Monthly Archives: April 2010
Seared Black Pepper Crusted Salmon with a Green Pepper/Sweet Onion/Fig sauce, and a few wines
This past week saw me at my family in Chicago, for a mix of business and fun. Being that I was crashing at my brother’s house, I was happy to nominate myself to do the fish, which was a TON of fun. I did two fish recipes and a sauce.
The first fish dish is one that we have made a few times, the baked gefilte fish loaf recipe. It came out well except for the fact that the fish loaf was a Passover one, and so had no binding other than potato starch, which is a poor substitute for flour 
The other fish dish was one I once made a couple of years ago, and it was a massive failure because it was under cooked. You see I seared the fish nicely, but I did not finish it in the oven, so we had more of a half cooked sashimi, than a fully baked fish. So this time, I cracked the multi-colored peppercorns using a low to medium grind, which left the corns cracked into chunks that could be consumed easily. I purchased a lovely half side of a Salmon that was filleted and boned. It did not fit in a pan of any sort. So I cut the fish in half and then liberally applied olive oil on it and then applied a liberal amount of the cracked pepper. Once oiled and peppered, I placed it into a lightly oiled pan and waited 5 minutes before taking it out, and placing it in a roasting pan, pepper side up. I did the same with the second piece of fish and then placed it as well into a roasting pan. I put a wee bit of water/wine into the pan as well, and placed the pan into a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees, for 5 minutes. Then remove the pans and leave covered for another few minutes, and then uncover and let cool.
With the fish made I was looking for a sauce to cover it with. I went through many options and none of them did it for me. I did not want teriyaki or sweet and sour, or any of the many pairings that exist out there. So instead, I listened to my sister-in-law to make a sauce that we would come up with. She recommended that we sauté some onions and green peppers, and then toss in some other stuff. So, we started with those two things, threw in some fresh garlic and pepper. Once they were fully browned and wilted, my brother appeared and recommended some dried figs, which turned out to be a great idea. I cubed the figs into small pieces, and threw them into the pan. I then emptied half a bottle of a Barkan Shiraz Rose, and waited for the wine to reduce by 50%, and then finished the sauce with a bit of Agave nectar to sweeten the pot! The sauce was awesome, if I say so myself. But even better was the combination of the sauce and the pepper encrusted salmon. The flavor combination does not burst in your mouth, but rather balances themselves so well, that you wonder how you ever lived without this stuff for so long.
Pepper Crusted Salmon
Salmon Fillet
Olive Oil to coat
Cracked Pepper Corn to cover on flesh side (leave skin on and un-coated)
Lightly oiled pan
Sweet Onion and Pepper Sauce
2 or 3 sweet onions
3 or 4 sweet peppers
Few cloves of crushed garlic
7 or 8 dried figs cubed
375 ml of wine
2 tbsp of agave nectar
2008 Santieri Ebraici Dona Gracia Vino Bianco – Score: B to B+
The nose on this light gold colored wine is filled with roasted herbs, lychee, ripe pear, and quince. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine is filled with lychee, ripe pear, tart lemon, and quince. The mid palate is bright with acidity, tart lemon, and dry orange peel. The finish is long with tart lemon, almond, and orange peel. After the wine receives more air, the wine softens and losses its harshness and becomes softer, lighter, with ripe pear and tart lemon that linger on the palate, long after the wine is gone.
2009 Mony Kikar HaShabbos (70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Petite Syrah) – Score: B to B+
The nose on this purple colored wine is hopping with cranberry, raspberry, black cherry, coffee, and mineral stones. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is a bit tight but soft with black cherry, raspberry, and cranberry. The mid palate is bright with acidity, soft tannins, and coffee. The finish is long and spicy with soft tannin, black cherry, mineral notes, and coffee.
2007 Odem Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, Volcanic - Score: A- to A
The nose on this purple to black colored wine is screaming with rich blackberry, blueberry, cassis, chocolate, sweet oak, slight mineral, vanilla, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is firm with a full mouth that comes at you with layers of chocolate, ripe blackberry, blueberry, and still gripping tannins. The mid palate is balanced and follows the mouth with sweet oak and lovely tannins. The finish is super long and luxurious with sweet oak, blueberry, blackberry, chocolate, and vanilla. Quite a wonderful wine that keeps on surprising, the wine keeps coming at you with ripe fruit, nice extraction, and a full body.
Sweet Potato/Parsnip Risotto, Honey/Pepper Flake Roasted Chicken, and Four Gates Pinot Noir
We were not interested in another red meat meal, yet with the cold front lingering we were interested in a warm comfort food. So we went to one of our old standbys – risotto. I changed the risotto recipe this week to precook the root vegetables before integrating them into the dish. There is a major issue with cooking food for Friday Night; the fact that the food needs to be reheated. Its rears its ugly head for Risotto, where the creaminess that comes from extracting the rice’s innate scratches, is hard pressed to duplicate in a Friday Night situation. Risotto is normally finished with cheese or butter, which of course causes issues with a meat dinner, but also makes it difficult to replicate in an oven. In the past, I have been successful with cooking the risotto one or two cups of liquid short, letting it cool down and refrigerate it over night. Then take it out the next day, let it come to room temperature, and then add in the last amount of liquid, plus some fat of some sort, and throw it in a low temperature oven, in a ceramic like dish. The ceramic dish helps to force the heat into the dish and if it has a good enough cover, it helps to keep the heat from escaping.
So in our past attempt at making risotto, which was a semi-failure, we pointed out that adding in the raw vegetables late to the party was a mistake. This time around, I sweated them in a separate pot, and added them to the dish at the end, knowing there would be more time in the oven to make them all work together. This time the dish worked out great, proving that either roasting or sweating the vegetables ahead of time, is a far better approach.
The recipe can be found here, where we roasted the root vegetables ahead of time. In the end there are really on two things in my recipe you can change; the vegetable and its preparatory heating. In our case this week we chose a mixture of Sweet Potato and parsnip, cubed into the same shape, and sweated in a pot until almost tender. The rest of the recipe stands true (albeit sans mushroom), and a cup of liquid short.
Friday day remove the risotto early to let it come to room temperature, add in more hot liquid and a bit of oil, mix it around, and place it in the oven right before Sabbath. My wife made a wonderful roasted cut up chicken that is spiced with honey, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. The meal was rounded out with a lovely fresh green salad.
Lemon Rosemary Pepper Flake Roasted Chicken Recipe
1 cut up chicken
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp of honey
2 tsp rosemary
2 tsp red pepper flakes
Clean the cut up chicken and then place the chicken in a roasting pan. First put the lemon juice all over the chicken and then place honey all over the chicken as well. With the chicken glistening with both lemon juice and honey, shake the rosemary and red pepper flakes all over the chicken as well. Bake the chicken covered at 325 degrees for 1 hour. After one hour, remove the white chicken from the roasting pan. Leave the dark chicken in the roasting pan for another hour, and then remove the pan and let cool down, before placing in the refrigerator.
To match the chicken and risotto, I pulled out a wine that I have not had in a bit of a while, a Four Gates Pinot Noir N.V. (2005 and 2006 vintages). The wine has evolved since we last tasted it. It is rounder with more oak, clean red fruit, and tart red cherry. The wine paired so nicely with the risotto and roasted chicken.
The wine note follows below:
N.V. Four Gates Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz CA – Score: A-
The nose on this ruby colored wine, with a hint of orange, is rich with oak, raspberry, Kirsch cherry, coffee, and a hint of plum. The mouth on this medium bodied wine rounds out nicely, after an hour of air, and the tannins are nicely integrated, giving the wine a full velvety mouth. The mouth is also concentrated with a lovely tart cherry, raspberry, and oak. The mid palate is balanced with nice acidity, integrated tannins, oak, and coffee. The finish is super long with tart Kirsch cherry, along with acidity, oak, coffee, and lovely tannins. A rounded flavor of oak and tart Kirsch cherry lingers on the palate long after the wine is gone.
Second Day Passover Meals and Wines
To celebrate the end of Passover, we had guests and family over for meals on the last days. We spent the entire Sunday cooking, and while it was crazy work, it was a ton of fun.
Sunday Night Menu (with family):
Chicken soup with matzo balls (my Father-in-law was not feeling well)
Roasted chicken
Carrot kugel (secret recipe) which I LOVE
Cranberry/Pineapple/Orange Relish
Fresh Salad
Wine Menu:
2007 Yarden Mount Hermon Red – Score: B+
The nose on this garnet colored wine is filled with raspberry, cranberry, cherry, and blackberry. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is soft with raspberry and cranberry. The mid palate is balanced with integrated tannin, acid, and slight concentration, along with a bit of roundness, without extreme oak presence. The finish is long and soft with nice dark fruit, full mouth, and acid. A nice wine that is ready to drink.
Monday Day Menu (Friends and Family):
Baked Gefilte Fish Loaf
Eggplant salad
Guacamole
Stuffed Vegetables
Vegetable Chunks
Fresh Green Salad
Eggplant Salad Recipe
2 Tablespoon of olive oil
Three onions cubed
1 lb of mushroom cubed
Two Eggplant cubed
1 16 or so ounce can of tomato sauce
Garlic Powder
Salt
Sauté the cubed onions in the olive oil, until brown. Once browned, add the cubed mushrooms and wait for them to wither and brown as well. Then add the cubed eggplant and wait for them to release their water. Once the vegetables are soft, add in the tomato sauce, the spices, and wait for the mixture to firm up.
Vegetable Chunks (Feeds 24 or so folks)
4 large sweet potatoes cut into 1 inch wedges
6 red potatoes cut into 1 inch wedges
4 russet potatoes cut into 1 inch wedges
6 zucchini cut into 1 inch wedges
2-3 onions cut into 1 inch wedges
Olive Oil coated roasting pan
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Place the vegetables in water for 30 or so minutes. Then drain the water and lay them in a large oiled roasting pan. After each layer of vegetables cover them with garlic powder and paprika. It is fine to have at most three layers of vegetables, but two is better. Roast in oven covered at 350 degrees, for 30 minutes, then mix the vegetables around, cover with spices again, and place back in the oven till just tender, but with a bit of bite still left.
Wine Menu:
2004 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A-
This bottle is quite different from the previous one we had. Instead of intense toasted oak, the wine showed characteristics very much in line with our tasting from 2008, except without the green flavors. The nose on this light gold to gold colored wine is filled with ripe fruit, peach, lemon, melon, butterscotch, and oak. The mouth on this medium to full bodied and very rich Chardonnay is powered by some residual sugar, peach, melon, and citrus flavors. The mid palate is a strong crisp acid core mixed with some sweetness, and nice toasty (but not over the top) oak. The finish is a long crisp and refreshing stroll with toasty wood as a partner, along with butterscotch, and ripe melon. The wine is crisp yet has weight at the same time, a real joy.
2006 Tzuba Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B+ to A-
This bottle turned out to be more red than our previous tasting of this wine, but it was still a concentrated mouth which was nice. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is filled with raspberry, cranberry, plum, toasty oak, and coffee. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is concentrated and focused with raspberry, cranberry, plum, tight and spicy. The mid palate is bracing with acidity, toasty oak, and still not yet integrated tannins. The finish is long and toasty with coffee, red berry, spicy oak, vanilla, and spice. I guess I will chalk this one up to bottle variation.
Monday Night Menu (Family)
Chicken soup with matzo balls (my Father-in-law was not feeling well)
Roasted chicken
Stuffed Vegetables (leftovers)
Carrot kugel (secret recipe) which I LOVE
Cranberry/Pineapple/Orange Relish
Fresh Salad
Wine Menu:
Leftovers of FG Chardonnay and Yarden Mount Hermon Red
Tuesday Day Menu (Friends and Family):
Baked Gefilte Fish Loaf
Eggplant salad
Guacamole
Stuffed Vegetables
Kielbasa Stew
Vegetable Chunks
Sweet and Sour Brisket
Fresh Green Salad
We normally go with one or at most two dishes, but this time things worked out better for us to make the Kielbasa Stew that we have had pretty good success with recently. Our guests brought two bottles of wine and they were really great, and they went very well with the dishes we had on the menu.
Wine Menu:
2006 Yarden Chardonnay, Odem Organic Vineyard – Score: A-
The nose on this light gold colored wine is hopping with ripe melon, fig, kiwi, apples, sweet oak, honeydew, and floral notes. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is toasty and spicy with oak, peach, melon, and apple. The mid palate is bracing with core acidity, orange peel, spicy oak, and butter. The finish is super long with butter, toasty oak, lemon, ripe melon, and good acidity. Finally, the flavors of oak, butter, and lemony acidity linger forever on the palate after the wine is long gone.
2006 Domaine du Castel, Petit Castel - Score: A-
This wine starts off slow but explodes with a crazy rich nose and mouth as it airs out. The nose on this dark purple to black colored wine explodes with a rich voluminous oak, rich dark chocolate, plum, jammy cassis, and blackberry. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is soft, supple, and rich with a full/velvety mouth from lovely soft tannins that still coat the mouth, along with ripe blackberry, cassis, chocolate, and black plum. The mid palate is filled with oak, integrated tannins, and still good acid. The finish is super long with chocolate, blackberry, oak, lovely tannins, rich/ripe plum on a bed of chocolate and tobacco.
Passover Seder Wines
This past week, saw us enjoying two wines that we brought, and two wines that others brought to our hosts homes. Mine were not as good as the others brought, but good to try and drink. We of course brought these wines to two Passover Seder for the four cups (arba kosos). We decided this year to not host the passover seder, like we did last year, and so, we went to our friends for the two evening meals.
The notes for the wines we enjoyed can found below:
2004 Recanati Cabernet Franc - Score: B
The nose on this garnet colored wine has cranberry, raspberry, plum, oak, and mint. The mouth on this full bodied wine is still expressive with red fruit, crushed herbs, and a touch of mint. The mid palate is still bracing with acid, soft tannins, and oak. The finish is still strong with coffee, acid, red fruit, and oak. Drink UP, or use it for a nice cholent for the next few months.
2006 Tzuba Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A-
The nose of this almost jet black colored wine is packed with rich and spicy oak, blackberry, cassis, raspberry, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is super concentrated and super extracted with blackberry, cassis, and oak extraction. The mid palate is bracing with bright acidity, toasty oak, and still biting tannins, that will smooth out soon. The finish is very long with bright acidity, toasty oak, and big black fruit. A nice concentrated Cabernet that will evolve a bit still.
On the second night we enjoyed these wines…
2004 Domaine du Castel Petit Castel – Score: B+
The nose on this purple colored wine was crazy nice with blackberry, chocolate, sweet oak, bright berry, and pepper. The mouth on this very soft medium bodied wine was not as bracing and complex as I remember it to have been. The mouth is soft and almost tannic free, with nice black fruit, black berry and plum. The mid palate is soft and not bracing, with oak, and not much more. The finish is very nice with more black fruit, chocolate, and a bit of oak. Nice, but soft and ready to drink NOW!
2003 Yarden Merlot – Score: A- to A
The nose on this black colored wine screams with black cherry, raspberry, berry, crushed herbs, and rich and toasty oak. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is rich with concentrated black cherry, berry, and toasty oak. The mid palate is acidic with rich oak, and integrating tannins. The finish is long and rich, with more black fruit, oak, and green notes. The wine is super fun, extracted, and rich.
