvray wine.  Vouvray is a French white wine which went very well with the fish.  We topped off the dinner with a desert of pumpkin pie (seems like it is now fall).  The wine went superb with the pie but I have a suspicion it would have gone even better with chocolate.

Tarragon Chicken

If you follow this blog, you know we like chicken.  With that in mind, we searched the internet for a new recipe for a chicken dish.  We came across a Tarragon Chicken at myrecipes.com.  Since we still have some tarragon growing in the south forty of the gardens, we decided this would be a great dish to try out.  We combined the chicken with left over sautéed vegetables from last night and some roasted butternut squash.  I fix the butternut squash by cutting it into small pieces, drizzling olive oil over it, and sprinkling roasted cumin, salt, pepper, and nutmeg over it all.  As a side note, use fresh ground nutmeg … the difference is surprising.   By the way, when fixed this way, the butternut squash tastes and looks very similar to sweet potatoes (without the carbs).

            We paired the dinner with a 2010 Dogajolo Toscano.   This is a Sangiovese & Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Tuscany Italy which we purchased from Costco for about $10 a bottle.  Although I have to admit, we selected this bottle  because we liked the pretty label, it turned out to be a good wine that went very well with the dinner and even better with the chocolate!

White Again

Well we once again dived into our Cuisine for Two cookbook and found another new recipe.  This was for a Moroccan Spiced Halibut with sautéed vegetables and lemon parsley couscous.  The halibut had a delicious crust, the vegetables were fresh with a citrus flavor and the couscous was creamy and rich.  All in all, it was an excellent meal with only one problem … what wine to pair with it.

After a lot of soul searching we decided on a white?  That’s right, I said a white.  The Chateau St. Michelle Indian Wells Chardonnay turned out to be an excellent choice.  With flavors of pineapple and mango, it complemented the dinner perfectly!  And for a white wine it went ok with the chocolate.

Pepper Pork

We once again dived into the “Cuisine for Two” cookbook to find an alternative for dinner tonight.  When I stumbled on the recipe for pepper pork, I knew we had found another alternative to our regular Cruz Bay Grill Rub pork.  This recipe included pork with a spicy ground pepper corn crust and a delicious sauce with apple juice and calvados.  The menu also included an apple barley salad which went very well with the pork and roasted broccoli.  All in all, the dinner was excellent (however the sauce was fantastic).

This was paired with a 2009 Pinot Noir from France.  Red Bicyclette is a light wine which should pair well with poultry and seafood.  Although it was not a truly epic match, the wine did go well with the pork and just as well with the chocolate.

Maybe White?

We ran across a fantastic new book with healthy recipes called “Cuisine for Two” (before you tell me this has existed for years, let me state that it is at least new to us).   Anyway, the first dinner we decided to create was Pistachio Fish with Pineapple Rice.  The baked halibut with a pistachio crust was a great change from our usual way of cooking fish (with the island fish spice) and the pineapple rice was fantastic and a recipie we may try in the future with pork.

Unfortunately we tried to pair this dinner with one of our favorite red wines.  Les Enfants Terribles, is a 2009 blend of Mourvedre and Syrah.  At $8 per bottle this has become a wine we really enjoy.  However, I have to admit it did not pair very well with the fish and probably for the first time in a long time (maybe forever), I have to admit a white wine would have paired better.  We actually had a good white wine last night (a Chateau St Michelle Indian Wells Chardonnay) that would have paired perfectly with this dinner.  I know Tom … but this realization is probably what caused the earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods we have been plagued with.

On the flip side I can categorically state that the wine went perfectly with the chocolate!

German Heritage

My father thought I should pay some homage to my own heritage by sampling some traditional German fare in this blog.  So I thought, what could be more German than Sausage and Sauerkraut?   We bought some spicy chorizo chicken sausage from Wegmans.  These are not only low in fat, they are also very tasty.  We paired it with some sauerkraut we also purchased from Wegmans.  I split the sausages lengthwise and sautéed them in a pan, heated up the sauerkraut and had the start of a great dinner.  We had decided to make sandwiches with this combination so we purchased a loaf of focachia bread; split it and cut it into sandwich sized pieces.  Now all we needed was some Thousand Island dressing for the sandwich but (oh-no) we did not have any!  So my creative wife decided to try to make her own version.  She combined mayo, ketchup, relish, and some mustard and thereby made a great spread for the sandwiches.  Lastly, we added some whole wheat taco chips.

The only question was what drink to pair with the sandwiches.  If I were to follow my usual rule of thumb (pair food with wine from the same region) I guess I would pair the meal with Riesling or more likely some German beer.  Unfortunately we had neither so I selected a Spanish Tempranillo.  Campo Viejo is a 2005 Reserva which I have to say successfully complemented the sausage.  Of course it also went well with the German chocolate for dessert.

Hurricane Lamb

We stopped by Wegmans to get ready for Hurricane Irene (we needed orange and pineapple juice as well as Coco Lopez … we already had the rum).  Anyway while cruising through the store trying to decide what to have for dinner; we came across some lamb shoulder chops.   Since I was excited to try something new, we picked up a package of the chops and brought them home.

            After some internet research, I discovered a recipe for Pan-Grilled Lamb Shoulder Chops.   It must have been destiny … we had all of the ingredients so this looked like a perfect change of menu for the Trattoria.  We paired the lamb with fresh corn on the cob and roasted brussel sprouts; both also available at Wegmans.  The lamb marinade was a relatively easy recipe to make.  I really liked the use of fresh rosemary and lemon juice; although I added some lemon zest to the marinade to “kick it up a notch”.  My only complaint with the lamb was the instructions included recommended cooking time on each side … this was essentially 6 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second side.  Although I actually cooked the chops for about 8 minutes on the first side and 5 minutes on the second they were still very rare.  We are not fans of rare meat and so this presented a problem.  However, I think I could have solved the entire issue by turning off the lights since the lamb tasted excellent and was very tender (just awfully red inside).

            We paired the dinner with a 2004 Brunello Di Montalcino which we purchased for $70 from Kybecca (hey the earthquake and hurricane have convinced me that life is too short for bad wine).  This Sangiovese wine from Tuscany was rated 93 points by Wine Spectator and includes plum notes and very soft, juicy tannins.  It pairs well with lightly grilled meats and it was an excellent pairing with the lamb!  Of course it also paired well with the chocolate.

And the Earth Moved

Yesterday, we decided to make soup for dinner.  My favorite recipe is a “Tuscan Chicken with White Beans and Wilted Greens”.  This includes fennel, onion, Swiss chard, and cannelloni beans (if you are really interested in the recipe, send me an email and I will forward).  Anyway since soup does not really go well with a Virginia summer, we have not made this particular recipe for several months and were really looking forward to it! 

We paired it with some warm bread (to dip into the soup) and had a meal that is unequaled.  We also included a Virginia Merlot from Barboursville, Va.  I have previously commented on this Merlot and how I believe it is unusual as an affordable and delicious Merlot from Virginia.  Also, as I said, even though this is our favorite soup, we have not made it for several months. 

I guess with this convergence of unusual events it was inevitable that something incredible would happen.  In short, as a result of these choices, the earth moved in Virginia … so I have to offer my apologies to those affected by the earthquake since it seems I may be inadvertently responsible for this event. 

Anyway, I can verify that the soup and wine combination were worth the effort and the chocolate pairing would have made my earth shake regardless of any thing I could have done otherwise.

House Wine at the Trattoria

We had leftover Cruz Bay pork roast tonight.  It was served up with roasted broccoli and a zucchini and tomato sauté.  The sauté is a recipe I created to duplicate a dish I liked in a restaurant (before you ask, I can’t remember the restaurant).

I first cut the zucchini and an onion into thin strips.  I then sauté the onion and zucchini and add a diced garlic clove.  This is seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried basil.  After the onion, zucchini, and garlic brown I add a can of Huntz fire roasted tomatoes.  Finally, I cover and cook on low for about 15 minutes or until the zucchini is soft.

The dinner was paired with what has become our house wine.  d’Arc from Tre Donne is a delicious wine we discovered at a local wine shop in Fredericksburg (Kybecca).  It is a blend of varietals from the Piedmont region of Italy and is smooth and intense.  At $15 per bottle it is a great bargain and a wine we can share every night … even those nights we only have chocolate.

Onions as Good as Potatoes

We decided to have pork loin for dinner.  I like to fix it in my favorite cooking vessel a Le Creuset French pot.  I cook it with a heavy coating of Cruz Bay Grill Rub; then brown it on all sides on high heat and then add some red wine, cover and let it simmer on low for about 20 minutes.

We paired the pork with roasted brussel sprouts and I thought about roasted potatoes (either sweet or white).  Although I have to admit I was really looking forward to roasted rosemary potatoes which are like French fries.  Unfortunately, we did not have any potatoes of either kind.  My first thought was this was a disaster but then I thought if I couldn’t have “French fries” perhaps “onion rings” would be just as good.  So I took a couple of Vidalia onions and sliced them into thin rings, then coated them with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and roasted cumin.  These were spread out on a cookie sheet and roasted at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.   Success … they came out crunchy and similar enough to onion rings to satisfy my taste buds.

The wine we chose was a 2005 Bordeaux.  The Vieux Chateau Landon we selected was a Cru Bourgeois from the Medoc region and was delicate, medium colored, and elegant.  It paired very well with the pork, the onions and even better with the chocolate.

Wine with Eggs?

            Eventually you come to the realization that you can’t always eat gourmet meals like hamburger and pizza all the time.  Sometimes you have to settle for something a little more mundane … like bacon and eggs (remember the commercial eggs are not just for breakfast any more).  So we fried up a half pound of bacon and then cooked some eggs over easy in the bacon grease.  Complimented with a couple of slices of toast and you almost have the perfect quick dinner.

            There is just one problem with this dinner and it is an age old question that has kept me awake many nights … just what wine pairs with bacon and eggs?  I was ready to settle for the Cameron Hughes Merlot that I used for the crab pairing (if for no other reason than to aggravate Tom) but when I posed the question to my son, he suggested that a Pinot Noir might go well. 

So I dove into the wine cellar and extracted a Cooper Station Pinot Noir from California.  This 2009 is an excellent smooth wine with hints of cherry.  I have to say despite my initial skepticism, the wine went well with the meal (although I have to also admit that I usually didn’t take a sip of wine until I had filled my pallet with bacon and toast).  The smoky bacon paired especially well and of course the final pairing with chocolate was first-rate.

Hamburgers as a Treat

We don’t eat hamburgers very often (in fact I can hardly remember the last time we had any red meat).  But it just so happens that there is a restaurant in Fredericksburg (Capital Ale House) that has a special every Monday night.  It seems they offer a ½ pound hamburger for $2 when you purchase a beer.  Since we were already in town and I do not find purchasing a beer to be too much of a hardship, this seemed like an ideal combination for me.

            First I can say that the hamburgers were delicious.  Although they are all cooked medium well (which is a little overdone for many of you), I can say that they were juicy and tasted great.  They can be ordered with cheese for no extra charge which was also excellent.  We paired the hamburgers with a single side of French fries (which we split) and this turned out to be plenty of fries for both of us.  The fries came with a spicy mayonnaise sauce for dipping which we applied to the hamburgers (and just dipped the fries in ketchup).  The sauce was very good on the burgers and I highly recommend this as a topping!

            The biggest problem turned out to be picking a beer to pair with this meal … remember you have to order a beer to get the deal.  Capital Ale House has about 50 beers on tap to choose from but after an extensive search and several tastings we settled on the Legend Brown Ale.  Legend Brewery is located in Richmond Virginia and this beer is full bodied, brewed with caramel and roasted malts.  It was a very smooth beer that made an excellent paring with the burgers.

            Of course it is difficult to find an appropriate dessert in a beer house, but I believe the hamburger was worth waiting for the drive home to get some chocolate.

Indian Wine – Who would have thought?

We somehow ended back at our new favorite restaurant in King George tonight.  The Bollywood Marsala Restaurant is a very good Indian restaurant.  The food is excellent and the owner and his wife are very friendly and helpful.

            We started the meal with Vegetable Pakora.  This is a variety of vegetables dipped in a batter and deep fried.  This was a great way to start out the dinner … unfortunately, we got so excited about the appitizers, we forgot to take a picture (just use your imagination).

            The main course consisted of 3 different entries.  Sally got her usual Chicken Bryani (Chicken with rice, nuts, herbs, and Indian spices), I got Lamb Tikka Massala (Lamb with onion sauce and Indian spices), and we split Channa Pindi (Chick Peas cooked in herbs and spices).   All of these were great!!  Of course we also had to include some Naan.

            One of the challenges was to select the “proper” wine to pair with this great meal.  No problem, following my rule of paring wine and food from the same area, we decided to try out the Indian wine on their menu.  This was a 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, a Narayangaon Estate Reserve from Sahyadri Valley, Maharashtra in India.  According to the bottle “India has long been know as a producer of fine wines from vineyards on the upper slope of the Sahyadri Valley in Western Maharashtra, where it has a history of producing famous wines for Courts of Kings and Emperors of India”.  Although I can’t verify these facts (in fact I didn’t even realize India made wine), I can say that the wine was full bodied and complimented the spicy food.  Not a bad pairing and the price of $20 was certainly reasonable.

We finished off the meal with Gulab Jamun (light milk pastry balls in a sugar syrup) and Masala (Chai) Tea.  I can’t say that I am a fan of this dessert.  The pastry balls were mushy and the syrup was VERY VERY sweet.  Other than the dessert, everything was delicious.  We were worried about getting into a rut again … no problem Raj (the owner and chef) volunteered to fix us up with something special next time based on our preferences.  Now I am looking forward to the next visit as well as getting home to a proper dessert of chocolate.

Virginia Wine??

Anyone who knows my tastes knows I am not very supportive of Virginia Wines.  This is probably made worse by the fact that I favor red wines, but I find that although there are some good wines made in Virginia they always seem to be overpriced.  Therefore I was somewhat surprised when we discovered an affordable good Merlot in Barboursville this weekend.  Barboursville is a winery outside of Charlottesville Virginia which specializes in Italian style wines.  Their 2009 Merlot was only $15 at the winery and we bought several bottles.  It was smooth and well balanced and just begged for the proper food pairing.

            Going back to our comfortable tradition (not a rut), I made Sonoma Pork with roasted brussel sprouts and rosemary potatoes.  Although I have talked about the other menu items in this dinner, I don’t think I have mentioned my rosemary potatoes.  I make these from Idaho baking potatoes which I cut into strips like French fries.  These I toss with olive oil, fresh rosemary, and salt and pepper.  I spread them on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  If cooked properly they are very much like French Fries but without the extra calories and fat.  I highly recommend this as a compromise for those who may want to cheat on the diet just a little.

            The wine went very well with the pork and lived up to the promise we anticipated from our tasting this weekend.  And, typical of a Merlot, it was even better with the chocolate!!!

Tapas in Fredericksburg

Saturday we went to Charlottesville to visit with our son’s fiancé to look at wedding dresses.  While there we stopped and had a lunch of Cuban sandwiches and select beer.  Although I am sure most of you would rather hear about this meal, I am going to surprise you with the light dinner we had on the way home.  We stopped at Kybeca in Fredericksburg (a small wine shop/restaurant) which specializes in appetizers (or Tappas for you Spanish fans).  Before you say it, I know if you say you are going to a Tappas restaurant fast enough it is certainly a disappointment when you actually get there but Kybeca has food that is almost an offset for this let down.

Anyway, when we got to Kybeca we were excited to find they had a special that included lamb sliders.  We also ordered roasted spicy humus and a grilled squash with a romanesque sauce.  This was all paired with a 2008 Spanish Tempranillo from Volver.  This turned out to be a delicious wine (full bodied and plenty of fruit) and made for an excellent paring with the Tappas.  Just as a note, we have found that it seems to work better when you pair wine from the same region as your meal … I guess decades if not centuries of experience on the part of the people living in an area are worth something.

We finished off the meal with a version of Smores that Kybeca makes.  Although this was good, we both felt it could do with more chocolate and less marshmallows.   All things considered, we had a good time sitting on the streets of Fredericksburg, eating snacks, drinking good wine, and watching the people walk by … the chocolate was just an extra.