Fámega, Vinho Verde & Penne Pasta

Wine Name:  Fámega

Wine:  Vinho Verde
Country:  Portugal	Region:  Vinho Verde
Rating:  Good	Price: $9.00
Recommendation: Recommended, especially with summer salads, light seafood and mild cheeses.

This week we had a simple pasta dish that my wife makes without following a recipe, We matched it with a Portuguese Vinho Verde, mainly because we were looking for a light and easy white.

 The wine is the called Fámega, and it is a Vinho Verde from Potugal.

Vinho Verde is a wine that comes from the cool, wet, lush north west regions of Portugal. The typical terrain is composed of granite based soil, surrounded by rivers flowing from the mountainous regions towards the ocean in the east.  The name literally translated means “green wine”, but could also be interpreted as “young wine”. The wine we sampled was a white, but Vinho Verde’s  could also be red or Rosé.  As suggested by the name, wines from this region are intended to be consumed within one year from bottling.  The grapes used in making this wine are Avesso, Azal and Pedemá, and all are distinctly local Portuguese varieties.

The wine has a slight earthiness in the initial bouquet, and is a golden color, with a hint of green.  The taste is very sharp, and fruity at first, but mellows with time. It is almost sparkling in the mouth and has a pleasant aftertaste. It has tastes of sharp green apple and young lemon and lime. It is a warm weather wine and would pair well with summer salads, cheesses, green olives and light seafood. The term “young wine” certainly applies and for less than nine dollars a bottle it represents great value as long as it is taken in perspective with the wine type.

Food - Penne & Mozzarella Pasta

The food this week is a quick and easy dish that my wife often cooks.  The preparation does not really follow any recipe; it is usually done according to taste and our preferences. There are many ingredients that could be added, including many meats or other ingredients. We usually have it as a vegetarian meal and the additional ingredients are only limited by your imagination. I would be interested in hearing, and seeing, any creations you make.

Ingredients:

·         Penne Pasta – Sized to suit your needs

·         Fresh, soft, Mozzarella according to taste

·         Your favorite tomato pasta sauce, (Jar) or cook fresh yourself

·         Fresh Basil leaves

·         Parmesan cheese – quantity according to taste

·         Vegetables on the side as desired

Other Potential Ingredients:

·         Fresh olives, (Pitted), whole or sliced

·         Onions

·         Garlic

·         Other as your imagination dictates

Method

·         Cook Penne pasta until soft

·         Pre heat oven to 350° F

·         Cut Mozzarella while pasta is cooking

·         Drain pasta

·         Add pasta to casserole dish

·         Add tomato sauce

·         Tear up selection of Basil leaves, according to taste, and add to casserole dish

·         Stir

·         Add Parmesan cheese on top, quantity according to taste

·         Cook for approximately 30 minutes

·         Serve

·         Enjoy!

Principi Di Butera, Nero D'Avola & Shakshouka

  Principi Di Butera, Nero D'Avola

Wine: Nero D'Avola
Country: Italy	Region:  Caltanissetta Province, Sicily, Italy
Rating:  Good	Price: $14
Recommendation: Recommended to accompany food, or on it’s own. Good value for money.

We have an interesting story to tell this week, we are presenting a meal that I have never even heard of, let alone tasted. The wine presented a challenge due to some unique characteristics of the food, in the end we settled on a Sicilian Nero D'Avola red from the Feudo Principi Di Butera winery.

The meal is called Shakshouka and the recipe looked and sounded great, so I was very eager to give it a try. The meal contains tomatoes, onion, eggplant, potatoes and poached eggs, and originates from the middle east. It is a staple of countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, and Israel. Due to the inclusion of eggs, it is known in some locations as a breakfast meal, however, other countries such as Israel consider it a dinner dish.

The challenge is choosing a wine to match this dish, the main ingredients such as tomatoes and onions might indicate a red, yet there is a spicy component and the eggplant and potatoes might be best served by a slightly sweet white.   To add to the challenge, our recipe was unusual as the tomatoes and onions were raw, which might be more indicative of a white wine pairing. The more traditional recipes include cooking all ingredients, which might be more aligned to a medium bodied red.

Taking all these choices into account and the cooling autumn weather, we chose the Nero D'Avola red from Sicily. The wine is made at the Principi Di Butera winery in the district of Riesi, in the province of Caltanissetta. The area is known for dark soils supporting international varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet, and Chardonnay and light soils supporting local varieties such as Insolia and Nero D’Avola. The estate dates back to the 1500’s where King Phillip II of Spain anointed the title of “Prince of Butera” on the owner of the estate in 1543. Today, the estate is owned by the Zonin family and produces wheat, Olives, and predominantly wine. It is located around six miles from the coast at an elevation of less than 1,000 feet. The local Mediterranean climate ranges from 46 – 50° F in winter and 82 - 95° F in summer.

The following is a great video about the winery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbin7yHhE5c

The wine is surprisingly full bodied, has a smoky bouquet with a hint of wood.  The taste is moderately dry, with fruity overtones including dark berries, particularly cherry and blackberries. There is also a hint of chocolate with slight acidity. Probably a little strong for the meal we chose, but a good drinking wine nonetheless. It could be drunk on it’s own or with a meal and represents good value at around $14 per bottle. It is available from Specs in Houston.

Preparing and cooking this meal was a great experience, the aromas of the fresh ingredients at various stages were really enticing. The colors and their transformations were amazing, it really was a veritable palette of colors. Eating the meal was similarly rewarding, we loved it! What a great surprise finding a dish I had never even heard of, and enjoying it this much. This was a great experience!

Ingredients:

4 medium tomatoes, cut into 1cm dice (400g)

½ small red onion, finely chopped (40g)

2 tsp white wine vinegar

15g parsley, chopped

1 tbsp Sriracha sauce (or another hot savoury chilli sauce)

2 medium eggplants, cut into 3cm chunks (600g)

250ml olive oil, for frying

about 300ml sunflower oil

600g Charlotte potatoes (or another waxy variety), peeled and cut into 3mm slices

80g tahini paste

2 ½ tbsp lemon juice

1 small garlic clove, crushed

6 eggs, freshly poached

1 tsp sumac

1 tbsp coriander, chopped

salt and black pepper

Method

Place the tomatoes in a colander for 30 minutes to drain. Transfer to a medium bowl and add the onion, vinegar, parsley, Sriracha and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Mix gently and set aside.

Mix the eggplant with 1½ teaspoons of salt, place in a colander and set aside over a bowl for half an hour to remove any excess liquid. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and pat dry.

Place 200ml of the olive oil in a 26cm frying pan, along with all of the sunflower oil: it needs to come 1cm up the sides of the pan, so add more if you need to. Place on a high heat and, once hot, add the eggplant in batches. Fry for three to four minutes, until golden-brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and set aside somewhere warm while you cook the remaining batches.

Leave the oil to cool, pour it into a jar - you'll be able to use it for future frying - and wipe down the pan.

Bring a medium pan of water to the boil, add the potatoes and cook for three minutes. Drain, refresh under cold water and set aside to dry.

Add two tablespoons of fresh olive oil to the frying pan and place on a medium to high heat. Add the potatoes and fry for 10 minutes with ¼ teaspoon of salt and a grind of black pepper, until they are cooked through and golden-brown, shaking the pan from time to time. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Place the tahini, 60ml of water, 1½ tablespoons of lemon juice, garlic and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl and whisk to a thick, pourable consistency.

Spoon half of the sauce over the potatoes and spread the eggplant on top. Follow this with the remaining tahini and then spoon over the tomatoes.

Poach the eggs just before you are ready to serve and then lay these on top of the tomatoes, along with a drizzle of the remaining olive oil, a sprinkle of sumac and coriander and the last of the lemon juice. Bring to the table in the pan.

Serves 4-6

Recommendation: Recommended to accompany food, or on it’s own. Good value for money. Available from Specs in Houston.

Kust Angerer Kies Grüner Veltliner 2013

Wine Name: Kies Grüner Veltliner 2013

Wine: Grüner Vertliner
Country: Austria	Region:  Kamtal
Rating:  Good	Price: $18
Recommendation: Recommended with hard to match vegetable dishes and spicy meals.

Firstly, let me apologize for not publishing anything last week, a combination of workload and sickness conspired against me. This week we have a very interesting combination, the food is one of my all-time favorites for cold winter nights, Pumpkin Soup. The challenge for a dish like this is to find a wine that compliments it well. For cold winter nights I like a nice mellow red but that may be too much for the soup. After several recommendations, I have gone with a wine that I have never tried before, a Grüner Veltliner from Austria, of all places!

Pumpkin soup is a longtime favorite of mine, it is not as well known in America or the UK but is relatively common in Australia. It is more of an appetizer than a main meal, but seeing it is such a favorite of mine, we are dedicating the entire blog to it. For me, it evokes thoughts of warm soup on cold winter nights with your choice of warm bread rolls. One of my favorite memories is a cold winter’s night in a restaurant in rural Tasmania, where I unexpectedly found a great example of the soup. Tasmania is also one of my favorite places to visit. It has lots of unique scenery and wildlife. It is however, situated at the bottom of Australia in the southern latitudes in the “Roaring Forties” with nothing between it and Antarctica, where the winds can whip in off the southern ocean. Temperatures can be hot in the summer and on the cold side during the winter months, a perfect environment for a homemade Pumpkin Soup. I plan to do a wine, or wines, from Tasmania at some stage and in the interim, the following web site will give you some inkling into the magic of Tasmania.

http://www.discovertasmania.com.au/

 The wine was recommended by several reliable sources as a good match for unusual foods including vegetables that are hard to pair with wine such as Asparagus.

The wine comes from the Kamtal region in Austria, the name coming from the river Kamp that runs directly through the region. It is one of the largest wine producing region in Austria, typically producing Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners. The vines mostly grow in steep south facing terraces which provide protection from the North winds, yet providing cooling winds from the mountains on hot summer evenings.

The Kurt Angerer winery is a family business with a wine making tradition dating back 150 years. It is said to produce some of the best wines in the region, due to a lack of compromise, and a commitment to quality.  

The wine has a fresh fruity bouquet with hints of lemon. It is sweet but not overly so, it has overtures of tropical fruit and paired well with the pumpkin soup. It would go well with many vegetable dishes and the sweetness would accompany spicy foods as well.

The soup recipe is relatively simple but takes some time to make, with several periods of long inactivity while the pumpkin cooks. It can also be quite messy as the pumpkin, when prepared correctly, literally falls apart, and the bright orange color can create a distinct contrast on many cooking surfaces.

The aromas, while cooking, are a nice result especially in the cooler months. I purposely waited to introduce this recipe until the Northern hemisphere fall (Autumn) period. We made double the quantity listed below, so we can freeze some for the winter. Although, I did make some calculation errors that resulted in the soup being much too light, which was soon corrected with the addition of the second pumpkin. We used Jarrahdale pumpkins, I prefer to use the Queensland Blue, but they  can be hard to find in Houston. The Jarrahdales are relatively easy to find here at this time of year. We also did this as a vegetarian dish, substituting the chicken stock with vegetable stock

Savory Pumpkin SoupMakes around 2 quartsIngredients:

3-3/4 pounds pumpkin or butternut squash

1 acorn squash (about 1-3/4 pounds)

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

1 white onion (about 4 ounces), peeled, trimmed, and finely diced

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock

1 cup heavy cream

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Garnish (We did not use the garnish)

1 recipe cranberry relish

1 recipe cardamom cream

1/2 recipe spiced caramelized pecans

4 tablespoons pumpkin seed oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Halve the Pumpkins/squash, discard the seeds.

Brush cut sides with 2 tablespoons of melted butter

Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Arrange the squash, cut side down, on a rack placed in a baking tray and bake until tender, about 1-2/3 hours.

Cool, scoop out the insides of the squash, and puree the flesh in a food processor. Reserve (You should have about 4 cups of puree)

In a medium stockpot, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter.

Over a low heat, sweat the onion, do not allow it to brown.

 Add the pureed squash and cook over very low heat until heated through, stirring occasionally.

Do not allow it to bubble up.

Season with salt pepper, ginger and cardamom.

Pour in the stock and bring to the boil, still over a low heat, stirring often cook about 20 minutes.

In a small saucepan, heat the cream with the rosemary sprig.

Remove the rosemary and pour the cream into the soup.

Transfer to a blender or food processor and process, in batches for 2 or 3 minutes.

Adjust the seasoning to taste.

To serve, ladle the soup into heated bowls.

Place a tablespoon of cranberry relish in the center, top with a dollop of cardamom cream, then sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Drizzle pumpkin oil over soup (we did not do this).