Blog Archives
Herb encrusted Gefilte Loaf, Sweet and Sour Brisket, Quinoa, Kugel, and lovely wines
This past weekend was still Passover and we invited friends and family to hang out and join us for a lovely meal. Passover is a time meant to represent rejuvenation, freedom, and the need for each of us to spark the embers of possibility that lie deep within us all. The combination of Passover and the Sabbath meant we needed to dig deep and make some really fun stuff, so that is exactly what we did. We made my favorite cut of meat, a brisket in the manner that we always do, with help from friends of ours that were hanging out with us for Passover. We also made other Passover favorites this year, including our Herb Encrusted Gefilte Fish Loaf, and a new vegetable kugel, that was killer. Most kugel has some kind of binding agent in it, and on Passover that is either Potato Starch or Matzah Meal. However, this recipe has neither! This is a slightly modified recipe from an insert we saw in a magazine created by the folks at the Pomegranate Supermarket in Brooklyn, NY.
Passover Vegetable Kugel Recipe
4 red potatoes (unpeeled)
4 yellow zucchinis (unpeeled)
6 carrots (unpeeled)
2 onions
6 eggs
3/4 cup of oil
Salt, pepper, and garlic to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grate all the vegetables in your food processor. Mix in the eggs, oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, and then pour into either a single 9″ x 13″ pan or two 9″ round pans. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another hour. The kugel should be slightly charred on the top and sides but cooked thoroughly within, which is easy to check with a toothpick or fork.
The recipes for the brisket and the Gefilte Loaf can be found here. We changed the brisket recipe only slightly, by NOT using ketchup, and using tomato sauce instead.
To pair with this feast we had a few wines, some that people brought over, and some that we took out of the cellar. One of them is a rather unique wine, a blend of Moscato and Sauvignon Blanc. This is not a common blend and one that many dislike, but one that we really liked and one we spoke about previously, when we wrote an article about Elvi Wines. Jay Miller, a wine writer and critic for Robert Parker‘s highly influential Wine Advocate newsletter, echoed the words “Kudos to the Cohens (of Elvi Wines) for this remarkable array of Kosher wines…” when tasting the Elvi’s wines. We have now tasted the wine in question a few times, the 2008 Elvi Ness Blanco, and each time it has put a smile on my face. Some critics did not like it, but Mr. Miller and I seem to like it just fine. This time around the wine is showing more Alsatian in nature, with rich honeyed styling and good minerality to boot. The wine went perfectly with the herb encrusted fish, the honey pairing well against the herb and the mineral notes pairing nicely with the fish’s slight sweetness and weight.
Passover Seder, Four Cups of wine, Matzoh, meatballs, Qinuoa, and kugel
This past week was Passover, which started on Monday night. We always enjoy Passover with a few of our friends, with each of us trading off for who hosts the Seder, this year we did the hosting and it was a lovely party! We opened some wines, some nice, some OK, and some close to being duds. In the end it was a true joy and was enjoyed by all who attended, at least that is what they told me 🙂 We started the Seder off with some nice wines, listed below, and then moved on to whole-wheat hand shmurah Matzoh! This was the first year that we were lucky to get our hands on whole-wheat hand shmurah matzoh. It is very easy to get whole-wheat, spelt, or other cool versions of the five grains matzoh. However, this is the first year that I could easily get our hands on whole-wheat hand shmurah matzoh. The matzoh was thin and lovely but a bit stale, so we had to reheat the matzoh for 10 or so minutes in the oven to revive them and get them nice and crispy.
After that we had some lovely herb encrusted Gefilte fish loaf along with eggplant, onion, and mushroom salad. For the main course we had some lovely meatballs, kugel, quinoa, and a fresh green salad.
Now before you call me a heretic, yes I eat Quinoa on Passover, as does the CRC and the Star-K, while the OU has backed away from this whole mess and let people decide for themselves. We have been eating Quinoa for sometime on Passover and though others have an issue, we feel fine about it, though it is best to contact your own local area Rabbi. The New York Times heard about the tumult and wrote an article all about it.
Kosher for Passover Meatball Recipe (modified from the Early Show recipe):
3 tablespoons of Olive oil
2 coarsely chopped Onions
8 ounces of tomato sauce
4 tablespoons of Parsley
3 broken up square Matzohs
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 eggs
Tomato Sauce for Braising the meatballs:
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 finely chopped Onions
1 28 oz can of Tomato Puree or Tomato Sauce
2 cups of red wine
Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onions and sauté over a high flame stirring constantly until soft. Add the tomato sauce and parsley and continue to cook for three minutes. Remove the onions from the heat and set aside and cool. Once cool, add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix thoroughly by hand and roll the meatballs into golf ball sized meatballs.
Now we need to create the braising sauce. Chop the two onions and saute them in the olive oil. Once browned nicely throw in the tomato sauce and wait for the sauce to thicken by a quarter. Then add in the wine and mix thoroughly. Then add in the meatballs one at a time into the hot braising sauce and cook the meatballs for 20 to 30 minutes.
The funny thing about the Early Show recipe was that it had liver in it, which is not for me. Also, they were roasting the meatballs and that is a no-no for the first two nights, as one cannot eat any type of roasted meat for the first two nights of passover, as it may look like the Passover Sacrifice which we do not have today. Yes, meatballs do NOT look like a sacrifice! Still, the law is: any meat braised is fine, any meat roasted (cooked without a sauce) is NOT. You can eat roasted vegetables.
For the four cups (arba kosos) and beyond we enjoyed the wines listed here in the order they were served:
2004 Golan Heights Winery Pinot Noir Yarden Kosher – Score: B++ to A-
This wine is really hitting its stride and may well be time to drink up! The nose on this dark garnet colored wine opened with black fruit that lays deep within this wine’s veins, but hidden initially under a blanket of oak. This wine opens with sweet oak, blackberry, raspberry, plum, and classic Pinot cherries along with coffee, dirt, and a hint of herbaceous mint. The mouth on this full bodied wine was velvety and mouth coating. The tannins are now well integrated and not mouth puckering and give a richness to the wine. The mouth starts with blackberry, raspberry, plum, and cherry, and flows into a mid palate of more oak, coffee, dirt, and some middling acidity. The finish is long with rich fruit, oak, chocolate, vanilla, and a bit of chocolate that rounds out the wine. This is a nice wine that is showing well but is time to drink up!!!
Mushroom and Sweet Potato Risotto, Roasted Lemon Chicken, Cholent, and Sol Del Chile Cabernet Sauvignon
This past week we were in the mood of more warm comfort food, and that was exactly what we got when we made a pot of Mushroom and Sweet Potato 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. Once again, I must stress that our way to make the risotto work for a Sabbath meal entails a few extra steps.
Risotto Recipe:
2 tsp of olive oil
3 onions diced
16 oz of sliced mushrooms
2 large sweet potatoes cubed – roasted in the oven
4 or 5 garlic cloves
2 tsp of olive oil
2 cups of Arborio rice
1 cup of white wine
5 cups of chicken/vegetable stock
2 cups of Rice Dream before reheating (if the stock is all used up)
- Peel, cube, and cook the sweet potato, either by roasting them in an oven at 400 degrees, or by sweating them in a separate pan till they are soft.
- Saute onions in the risotto pot until they are browned. Then add 1 pound of brown mushrooms and start to sweat them until they start to release their brown juice.
- Then add the crushed cloves of garlic until they melt and meld into the onions and mushrooms.
- Then remove the onions and mushrooms and place to the side.
- Add some more oil to the risotto pot and wait till it heats
- Add the Arborio rice to the heated oil and wait till you start to smell the rice toast slightly
- Then starts the dance of hydration to dry to hydration to dry and – well you get the point.
- Once the rice is well coated with the oil and just starting to toast, add in the one cup of white wine
- Add broth from the pot on the stove, one cup at a time,
- Continue to do so until the rice is just starting to get tender, do not go further.
- Once you turn off the heat, add back in the mushrooms, onions, and sweet potatoes. We do this at the end, to make sure the rice gets all the attention it needs, thereby assuring the fact that the rice, and only the rice, is being targeted by the warm liquid.
- Let the pots cool and place both the leftover liquid and the risotto in the refrigerator. The next day, when it is time to warm up the risotto, place cups of the liquid, or rice milk if you have no more liquid, until the rice does not accept any more liquid. This works because the pot is cold, and the liquid is simply being absorbed by the starch.
- Place the closed/sealed risotto pot into the oven, set at 240 degrees, and let it stay there for at least 1 1/2 hour, but not much more.
To go along with the risotto my wife made her fantastic lemon roasted chicken, which we had with some fresh green salad. The combination worked out great, while the wine I chose fine. I wanted to try the Sol Del Chile again, as I had a bottle around, and I wanted to know where the bottle was heading. The bottle is clearly peaking or a bit behind, so drink up! Also, I tried a bit of the 2008 Goose Bay Sauvignon Blanc that I thought was bad, but turned out to be a bit better than I first thought, though not that much more improved.
Finally, we had Cholent on Saturday with leftovers of the Sol de Chile and it was OK, but the cholent was better. The wine started off a bit too dirt forward, but like the last time, it got better with more air, so that the fruit could show itself, while melding with the dirt and coffee.
The wine note follows below:
2008 Sol Del Chile Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: B+
The nose on this bright dark ruby colored wine is filled with mounds of loamy dirt, bramble, raspberry, red cherry, currant, light oak, vanilla, and coffee. As it opens the wine shows dark cherry, black currant, and much more loamy dirt. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine has currant, dark cherry, loamy dirt, raspberry, a hint of black berry, along with lovely tannins that create a full and mouth coating mouth. The mid palate is balanced with loamy dirt, nice tannin, oak, and nice acid. The finish is long with dark cherry, dirt, oak, currant, and coffee, with nice tannin, acid, loamy dirt, and dark cherry lingering.
Puttanesca, Cholent, and two more 2007 Binyamina Yogev wines
This past week we enjoyed some simpler home cooking; Puttanesca and Cholent. I have long ago modified the original puttanesca recipe, for many reasons. Pasta sauce recipes call for finishing the sauce by placing the pasta into the pan of sauce. The issue here is that on Shabbos this is really not the best way to serve this for us, as it does not last long this way, and two of us will not finish the dish. We do this so that we can have leftovers, but again, that does not match the recipe format. Also, I like to add things to the recipe, like ground tofu and vegetables. So here is my revised version of the recipe, and enjoy whichever you prefer:
Puttanesca Sauce Recipe:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 finely chopped onions
- 1 tsp of salt to help sweat the onions
- 1 pound of sliced brown mushrooms
- 3 diced zucchini
- 6 cloves minced garlic
- 2 oz of anchovies (tin or tube)
- 2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (or crushed by you) with juice
- 1 jar of Kalamata olives without juice (any other olive is a waste of time)
- 2 tablespoons drained capers
- 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
First put the oil in a large pan and heat up the oil till it is almost smoking. Then saute the onions and salt and watch them till they get nice and browned. Then add in the mushrooms and saute them till they just start to get soft and are releasing their juice, then throw in the zucchini and wait till they are just soft. At this point the mushrooms should be getting browned and the onions should be golden. Then make room in the pan so that there is enough exposed space to heat the garlic and the anchovies. The idea is that the anchovies become paste like and integrate into the vegetables. If you are starting with anchovies from a tube then you are already there. If you are using anchovies from a tin, like I do, then you need saute them in their oil until they get warm and start to fall apart. Once the mixture is all integrated, add in the tomatoes, Kalamata olives (without juice), capers, basil and red pepper flakes.
Wait for the mixture to thicken, which takes some 40 or so minutes, and then it is ready. I cool it down and warm it back up on Friday, before the Sabbath. That said, others may well want to serve it right then and there, along with some lovely al dente pasta. We do not finish the pasta in the sauce as the recipe calls for two reasons; we like to eat more sauce than pasta, and because putting the pasta in the sauce for a few hours, even right before the Sabbath starts, would turn the al dente pasta into mush in short time. For Saturday lunch we had some nice vegetable cholent which is something we enjoy and whose leftovers we enjoy throughout the week.
When looking for some wine to pair with these dishes I decided to try more of the Yogev wines that I had in the cellar. I did this because I wanted to know if last weeks’ bad showing for the 2007 Binyamina Yogev Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz was a fluke or sad reality. The truth is that they are well past their prime and, while they were not DOA, they are clearly vintages that need to be drunk ASAP.
The wine notes below are listed in the order that they were tasted:
2007 Binyamina Yogev Cabernet Sauvignon – Shiraz – Score: B to B+
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine, with brown overtones, is filled with blackberry, black currant, black cherry, vanilla, crushed herbs, light oak tones, along with pepper notes. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine follows the nose with blackberry, cassis, and black cherry. The mid palate is balanced with soft tannin, cedar, acid, and dates. The finish is long and spicy, with rising pepper notes, cedar, black fruit, and vanilla, with black cherry, pepper, and vanilla lingering. Drink up this wine is dying quickly.
2007 Binyamina Yogev Cabernet-Merlot – Score: B to B+
This wine is declining very quickly! The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine, with a hint of brown, is filled with dirt/mineral, blackberry, cranberry, black Currant, cedar, and bramble. The black currant quickly overpowers the palate and nose. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine has soft tannin, bramble, dirt, blackberry, black currant, along with a lovely mouthfeel. The Black Currant again becomes dominant on the palate, throwing it a bit off balance. The mid palate is balanced with acid, lovely tannin, oak, tobacco, and coffee. The finish is nice with tobacco, coffee, oak, black currant, black berry, and bramble. Black Currant, tobacco, and coffee linger long on the palate after the wine is gone. Drink UP!!!!!
Shiitake Mushroom & Sweet Potato Risotto along with Goose Bay Viognier
The shiitake mushrooms stayed dark brown while also keeping their texture and structure. The sweet potatoes were cubed a bit large, so they too remained whole but soft when reheating for the Friday Night Shabbos meal. As usual, do not complete the risotto the night before, instead leave that for Friday. Friday before sunset add in a cup or a cup and a half of rice milk and mix the dish up well. Then throw it cold in a 225 degree oven for an hour+ and it should come out warm and delicious.
Shiitake Mushroom & Sweet Potato Risotto Recipe
Three sliced onions
1tbl of Canola Oil for every round of browning
2lb of shiitake mushrooms – sliced
Sea Salt on each batch of onions, mushrooms, and sweet potatoes – to help with browning
2 yellow sweet potato
4 or more cups of broth brought to boil and then kept warm on the stove in a small sauce pan
1 to 2 tbl of olive oil
2 cups of Arborio rice
Basil
Garlic
Rosemary
1 cup of dry white wine
1 to 2 cups of rice milk – USE only before shabbos
Dice half the onions (1 and a half onion), slice the mushrooms and place in separate containers. Also dice the other half of the onions, and cube the sweet potatoes, and place in containers. Now in one pan heat up 1 tablespoon of Canola oil and sauté the onions until golden brown. Then add the mushrooms in a single layer at a time, and sprinkle them with sea salt. Make sure to not overcrowd the pan, so that you brown the mushrooms instead of steam them. After the mushrooms get nice and browned and slightly crispy pull them out. Add another tablespoon of Canola oil (making sure to not have the oil splatter as the pan is VERY hot at this point), and brown the next batch of mushrooms. Once all the mushrooms are done, remove them, and add in oil once more and then start on the sweet potatoes. You want them to get a bit browned, but more important than caramelization, is that they start to smell sweet as they give off their starch and break down the sugars. Remove them from the pan once they start to get very soft.
Then in a small sauce pan bring the 4 cups of broth to a boil and then keep them on the fire on a low simmer, for use in a few minutes. Now, in a large Dutch oven or Pot add a tablespoon or two of Olive oil and heat it up. Then add in the other diced onion(s) and sauté them until soft. Once browned, throw in the spices and herbs and the two cups of rice. Make sure the coat the rice with oil and once they start to dry and stick to the pot, throw in a cup of dry white wine. Once that is gone, put in a cup of water at a time, from the sauce pan, until it too is soaked up by the rice. Once the rice has soaked up three cups of water and the wine, throw in the mushrooms and sweet potato. Mix them all around until they are correctly integrated with the rice, and then throw in the last cup of water.
At this point the dish is complete and let cool over night. On Friday afternoon, remove the pot from the refrigerator and let the pot come to room temperature. Next, add in the 1 to 2 cups of rice milk, depending on how the mixture is setting up and place in an oven at 225 degrees. One to two hours later the risotto is ready.
When I smelled the risotto and the lovely smoky mushroom smell oozing out of it on Thursday night, I knew I needed a white wine with an equally powerful perfume and aroma. I went into the cellar and brought out a bottle of 2007 Goose Bay Viognier. I have spoken often about Viognier and about this particular bottle before. It has a lovely perfumed nose, but only after two hours of air time. Well folks, I have bad news, that nose is gone and so is the wine – mostly. It is still alive, but the nose and the lovely floral aspects are all but gone, which is a real shame. I only have one more bottle, so it is not too bad for me. Drink this up if you have more.
The wine note follows below:
2007 Goose Bay Viognier – Score: B to B+
This wine is on its way out 😦 The perfume nose lasts for only a brief moment, and even then it is not overpowering as it has in the past. The nose on this light gold colored wine has peach, mint, lychee, grapefruit, rich and spicy oak, slight perfume, and citrus. The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts off being oily and perfumed with peach, grapefruit, and lychee, but that quickly dissipates. The mid palate is bracing with acid and oak, and slightly out of balance. The finish is long with more acid, rich and spicy oak, and lemon tartness. As the wine airs, it loses much of its fruit and becomes a bit more balanced but also more like a single trick pony that is not so awesome. The mouth turns to quince, grapefruit, and jasmine. The mouth softens with less bracing acidity, but it too is short lived. Soon the wine becomes and oak bomb with lemon and slight notes of grapefruit. Drink up!
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.
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.
Chicken Soup, Moroccan Merguez Tajine, Kielbasa Stew, and a plethora of wines
This past weekend saw us hosting a meal for my Nephew and friend who had just completed his qualifications to start his PHD at Berkley University. The meal started with a nice Chicken Soup (recipe here) and my wife’s awesome whole wheat challah. It was followed by two stews that were consumed heartily. Benyamin Cantz joined us for the meal, along with some of our dear friends, and as I was preparing the stews, I could hear Benyo saying “never use the same ingredients in two dishes that are served during the same meal”. So as I reused Yukon potatoes and carrots in the two stews, I knew I would hear it from him. That said, the flavors of the two dishes were so very different that it worked out. The tajine recipe starts off with browning both ends of sliced Merguez, cut into one inch tubes. Once both sides are browned, I remove them from my Dutch Oven and brown the onions. I always throw in the salt and pepper at this point to help soften the onions and make them release their water and increase their sweetness. Once the onions are browned nicely, throw in all the spices, and make sure the spices coat the onions. Once the spices are evenly distributed, throw in the other vegetables and let them get some of the spices coated on them as well, and cook them for 10 or so minutes to help them release their liquid. At this point throw in the sun-dried tomatoes, the wine, water, browned Merguez, cinnamon stick, and vegetable stock. Throw this in a preheated 400 degree oven for one hour. Then add in the chickpeas and fruit and let cook for another 30 or so minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve.
Moroccan Merguez Tajine (recipe)
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 pounds of Merguez sliced into one inch tubes
6 cloves garlic
3 large onions cut into chunks
Salt and pepper
paprika
ground turmeric
ground cumin
cayenne pepper
ground cinnamon
ground cardamom
ground ginger
garlic powder
ground coriander
Pinch of saffron threads
4 Yukon potatoes cut into chunks
6 carrots cut into chunks
1/4 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup of white wine
1 cinnamon stick
1 can cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup of dried dates
The kielbasa recipe can be found here on another blog posting. It came out OK, but not as glorious as my previous attempt. The stews were paired with brown basmati rice, and a nice fresh green salad. To pair with these foods, we went to a collection of wines that were brought by Benyo from his personal stash and from my stash as well. A side note, some of the wines were well past their prime, and some were a bit past their prime. Please do not look down at the work, rather look down on us for holding on to these puppies for too long.
The wines are listed in the order that they were consumed:
2004 Four Gates Rishona (750ml) – Score: A-
I need to start by stating that this was a bottle that Benyo made for us, as it was a 750 ml bottle, rather than the released 375 ml sized bottle. The color on this brown tinged/dark ruby colored wine, was hopping with chicken cherry cola, coffee, mature oak, fig, and raspberry. The mouth on this intense and full bodied wine was layered with bright black cherry, coffee, and oak. The mid palate was bracing with bright acidity and oak. The finish was long and tantalizing with more cherry, oak, and coffee, layered under a canopy of mature flavors. This is clearly a wine that needs to be consumed now, but to some, this was one of the winners, which was shocking given the list of wines we enjoyed.
Elvi Wines Adar Cava Brut N.V. – Score: B+
The nose on this bubbly and effervescent light pink colored wine, is hopping with strawberry, lemon, and cherry. The mouth on this light to medium bodied wine is packed with small bubbles that are active and alive, they mingle well with the strawberry and cherry. The mid palate is alive with bracing acidity. The finish is medium long with core acidity, strawberry, bubbles, and a lemon burst at the very tail end. Drink UP!
2009 Terra Vega Shiraz – Score: B+
The nose on this garnet colored wine is filled with dirt, mineral, raspberry, plum, violet notes, and cherry. The mouth on this medium bodied wine starts off with cherry, raspberry, and plum that flow into a lovely acidic mid palate, with spicy wood, tannins, and coffee. The finish is long with spicy wood, cherry, plum, coffee, and pepper that all linger on the palate after the wine is gone.
1989 Gan Eden Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: N/A
I still remember this wine in its youth. It was fantastic and some of the best Cabernet I have ever tasted. That said, this was kept too long, which is no affront to Craig (wine maker at Gan Eden). The nose on this mahogany was relegated to oak and some dark fruit. The mouth is still tannic and oaky with bright acidity, but the fruit was all gone and a bit off. What more can be said, this was a glorious warrior in its past, but if you still have some, it should be left to lie in the bottle for sentimental value.
2005 Four Gates Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley – Score: A-
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is filled with blackberry, cassis, plum, oak, and spice. The mouth on this medium to full bodied is concentrated with fruit that follows the nose, blackberry, cassis, and plum. The mid palate is balanced with oak and still gripping tannins. The finish is long and graceful, with spicy oak, black pepper, cassis, and a hint of leather.
1998 Four Gates Merlot – Score: B
This is another one of those wines that was held too long. It was still there, but not at the Four Gates level. In the evening it still had a bit of a nose, but was off. By day the wine was less off, but the nose was all gone.
Galil Mountain Meron (77% Syrah, 11% each of Cab and Petit Verdot) – Score: A
The nose on dark garnet to black colored wine starts off with a quick hit of blueberry, and then continues to show rich and ripe plum, cassis, blackberry (almost bursting with juice), tobacco, ripe black cherry, sweet oak, fig, smoke, and pepper. The mouth on this full bodied wine is layered and concentrated with rich ripe fruit at the attack on a bed of lush and integrated tannins. The mouth follows with layer after layer of more ripe blackberry, cassis, plum, and black cherry in a concentrated and concerted attack. The mid palate flows perfectly with oak, soft integrated tannins, crazy spicy and smoky nuances, chocolate, and tobacco. The finish is long and spicy with black cherry, ripe and nicely extracted black fruit, tobacco, smoke, and oak. Quite a nice wine, and one of the winners of the evening.
2003 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Vineyard’s Choice (97% Cab, 3% Cabernet Franc) – Score: A
The nose on this inky black wine is screaming with bright and ripe blackberry, cassis, cherry, and gobs of rich and spicy oak. The mouth on this massive full bodied wine is layered with blackberry, cassis, and plum. The mouth is balanced with spicy oak, still gripping tannins, and nice acidity. The finish is long with ripe black fruit, spicy oak, and chocolate. Quite a nice wine, and one that still has a bit of time in it, but may be close to its peak.
Kielbasa vegetable stew and Four Gates Cabernet Franc
Two weeks ago Friday night, we were looking for a lay low food that was delicious, hearty, warm, and downright good home cooking. We had a Kielbasa sitting in the freezer, and so I went looking for a recipe. I found many recipes, but they either wanted the stew to be beans and cream or over the top tomato. I finally found a wonderful recipe that I could modify (as usual), and it turned out to be from the wonderful folks at the Food Network. The recipe is OK, but I like my meat browned and I like far more onions and an eggplant to boot, would not hurt. So here is the modified recipe, for those who care:
Kielbasa and Vegetable Stew
- Olive Oil
- 1 pound of Kielbasa cut on the bias into one inch chunks
- Two or three sweet onions cubed into 1 inch squares
- 2 or 3 good shakes of sea salt
- 4 or more garlic cloves
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Pepper
- 4 or 5 carrots cut into one inch chunks
- 3 or 4 parsnips cut into one inch chunks
- 1 or 2 eggplant (depending on size)
- 4 or 5 Yukon gold potatoes cubed into 1 inch squares
- 3 cups of vegetable or chicken soup stock
- 1 cup of red wine
- A cup of rice milk to finish or reheat in
Start by taking a large dutch oven and place into it a tablespoon or two of olive oil – just to coat the bottom. While waiting for the oil to get hot enough, cut the Kielbasa into 1 inch cylinders on the bias, and then start to brown the cut edges. Once one side is browned, flip them to the other side. Once all sides are browned, take the meat out and drop the cubed onions into the oil. Add the salt to the onions to help the onions release their liquid. Sauté the onions and once browned, throw in the spices and garlic, and make sure the onions are fully coated with them. From there on, add the vegetables into the pot one at a time. Once the vegetables have released their water, add in the 4 cups of stock, along with the sausage cylinders. Cook the stew until the vegetables and meat are combined into a singular and uniform form.
I must say that the stew was KNOCK OUT awesome, and the best part of it is that ALL the food is edible. You see, that there are no bones, no nasty fat and sinew, or inedible parts. All in all, sausage stew makes for a tasty and enjoyable stew. Finally, when I reheated the stew before the Sabbath, it looked a bit dry, so I added a half or full cup of rice milk. It added some flavor and moisture.
To pair with this monster stew, I pulled out a bottle of 2005 Four Gates Cabernet Franc. I loved the bottle, but it took a ton of time to come awake. It was stored really cold, so that may have been the problem, but I think that the bottle is in a slight dumb period, and will be back soon. The wine note follows below:
2005 Four Gates Cabernet Franc – Score: B+ – A-
This wine has not changed much since the last time we tasted this. However, it is in a slightly dumb period, and required a ton of time to open up. Once it did open it was quite a joy to drink. The nose on this garnet to black colored wine is a very interesting twist on Cabernet Franc. It starts with a ton of dark chocolate, cherry, currant, plum, and follows on with classical franc notes of bell pepper and a bit flowers and oak. The mouth on this complex medium to full bodied wine is packed with velvety tannins that are integrating quite nicely along with cherry, raspberry, and currants. The mid palate is flush with fruit and balanced almost perfectly by bright acidity along with oak and integrated tannins. The finish is spicy and laced with vanilla and sour cherry.
Wine Musings Blog 