Monthly Archives: March 2010
Braised Kielbasa with Onions and Mushrooms and 2007 Ben Ami Cabernet Sauvignon
With the festival of Passover hot on our heals (Monday Night), and the fact that our kitchen is still not kosher for passover, we needed a small but still enjoyable meal, as we wanted ZERO leftovers. So, to the freezer we went, as our quest to empty it is almost complete. There we found a Kielbasa that was ripe for the taking, my wife then said, do NOT make the stew too large, and as always, she was correct, so she recommended a simple and delicious recipe. One Kielbasa cut into one inch chunks, then browned on each side. After that remove the Kielbasa, and throw in 4 onions that have been sliced into thin half-moon slivers. After they are browned throw in the mushrooms, and watch over them. Once the package has released most of its liquid, throw the Kielbasa back in and let them get happy together on low heat for some 20 to 30 minutes.
We paired this with some lovely whole grain Brown Basmati Rice and a fresh green salad. To pair with this food, I went looking for a simple round red wine, and pulled out the 2007 Ben Ami Cabernet Sauvignon. The Ben Ami Winery is not a real winery, it is a second label for value priced wines from the Barkan/Segal winery, which is the second largest winery of Israel, behind Carmel. I believe this is an export only bottle, as it is Mevushal.
The wine paired well for the first 30 minutes, after that it went fat and cooked. You see, this is a Mevushal wine, and it was clear and obvious after some 30 minutes. It was OK, but it took the wine down a rung or so. The wine notes follow below:
2007 Ben Ami Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B to B+
This wine has two lives, before it goes cooked and after it goes cooked. I recommend not opening this wine till you want to drink it. The wine starts off quite lovely and red, with rich mineral, cherry, cranberry, ripe plum, floral notes, chocolate, and a nice nose with oak at the end. The mouth of this medium bodied wine follows the nose with plum, cherry, and raspberry. The mid palate is acidic with nice tannins. The finish is long with oak, cherry, plum, chocolate, and spice with soft tannins. A nice red Cabernet that is fun to enjoy.
In its second life, the wine starts to taste cooked (from the Mevushal process), and turns black with blackberry and black plum. The rest of the notes hold for the most part, but the wine, is too cooked and not that fun. I recommend drinking up what you have.
Chicken Stir-Fry with Green Beans and 2006 Yarden Gewurztraminer
This was an off week being that Passover is fast approaching. As is the tradition with Passover, one is meant to burn his/her chametz, prior to Passover commencing. So, one of the aspects of cleaning is, cleaning out the freezer of food that is not packaged in a complete and untouched manner. In other words, we need to empty our lives of fresh or frozen food that came into contact with bread, while the dry or non-perishable foods can be stored away till after Passover. One of the things we found in one of our most recent freezer dives was some boneless chicken breasts that were out of their original housing. So, it was time to consume it. That said, we are not big fans of boneless chicken breast, as we have never done a great job with it. So, I went looking around for a fool proof recipe, and found one that looked good to me. I loved the intense aromas and flavors that emanate from the Asian five spice. I marinated the sliced up chicken breast in the mix and soy sauce for 20 or so minutes, and then proceeded to brown them. I did cook them for longer than 5 minutes, but they were a bit pink inside still, which was fine as I was going to eat it the next night, after a reheating.
To pair with this fun recipe and some fresh green salad, I chose a wine that could handle the heat. I went for the 2006 Yarden Gewurztraminer, which turned out not be an overly complex wine, but one that had lots of nice components and characteristics that worked great with the spicy and hot Asian dish.
The wine note follows below:
2006 Yarden Gewurztraminer - Score: B++
The nose on the gold colored wine starts off dead and almost like kerosene. Thankfully, that blew rather quickly, and came alive with peach, grapefruit, heat, apricots, jasmine and other floral notes, and spice. The mouth on this medium to full bodied not overly sweet wine has peach, lychee, grapefruit, along with a rich perfumed mouth. This may not be an overly complex, concentrated, or structured wine, but what it is, is a fun and enjoyable wine that matched up well against our Asian Chicken Stir-Fry dish. The mid palate was balanced with acid, jasmine, and honey. The finish was long and luscious, with spice, a bed of jasmine, a jug of honey, and a basket of grapefruit and lychee.
International Food & Wine Festival at Herzog Wine Cellars 2010 Summary
It all started on the first Monday in February, Benyamin Cantz and I were driving down to LA to attend the 2010 International Food & Wine Festival. This is the third installment of this wonderful event, and we have both attended them in earnest, as to be honest, there are few places where one can taste hundred dollar kosher bottles of wine. As usual, the event is set up by the congenial and detail oriented Monica Agyekum, who heads up the marketing & public relations at Herzog Wine Cellars. The drive down started without much fanfare, but things changed quickly within the last 2 or so hours. Benyo wanted to stop off at a wine supply shop, and since we went down with the 101, we hit Paso Robles and the shop pretty quick. The visit to the shop though was far from quick. To be fair, I asked a bunch of questions as well, so the visit was a 50/50 time drain. After that, we were supposed to get to the Coast Wine Services (CCWS) in Santa Maria, to meet up with some folks making Rhone Ranger style wines, mostly GSM and GS (Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre) blends. Well no matter how hard we looked we could not find them. After asking around it turned out that their car had broken down, and we were more than happy to lend a hand. The only problem was that our car was already packed – NO not with clothes; this was a two-day trip for goodness sakes. But with Benyo’s wine! It turns out that he has many happy clients in LA, and we were shipping it to them! Well the trunk was filled with MANY thousands of dollars of wine, and we needed to pick up these two poor guys, and all of their belongings! AHH!! Thank the Lord, we made it work. However, the two guys were covered to their heads with their stuff, in the back seats. Well, we thought that would be the totality of surprises for this leg of the trip, but not long after Oxnard, a police man pulls us over. We are not sure for what; we were driving with the traffic. However, once he saw the two poor guys in the back, it was game over; he kept harassing me and begging me to say something stupid. All the while, I kept my cool, and prayed that we get out of this as well. Once again, Baruch Hashem (Thank the Lord), he came back and told us to drive slower. At that point all I wanted was some food and a bed to sleep on. I was dead. We had been driving and walking and packing for some good 10 hours or so. We slowly got to Jeff’s Sausage, where we inhaled two dogs and fries. We dropped off our guests, and headed over to our sleeping accommodations.
The next day started off and ended in a wonderful way, which was a huge step up from our previous 24 hours. The day started off with a late morning, Starbucks coffee, and a short drive into Encino, CA found me meeting Craig Winchell at this nice Kosher Sushi restaurant, called Sassi Sushi Bar, for a late lunch. Craig has been a long time friend, and is the owner of the still existing Gan Eden Winery, and also the owner of the wonderful Smokin’! Restaurant in Valley Village. The last time we were here in LA, Benyamin Cantz and I enjoyed a meal there, and my posting of that dinner can be found here. We met there and we both enjoyed the meal, and on the way out I bought some plain (unsweetened) rice to go, to use as a palate cleanser for the upcoming wine tasting event that we were both going to. So many times people go to these wine tasting events and have no way to manage tasting more than some 20 or so wines, before their palate’s either die, become overrun with wine characteristics, or worse, ghost characteristics. I first heard of this approach on Rogov’s Forum, and I have used it many times, since then.
After lunch we got into the rental car, and drove north on Highway 101 for some 38 or so miles. Herzog Cellars winery is a fascinating story. It started with Eugene Herzog immigrating to the US from Austria in 1948 after the war and after communism took over his winery. He worked for a small winery in NY, and by 1958 he became the majority owner of it. In deference to his grandfather, they called it Royal Wines, as he was given the title Baron in Austria. By 1985, the family decided that they needed a California presence, and so they hired the famous Wine Maker Peter Stern, to build their initial footprint into the world of high end wines. After that they moved to Santa Maria, hired the now head wine maker, Joe Hurliman, and leased space from Coast Wine Services (CWS), while all the while knowing that they needed a place that they could call home. In the end, Joe went looking for a plot of land, that was as close to a Jewish Community as possible (for the Kosher Wine managers), and landed on Oxnard. Not a classic place to house a winery, but one that is close to the highways to truck in the grapes and one close enough to a Jewish Community to allow for full time Jewish supervision. The winery opened in 2005, and three years later it started hosting the now yearly International Food and Wine Festival.
As in years past, we came for both the trade and consumer parts of the festival. The festival’s name, International Food & Wine Festival, is aptly applied, as it is a celebration of both the Tierra Sur Restaurant and the wines made and imported by the Royal Wine Company. The trade portion is open during the early afternoon, while the public portion is open in the early evening. Craig and I arrived for the trade portion of the event right on time. As we approached the front of the winery, we were greeted by a pair of hostesses who took down our names and gave us name tags. As we entered the winery, I had a case of Déjà vu. The layout and setup was the same as the previous two incarnations. As you enter the winery, the conference room is to the right, where Jay Buchsbaum, Vice President of Marketing and Director of Wine Education, holds his unique and eclectic wine seminars, on subjects ranging from reading a label, wine tasting, or what kosher wine is. They are seminars that should not be missed, and on an aside, a personal note, Jay if you are reading this, I hope your leg is doing better. To the left though was the Raison d’être of the evening – the wines and Todd’s delicious food. As you enter the tasting room, the table with Herzog Moniker-ed glasses is to your left. With a glass in hand, we entered the hall that is Herzog’s tasting room. There were some 12 to 13 tables with wine on it, someone to pour the wine, and finally, a person intimate with the wines or better, the wine maker. Past all the tables and wine bar, is the now renowned Tierra Sur Restaurant, run by the incomparable Todd Aarons, the Executive Chef of Tierra Sur. The entire restaurant, the sitting areas, and the adjoining patio, was setup with elaborate dishes and on-the spot preparation utensils, to heat/smoke/finish any of some 20 to 30 dishes. The layout, display and hands on preparation by the many chefs of the restaurant, only help to accentuate the evening, and gives the average consumer, an almost chef’s table view into the world of elite class dining.
As usual, the staff of Herzog Winery were out in force, and it was great to see them all again, Cellar Master Josh Goodman, and the fore mentioned Head Wine Maker, Joe Hurliman. However, to pull off an event of this scale, you need many people. Even if you leave aside all of the mashgichim needed to pour the wine, or all the wine makers/wine promoters who talk to the wines on the table. What about all the spit buckets that magically are empty when you turn to use them, though you swear you just spit into one of them a few moments ago. Or, what about all the preparation that was required to pull this off (hint hint Monica), the setup of all the tables, the shipping in of all these wines, the Herzogs that seemed to be in view whenever you took your eye off the wines or food, or the management of the human mass that seemed to almost overrun the winery, but not to the point of getting in your way. All of this work, which is in NO way small, needs a huge round of applause. No, I do not work for Royal, nor do I sell their wines. What I am is a wine blogger with at least a decent eye for the not so obvious. Some call me observant, and not only in a religious manner. In no way was the gathering in your face, nor was it oppressive or difficult to get to wine you wanted to taste. Instead, the event was quite impressive, well run, and in so many ways yet another step forward for this progressive kosher winery.
Last year, the event was equally impressive, but the crowds were smaller, in an almost diminutive and unfortunate manner. More than a few of the wines were corked or DOA. Further, sometimes, the tables were left with people who poured the wines, but knew nothing about them. All of these issues took away from the event. This year, all of those issues were rectified, in an impressive tour de force that truly brought the Herzog and Baron name great “nachas” and accord. Nary a bottle was DOA this time, some may not have been so great, but none were dead because of poor shipping, lack of foresight, or poor cork/bottle management. The crowds were robust, but as stated already, not oppressive. The tables were manned by people passionate about the wines, and equally capable of talking to them at a drop of the hat. Finally, the selection was impressive as well. I asked one of the Herzog’s why many of the wines that were poured at the New York wine tasting, were not here in California? He aptly replied that it is up to the wine makers. If they want to come to California, then they are more than happy to help promote the wines. However, a few of the wineries, like Alexander and Tzuba Wineries, both of which we have highlighted in previous, were no shows at the California tasting. I hope that next year, more people will get a chance to taste some of these magnificent wines from Israel.
So without further ado, left us take a quick virtual tour around the room before, we adjourn to the restaurant, where we will give Todd his insane due. Read the rest of this entry
Lemon/Honey/Pepper Roasted Chicken, Rice Pilaf, and 2004 Four Gates Chardonnay
This past week was harried and crazy coming back from New York, where we visited the Gotham Wine Event and a bit of the New York scene. Anyway, my wife was very kind to essentially make shabbos. To start she whipped up a batch of scrumptious roasted chicken, where she places the chicken in a pan and then covers the chicken with a melange of honey, red pepper flakes, lemon, and a few other spices. Along with that she made some delicious spinach kugel, brown basmati rice, and a fresh green salad. To match the food I went looking for a nice chardonnay in the cellar, and came up with a 2004 Four Gates Chardonnay. The wine has been one we have drunk before, but this wine has turned, and should start being drunk up soon. I always kid Benyo that it would be fine to add in a bit of oak to his Chardonnay. Well, maybe not, this bottle was almost a cousin to the 2007 Castel Chardonnay C, that is bright and also burnt on the nose from so much toasted oak. The Four Gates Chardonnay is not as burnt as it is oaky, and is losing its fruit. It seems to me that the oak is now overpowering what fruit is left, and so, if you like an oaky Chardonnay drink up, if not, drink up!!
Also, since I trounced it on Rogov’s forum, it is only fair to give it its due. This shabbos a friend made a lovely kiddush spread for all of the shul to enjoy. Part of that spread was a bottle of Red Label 2005 Hagafen Pinot Noir. On the forum both myself and Daniel did not find it very good at all. My only guess is that it was in a crazy dumb period. Because this morning that same bottle was lovely, with clear notes of oak, strawberry, cherry, plum, and coffee/chocolate. Very nice and very worthwhile. Probably at its peak or maybe a bit on the other side, but not brown or orange in any way. Anyway, as always full disclosure. Also, I had a drop of some 2004 Hagafen Merlot. Very nice, soft, accessible, rich with supple tannins, oak, plum, a hint of cassis, and raspberry. Nice wine, but drink up time.
The wine note follows below:
2004 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A-
The nose on this electric light gold to gold colored wine is filled with heavy and luscious toasted oak, starts a bit burnt to start, lemon, melon, peach, toasted almond, and butterscotch. The mouth on this full bodied wine is now overpowered by layers of concentrated spicy and toasted oak, along with butterscotch, melon, and a hint of almonds. The mid palate is packed with more oak, lemon, and bright acidity. The finish is long and spicy, with tasty oak, butterscotch, and lemon. As it sat the wine lost a bit of the burnt toast flavors, and it was awesome, but the next day, it was over. I recommend to all that it is time to drink this wine up, and enjoy it with heavy roasted fowl, light stews, and hard cheese.
Eggplant/Sweet Potato/Mushroom Risotto and a bottle of Domaine Cazes Le Chalet
This past week we had a repeat performance as we love risotto and heck, a chunk of meat is always appreciated. The risotto was unfortunately a bit off kilter because I threw in too many eggplant and sweet potato. To start I sautéed onions, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and a single eggplant. The vegetable sauté took a fair amount of time to come together, but once it did I placed it to the side. I then cleaned the large pan, placed a bit of oil in it, and then coated two cups of Arborio rice in the oil. Coating the rice is such an important step in making proper risotto, and is sometimes overlooked. So, I then followed the many stages of risotto mixing, and at the last stage I made the error of adding in so many sautéed vegetables that the rice could not coagulate together in a proper manner. The kernels were cooked well and they let down their starch walls, but I had too many vegetables between the kernels and their starch, that the risotto was not as creamy as I would have wanted.
Good news – the meat did work well! We used flanken once again and braised it long and low in a pool of alcohol, brown sugar, a bit of honey, and a bit of water. The cut of beef was quite enjoyable with the risotto, and a large fresh green salad. I had heard a bit about this wine, and wanted to try it. It stood up to the meat and risotto just fine. The wine region is not well known, but even less known about this wine is the fact that the grapes are sourced from the winery’s bio-dynamic vineyards, find out more here.
The wine went very well with the risotto and meat. The wine note follows below:
2008 Domaine Cazes Le Chalet – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is rich in mineral, Kirsch cherry, cranberry, and smoke. As time passes the wine turns to cassis and blackberry, on a condensed cherry gum drop background. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine is spicy with cherry, cranberry, and plum, and turns blacker as time passes. The mid palate is mineral, with nice integrated tannins, and acid. The finish is medium long with bright acidity, more tannins, red fruit, and tart cherries. Clearly a wine that gets blacker as time passes, and one that goes nicely with meat or light cheeses.
Roasted Sweet Potato and Mushroom Risotto, leftover Braised Flanken, and some Goose Bay Chardonnay
OK, I can already hear you all wondering out loud, has he really lost it? Yes, we had leftover alcohol and brown sugar braised flanken with some Chardonnay. To be fair, there was only a bit of the flanken left over, and it was not the main player on the table. The clear star of the evening was the killer risotto. Once again, Italy’s creme rice dish, showed its muscle and nutty flavors. We love Risotto, and have no problem enjoying it for days or weeks on end. So, when given the chance to make some, I jumped at it, and it came out wonderfully. We started by peeling, cubing, and then roasting the sweet potato in the oven at 400 degrees. In the mean time, I whipped together the usual risotto recipe, where we start with two or three onions diced and then sautéed in olive oil until they are perfectly caramelized. In the mean time, we started another pot with onion soup mix and water and brought it to a boil. Once the onions were caramelized, we threw in four garlic cloves and then some basil to boot. Once the garlic and herb coated the onions, we threw in two cups of Arborio rice, and made sure they were coated with the oil and herbs s well. Then starts the dance of hydration to dry to hydration to dry and – well you get the point. You first hydrate the pot with a cup of white acidic wine, and then let it get absorbed into Arborio rice and then continue hydrating the pot, a cup at a time, from the boiling liquid you have alongside it. In our case, it was the fore mentioned onion soup mixture. We kept hydrating the pot, until the half way point, when we threw in the thickly sliced mushrooms. They quickly started to release their liquid, and slowly started to shrink. After a couple of minutes, we resumed the hydration dance, until the risotto was 90% of the way there. At that point I threw in just enough liquid to get close but not complete the mixture. In other words just a cup or so less than what is needed to force the Arborio rice to release its starch. I did this because; I had another warming ahead of me on Friday night.
Risotto Recipe:
3 onions diced
16 oz of sliced mushrooms
2 large sweet potatoes cubed – roasted in the oven
4 or 5 garlic cloves
2 cups of Arborio rice
1 cup of white wine
5 cups of chicken/vegetable stock
2 cups of Rice Dream before reheating
Friday night, right before the Sabbath, I threw in the roasted sweet potato chunks, along with two cups of rice dream, and mixed it to the best of my ability, right before I left for synagogue. When I came back and took the dish out of the oven, it had come together perfectly. The starches had released themselves in a balanced manner, and they did not overrun the dish in any way. Instead, the risotto was integrated with its companions in a singular, creamy, and homogeneous manner. The sweetness of the sweet potatoes and the earthiness of the mushrooms, combined well with the Arborio rice, wine, and flavorings to add a dimension of nuttiness to the mix.
So back to the wine, yes I had a Chardonnay and I loved it. The Goose Bay Chardonnay was fine and did not need to be rushed or consumed quickly, but I did anyway. In the end, I could had drunk a red wine with the risotto and meat, but instead I enjoyed a wonderful wine, that was buttery and fruity and had just enough oak to make it easily stand up to the risotto, and not be conflicted by the flanken. The wine note follows:
2006 Goose Bay Chardonnay – Score: B+ / A-
The nose on this light gold to gold colored wine is rich and not your common run of the mill Chardonnay. The nose is almost perfumed Viognier style from the extra rich and ripe fruit. The nose continues with rich ripe peach, honey, lemon, sweet oak, ripe guava, alongside some almond or toast. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine carries the rich and perfumed nose with rich ripe peach, guava, and honey. The mid palate is balanced with still bracing acidity that almost is a bit tart, but that calms down over time, along with oak, and toast. The finish is almost mouth coating and lingers long on the palate with tart and bright fruit, rich butter, sweet oak, honey, and a fair amount of vanilla. This is a wine that is not at the end of the road, but is highly enjoyable right now, except for the tartness that fades with air.
