Gruner Veltliner

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Let’s take a little trip to Austria, shall we? Our winter trip to Austria was one of my favorite travel experiences ever, but I long to spend days visiting Austria’s wine country during the spring or summer, when things are lovely and green.

The 2013 Loimer Lois Grüner Veltliner is one of the wines I would love to be sipping on an Austrian summer day, but a Boston summer on a boat was not a bad second choice.

Loimer Lois Gruener Veltliner

I have loved Lois Grüner Veltliner for years now; I attended an amazing Austrian wine tasting when I first started becoming passionate about wine, and have been a fan ever since. The 2013, like so many Grüners, is a perfect summer wine, and there are lots of summer weekends left! (Don’t let the advertising world tell you differently. It’s still time for Grüner and not pumpkin beer, sweaters, or any of that nonsense!)

This wine is refreshing and fun, with acidity that dances on the tongue and citrus notes that linger. It’s great with your favorite appetizers and would be delicious with a grilled lemon chicken, salads, or even a fun and fruity dessert.

Summer ends officially the 3rd week of September; I hope you continue to discover favorite summer wines until then!

Tags: Austria, Austrian wine, Gruener, Gruner Veltliner, Summer wine, wine tasting

The pairing of wine and food is perhaps one of the things I love most about the two separate components. I love how wine brings out flavors in food and vice versa and how wine can be such a special part of memorable meal. There are lots of possibilities for pairing wine and food, and as is often said, if you like it, it’s good. There are definitely some guidelines to follow, mostly to pair wine with food so that neither is overwhelmed. You wouldn’t want to drink a big chewy Cabernet Sauvignon with oysters, for example. Unless you think it’s delicious, than go ahead!

Some foods are tougher than others when it comes to choosing wine. Our much-loved spring veggie, asparagus, with its strong flavors, is one of them. When a wine industry friend asked if I wanted to try some Grüner Veltliner and a traditional Viennese asparagus recipe, I of course jumped at the chance.

asparagus

Since I couldn’t find the white asparagus that Austrians love to cook with so much, and because I am trying to lighten things up in the kitchen a little, I haven’t yet made the asparagus Hollandaise that came with the wine. Hollandaise is dangerous when in my possession; I can dip just about anything in it, and I especially love it with asparagus spears. This time around, I opted to do some roasted asparagus, covered with a drizzle of truffle oil (the last of my truffle oil!) and nutritional yeast.

white truffle oil

I put the asparagus in the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes and got started on a simple topper, fried eggs.

eggs

eggs and asparagus

The eggs ended up half perfectly runny and half broken and cooked through. The runny egg mixed exquisitely with the truffle oil over the asparagus; it wasn’t Hollandaise, but it was still delicious.

Traditional Austrian asparagus Hollandaise involves not just the asparagus and Hollandaise sauce, but also potatoes glazed in butter and speck ham. It is a hearty dish with rich, creamy textures and strong flavors. And Austria’s finest grape, Grüner Veltliner makes a perfect pairing. We tried a Karl Lagler Grüner Veltliner, a dry white wine with more body than one would expect. This wine exhibits a touch of acidity with orange and mineral notes, different than other Grüners I have tried in that I felt it had a little more body and oomph. Overall, I love Grüner, and this was no exception. Pairing with the egg yolk gave us an idea of what it might be like with a rich sauce, and it was perfect.

Grüner Veltliner

Fun fact: when I was growing up, we never had asparagus because my mother can not even stand to be in the same room with it cooking. I always thought I hated it until I got older and tried it at a restaurant. I love it!

Do you have a food that you thought you hated growing up, because of family influence or general feelings about it (hello oft-maligned Brussels Sprouts!)

Tags: asparagus, Food, Gruner Veltliner, wine

Simplicity

After being away 2 weekends in a row, having a 3 hour wine class every Tuesday night, having a bunch of guest articles that are (over)due, and working on a new social media venture, I was a little too tired to cook last night. Earlier in the week, I was inspired by a post from Fiona’s blog (love her!) to jazz up regular old tuna salad. I don’t know why I never thought to add a little bit of spice with a jalapeno before, but this simple addition was completely game-changing.

Since we already had a few cans of tuna in the house, and I am loving cannellini beans anyway, it was simple to pull together a very quick and delicious tuna mix.

2 cans of tuna, which, to my cats’ delight I accidentally bought in olive oil

1 rinsed and drained can of cannellini beans

about 1/4 of a chopped onion

1 jalapeno, chopped, seeds included

1 TSP of real mayonnaise, In the love/hate mayo war, I LOVE.

tuna salad ingredients

tuna salad

I mixed all of the ingredients together and added some black pepper, then put the mix in the fridge until the hubby got home.

Then I grilled some English muffins on either side until lightly browned. topped with tuna salad, baby spinach, and Cabot sharp cheddar. Our sheet pans are positively ancient. They belonged to a neighbor before I got them about 6 years ago. But they work just fine and save me a little bit of money.

tuna melt

I popped the open sandwich in the oven at 380 until the cheese had melted, maybe a little too much. . .

image

Then I topped my sandwich with some buffalo sauce, closed it up, and dug in. Delicious!

Since the sandwiches were a little bit spicy, a little bit cheesy, I decided to pair them with the Grooner that I received as a sample (a Monika Caha brand as the ZVY-GELT last week was)

Grooner  Gruner Veltliner

As the label notes, this wine is PERFECT with food. It has a nice acidity to it and lots of fresh, tart apple flavors. Mmmm it was a quick and easy but REALLY good dinner.

Today is the last day to enter my Oldways Whole Grains Month giveaway! And everybody wins if you visit Oldways’ Whole Grains Council website! Tell them what you are doing to celebrate Whole Grains Month, and they will automatically send you some awesome coupons for whole grain products. I just got mine yesterday and am excited to go shopping for Bob’s Red Mill and Barilla whole grain products!

In case you missed it yesterday, I entered the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog contest after lots of back and forth on whether or not I would. Are you planning on entering?

Up tonight, a dinner date at the brand new Deuxave in Boston, and I am SO looking forward to a fun weekend getaway in Vermont. . . more on that later!

Annnnnd if you haven’t yet, I would love it if you could buzz my Foodbuzz Alaska Seafood dinner:

http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/2594074-foodbuzz-alaska-seafood-dinner

Just create an account, if you don’t have one, log in, buzz, and voila! I am currently behind, and I would love to represent Alaska Seafood at the festival!

Have a great day everyone!

Tags: Food, Gruner Veltliner, healthy, recipe, tuna

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