Cherry … Cherry but None for Dessert

We decided to try something different tonight.  Although, as I said in a previous blog, we really like the Sonoma Pork we were reluctant to enter into another debate about tradition versus rut.  So we decided to breakout and try something new.  We ran across a recipe by Ellie Krieger for Pork Medallions with Cherry Sauce.  I was really excited to try this mainly because it was new and different and I really do enjoy cooking new things.  However, just to make sure we didn’t get too far out of the box (I like to hedge my bets) I paired the pork with a standby of roasted brussel sprouts and roasted rosemary potatoes.

            The pork was not bad but did not compare to our usual Sonoma Pork … in fact it was somewhat disappointing.   The cherry sauce never thickened the way I had hoped and the flavor was somewhat bland.  In addition the pork was not as tender as I would usually like it. On a more positive note the brussel sprouts and potatoes were great.  In retrospect, I guess this proves it's not a rut if it can be justified by taste.

            While we were walking through Wegmans today we discovered they had a special sale on some of their premium wines.  Looking at the shelf we found what we were convinced would be the perfect wine to pair with this dinner.  Tenuta Greppone Mazzi is a 2003 Brunello Di Montalcino imported by Ruffino.  This wine (which Wegmans had on sale for $53) boasts an inviting bouquet of wild cherries and plums and is full bodied with an aftertaste of rosemary and cherry pie.  Needless to say the cherry notes were very complimentary to the pork (in fact at times I seemed to get more cherry from the wine than the "pork cherry sauce").

            Anyway, it was all-in-all a good dinner but not worth the sacrifice of our more traditional Sonoma Pork.  On the other hand the wine was very special with the chocolate!!

What do White Wine Drinkers Eat?

       Tom felt that he needed to reply to the white wine controversy so I am letting him express the other side of this burning issue.  Therfore in the interest of fair play ... here is what a white (wrong) wine drinker has to say.

       As a guest blogger, I venture into this post carrying a message which parallels the opposition faced by the Maid of Orléans. Only White Wine can and should be served with this dish! Of course most of us realize what happened to Joan of Arc, but I press on for the sake of truth!

       My sweetie pulled out one of our favorite cookbooks, and headed to the Turks and Caicos. Morgan Freeman’s compilation of Caribbean treats provided the directions to this culinary delight. The cookbook, Caribbean Cooking for a Cause, offers movie stars’ favorite recipes from different islands. Ben Affleck chose this recipe and since the two of us look so much a like it is not surprising this dish is one of my favorites.

       Shrimp and Raw Green Mango Salad is an explosion of citrus and the sea. Ingredients of mango, red pepper, honey, Fresno peppers, English cucumber, and ginger are just a few of the components that make this summer delight mouth watering. The stove does not get turned on and this eye appealing dish tastes better than it looks!

       To accompany this meal we headed to the Santa Lucia Highlands of California and poured a barrel fermented Chardonnay. Richard is shaking his head as he reads this sentence not because of the color of the juice, but Tom is drinking a new world wine! Mer Soleil is a classic California Chardonnay. Rich and buttery this wine can be found at most wine stores that have a decent selection. The wine paired very well with the meal. The golden straw liquid coats the mouth with butter and lingers for a long finish with hints of citrus. At $30 a bottle it may not be an every night wine, but neither is this wonderful Shrimp and Mango salad.

       We stayed in the Caribbean for dessert. At Blanchard’s Table cookbook provided the directions to bring our evening of bliss to closure. Blanchard’s a five star restaurant located on the island of Anguilla, BVI proves that less is more with this simple recipe of Mangoes and Cream. A few spices and a little Rum Jumbie, another island treat from St Martin, brought a wonderful evening to a close.

       No chocolate and no red wine and culinary nirvana was reached!

       I guess I will have to take your word on that white wine, Tom ... but next time we might be interested in sharing so that I can verify your claims.  Thanks for your input!

Can’t All Be Winners

I suppose they can’t all be winners.  We saw a recipe in out local newspaper which really intrigued us.  Cannellini Beans with Sautéed Fennel and Blistered Tomatoes seemed to have everything we like in a dish.  I use cannellini beans and fennel in one of my favorite recipes (Tuscan Bean Chicken Soup – which I will have to write about in the future) so I had high hopes for this dinner.  We served it up with some Naan bread and a topping of grated parmesan cheese.

The main problem with this recipe was that the result was too dry.  The flavor was not bad but it needed some liquid (perhaps some white wine or chicken broth).  By the way, in my opinion this is one of the most appropriate uses for a good white wine.  Anyway we will probably not make this dish again … as I said they can’t all be winners.

On a more positive note we paired this with a Nebbiolo d’Alba   This 2008 Nebbiolo from Italy was very smooth and complex and went successfully with both the dry dinner and the chocolate.  I guess with the proper wine, they can all be winners after all!

Deconstructed Crab Cakes

Once again, we found ourselves in Wegman’s searching for something for dinner.  After looking at empty shelves full of non-existent fish, we finally settled on some lump crab meat.  We had intentions of making crab cakes but I thought I would try something more intense if not easier (I am a big fan of easy).  Anyway, we brought the crab home and I put some olive oil and butter in a hot pan.  I added the crab and a healthy dose of our Island Fish spice and magically I was able to sauté up a crab cake without the messy filling and bread crumbs.  This was paired with some roasted broccoli and tomatoes for another light and healthy dinner.

So what wine do you pair with this seafood dinner?  Although tradition would say a white wine, we continue to refuse to follow tradition so I selected a 2007 Merlot from Cameron Hughes.  Lot 169 is a very flavorful Merlot with lots of big cherry flavors and tannins.  Tradition (and Tom) would say “no way”, but in this case both would be wrong.  The wine went surprisingly well with the dinner and paired with chocolate much better than any white wine could hope to.

Clean out the Refrigerator

Sorry, no food porn pictures, we just had leftovers tonight but I have to comment on the wine.  We had a Valserrano Reserva from Spain which was a Tempernillo that was fantastic.  Our dinner included anything that would help clean out the refrigerator.  It consisted of leftover Tilapia, left over Brianna, and Broccoli along with tomatoes.  I would have thought any wine would have a difficult time tying this all together but the Valserrano did a fine job.  We purchased the wine from Total Wine for $20 as it was an Alfio Moriconi Selection.  I believe that this man has the best job in the world … he goes to wineries in Spain and Italy and picks which wines to recommend to Total Wine.  I probably would resent him even more if he didn’t seem to get it right most of the time.  The complexity of the wine was fantastic with hints of stewed fruit and spices.  This was truly a special wine and we enjoyed this dinner and were also able to clean out the refrigerator so by my account it was a success.  By the way, the wine also paired well with chocolate!

India in the Country

One of the drawbacks to living in the “far end of nowhere” is that we don’t have very many good places to eat.  We have an Italian place that basically serves nothing but pasta (not even with wine), a Mexican chain restaurant, and several local establishments that are more lunch than dinner destinations.  Well I can announce that we have finally acquired a restaurant that rivals some of the best in the “big city”.

Since we had been working cleaning out the garage all day (we still have several more days to go), we were too tired to cook so we went to the Bollywood Masala restaurant.  I am sure you could not guess from the corny name but this restaurant specializes in Indian cuisine … which happens to be a favorite of ours.

I had a Tandoori Chicken, Sally had a Chicken Biryanis, and we shared an order of Daal Makhani with Naan.  The Tandoori Chicken was served on a sizzling plate smothered with onions and peppers (the presentation reminded me of fajitas but the taste was so much better).  The chicken was fork tender and the spices were perfect.  The Chicken Bryanis was cooked with rice, nuts, herbs, and Indian spices and served with a katchumber salad (which appeared to be yogurt with finely diced cucumbers).  Once again the flavoring was spot on and the chicken was tender and delicious.  The Daal was a mixture of black lentils and red kidney beans flavored with butter and garnished with ginger and coriander.  The taste was incredible, rich and smooth and creamy and when put on basmati rice was a meal in itself.  One advantage of Indian food is that the presentation is made to order for sharing.  Each entree comes in its own serving dish which makes it very easy to serve yourself some of everything which we both did (several times). 

So what do you pair with an Indian meal?  Although the owner (that’s right the person who was taking our order was both the owner and chef) stated that he had some Indian red wine; I thought the better of it and settled for some Kingfisher beer.  This turned out to be an excellent choice however I am intrigued by the wine and will probably have to try it the next time we visit.

We finished off the meal with Chai Tea.  I am not a tea lover but this was a very good finish to the dinner.  Unfortunately Indian desserts do not involve chocolate so I had to wait until I got home for a proper dessert.

The Big 30

We took our daughter out to dinner last night to celebrate her 30^th birthday.  Since it was a special occasion, we decided to go to a special restaurant.  Foti’s in Culpeper is regularly rated in the top 25 restaurants in Northern Virginia and happens to be about halfway between our house and our daughter’s.  We had been to this restaurant once before and thought it was excellent so we elected to return.

            We each got an appetizer for our first course.  I had baked brie, wrapped in philo dough with an olive tampanade, Sally had a Vanilla Roasted Maine Lobster
with Jonny cakes and a Chardonnay Butter Sauce, and Jenn had Fried Egg Sandwich on Garlic Toasted Ciabatta with Baby Arugula, Virginia Country Ham and Parmesan Cheese garnished with a Mixed Baby Green Salad. 

            For dinner I had Grilled Pork Loin with a shredded pork stuffed empanada over roasted carrots, Jenn had a Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Garlic Roasted Mash Potatoes with zucchini and Sally had Pan Seared Sea Scallops on Crushed Carrots with a Rock Shrimp Sauté, Roasted Potatoes and finished with a Tarragon Beurre Blanc.

            This was all paired with a Clos Des Menuts 2004, Ac Saint Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux.  This elegant and well balanced wine was  deeply colored with aromas of cassis, vanilla, smoke and cherry and paired very well with the dinners (although somewhat less successfully with the scallops and lobster).

            We were satisfied with the dinner but it did not live up to our expectations from our last visit.  The service was somewhat slow and inattentive (probably due to a large party in the main dining room) and the food was only ok.  Jenn’s steak was overcooked (she likes it med rare) and my pork was somewhat tough. 

            We finished the meal off with chocolate ice cream which was served on a plate and in our haste to eat it before it completely melted; we forgot to take any pictures.  O-well you are not really missing anything since except for the Happy Birthday message on Jenn’s plate, the presentation was nothing special. 
            All in all ... great time with our daughter but not sure Foti's was worth a return trip.

Brussel Sprouts

When I was a kid, I hated brussel sprouts.  I can’t say that my mom made them very often but it was never a treat when she did.  Boiled and mushy and not very tasty and poor Sally had much the same memories from her childhood … so one might ask why we now have them at least once a week.  It turns out it is all in how you cook them.  We have discovered that we really like roasted brussel sprouts.  To cook them, I clean and cut each sprout in half.  Put them on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil, and season with plenty of salt, pepper, roasted cumin and fresh ground nutmeg.  By the way, it is important that you use actual fresh ground nutmeg … I got introduced to fresh nutmeg in the islands as a garnish on a painkiller and a bushwhacker and have never gone back to the stuff in a bottle.  The fresh ground makes all the difference!  Anyway after I have seasoned the brussel sprouts I put them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until they are golden brown.  The result is a crunchy and flavorful vegetable that tastes great.

We paired the brussel sprouts with roasted broccoli and chicken fixed with the Cruz Bay Grill Rub (as I have mentioned before).  This made an excellent and healthy meal which we enjoyed with a Bordeaux Superieur.  This 2005 wine was from the Chateau Cazat Beauchene.  This was a medium to full bodied wine with a nose of dark cherry and a hint of oak and vanilla.  We purchased it from Wegmans for $10 and it was worth every penny. 

As we were finishing our dinner we had a guest at the Trattoria.  This is quite unusual since we don’t really advertise our meal times but as you can see from the picture below, he seemed to enjoy munching on the greens … I was just disappointed it was not Easter and he therefore did not bring any chocolate to go with our wine.

Pasta to the Rescue

We have a problem … there are only two of us and most of our recipes make four servings that means that we have a lot of leftovers.  I usually try to use the leftovers in a different way from the original servings.  Earlier this week we had sausage sandwiches and sure enough we had some leftover (but not enough for another set of sandwiches).  No problem, we cooked up some quinoa pasta, added some fresh pesto and the sausage.  To complete the meal we added some roasted broccoli, sprinkled shaved parmesan cheese over it all and served it with some Naan from Wegmans.

            This dinner was paired with a 2009 Spanish Tempranillo which we purchased for $8 also from Wegmans.  This is an excellent wine and for that price could become a regular house wine at the Trattoria.  Unfortunately, I am still on the Z-Pac and unable to taste the wine but Sally claims it went very well with the dinner and with chocolate.  I guess I will have to take her word for it.

The Perfect Fish Taco

How do you make the “perfect” fish taco?  Well we decided to see if we couldn’t make, if not a perfect version, at least one that was eatable.  First we made the salsa which included a diced tomato, ¼ of a finely diced vidalia onion, several chopped jalapeño peppers, and a handful of chopped cilantro.  This was allowed to steep while we grilled tilapia seasoned with our favorite Island fish spice and heated a couple of burrito shells on a grill pan.  To build the tacos, we placed the burrito shell on the plate with a slice of fish on top.  This was dressed with a spoonful of salsa, some black beans, a squeeze of lime, a slice of avocado, and some arugula (rocket) lettuce.  We served this with a slice of tomato topped with cottage cheese on the side.  The results were surprisingly delicious!  I always love it when a made-up recipe is a success!

             Since I am on an antibiotic I have been trying to avoid alcohol (although there are mixed reviews about whether this is necessary, I am afraid to admit what it might say about me if I could not avoid wine for the 5 days of a Z-Pac).  Therefore, Sally paired the dish with leftover wine from last night (she is still healthy if not very sympathetic) and said the pairing was very good and went even better with the chocolate.

Back to the Grind

We wanted something special to celebrate the holiday and I thought firing up the grill would be a good idea.  Walking through Wegmans we came across their spicy chicken sausage with garlic and herbs.  This comes in a long rope with skewers to hold it in a coil and I thought it would be fun to grill it in one piece.  So we picked up one of these, some mini sweet peppers (yellow, red, and orange), and some Vidalia onions.  We had some buns left over from a previous meal and the plan was to have a regular 4^th of July grill out.

Unfortunately, my cold is still preventing me from having a lot of fun outside in the heat so we decided to cook the dinner in the air-conditioned kitchen.  I first browned the sausage on both sides and then pulled it out of the pan.  I then put an onion and the sliced peppers with some garlic in the pan and sautéed them real slow to get a good caramelization (see I did learn something from the chef in St Martin).  After the onions and peppers were ready, I sliced the sausage into 1 inch pieces and added it back to the pan with a splash of red wine and turned the heat way down.

While I was busy with the sausage, Sally was making one of our favorite side dishes; a Santa Fe Quinoa Salad from Food & Wine magazine.  This is a mixture of quinoa, cocktail onions, black beans, cilantro, and roasted red peppers that we find really enjoyable and surprisingly healthy.  It actually takes some time to make but it is not really difficult and is a light accompaniment to most any meal.

While in Wegmans we also picked up a bottle of a Spanish Red wine to go with the meal.  The 2006 Corte Mayor Rioja is Crianza wine made from Tempranillo grapes.  It is a full bodied wine with plenty of fruit and soft tannins that complemented the dinner and also went well with the chocolate afterwards. 

O-well back to work tomorrow L

Good-bye to St Martin

For our last dinner in St Martin, we wanted to do a special meal.  We debated about going back to Bistro Caribe where we had such a fabulous dinner earlier in the week but decided to take the advice of our speed boat captain and went to Mario’s Bistro in Marigot.  Finding a parking place turned out to be not as difficult as had been warned and we were given a table under two fans which was a necessity given the temperatures.

We all were intrigued by the soup course which was a Cream of caramelized onion soup with baked Gruyere crouton.  This was some of the best soup I have ever had … the caramelization of the onions was so perfect we insisted that the chef had added some sweet liquor to the pan (a claim he indignantly denied).  Paired with the wine (a Beaujolais – Villages from Louis Jadot) this made for an excellent introduction to the meal.

For our main course, two in our party purchased the sea bass platter with fresh crab and lobster sauce served over a bed of potatoes and asparagus.  The other two had fresh grouper with a creamy risotto and asparagus.  We actually let Tom pick out a white wine to go with this course.  It was a French Sauvignon Blanc and I don’t have pictures of the bottle (it was white).  For a white wine it was not bad and paired successfully with the fish.

This was a great dinner … the wait staff was very friendly and helpful … and we believe it was the perfect way to say good-bye to St Martin.

Sick in St Martin

Ok, I have to confess that I took a couple of nights off from the blog due to a cold.  Of course the fact that the meals were nothing special did not really inspire me to break out of my lethargy. 

The night of the 29^th (Wed night) we went to Cheri’s.  The food was only ok (no wine was purchased) but the entertainment was very enjoyable.  The group “Sweet Chocolate” was performing (and yes simply from the name of the band I was excited) and they did EVERYTHING to entertain the crowd including dressing up and performing as several characters and getting the crowd involved with the show.  It was a fun evening but definitely not a meal to remember.

The next day my cold was worse and we were scheduled to take a cigarette boat to Anguilla.  The boat trip was great and we had an enjoyable lunch on Anguilla.  I had the best conch fritters I have ever eaten while others had lobster salad and fresh snapper.  Everyone agreed that their lunch was excellent especially when washed down with a rum punch. 

For dinner that night we went to the Green House restaurant.  Our first clue that this was probably not going to be a successful dinner was when we ordered “Original Pussers Painkillers” from the menu and were warned by our waiter that they do not use Pussers rum … huh ... back to a rum punch.  I had a blackened Mahi sandwich which was not only not blackened but was also not as good as one I purchased for lunch at the beach bar yesterday.  The ladies had fish tacos which were supposed to be made with fresh grouper but came with a breaded fish that would have made Long John Silvers proud.  All in all it was a less than inspiring dinner.

 

 

O-well, back to the condo for some chocolate before I write up our last night’s dinner which was (spoiler alert) magnificent!