Category Archives: Wine

Image by

Recipe: Taco Meat

20120819-172531.jpg

Warning…. this is a recipe done entirely using The Force.

Sauté two pounds of ground turkey and a diced onion until browned. Add red wine (I used what I had of a California “Spaghetti Red” on hand but any dry red will do) and enough taco seasoning to cover. Once the liquid is absorbed, the taco meat is ready to use for whatever you want to use.

M and D like to make burritos with it (tortillas, meat, cheese, lettuce) and I like to use mine for a salad (lettuce, meat, cheese, and salsa). E probably would have made this into a massive wrapped burrito using the salsa cheese sauce we still have in the fridge along with rice and beans. It’s a great ingredient to have on hand to make a simple, easy dinner on a lazy Sunday night but it also works well as an ad hoc lunchtime ingredient.

Try it at your house sometime… You might be pleasantly surprised at the results!

by

Recipe: Chocolate Wine Cobbler

ChocolateWineCobblerI originally found this recipe on the side of my Facebook account. It looked yummy and was called “Chocolate Cobbler”. It showed up in my FB feed when I was looking for a new dessert and this just looked simple and tasty. For me, the plus came when the recipe called for “boiling water”… wait… water? What? Why use boiling water when I could substitute wine… and a new recipe was born. After trying this recipe a few times, I’ve finally been able to get a picture of this treat so you can see just how yummy it can be. Oh, and you’ll notice that there are exact measurements in this one because I didn’t use The Force…

INGREDIENTS:

2 sticks butter or margarine (I used margarine, because that’s what I had on hand)

BATTER:

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 c self-rising flour (or use 1 1/2 cup regular flour + 2 tsp baking powder + 3/4 tsp salt)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup milk

CHOCOLATE LAYER:

1 cup sugar

6 Tbs cocoa powder

WINE LAYER:

2 cups boiling red wine – I used 2 cups of sweet red wine *Note: this tastes perfectly fine with boiling water instead if you so choose.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a high-sided 9×13 baking dish, melt the two sticks of butter in the oven
  2. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl mix together the ingredients for the batter layer. Once the butter is melted, pour the batter over the melted butter but DO NOT STIR.
  3. In a clean bowl, mix together the ingredients for the chocolate layer. Sprinkle on top of the batter but DO NOT STIR.
  4. Pour 2 cups of boiling wine gently on top of entire dessert (again… DO NOT STIR) and bake for 30-45 minutes. I bake mine until I can see a nice golden brown crust.
  5. Serve warm – this is great with ice cream.

I served this dessert at our company Christmas party and it was a huge hit. If you want to substitute boiling water for the wine, that’s completely fine. I would use anything that you like, but I’d suggest using a red wine that cooks well. I find that red Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot) cook nicely and maintain their integrity throughout the process.

Enjoy! I’ll be adding a little bit of vanilla ice cream to each serving tonight, but I can’t think of anything more comforting than wine paired with chocolate…

by

Recipe: Stroganoff by The Force

I love making casseroles early in the day so that dinner can be a low stress affair.  I do my best to keep the kitchen cleaned up before M comes home (since he’s the one who does the dishes after dinner) so this is the simplest way I know to have time to make that goal a reality.  Casseroles rock… one baking dish to wash after dinner?  Definitely a plus in my book.  Additionally, with the schedules that are kept by all who currently live in our house, I’d have to make four separate servings of a meal to get everyone fed.  With a casserole, I can make it once and everyone can eat when they’re able, though we do endeavor to sit down together to eat as often as possible.

Dinner tonight is one of those “I can’t be there, so dinner is in the fridge” nights.   I’ve got a consult and then a meeting during the time we usually try and have dinner, so  I’ve made a version of Stroganoff that I’m hoping my guys will like.   I used a Reserve Chardonnay and a Pinotage that I had in the fridge to the recipe so the pasta would cook thoroughly and I wouldn’t have to worry about crunchy noodles in my casserole.  It’s done entirely using The Force… and I think it tastes pretty amazing.  Here’s how I made dinner:

Brown 1 sliced (or diced) onion and 1lb of ground turkey in a tiny bit of olive oil in a large saute pan on the stovetop.  Once these are browned nicely, I added a large glug of good Olive Oil and enough flour to make things start to get sticky.  I would start with 2T flour and see if you need more. I think added a half box of jumbo elbow macaroni pasta, some garlic paste, salt/pepper, paprika, the rest of a bottle of a dry Chardonnay (about 3/4 cup?), some gluts of a Pinotage called “Grinder” that I had open in the fridge (maybe 1/4 cup?) as well as 1 cup of beef stock. All the liquid is need to soak into the pasta and get it to cook up nicely without having to pre-cook it. Here’s what dinner looked like at this point:

It’s still steamy and the noodles haven’t totally cooked, so they still look pretty yellow.  At this point, I put the lid on and let it cook on its own for a bit.  I was editing pictures, so I’m really not sure how long it cooked.  Once I decided the noodles had cooked enough and turned off the heat.

Here’s where the “stroganoff” part came in.  In my head, a stroganoff has to have some sort of creamy sauce and paprika to make it into what I think of as traditional.  I added some Philadelphia creamy garlic sauce (only because I didn’t have any greek yogurt or sour cream on hand) and that seemed to do the trick.  Taste test was a success and I was ready to put dinner in the casserole dish… but it just didn’t look “finished”.  I needed buttered bread crumbs to top it all off.

When growing up, my mom’s Buttered Bread Crumbs were the standard by which I judged all other casserole toppings, which means that I didn’t like anything that other people called “bread crumbs”.  I now make Buttered Bread Crumbs in the same saute pan I used for the casserole, so I’m including tiny bits of dinner into the delicious topping that will grace this casserole.  Today, I used three burger rolls (because that’s what I had on hand, that’s why) and cut them into small bite-sized pieces.  I heated some of the really good Olive Oil with a few tablespoons of margarine and a little garlic paste.  I then tossed in the bread pieces and sauteed this mixture until the bread started to crisp up a bit.  Buttery, garlicky, and toasty… that’s the way these Buttered Bread Crumbs should taste!
Once the topping was finished, I added them onto the casserole and dinner was ready.  M will pop it into the oven tonight and my three guys will have a fabulous home-cooked meal, even though I won’t be there.  It’s one of the joys of working odd hours and being happy to use The Force to create something I am sure they’ll enjoy.  Wine or no, cooking should be about sharing your joy and passion.  I’m just so grateful that my guys appreciate that about me.

Since you won’t be here to see the finished product come out of the oven tonight, here’s a final shot of how dinner looked when I was done playing today.  I may not be the best housekeeper, but I can whip together a great meal and include wine in the process…

by

Recipe: Wine for Dessert

There are some really wonderful dessert wines out there.  Have you taken a moment to taste them or do you pass by this unique offering in favor of something you think will be less like “sugar-overload”?   While I’m not a huge fan of the uber-sweet, I do enjoy using them for cooking or sipping after a meal.  They aren’t something I would typically choose to drink, but I certainly try everything offered when I’m on the tasting side of the bar.

One of my favorite dessert wines is Noche from Cooper Vineyard in Louisa, VA.  Here’s their description, as quoted from Cooper’s website:

Noche Chocolate- Silver 2012 VA Governor’s Cup, Silver Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association. A Virginia Norton dessert wine infused with chocolate, Noche is a decadent treat. Hints of black cherry and raspberry complement rich aromas of cocoa with a chocolate ganache finish.

I used this wine for a dessert I made a few months ago and it’s just wonderful.  I started by making a Noche Reduction.  Using the entire bottle of Noche, I cooked the wine until it had reduced by half, until a spatula left a slight line when drawn across the bottom of the saucepan., stirring frequently.  I then added about a thumb (“The Force” at work) of butter and a spoonful of sugar or so.  I also added a tiny dash of vanilla, more to satisfy my thoughts that I was actually “cooking” instead of just throwing stuff in a pot.  I allowed the sauce to simmer a bit until the sugar and butter had melted and been thoroughly incorporated.  Once this was done, I removed the pan from the stove top and waited (impatiently) for the sauce to cool thoroughly.

Once cooled, my new sauce was ready for use.  I decided to make a Hot Milk Sponge cake, cooked in a Baker’s Secret pan that was made to look like a cross between a trifle and a pie… it’s apparently called a Duncan Hines’  Tiara Dessert pan.    The sides are fluted, there’s a high edge and then a lower cake level so you could put “something” on top of the cake and not have it dribble over the edge.  If I remember correctly, they marketed this pan for use with a thick pudding mixture you would pour in the center and then top with whipped cream.

 

For this specific dessert, I made the Hot Milk Sponge cake (only a half recipe was needed), cooled the cake, then filled the “inside” with frozen whole cherries before drizzling the sauce over top.  Dusting it with powdered sugar was all I needed to make the dessert look magical.  While it was beautiful, it wasn’t the easiest to cut… the next time I made this dessert, I topped the entire cake with whipped topping before drizzling the sauce, thereby allowing the berries to remain in place and giving some height to the dessert.  Either way you decide to make it, this sauce was a knockout.

If you’re looking for an easier thing to do with this sauce, just slice pound cake (you can pick it up in the freezer section of your local grocery store), top with fresh fruit, and drizzle with sauce.  Simple and delicious!

An even easier option would be to drizzle the chocolate wine (sans cooking at all) over ice cream or pound cake or angelfood cake or…  you get the idea, right?

Using The Force when you create desserts can be a lot of fun.  Try to imagine the taste of what you’re creating and then see if you can break that taste down into ingredients.  Even using a store-bought chocolate sauce and adding some of Cooper’s Noche to thin it out can take your dessert to a whole new level.

Eating wine for dessert instead of drinking it… quite a different concept, yes?  Enjoy!

 

 

 

by

Recipe: Chicken Stir Fry

Stir fry is one of my favorite things to make for dinner for a number of reasons.

  1. I love being able to get dinner on the table in a relatively short amount of time.
  2. I like using whatever I have in the fridge for the vegetables.
  3. I love using broccoli slaw for the vegetable when I don’t have anything “bigger” on hand.
  4. I’ve learned to make a fairly consistent sauce with wine that my whole family enjoys.

Tonight’s dinner was no exception. I started with chicken tenders, slicing them into bite-sized chunks and saute’ing them in a pan sprayed with Pam until browned. I then removed them from the pan, added a little bit of olive oil, and popped in the vegetables. Tonight’s assortment included broccoli slaw and fresh green beans. Once these were cooked to crisp-tender, I added my sauce.

The sauce for dinner tonight was a standard for me, albeit unique from most conventional stir-fry sauces. REMEMBER: I USE THE FORCE WHEN I COOK! Using a 1-cup Pyrex measuring cup, I poured in about 1/4″ of hoisin sauce, a small amount of oyster sauce (seriously using The Force on this sauce), a large amount of an oaked Chardonnay (maybe 3/4-cup?), an inch of pre-crushed garlic from a tube, an inch of lemongrass (again, from a tube), a spoonful of flour and a smaller spoonful of homemade pesto. I had mixed this together earlier so the flour wasn’t glumpy and stirred it occasionally until it was time to add to the saute’ pan.

Once I added the sauce to the veggies in the pan, I dropped the chicken back into the pan and popped a package of Uncle Ben’s Microwave Brown Rice into the microwave. 90 seconds later, the sauce was thickened and the brown rice was done… dinner was served!

There are tons of ways to make this recipe your own, but this is one of my favorites. I’ve substituted shrimp, pork, or beef for the chicken. I’ve used Vidal Blanc, Chardonel, or even a Sauvignon Blanc if that’s what I had on hand. I absolutely love the tubes of garlic, ginger, lemongrass, basil, or Italian herbs that I can find at my local market, so usually add a variety of flavors from those handy items. There’s enough salt in the ingredients already that I typically won’t add more, but I have been known to add paprika or some lemon thyme if I want a different taste to come through. It all depends on my mood as I’m cooking.

Dinner in a flash… it can certainly be done, but it does take some thought and a little planning. I’m just grateful that my family enjoys most of my experiments. It’s not a 15 minute dinner, but it doesn’t take that much longer to go from fridge to table.

Try this with your family and see where The Force might lead… a totally unique dinner might be just around the corner!

Cheers!

by

Recipe: Butternut Squash Crab Bisque

I know it’s not quite the end of the summer, but butternut squash seems to  be showing up more often in my local grocery store.  In its honor, I thought this might be a great way to highlight the need to purchase said vegetable.
Honestly, my favorite way to use butternut squash is to make baked “french fries” out of it, but my second favorite use is in this delicious soup.   While it’s a hearty soup, the flavor becomes more decadent with the addition of crab.  A lovely simple supper when paired with some warm crusty bread… this makes a great meal for a stormy night.
Try it sometime and let me know what you think!

 

Butternut Squash Crab Bisque (with Vidal Blanc wine)

½ onion, diced

1t olive oil

1 ½ c Vidal Blanc ( or your favorite semi-dry white wine)

1 ½ c chicken or vegetable stock (or water with 2 bouillon packets)

1 butternut squash (peeled and cubed, approximately 4 cups)

1t dried marjoram

1 t Old Bay seasonings

Cracked black pepper, to taste

½ recipe Crab Dip **

  1.  In large saucepan, sauté onions in oil until translucent.  Add liquid, squash and seasonings to onions. Bring to a boil and cook 20 minutes or until squash is very tender.
  2. Puree squash in pan with stick blender (can also use blender or food processor in batches) until smooth.
  3. Add crab dip and heat through but do not allow to boil.

Note:  This recipe can be a tad sweet.  Feel free to add more Old Bay or some Tabasco for a bit of heat.

**Crab Dip Recipe:

1 block cream cheese

1 stick butter

1 lb crab meat (I prefer lump crabmeat)

1T parsley

1t Old Bay seasoning (to taste)

  1. Melt in butter and cream cheese slowly in double boiler.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and serve warm with crackers.
  3. I like to heat this in the oven for 20 minutes to get it a bit bubbly.

 

by

Recipe: Red Wine Spaghetti

Are you ever looking for a use for that red wine in your fridge?  You know… the one that didn’t taste quite the way you expected when you brought it home?  I’m sure it doesn’t happen often, but instead of dumping it down the drain, try using it to make a lovely, simple supper for two.

Starting with a large, high sided skillet, heat 2 cups of red wine, 2 cups of water, a half box of spaghetti (half pound total… don’t use angel hair pasta on this one, but you could use linguine if you prefer) and a few pinches of salt.  Heat to boiling and stir occasionally, so the pasta doesn’t stick together.  Cook until pasta is cooked to your liking and most of the liquid has been absorbed or cooked off. Remove from the heat but don’t drain

While the pasta is cooking, I typically will brown up some thin pieces of chicken – tenders, sliced, make a great addition.  If you like, feel free to add some thin sliced onions to the chicken just to add flavor.  If you would prefer to make this more of a vegetarian meal, browning some mushrooms or a mix of veggies would work well here as well.  Add to pasta and lightly toss.

To finish the dish, stir in a thumb of butter (ends up being around 1T, but it looks like the length of a thumb) and some cracked pepper.  I like to add grated cheese (romano or parmesan work well here) at the end to add a finishing touch.

The pasta will be pink, so don’t expect this to be an especially “manly” dish, but the taste should make everyone happy.  It’s simple, pretty, and fairly quick & painless.  This is one recipe to keep on hand for one of those “I need to make dinner in a hurry” nights…

by

Recipe: Ali’s Rock Star Tilapia

This recipe uses white wine… I typically use a Vidal Blanc or some sort of off-dry white wine.  James River Cellars makes a Chardonel that I love to pair with Tilapia.  Chardonel is a hybrid grape (made from Chardonnay and Seyval Blanc) that was created at Cornell University in 1953.  You could probably use a Chenin Blanc or a favorite Chardonnay instead?

Start with tilapia fillets – I use as many as I need to feed whomever is going to be there for dinner.  Top the fillets with salt, pepper, and paprika.  You can even use Old Bay…. use whatever spice makes your family happy.  Crush Ritz crackers over each fillet – it really only takes two crackers per fillet, but feel free to use more if you want more of a topping.  Next, thumb some of the wine over the fillet – you’re going for a ‘wetting’ of the fillets, not a drowning, so don’t go crazy.

I now have two options.  Option one is to pop the fillets into the microwave and cook on high for 7-8 minutes, or until the fillets are cooked.  Option two is to top the fillets with small broccoli florets, cover with a damp paper towel and cook on high for 10-12 minutes.  Make sure the fillets are cooked before serving.

I like to serve this with microwaveable brown rice (90 seconds to done)… that way, you’ve just finished making a three-course meal in under 15 minutes and you look like a Rock Star!  (Hence the name, Rock Star Tilapia)

I know there are those out there who are cringing at the thought of cooking fish in the microwave, but honestly, I’m lousy at making fish any other way.  Baking, broiling, grilling are all just beyond me… but I can be a Rock Star with my microwave!

by

Recipe: Brownies… with wine

This is probably the single most incredibly easy recipe I could possibly share with you.  Each and every time I mention this in the tasting room, the reaction I get just makes me laugh.  I’m not a scientist and don’t claim to be one, so I have no real clue what it is that wine does to brownies, but let me tell you… they’re incredible.

To make this recipe, you want to find a box of brownie mix.  Not just any brownie mix, but find one that actually calls for the same amount of oil and water in the mix.  Don’t be daunted by the idea that you might not end up using the “name brand”… a generic brand will work just fine.  Keep searching on the back of the box to find one with this ratio.  I have no idea why it’s important, but it is.

Second step?  Replace the water in the recipe with an equal amount of red wine.  Here’s the thing… you can use a dry red wine, like a Cab Franc or a Malbec… you can use something with some Residual Sugar like Hanover Red (from James River Cellars) or Rad Red (from this same winery)… you can use a red Flip Flop wine if that’s what you’ve got on hand.  It’s all up to you.

Next step is to go back to the recipe and continue to follow it through the baking process.  I suggest underbaking these by a little, checking after the first time suggestion on the box.  If a knife, stuck into the middle of the brownies, comes out “mostly clean”, go ahead and take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Once your wine brownies are cool, cut them and enjoy them with your friends and neighbors.  Since the alcohol in the wine is cooked out, these are fine for kids to eat as well… provided they’re allowed to have this kind of chocolate-yummy-goodness.

You’ll probably be asked for the recipe…. feel free to point them toward this blog.  I love sharing my recipes, as you can tell by this blog!

by

Tips for Visiting a Winery

So you’ve got some free time coming up and would like to visit a winery? That’s terrific! Wineries love having guests stop by for wine tasting. It’s a great way to get a feel for the winery, in general, and see if you like their wines. A discount wine merchant might have great prices on your favorite wine, but (in my humble opinion) there’s nothing like visiting that winery to give you a true appreciation of everything it has to offer.

I don’t know of any winery that will have all their wines available at a distributor… the idea is to get you to try a wine and enjoy it enough to want to come in for a wine tasting. It’s not any sort of “Bait and Switch”… it’s simply a way for wineries to expose their wines to the public. Wineries still have the wines you enjoyed through a distributor, but there are so many others that it allows you to hone in and find that wine that “sings” for you… makes you smile from first sniff to last drop.

When you make the decision to visit a winery, do a little research before you arrive if you’re able. Check out their Hours of Operation… check out their Tasting Cost… make sure you have driving directions to the winery programmed into your phone or GPS… and make sure you have their phone number in case you get lost. If you’re visiting a Virginia Winery, there are many helpful apps I’ve found, but none more helpful than Virginia Wine In My Pocket (I know… Shameless plug, but I use this app ALL the time!). It’s the best $3.99 you’ll ever spend on an iPhone or Droid app (again, IMHO). Look it up… if you don’t like it, feel free to leave a comment and tell me why.

The day of your winery visit, don’t wear perfume or cologne. This may seem like a silly comment, but the scent you wear could very well affect the way the wine tastes to you. It can also effect the way the wine tastes to others, so please consider refraining from splashing that cologne or spritzing that favorite scent. Remember, your favorite scent may change and if you’d linked it to a wine at your tasting, the taste of the wine could seem “off” the next time you partake…

Bring water and bread, especially if you’re planning to visit more than one winery that day. Water will help keep you cool and hydrated and the bread will help to soak up the alcohol that you’re drinking so you don’t feel quite so intoxicated, especially if you’re going from winery to winery. It’s not going to make you any less drunk, so don’t use this suggestion as your way to keep wine from affecting you.

BRING YOUR ID. It doesn’t matter how old you are; ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Controls) requires (in my own paraphrasing) that you have your ID with you if you are going to consume alcohol. Not all wineries will ask or require that you have your ID on your person, but come prepared. This law was driven home to me when I attended a company holiday party a few years ago at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and was NOT allowed to drink because I’d neglected to bring my driver’s license. If a winery requires everyone show their ID, then it’s helpful if you come prepared.

Once you get to the winery, turn OFF your cell phone and pay attention to the person who is guiding your wine tasting. In most cases, you will be learning a great deal about the wines at each winery. Take advantage of this attention and ASK QUESTIONS about the wines. The only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask….

Take your time to taste each wine but be mindful of your surroundings. If you arrive at a winery in the middle of a rush and have a large group of people behind you, please be considerate of their time (as others were when you arrived) and pay attention during your wine tasting. Everyone wants to have time to savor each wine at a wine tasting and those pouring your wines want you to enjoy your visit as much as possible. If you’ve finished your wine tasting, but haven’t decided what you want to purchase or drink, be considerate and take a step back so that others can take your place at the bar and enjoy their own wine tasting experience. It’s The Golden Rule.. do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Do tell others about your experience at wineries. Word of mouth is so important to small businesses and if you’ve had a great experience at a winery, let everyone know about it! Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and (yes, again) Virginia Wine in my Pocket are terrific avenues for sharing your experience. Additionally, if you didn’t enjoy your tasting at a winery, consider sending them a private message and let them know how they can do a better job at reaching their customers. Whether good or bad, YOUR opinion matters in this industry and you should always feel that you have an avenue for voicing concerns and raising issues if a visit doesn’t go as you expected. Maybe the winery was overwhelmed by visitors and events that day… maybe the volunteer doing your tasting wasn’t yet comfortable with the volume of wines they were describing… maybe it was pouring outside and stuffy in the tasting room, or too crowded, or too cold. Whatever the case, share your opinions. It might change how things are done or handled in the future.

ENJOY YOURSELF! Ultimately, you’re at the winery because you want to try the wines they offer. Have a good time, chat with the people who are pouring your wines, and relax. It’s not rocket science… it’s WINE!