Jacob’s Creek

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Wednesday Wine and Food Pairing

February 23, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 9 comments

After creating a couple of dishes to go with thesamples of  wine that I received from Jacob’s Creek (You can find the recipes here and here), I thought that it would be fun to do a weekly Wine Wednesday wine and food pairing post. I actually had two more bottles of Jacob’s Creek and since I did not have time to use them for the Superbowl as intended, I wanted to kick off this new series with one of the bottles. I chose the 2007 Pinot Noir to pair with a dish that I created while grocery shopping this weekend: Pan fried golden potatoes topped with eggplant pisto, goat cheese, and olives. It turned out to be one of the best dishes I have made in awhile, so simple, so healthy, comforting, and filling. And absolutely delicious!

 

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The ingredients for the pisto:

1 large eggplant, chopped, salted, and rinsed

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 whole yellow onion

‘1 TSP garlic powder

3 TSP olive oil

Splash balsamic vinegar

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I slowly cooked all of the ingredients mixed together for about 45 minutes until everything pretty much fell apart and melted together. The smell was amazing! Once the eggplant was soft enough,( and this took awhile!) I started slicing the potatoes verrrrrry thinly so that they would brown in just a little bit of oil in a pan, just thicker and a little bit softer than potato chips. As soon as they were done, I topped them with the pisto mixture, goat cheese, and Spanish green olives with pimientos.

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I was excited to open the Jacob’s Creek Pinot Noir because I had never tried this wine before and because I have been pleasantly surprised by the other wines sent to me on their behalf. The verdict? The Jacob’s Creek Pinot Noir is very easy to drink. There is an obvious ripe strawberry flavor, and it has a smooth, clean finish. I would say that as far as pairing it with this dish, I could go either way. The wine didn’t overpower the dish, but it didn’t seem like they were perfect partners either as it did when I paired the Riesling and fish cakes in Part I of my Superbowl pairing posts. Still, we enjoyed the meal, we enjoyed the wine, and it was all good.

I hope you enjoy my adventures in food and wine pairing each week. As always I am open to suggestions and guest posts on this (or any topic!) I love to hear from all of you about what you are eating and drinking!

Tags: Food, Jacob's Creek, Pinot Noir, recipe, vegetarian recipe, wine, wine and food pairings

Super Wine and Food Part II

February 10, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 12 comments

Raffle update: Wine Cellar of Stoneham, MA is donating a whole case of wine for my ALLY Foundation raffle! So the prizes are: 1 mixed case of wine, 1 custom granola mix from me & goji, a 1 month membership to ALL Healthworks Fitness Clubs, and a $100 gift card to William Sonoma. Tickets are $10/each and can be purchased by making a donation to http://firstgiving.com/meghanmalloyteamally . I am adding more prizes as I go along, so there will be many chances to win!

Happy Wine Wednesday! I know that many of you are not meat eaters, but I hope at least some of you enjoyed last night’s steak tip recipe. Word on the street said they were pretty good 😉

The second part of my Jacob’s Creek Superbowl meal were spicy Thai fish cakes. I thought, and I was right, that fish cakes would go perfectly with Jacob’s Creek Riesling.

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The ingredients:

2 large salmon filets

2 TSP mayonnaise

1 cup Panko bread crumbs, split, 3/4 goes in the cake mix and 1/4 for coating

1 TSP red curry paste

1 large egg

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 TSP curry powder

 

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To cook the salmon, I quickly poached it so that it was flaky but still dark pink in the middle. In the meantime, I blended all of the other ingredients in my food processer and set them aside.

Once the salmon was cooked and cooled, I combined it with the rest of the ingredients and stirred thoroughly.

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I had to taste the Riesling just to make sure the flavors would go together 🙂

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Making the cakes was easy. I just used my hands to roll and flatten them, then rolled in a small amount of Panko so that the outside would get a nice golden color.

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To pan fry the fish cakes, I spread some coconut oil in a pan and then let each cake cook in it on medium heat for 3 minutes on each side. The result was quite pretty.

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And delicious! The spicy curry flavor along with the slight oiliness of the fish went perfectly with the crisp, citrus acidity of the wine. Like the Jacob’s Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from last night’s post, this Riesling went really well with food and by itself provided a refreshing, light wine to drink. I have some of the Riesling left and hope to make a fennel and apple salad using the Riesling as part of the dressing. Sounds delish doesn’t it?

Do you have a favorite food and wine pairing?

Tags: fish, Food, Jacob's Creek, recipe, riesling, Thai food, white wine, wine

Super Wine and Food Part I

February 9, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Before I launch into a yummy post, I wanted to give you a raffle update. As you may know I am holding a raffle for my Boston Marathon charity, The ALLY Foundation, and I need all the help I can get! Raffle tickets are $10 each and can be purchased by visiting my fundraising site:

http://firstgiving.com/meghanmalloyteamally

I am currently requesting donations for the prizes, and so far I have:

$100 Williams Sonoma gift card

A custom me & goji mix

A one month membership to ALL of Healthworks’ fitness centers

Spread the word!

 

This year’s Superbowl Sunday was greatly enhanced by a lovely shipment of wine that I received from Jacob’s Creek, along with the challenge to create delicious wine and food pairings. Well, as you may know, I am a big fan of wine and food pairings, and I was excited to try more Jacob’s Creek wine. You may remember I received a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Cabernet Sauvignon to review back in December and used a Jacob’s Creek recipe on New Year’s Eve. Before this, I had only tried Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay, and while it was good, Chardonnay is not my favorite wine so I had very little to go by. I have been pleasantly surprised by the fact that Jacob’s Creek is MUCH more than Chardonnay.

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In this football themed promotion, I received a 2008 Pinot Grigio, a 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a 2008 Reserve Riesling, and a Reserve Pinot Noir.

My task, to make a dish that paired with the wines. Since I was a little pressed for time, I decided to choose two wines and to make Superbowl dishes that ended up pairing magically with them.

My menu:

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon with marinated steak tips topped with Cabernet “Caramel” Sauce

Jacob’s Creek Reserve Riesling with Spicy Thai Fish Cakes

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The ingredients:

Free range, grass fed steak tips

1 cup Jacob’s Creek Cabernet Sauvignon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Juice of one whole lemon

4 cloves garlic, minced

pinch of rosemary

liberal sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup brown sugar

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This recipe is easy and is better the longer you let it sit..

I started out by microwaving the lemon for 20 seconds to get the juices flowing, then squeezed the juice over the steak tips, making sure coat each side of the meat. I let this sit for a few minutes, then added the red wine, garlic, rosemary, and black pepper. I let it sit in the marinade from about 8:00 on Saturday night until 6:00 on Sunday, right before we were leaving for our Superbowl party.

After taking the meat out of the refrigerator and letting it rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes, I thoroughly drained the marinade off. You want the meat to be as dry as possible to get a good sear. I used a dry, very hot pan, and just laid the strips in it, flipping to make sure that each side got browned evenly.

In the meantime, I poured the marinade into a sauce pan and brought it up to a rolling boil. To make sure it was cooked through, I allowed it to boil for a couple of minutes, then brought it down to a slow simmer and stirred in the brown sugar. I let this sauce simmer for a good 10 minutes so that it thickened into a lovely caramel like substance. When the steak tips were cooked through, I plated them, and then poured the sauce on.

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The funny thing about this recipe is that I don’t eat beef. But I have reliable sources and was asked for the recipe from a number of party guests, including the Johnson & Wales trained culinary goddess hostess. How did the wine pair?

Well, to start, the meat was marinated in the Cabernet Sauvignon along with the other ingredients, so the flavor profiles were tied together by that. I did enjoy the wine, and as the tasting notes suggest, noted its dense fruit and long persistent finish. According to my husband, the deep, dark fruit in the wine paired well with the slight sweetness of the brown sugar and made a good contrast to the richness of the meat.

Part II of this post will cover the fish cakes which were so good they never made it to the party 🙂 and the Riesling which I absolutely loved! Check in tomorrow for that recipe and wine review.

What did you cook/eat for Superbowl? Did you watch, chat with friends, or skip the event altogether?

Tags: Cabernet Sauvignon, charity raffle, cooking, Food, foodie, Jacob's Creek, recipe, riesling, Superbowl, wine, wine and food pairings

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