Mar 26 2012

Hillside Mosaic 2008

Category: Podcast — winepost @ 5:29 am

OWFS Podcast 6

The Hillside Cellars Mosaic 2008 was a real treat!  Tasting this treasure made me crave beef with an intensity that was very nearly painful!  I spent a long time thinking about the perfect recipe to pair with this wine.  I think I’ve finally found it.  It is simple, and relies on time, patience and quality ingredients to make a meal that is just right!

 

Red Wine Braised Prime Rib….

You will need one top quality Prime Rib roast.  As this recipe is relatively rudimentary, size truly doesn’t matter.  Select a roast that is suitable for the crowd you will be feeding (make sure you get one that is large enough to leave plenty of leftovers, as I imagine this stuff would be killer in a sandwich).  Trim the fat the way you like it.

You will also need a bulb of garlic, some sea salt, plenty of fresh cracked black pepper and copious quantities of red wine.  This is an excellent recipe for those of you who frequently find yourself with a wealth of half consumed bottles.

Peel an appropriate number of garlic cloves (trust your own judgement; you know what you like!).  Make incisions of various depths and at various locations throughout the roast and insert the garlic cloves into the slices as deeply as you can.  Rub the outside of the roast with a mixture of sea salt and cracked pepper; really get in there and massage that baby!

In a large, non reactive vessel, prepare a lovely bath for that delicious roast with all of that leftover (HA!) red wine.  Let it soak for a good long time in the fridge, turning occasionally so that that delicious meat soaks up as much elixir as possible.  A couple of days wouldn’t be out of line at all.

The best way to cook the marinated product is on a rotisserie low and slow on the BBQ.  Once you’ve started the meat roasting, reduce the marinade down to about half of it’s original volume on the stove.  Throughout the cooking time, use the reduction to baste the roast frequently.  It will be difficult to tell just by looking at it when it is done, so be sure to use a meat thermometer to ensure it is at the correct internal temperature.

Once done, serve with a bottle of Hillside Mosaic.  I guess it wouldn’t, normally be considered correct just to eat meat and drink wine for dinner.  If you feel those types of social constraints, then by all means, make some sides (and use utensils), but it doesn’t really matter what they are.  I really feel though, that sometimes you can eat meat and drink wine and it doesn’t automatically make you a barbarian; as long as you don’t do it too often.

Mar 13 2012

The Learning Experience

Category: Wine tasting — winepost @ 5:48 am

There are times when you set out to do something, and you don’t wind up with what you expected at all. I set out to satisfy a craving for German food and wound up achieving something completely different.

I threw a bottle of Young & Wyse Amber in the fridge and set to work making hunter schnitzel and a fresh batch of spaetzle.  I thought that the Amber would be a rich and complex counterpart for the creamy mushroom sauce and all that butter.  I’d tried the wine before, and I was sure it would be the perfect sidekick.  Along the way, I learned that there is more to the journey than the intended destination.

My 8 year old son was very excited by the prospect of learning to make schnitzel and spaetzle.  After washing his hands thoroughly, of course, he joined me in the kitchen.  He is going to make some woman very happy one day.  He was so careful pounding out the pork cutlets, and very proud of himself.

Alastair carefully (although not at all neatly) floured each cutlet, dipped it in an egg wash and then made sure that every inch of it was covered in just the right amount of breading.  When his sisters came and asked if they could help too, he solemnly told them no, he was making his “special” schnitzel for dinner because Uncle Allan was coming and needed space to work.

We made the spaetzle dough together….

I showed him how to mix flour, eggs, a little nutmeg, some milk and salt to make the dough.  We put a buttered bowl in the oven and brought our water to a boil.  When we started putting the dough balls into the boiling water, I got to teach Alastair that part of cooking is using all of your senses.  You can tell the dough is right when it feels soft and slightly elastic.  And the spaetzle are ready to come out of the water and go into the bowl when they bob to the surface.

Alastair and I had a great time making dinner together (although we had less fun cleaning up the enormous mess).  The best part was listening to him telling Uncle Allan all about the dinner he made, and the look on his face when we told him how good it was.

On a less positive note, although the wine was every bit as delicious as I remembered, it turned out I was not at all right about it being a good match with the meal.  The ripe roundness of the palate was a little too fruity for what was essentially an earthy, creamy dish.  However, if I hadn’t set out to make this train wreck of a wine pairing, I would never have had such a delightful afternoon learning with my son in the kitchen.  My palate will live to pair again, and I can be proud of the fact that I have imparted some life skills to my son that will lead him one step further away from the processed food aisles in the grocery store of life.