Wine and Food

In a way, that statement is redundant because wine is a natural food product itself, although it is often thought of as a beverage. Americans have often reserved the consumption of wine for special events, but the Euoropean tradition has always been to enjoy wine with any and every meal, and one of the fascinating aspects of wine is that it not only can enhance your enjoyment of a particular meal or dish, but that the very preparation of the dish is improved by the addition of wine.

To that end, we offer this collection of recipes that we have found, adapted or developed. Some of these recipes are ones we've used in preparing special dishes for Way Out Wineries Road Trip events and some of them are ones that we've enjoyed with our wines in our own home as part of my personal culinary journey. To browse the recipes, just click the links on the right side of the page.

Finally, I'll leave you with the words of W.C. Fields, who is reported to have said:

I often cook with wine - sometimes I even add it to the recipe!

Chicken Creole

This recipe is for our adaptation of a traditional creole dish. Our Chicken Creole combines all of our favorite flavors with chicken rather than seafood and adds the little twist of using a traditional roux to add texture and that marvellous flavor. This recipe is sized for a single typical family meal, and can be scaled up for a Cajun family or party.

• 1 lb of chopped chicken (dark meat) / substitute shrimp
• 1 lb of chopped or crushed tomatoes
• 6 - 8 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 - 2 cups of bell pepper, chopped
• 2 - 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• bay leaves to taste
• 1/2 cup of green onion, chopped / substitute 2/3 cup of white onion
• oil
• cajun or creole seasoning mix
• cayenne pepper

You will be making a roux, so you'll want to use a large cast-iron pot for that, and you can make the whole recipe in one pot or use two if it's more convenient.

Put enough oil into some pan to brown part of the garlic and chicken. Cook just until the chicken is lightly browned, then remove from the pan and set aside for now. Add the bell pepper, celery and onion and saute until the veggies are slightly softened, then remove from the pan and set aside. (If you're using two pans, don't bother to remove them.)

If you already have mastered making a roux, just "get your roux on" and skip to the last section! Otherwise, make sure that your cast iron pot has at least a 1/4 cup of oil and add an equal amount of flour. (If you're making a larger amount of creole, you'll want to scale this up: if you're making a restaurant-sized stock-pot of sauce, use at least a cup of (each) flour and oil for your roux.)

Over medium-high heat, stir or whisk the flour and oil continuously while it gradually turns to a darker color. Don't let it scorch, or you'll have to throw it out and start all over, and your kitchen is gonna smell bad for a while. Be patient and keep stirring until the roux is at least the color of a peanut shell. Be brave and keep stirring a little past peanut and you'll be rewarded by a much deeper and more intriguing flavor!

When your roux is ready, remove the cast iron pot from the heat and dump in the rest of the chopped garlic and stir that around in the roux for a little while and savor that aroma! When the sizzling has slowed down a bit, dump in the sauteed veggies and stir the whole mixture until the veggies are all coated with the roux.

Add the chicken, tomatoes, bay leaves, seasoning and get the heat back on under that pot (medium). From here on, let your taste buds be your guide and add salt and some additional cayenne pepper to suit the cook. Depending on the tomatoes, your sauce might be too thick for your preference, so you can add some water or a little dry white wine or both to achieve the texture you like. Now would be a real good time to open some of our '05 Cabernet Sauvignon and pour a big glass to enjoy while you're letting all of these flavors come together and to finish cooking the chicken.

Depending on your family's traditions, you could probably fix a big pan of white rice about now, and by the time that your first glass of Cab is empty and the rice is ready, your Creole will be ready to serve. Don't forget to put some good French bread on the table along with a bottle or two of the Cab, and laissez les bon temps roulez!

Ravioli and Pink Sauce

This recipe is for a small batch of our turkey and rosemary ravioli with a classic Italian pink sauce. You can scale the recipe for whatever amount you'd like to make.

Ravioli

Start with fresh pasta, rolled thin. Just in case you haven't made fresh pasta before, here's the simple recipe:

Semolina flour - approximately 3/4 of a cup per large egg
2 large eggs
salt
(should make 20 to 30 ravioli depending on the size) Sift the flour onto a pastry sheet or suitable surface, make a crater in the top for the eggs (yes, you may use your finger!). Break the eggs into your little "bowl" and using a fork stir the eggs, mixing in the flour until most or all of the flour is blended into the dough. Kneed it with your hands until the pasta gets sticky enough to get all of the sticky stuff off your hands. Shape it into a ball, put it into a bowl and cover it with a damp towel to let it rest.
Now, get out your pasta machine (only the strong are up to rolling pasta by hand!) and set the roller to the widest opening. Divide the pasta into quarters and roll each chunk through the machine, folding it and feeding it through again until the pasta has a smooth creamy texture and then begin setting the rollers to successively thinner and thinner gaps. My machine goes from 1 to 6 (widest to thinnest), and I like my ravioli either 5 or 6 depending on the texture and the fillings. Your objective is long strips of pasta of a constant width.

Filling

Ground turkey
Chopped fresh rosemary
shredded parmesan or asiago cheese (approx. 1/3 the volume of turkey)

Scoop little dollops of your filling onto a sheet of the pasta, leaving approximately 1 1/2 to 2 inches all around it. Place another sheet of pasta over the first, making sure that it covers all of the little piles of filling. Using your fingers or one of those fancy ravioli rollers that cuts and presses the edges at the same time, seal the pasta along the lines that you'll use to cut it into little squares or your shape of choice! You can use a pizza cutter or sharp knife, too. Now boil these little pillows in boiling water (add a bit of olive oil to the water to help keep the ravioli from sticking to each other. Al dente, please!

Sauce

Muscat Shrimp and Scallops

This recipe produces the most wonderful sauce and goes so well with a crisp white wine like our 2007 Chardonnay that we had to pass this along. For those of you who are WOW Road Trippers, you may experience this on one of the Road Trips one day!

• 1 pound of peeled, deveined shrimp
• 1/2 pound of small bay scallops
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of finely minced garlic
• 1 - 2 tablespoons of chopped green onion tops
• 1 - 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
• 1/2 - 3/4 stick of butter
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of 2005 Rising Star Muscat Blanc
• 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
• small bay leaf
• salt (pinch) to taste
• creole seasoning blend (to taste)

To get started, open a bottle of Rising Star Muscat and cut a little wedge of white cheddar cheese to nibble with a glass while you cook. While this is not critical to the success of this recipe, you'll enjoy the experience immenseley!

If you want to serve this over rice, whether it's risotto, dirty rice or just plain white rice, you'll want to start this first. This is so good, it doesn't need anything but a nice green salad (with maybe a greek salad dressing with feta cheese?) and a loaf of hot-from-the-bakery french bread.

Rinse the shrimp and scallops and while their draining, melt a generous dollop of butter and saute the minced garlic over medium high heat. When the garlic starts to soften, add the chopped green onion tops and crushed red pepper and saute a little longer. Sip some more wine.

Add the shrimp and scallops and saute until they start to change color. Add a little more butter if necesary to coat everything well, sprinkle on the creole seasoning and add the Rising Star Muscat and the small bay leaf. Stir well, sniff deeply, sip, enjoy.

If you plan to serve this over risotto or rice, you should have already started that or it will never be ready in time. You need to be paying attention now to avoid overcooking the delicate shrimp and scallops. As soon as they begin to look done, turn off the heat, drain the liquid off into a saucepan or small skillet. Turn up the heat under the sauce and reduce it by half, stirring to avoid burning the butter. While stirring, add the cilantro. When the sauce is where you want it, remove the bay leaf and pour it back over the shrimp and scallops. Stir to coat the seafood with the sauce and keep warm until you can serve it.

Open that 2007 Chardonnay and pour a generous glassful, dish up some salad, spoon up some shrimp and scallops and tear off a chunk of bread. The Muscat adds a sweet backbone to the sauce that makes you want to just soak it up in the bread - go ahead! Delicioso!