Zinfandel

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Local Mushroom Polenta

November 16, 2010 in Food, recipe, wine by traveleatlove | 24 comments

It might just be the perfect Thanksgiving side dish. Easy, flavorful, vegetarian, and versatile, polenta dishes are the perfect creative outlet for the home cook. Saturday afternoon we went on a huge shopping spree for fresh groceries; previous weekends away in San Francisco and Portland meant we had very little food in the house. I had a week of cooking and blogging all planned out.

When my sister called Saturday night to let us know our nephew would be coming sooner rather than later, my first thought was to pack my suitcase and to get ready for a drive to New Jersey. My second thought at 10:00 at night? Make polenta.

I knew that once I got to NJ there would not be much time for blogging or cooking, so I went to work on one of the dishes I had planned for the week. I started with local mushrooms from Siena Farms, cleaned, chopped, and set aside.

I also chopped a whole shallot from Siena Farms. I added the shallot to a tablespoon of Kerrygold butter and started to cook the shallot on low.

After a few minutes, I added the mushroom and a bit more butter.

While the mushrooms and shallot sizzled gently on the side, I added 6 cups of boiling water from my electric tea kettle (a wedding gift and one of the BEST inventions ever!) to my Le Creuset French Oven. We use the electric kettle for everything from making tea to boiling pasta water. It is much quicker than boiling it on the stove.

Making sure the water was at a rolling boil, I added a cup and a quarter cornmeal, a generous shake of sea salt, and a pat of Kerrygold and stirred, stirred, stirred with my whisk. The cornmeal grew in volume very quickly. I lowered the heat and let it bubble away for about 10 minutes.

I forgot to take photos of the rest. Embarrassed smile By the time the dish was finished, it was after 11:00, and I was both nervous for my sister and exhausted.

As the mushrooms and shallots were cooking, I added about 3/4 cup of Venge Late Harvest Zinfandel.

Note: I did NOT add in any of the Whisker Lickins behind the bottle Winking smile

This Venge dessert wine added the perfect amount of sweetness to the mushrooms and onions, and once these ingredients were combined, I stirred them into the cornmeal and added another 1/4 cup of the wine, stirring everything until creamy. I was loosely trying to recreate some of the flavors from the Americano mushroom soup from Foodbuzz Festival, and while the polenta was of course different, it definitely had similar flavors.

I only got to eat a few bites before packing the polenta up for my husband for the week, but it was the perfect comfort food. I would eat it by itself for a meal, but I can also see it going great with a pork roast or turkey.

And since everything but the cornmeal was local, I am including this as one of the recipes I am making for Chef Robin White’s Fresh and Local Thanksgiving Challenge. I am working on a few more for Thanksgiving as well as a couple of holiday recipes for a Kitchen Play assignment. I can’t wait to get back to Boston and into my kitchen for some hands-on research!

Are you cooking Thanksgiving dinner or any part of it this year?

Technorati Tags: cooking with wine, holiday side dish, holidays, mushrooms, polenta, recipe, Vegetarian, wine, Zinfandel

Tags: cooking with wine, holiday side dish, holidays, mushrooms, polenta, recipe, Vegetarian, wine, Zinfandel

Salmon with Zinfandel and Cherries

June 29, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 25 comments

Ever since the Oldways For the Health of it event this past spring, I have been trying to get more salmon into my diet, not just because it has so many health and beauty benefits, but also because it is pretty tasty and versatile. I am always dreaming up new recipes that involve both wine and seasonal ingredients, and last night’s dinner was the result of those creative thoughts.

My seasonal fruit obsession at the moment is without a doubt ripe, red cherries. Watermelon is a close second, but cherries win out, and they were one of the 3 stars of last nights dinner.

I started the dish by generously coating wild Alaskan sockeye salmon filets with coarse black pepper and crushed red pepper.

I grabbed a bottle of Zichichi Zinfandel, wine that was tasted from the barrel in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma last fall, and that was bottled and arrived at my doorstep in April.

I pitted the cherries with a small knife, a process that was a little tedious and that stained my fingers red, but was totally worth it. I am used to going to work with beet stained hands or the like; I’m not a fancy girl

Then I very slowly simmered the cherries in about 2 cups of Zinfandel. I cooked the mixture on low for a long time, maybe 30 minutes? It reduced down to a lovely sweet mixture with the cherries providing a nice warm juicy pop.

I pan cooked the salmon. The original plan was to oven roast it, but since it was 96 degrees out, I opted NOT to heat the oven up for a long period of time. Once the salmon was done to my liking, I topped it with the hot cherry and Zinfandel sauce.

It was completely amazing. This Zinfandel is juicy with a good hit of dark fruit, but it also has a bit of spice that paired well with the pepper that I used. The salmon was perfectly cooked, and the Zinfandel drizzled over it got all into the little nooks of the salmon, flavoring it throughout. While eating, my husband said “My God this is good.” I think that is the perfect seal of approval

I am going to the Taste of Cambridge with a bunch of other bloggers tonight, and I am super excited. I will also have a giveaway to announce a little later this week so be sure to check back.

Be Fit Be Full asked this the other day, but I will go ahead and ask it again since I think it’s worth talking about:

What is your favorite summer fruit?

Technorati Tags: cherries, Food, recipe, salmon, wine, Zinfandel

Tags: cherries, Food, recipe, salmon, wine, Zinfandel

Random Food and Wine Chatter

May 23, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 9 comments

Have a good Saturday? I hope so! I certainly did. It involved sleeping late, Mad Hectic overnight oats, dog walking at the MSPCA, lunch at Bukhara with an old friend, shopping at Trader Joe’s and Prosecco on the deck. Not too bad for a hot and sunny day, no?

Today I am up on the Cape in Truro attending the Coastal Wine Trail Kickoff event. I love local wine, and I have literally been looking forward to this event since last year.

So today’s post involves a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I hope you don’t mind

First, a favorite, refreshing summer thirst quencher, strawberry-lemon water. Not lemonade, this spa-like drink is literally a pitcher of ice water with slices of strawberries and lemon. The flavors infuse the water, and then you get to eat the strawberries at the end. This is also delicious with cucumbers and lemons. Water infused with some natural flavor is a summer must-have in our house.

Speaking of summer beverages, I have so many summer wine recommendations that I thought the weekend before Memorial Day would be a perfect time to get started. There was of course my Duca del Frassino boxed wine from Wednesday’s post. I stand by my post in that I think that this is a perfect wine for your Memorial Day barbeque.

If you are looking for a good red that goes well with barbequed meats and the like, I love Zinfandel. I am a red wine drinker year round, and Zinfandels offer that ripe, jammy, fruit forward flavor that has some good body but is still light enough to have with summer dinner. My favorite Zinfandel is from Zichichi Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma.

Here’s a not so great photo from our last visit to Zichichi. It is a great winery to visit if you are ever in the Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma. I don’t think Zichichi wines are available outside their winery, but I also like Rodney Strong Knotty Vine Zinfandel and DeLoach Forgotten Vine Zinfandel.

I also just discovered a value Prosecco, Villa Carlotti Prosecco, at Trader Joe’s last weekend. Yay for free samples! This Prosecco is about $5 a bottle, and while it is certainly no Veuve Cliquot, it is a yummy bubbly that pairs perfectly with chopped strawberries. It would be perfect for a girls’ night in or a summer brunch.

I have a bazillion other wine recommendations for summer wines, but I will spare you constant wine chatter. . . for now.

Back to food.

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, part of the Healthworks Blogger Bash swag bag of magic was a bag of Mad Hectic oatmeal, something I have seen around the blog world, and I was SO excited to try it. I am JUST back from an oatmeal hiatus. I really overdid it last year and couldn’t look at oatmeal for awhile! But right now I am loving cool, overnight oats. I mixed about 1/2 cup of my regular oats and grains with this Mad Hectic almond pecan oats mix, soaked it all in some organic milk, and the next morning had overnight oat perfection, which I topped with cacao nibs.

I love the flavor that the Mad Hectic oats brings to the mix! It was nutty and a little like butterscotch! Really yummy, and 840 mg Omega-3 per serving doesn’t hurt either! This kept me filled up through dog walking, all the way to lunch at Bukhara, and I am rarely full. Overnight oats it is!

Finally, I present you with last night’s dinner. We thought about going out, but decided that Prosecco and strawberries went quite well with veggie burgers on “British Muffins” (Trader Joe’s name for them!) and salad topped with tomatoes sauteed in reduced balsamic. Sometimes a relaxing night at home is what a blogger needs.