WineLife365

Posts Tagged ‘Food and Wine Pairings’

Like many, I’m always looking for creative food recipes on the internet that are affordable, easy to follow, and just plain old tasty looking.  One of my favorite websites to visit for inspiration is BrokeAss Gourmet.  Gabi Moskowitz’s blog features some delicious recipes that are always under $20 and take very little effort to make. 

Last night, we had a hankering for fish tacos.  I remembered seeing an incredible looking fish taco recipe on BrokeAss Gourmet and decided to give it a go!

Gabi’s creation called for the following ingredients:

• 1/2 lb red snapper fillets (2-3 small fillets)
• 1/2 cup i.p.a. beer (I like Big Daddy or Lagunitas)
• 2/3 cup flour plus more for dusting fish
• salt
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 mango, diced
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeño, seeded and diced finely
• 6 corn tortillas
• 2 tbsp crumbled cotija cheese

Unfortunately I didn’t have some of the key ingredients, so I decided to use her original recipe as inspiration and create a fish taco recipe of my own.

I substituted the red snapper in this case with a 1-1/2lb slab of fresh Atlantic Salmon (price: $11.10).  I also couldn’t find cotija cheese, so I substituted with crumbled Greek feta cheese (price: $2.49/ 4-oz container) and crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (price: $2.49/ 4-oz container).

Next, rather than battering the fish and frying it up as Gabi’s recipe called for, I instead opted for a different method of cooking the salmon.  I first heated up about 2 TBS. of olive oil in a large pan.  I then placed the slab of salmon into the pan and seasoned it with Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Salmon Seasoning, which I already had in my spice cabinet.  You can use a simple combination of salt and pepper and fresh lemon as an alternative to the seasoning mix.  I seared the seasoned portion of salmon (skin side down) for about 3-4 minutes on the stove top.  I then moved the pan into a pre-heated oven and cooked it for about 10-11 minutes at 380°F.

The result is a perfectly moist salmon fillet ready for a taco party!

While the salmon is cooking in the oven, cut up your avocado, mango, onion, lime, jalapeño, cilantro, tomato and a pinch of salt ( *I added a hefty squeeze of fresh lemon and lime juice to mine).  Combine in a large bowl and toss together.

Time to EAT

To assemble the tacos:  top each softshell tortilla with a few pieces of seared salmon, a couple of large spoonfuls of the homemade salsa, and a sprinkle of either of the crumbled cheeses over top.

Perfect Wine Pairing 

Oregon Pinot Gris.  They’re usually very clean, crisp, and possess racy citrus qualities that pair perfectly with these (salmon) fish tacos – and Oregon definitely knows a thing or two about Salmon.  Consider trying King Estate Pinot Gris or Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris.

If you’re looking for a terrific and easy summer meal to feed 4 hungry adults, this one is sure to be a big hit with everyone!

Bon Appétit!

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You gotta love Trader Joe’s!  I recently came across their Tilapia Citronette, and it has quickly become one of my favorites.  If you’re not familiar with this dish – its marinated tilapia fillets topped with grilled asparagus and sliced carrots.  However, I just have one little problem with it – the cooking directions.  The peeps at Trader Joe’s say that you can either nuke this dish or cook it in the oven.  Nuking this entree, per the instructions, makes the fish taste more like rubber chicken and the oven directions take way too long.

Luckily, I did not give up on this tasty dish even after having less than stellar results using their instructions.  I think that I may have struck gold, though, by using a combination of both suggested methods with my own little spin on them!

First, poke a few holes in the plastic and cook it in the microwave for about six minutes.  This will thaw it out a bit and get it ready for oven cooking.

I have 2 different recommendations for completion:

1.  Pan sear it a bit on the stovetop and then finish it off by placing it in a 385 degree oven for about 12 minutes.

 -OR-

2.  After taking it out of the microwave, cook it up on a medium/high heat stovetop for about 2 minutes on each side.

Either way works perfectly and yields the warm, white, flaky decadence that’s pictured on the packaging label.  Just remember, with either option, to coat your pan with plenty of olive oil to keep the fish from becoming permanently affixed to it forever!

Finally, to give this dish the Love TKO, serve this up on a dinner plate over an arugula salad.  While you’re at Trader Joe’s pick up a bag of baby arugula.  In a mixing bowl – Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt –n- pepper, and the arugula.  Mix together.

On a dinner plate, place a portion of the “arugula salad” down first.  Then top it with the Tilapia Citronette.  Pair it with an Argentinean Torrontes like the 2009 Alamos Torrontes and you’ve got a party!  If you want a little something extra, you can also add your choice of steamed vegetables.

Salud!

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By: P. Collins

If you’ve ever uttered anything like - “I can’t cook”, “Cooking takes so long”, “Cooking is so hard”, then I’ve got an easy recipe for you to try at home.  This meal idea takes less than 15 minutes to prepare – tastes GREAT and is healthy too!  That’s right – Less than 15 minutes from start to your plate… tastes great …and…and…and – it’s good for you! 

Yep, this “you can have it all meal” from Health.com is called Garlic Ginger Shrimp, and it left everyone begging for more.

Here are the ingredients that you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (use olive oil, bit better for you)
• 2 tablespoons grated or minced peeled fresh ginger  (the dry stuff is fine, find it in the spice aisle)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (buy the already chopped stuff in the produce area)
• 1 pound medium shrimp, thawed, peeled, and deveined (buy a bag of frozen, COOKED shrimp) 
• 1/4 cup rice wine or dry white wine
• 1/2 cup chopped scallions
• 2 cups hot cooked brown rice (use Success boil in bag brown rice – throw in the microwave, takes 10 minutes)

Okay, pay close attention now, this is where it gets really tricky… – first, throw the first 6 ingredients listed above into a warm/heated pan and cook them up.  Next, cook rice in microwave.  Third, put a cup of cooked rice onto a plate.  Lastly, spoon shrimp mixture over top of cooked rice and Eat.

“Teachable moments”

1) Start the cooking when you are ready to eat – if having salad or something, eat that first then do the cooking – this meal is best served up as soon as its done, reheating or keeping it warm isn’t so great. 

2) Notice that ingredient #5 is rice wine…not rice wine vinegar which I somehow got in my head.  My version turned out great, but I lost sleep imagining just how AWESOME it could have been had I read that ingredient right.

3) Recipe calls for medium shrimp (might be labeled as 41/50 in your store), but my shrimps were scrimps (i.e. – tiny runt shrimps) – so you might want to go for medium large (labeled as 36/40) or maybe even large (labeled as 31/35).

In summary, if you try to cook this recipe and can’t: A). you fall into the category “moronic human”; B). all eating privileges should be taken from you.

What’s a good wine pairing to go with this dish?   I paired it with a white blend from California’s Clayhouse Wines, called “Adobe White”.  This 2008 Central Coast White wine packs an interesting blend of 22% Viognier, 18% Sauvignon Blanc, 17% Grenache Blanc, 16% Roussanne, 6% Chardonnay and 5% Chenin Blanc – Shew, what a mouthful!  But, trust me – this perfectly allocated white wine will do right by this tasty shrimp dish.  For another take on this very different California white wine, here’s what the folks at Clayhouse have to say:

“The Adobe White is a blend created for that passionate, adventurous white wine lover inside you, elemental like the adobe but elegant with exotic floral and fruit aroma and flavors”.

There you have it, an easy, affordable and healthy supper with a rather usual California white wine to boot. 

Bon Appetite!

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Once a year I am compelled, by my desire to share good food and wine with friends, to prepare a four course lunch for 24 people, at a beautiful outdoor venue, out of a small kitchen.  These are friends I go camping with every year.  Putting on a great meal is one of the small ways I can contribute to the camping experience.  Knowing I must manage my time efficiently putting out so many courses, and wanting to enjoy the meal myself along with the guests, I look for recipes that don’t require an inordinate amount of labor, but which will make a stunning visual and taste impression, while making it look like I slaved in the kitchen for much longer than I really did.

Each of these luncheons has been made much more fun and interesting by my recruitment of a winemaker to attend with his wines, building a menu of dishes that pair well with those wines.

In 2007, for the first seated course after hors d’oeuvres, I prepared a chilled cucumber soup garnished with tuna tartare.  It was a big hit with the crowd, paired with a luscious Burgundian styled Chardonnay from the Russian River Valley made by Deerfield Ranch Winery.

The soup is easy, as most of the prep work is handled by a blender.  It can be made the day before and chilled in the refrigerator until serving time.  The tuna tartare just required a bunch of slicing and dicing about an hour before service. 

The color contrast in the soup plates was wonderful.  With two dishes in one, guests can use their spoons to sample each part separately, or in a combined spoonful.  I garnished with all of the optional ingredients listed at the end of the list, making a dazzling dish.  Also for my presentation, I used a cookie cutter to mold the tartare portion into a cylindrical shape centered in the soup bowl, adding the garnishes just after removing the mold and ladling the soup around the tuna tower.

The appetizer that day was shrimp and scallop ceviche, served in martini glasses, paired with a Sauvignon Blanc.  The main course was pheasant risotto, served with a Ladi’s Vineyard Syrah.  Dessert was lemon thyme pannacotta with thinly sliced, fresh macerated Sonoma County peaches, served with a botrytised Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blend, ‘Gold.’  All the wines were from Deerfield Ranch of Sonoma County.

For some reason, I was invited back to cook lunch again in 2008 and 2009.

Cheers!
Scott 

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The recipe for the Cucumber Soup with Seared Tuna Tartare can be found on the Food & Wine website.  Please note that Scott suggested the following optional items:

• Cilantro and mint leaves, fresh grated ginger, orange zest
• Toasted sesame seeds
• Mix equal parts Wasabi Tobiko Caviar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and drizzle over the tartare

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