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25

Apr

Pomegranate & Blueberry Cheesecake

Sean Sellers  in Dessert Wine, Chenin Blanc, Blow the Bank, Desserts , , , , , , , ,

InterWined Food
Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ ends its month-long celebration of some of American cuisine’s greatest dishes from classic comfort foods to the unsung greats of American soulfood, with a decidedly European-take on a well-recognised transatlantic treat.

One word describes the 2003 Château de Fesles Bonnezeaux (12.5%) from the Loire Valley and available from Oddbins in the UK and Wine Chateau.com in the US (with numerous vintages available in Canada, New Zealand, and mainland Europe): smooth.

Made from 100% botrytis Chenin Blanc grapes, the Bonnezeaux screams smooth operator…not unlike the way Sade used to do on the radio. It has a fine golden colour with a rich, slightly creamy fresh fruit flavour with a hint of vanilla or nutmeg thrown in for good measure and makes for a stunningly attractive match to the smooth and silky mix of cream and fruit found in InterWined’s Own Pomegranate & Blueberry Cheesecake.

Pomegranate & Blueberry CheesecakeDigestive BiscuitsCheesecake BasePomegranate & Blueberry Mix

Like the hamburger and countless other “American” foods, the American cheesecake is rooted across the Atlantic in the kitchens and dinning rooms of a host of different European traditions. So what makes a cheesecake American? New Yorkers and Chicagoans might tell you it’s the baking.

But it’s not.

It’s the cream cheese. Cream cheese is a wholly American invention. Not until William Lawrence invented his now famous Philadelphia cream cheese in 1872 on his farm in New York State and its eventual owners, Kraft Foods, managed to manufacture a pasteurised version in 1912, did any cheesecakes resemble the stuff of today, whether or it was cooked as the New Yorkers and Chicagoans would recommend, or uncooked as the British and many others prefer. Before then, all cheesecakes were made the European way with a filling made of ricotta, mascarpone, quark, or Neufchatel cheeses.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that the American preference for baking doesn’t continue. Indeed, outside of perhaps only a handful of US restaurants and cities, the cooked cheesecake remains the more time-consuming norm. And while InterWined hates to pick sides in this most delicious debate (both are great!), for the sake of time and convenience, why not throw American preferences to one side and enjoy the speed and ease of a simple, smooth uncooked cheesecake, such as InterWined’s Own Pomegranate & Blueberry Cheesecake.

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

Pomegranate & Blueberry Cheesecake

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24

Apr

Parmesan & Balsamic Vinegar

Sean Sellers  in Dessert Wine, Vegetarian, Muscat , , , , ,

InterWined Food

Ever ordered a dish off a menu at a restaurant or café and found yourself thinking, “I could make that”?

Well, InterWined did last weekend, while sitting outside Carluccio’s, the popular Italian café chain, and trying to make the most of the sporadic sunshine that fell along Market Square near London’s Oxford Street. The dish was a simple Emilia-Romagna-inspired serving of parmesan cheese with balsamic vinegar.

Parmesan Cheese & Balsamic Vinegar
Sweet & Cheesy

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28

Mar

Pear Pithivier

Sean Sellers  in Dessert Wine, Blow the Bank, Desserts, Tocai Friuliano, Garganega, Vespaiola , , ,

InterWined Food
Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you InterWined’s Own Pear Pithivier.

Pear Pithivier
FrangipanePear Pithivier FillingFresh From the Oven

With so much religious observation last week, InterWined thought it was time for a little secular celebration and decided on the seemingly areligious little French pithivier. At least, that was the intention, until InterWined remembered its other name — la Galette des Roisor cake of the kings.

In other words, the exotic — indeed urbane and cosmopolitan sounding — pithivier is in fact good old, provincial, Catholic king cake made to commemorate three kings’ day and the epiphany.

And, while it might not look like the multi-coloured king cake of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras fame, the two are essentially one and the same.

So, so much for that idea…

The good news is, religious or not, InterWined’s Own Pear Pithivier is a great way to end the week, especially one marked by rain, cloud, wine, snow, hail, and a hint of sunshine. Who says it only rains in England?

Matching the weather and the pithivier is the 2005 Maculan Torcolato, made from 85% Vespaiola, 10% Garganega, and 5% Tocai, (13.5%), £16.99 from Oddbins. A mix of honey, fruit, sugar, acid and wood (thanks to French oak barrel aging), the wine is one of the prides of the Maculan winery, having won numerous awards since the 1970s. Like the best dessert wines, the Toroclato avoids any cloying or sickly sweetness. Exhibiting an excellent balance it’s simple, clean, and unassuming.

According to the Oddbins Web site, the Maculan Toroclato is perfect with almonds — and InterWined agrees. So, sit back and enjoy a glass of a great Italian dessert wine with a pear and almond pudding fit for a king.

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29

Feb

Black Cherry Chocolate Palmiers

Sean Sellers  in Dessert Wine, Viognier, Blow the Bank, Desserts, Torrontes , , , ,

InterWined Food
Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you InterWined’s Own Black Cherry Chocolate Palmiers.

Black Cherry Chocolate PalmiersPuff Pastry PalmierBlack Cherry Chocolate Palmiers Cooling on the Counter-topPuff Pastry Palmiers Ready for the Oven

The great European palmier might be the most simple little snack imaginable — given what little effort and time they require. They might also be one of the most versatile. They can easily accommodate most sweet and savoury fillings from jams and preserves to cheeses and thinly-sliced cuts of meat.

Many traditionalists consider palmiers simple coffee candy, something meant to help you kick start the day on this long-run February. Yet, why limit it to pairing with a simple morning cup of java? Why not let it help end your day, or month, too? In this case, with a brilliant wine.

A truly delectable match for the cherry, chocolate flavours found within the folds of puff pastry that make up InterWined’s Own Black Cherry Chocolate Palmiers is the 2007 Torrontes Tardio from Familia Zuccardi in the Medoza Valley of Argentina.

This late harvest dessert wine (85% Torrontes/15% Viognier) available for £6.99 from Oddbins and in California via Mission Liquor & Wines (as Santa Julia Torrontes) is oft-proclaimed to be pure nectar. And, it’s an apt description. There’s a honeyed-fruit sweetness that starts on the nose and lingers on the palate that ably matches the cherry-fruit and chocolate palmier filling.

A winner: 9 pts. or something equally ridiculous.

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1

Feb

Creamy Lancashire Cheese Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto

Sean Sellers  in Dessert Wine, Blow the Bank, Meat & Poultry, Muscat , , , , , ,

InterWined Food
Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

Two weeks ago, I told the story of the aspiring journalist keen on the details of InterWined’s copyright and how much credit she would have to give to use the wine reviews and recommendations that appear on the site in her publication. Now, InterWined.com could dismiss her comments as ones made under the influence of several glasses wine (which they were), but they raise a very interesting question.

In the age of hyperlinks and trackbacks, embeds and torrents, when is it stealing?

So far so Carrie Bradshaw…right?

The question is an especially poignant one for food writers.

As regular readers of this feature will know, it was the attempt to answer this very question that ultimately prevented ‘Blow the Bank’ from sharing the recipe for Slow-Cooked Sweet & Sour Lamb from Greg and Lucy Malouf’s Saha cookbook without the authors’ permission, but allowed it to publish so many recipes from some the Web’s best food blogs.

The question isn’t just one of credit and permission; it’s also one of degree. Numerous food blogs and cookbooks include recipes adapted from ones found elsewhere. But whose to say how much of an adaptation must take place until it becomes your own. Does simply changing raisins to sultanas count? How about 100g to 150g or turning a loaf made with sweet potato and spinach into a muffin made with sweet potato and apple?

And what about, following one recipe, such as the basic omelette recipe in James Peterson’s Cooking to make another, like InterWined’s Own Creamy Lancashire Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto?

Creamy Lancashire Cheese Omelette with Spinach & ProsciuttoOmeletteCreamy Lancashire Cheese Omelette

Omelettes can prove tricky to prepare, but Peterson’s multiple recipes are incredibly informative, helpful, and visually easy-to-follow. The key to success is a well-buttered pan. The key to a great pairing (perhaps one of InterWined’s best) is good quality dessert wine.

That’s right — dessert wine. Regardless of its name, it needn’t be confined to desserts and puddings. In fact, paired with InterWined’s Own Creamy Lancashire Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto, the 2005 Maculan Dindarello (12%) from Oddbins for £8.49 is close to perfection, its sweetness finding an excellent balance in the flavour of the egg and butter and saltiness of the prosciutto.

As described by the wineseller at Oddbins, the Dindarello, made of 100% Muscato by one of the Veneto regions most respected winemakers, also has a strong smell of nutmeg on the nose. There’s some honey on the palate, but not as much as some other dessert wines and only a little hint of fruit. Mostly, it’s the smell of nutmeg that wins your attention: 9.0 with InterWined’s omelette (8.8 with bakery-bought black current cheesecake).

InterWined’s Own Recipe in Full

Creamy Lancashire Omelette with Spinach & Prosciutto

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11

Jan

Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins

Sean Sellers  in Dessert Wine, Semillon, Blow the Bank, Desserts , , , , ,

InterWined Food
Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week ‘Blow the Bank’ returns to Beatrice Peltre, La Tartine Gourmande, and her Versatility in a Spinach and Sweet Potato Cake to bring you Mostly InterWined’s Own Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins.

Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffins

For many eaters, muffins are synonymous with one meal — breakfast. But, long before the humble blueberry muffin appeared in a powder from Betty Crocker or its low fat oat cranberry cousin went on sale at Starbucks, the muffin was a tea cake and before that a bread.

So while Mostly InterWined’s Own Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffin makes an excellent breakfast muffin — and it does to be sure — it also makes a superb dessert cake and, even, a superior alternative to the more common apple sauce and potato found served alongside a nice pork loin or chop. (Don’t believe me, try it and you’ll see.)

On this occasion, InterWined chose to serve it as a dessert or pudding, as some people might prefer.

The 2006 Peter Lehmann Botrytis Semillon (12.5%), £7.99 from Oddbins for a half bottle and widely available in the US for approximately $18-$20, made for an almost perfect match. Why almost perfect? The wine is just a tad too sugary sweet. Peter Lehmann’s chief winemaker confidently proclaims the 2006 vintage its finest ever produced, and InterWined is hard pressed to disagree. This wine is fresh and, mostly, easy-to-drink. The colour is a honeyed gold, with the slight sense of honey continuing on the nose before really hitting the palate with a burst of honeyed fruit. This is wine made from bees, if ever there was one.

But, for InterWined, it all comes back to the sensation that there is just a tad too much sweetness in the wine. Normally, if one finds a dessert wine too sweet it would indicate an imbalance. Yet, in all honesty, I don’t think that there is one. The slightness of it all could equally suggest that my complaint is simply one of personal preference. (Maybe I just don’t like wine made of noble rot, as much as I thought I did.)

In terms of the pairing, what might have made this a more prefect match and probably helped to overcome any nagging sense of sweetness would have been to increase the amount of sweet potato and cheese by a few millimetres and sprinkle into the mixture a few more twists of pepper mill. But be careful when doing so, too much grated potato or cheese and the muffin will loose its very appealing lightness and become quite stodgy.

In the end, Mostly InterWined’s Own Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffin with Peter Lehmann’s Botrytis Semillon: 8.something rather impressive but equally probably rather meaningless, something Robert Parker Scale-esque like 86/100. Whatever that means.

Mostly InterWined’s Own Recipe In Full

Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Potato Muffin
(Makes six muffins)

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10

Apr

Italy, England, Denbies, Carpineto, Imus, Justin Timberlake Marries American Idol

Jacob Gaffney  in Red Wines, White Wines, Dessert Wine, Chianti, Sangiovese, Bacchus, Müller Thurgau , , , , , , , , ,

The first guest brought a bottle of 1990 Carpineto Chianti Classico Reserva (primarily Sangiovese grape). Back then it went for $13 bucks, today the bottle is probably worth ten times that. It was ranked at 87 in Wine Spectator by Italy expert James Suckling. And, as usual, he is right: “Very firm and solid with complex berry, mineral and plum character. Full in body and tannins but quite refined and elegant”.

The years have since eroded the full-body and stronger tannic structure, but the wine is now extremely refined and elegant. Also there are mushrooms. Chestnut mushrooms. Probably would score 89 point on the WS scale if tasted today, but as a gift from good friends (who also cooked – spaghetti with grouper and sardines with fennel): 9.3.

Both from Denbies winery, England’s largest, the wines proved perfect for the locally sourced food. The Bacchus (grape) wine from 2004 was crisp with a hint of lemon. Grassy. Long finish. The body was a little heavy, but it was not nearly the train wreck expected. Perhaps bringing such a bad rep to the table made the wine appear more delicious. Doubt it: 8.6.

The pudding wine from Denbies is number one in one regard: the worst wine name, ever. The 2005 Surrey Gold even came in a frosted bottle, leaving the wife to first wonder aloud “who brought the Vodka?” The name, the look – Denbies, work on it.

The wine is just fine. Kinda floral (some jasmine) and easy going. Light and not too syrupy, the funny thing is that the wine finishes dry, when sweet was expected. Individual: 8.4.

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