Sea to table

For seafood lovers with a taste for crabs, there’s nothing better than tearing into a crustacean platter at your favorite local dive restaurant. Unless, you actually can pull them from the sea and prepare them yourself. On a recent trip to Louisiana, I did just that.

We retrieved my uncle’s crab traps located on Lake Pontchartrain’s floor at approximately 12 feet below the surface. They were placed in a plastic container with drainage holes, and a large wet brown burlap sack covered our fresh catch to keep them cool for the boat ride back to camp.

The crabs were then soaked in a cooler with iced water. Apparently, this keeps the claws from falling when cooked. I had never heard of this technique, but my uncle Guaranteed this method. A custom-made pot (a keg cut in half) was the perfect size for boiling a couple dozen of crabs. Zatarains crab boil seasoning and a few other secret spices were added to the half-filled pot of water. Garlic cloves, onions and potatoes are then added after the water comes to a boil.

Maybe it was the heat from the boil, the 95 degree temperature and gentle river breeze or cajun spices saturating the camp, but I was parched. While I am a wine enthusiast, sometimes an ice-cold beer fits the occasion. Being a guest, I gratefully accepted whatever was offered. No Sauvignon Blanc, Sparkling, Chardonnay or Riesling was to be found on this evening. However, a hand-numbing Natural Light or two went down just fine.

After the potatoes were 90% cooked, the crabs were added. When the water came back to a boil, the crabs were cooked for approximately 5 minutes. Then the fire was turned off, and they soaked for 30 minutes to absorb the spices. To prevent the heated pot from overcooking crabs during the soak, cold water was sprayed on the pot and in the boil to lower the temperature. You can always add ice to the boil for the same effect. Just like a winemaker blending, a few samples were taken during the soak to ensure the proper amount of seasonings were being absorbed.

This took about three samples and several cold ones, but we finally agreed it was time to plate’em. Cracked-open, freshly boiled crabs with some cold suds. What could be better?

Evening on the bayou

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Waiting to Inhale or: How I Got My Wine Groove Back.

Lingering on Vin Santo

Nosing a wine is one of my greatest pleasures. Who doesn’t linger over the bouquet of a fine wine before taking that first sip? On rare occasions, I don’t stop until someone becomes uncomfortable.

I stubbornly endured sinusitis for as long as I can remember. Most of my breaths were laborious and chronic sinus infections resulted in extended periods of vino separation. More importantly, my ability to determine the wine’s nuances and to enjoy its aromas started to erode. To improve my palate and enjoyment of wine, I tried a reduced sugar diet. A mostly sugar-free month yielded no recognizable palate gain. I suppose I knew for a long time a surgical solution would be required to improve my health as well as my palate. It took one appointent with an ENT specialist and two days later I was rolled into surgery.

On April 6th, 2012, I had Sinuplasty to open my Maxillary Sinus passages and my left nasal passage required minor corrective surgery. The objective was to increase airflow and reduce infections. The most painful part of the surgery or recovery was not being able to drink wine for ten days until I was off antibiotics.

I gave my updated sniffer plenty of exercise at the Sandestin Wine Festival this past weekend. It was incredible to evaluate wine with less obstructions and more importantly, I experienced an increased level of pleasure from smelling and tasting wine. I’m currently 95% healed and looking forward to that extra 5% improvement. Maybe one day I will be able to even detect gooseberries!

Sandestin Wine Festival

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Is the adjective “angry” really negative?

Atlanta’s own @TheAngryChef, Ron Eyester, is known as much for his alter ego as for his cooking and two Atlanta restaurants, Rosebud and The Family Dog. I was intrigued by his reputation and have to admit that I’ve never eaten at one of his restaurants or sampled any of his cuisine. Well, that was before last night.

Ron provided a cooking demonstration at the first of four Chefs in the City events, hosted by Grape Crush Productions, at Lennox’s Bloomingdales on September 29th, 2011. A portion of the ticket proceeds from this event was donated to Project Open Hand. Wine, food, fun and a good cause. Be sure to add one or all three of the remaining events to your calendar.

We were served a nice flight of wines before the demonstration began, and even got refills during the demo. However, this did not influence my opinion of Ron or his freshly made eggplant chips with curry sauce, topped with feta cheese. Angry? Actually, he would be more accurately described as hilarious, personable and quite entertaining. His anecdotes and unrestricted perspective kept the crowd completely engaged and laughing. If you want to have some fun, dine at one of his restaurants on your birthday and ask for special treatment or something free.

It is more than a passion for food. Ron appears to truly enjoy the experience of sharing food in a fun environment. I got a second sample of his eggplant chips last night, but soon will be heading to one of his restaurants to receive a full order.

Cin Cin!

Father Knows Best

One Family, Two good Pinot Noirs

In an earlier post,  I described tasting and learning of two distinct Burgundian Pinot Noirs, one traditionally Old World and one that uses a New World approach on the classic Burgundian style. To quickly recap, Rene Leclerc has produced wine for over forty yeas and has passed the skills and tradition on to his son, Francois. His son honors the traditional wine making of Burgundy, but imparts his own style influenced from his time in U.S.  These wines are similar, but there is a noticeable difference in their styles and it was accented when paired with cheese and small bites. How much emphasis do you place on food when deciding between two similar wines of the same varietal?

Last night, we hosted a couple of Pinot Noir-loving friends at our house for a dinner party/blind tasting to put these wines to the test and see which one would prevail when served with food. We paired these two wines with a delightful meal from @LCI_Magazine, Roasted Lamb with Edible Violets.  (It will require extra planning, but DO include edible flowers in the recipe. It adds earthiness to the sauce and pairs well with the lamb as a garnish.) If you can’t locate violets at a local French market, they are available at here.

French Rack of Lamb w/ edible flowers

To ensure unbiased results from our tasting, the entire capsules were removed and the bottles were completed covered (with very classy brown bags). Both wines were stored at 55 degrees and served at 60.

We tasted wines A and B before dinner and two people preferred wine B, one favored wine A and one undecided. While both wines were enjoyed, distinguishing between the two proved to be difficult for the panel. One tester even asked if I used two of the same bottles (an idea I love and will use at my next blind tasting). The initial pairing with lamb produced the same results as the pre-dinner tasting.

Opinions started to change approximately thirty minutes after the wines were poured—about 10-15 into our meal. The two people who intially preferred wine B were now leaning towards wine A. The one who preferred A started leaning towards B and the undecided taster remained consistent and happily emptied both glasses with no clear preference.

Everyone topped off with their favorite and enjoyed the rest of their dinner. Wine A was unveiled as the winner by a slight margin. While both had good fruit, the Father, Rene’s Bourgogne Rouge showed a more pronounced acidity and balance that paired better with the roasted lamb.

I noticed the distinction during the pre-dinner tasting and it was confirmed onced I experienced it with the lamb. It was fun to discuss the wines, their attributes and how they changed when combined with air and food. While some of my opinions and evaluations were slightly different (and I was team wine A the entire night), it did prove the most important element of wine drinking. Wine is subjective and should be enjoyed with good food among great friends.

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Death by Limoncello Cake

Taste at your own risk!

While relaxing with some homemade Limoncello this past Sunday I started thinking about my next batch and the adjustments I need to make. (Larger lemons, steep longer, 100-proof grain alcohol. Reduce the amount of sugar.) This inspired my wife and I to do a little baking. If you like Lemon Cake, wouldn’t it even be more tasty to use some Limoncello in place of the water in the Lemon cake mix? Yes!

Well, why not take it one step further by improving the icing? Below is the Lemon Icing recipe from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions:
Combine the butter, lemon juice, vanilla, and confectioner’s sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add more confectioner’s sugar, or lemon juice to adjust the consistency as needed.

Note: we substituted lemon juice with limoncello (Vino-Vida Reserve). Added lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon (from 1/2 lemon) to balance sugar in Limoncello.

For the cake, we used a box of Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme and followed the “Bundt”  instruction, except that we substituted 1/3 cup of the water for Limoncello.

The total prep/bake time was approximately 45 minute and well worth the committment. The Limoncello Cake was moist and bursting with flavor, but I do not recommend eating while enjoying Limoncello. It might be too much lemons for you to handle!

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Wine Tasting with Tots?

Trying to sneak in....

Are wine tastings kid friendly? Should they be? Have you been in a tasting room when you noticed a cute curly-haired toddler standing 10 feet from the table and thought, “why is she in here?”

As a parent who has brought my child to casual tastings, I’ve come up with some guidelines, because I don’t think children should be prohibited. However, here are my thoughts on how to make sure that everyone is able to enjoy the experience:

1. Look around. Is it day time? Proceed on bringing your kids in if they are well behaved and allowed by the establishment. Night time? Turn around and come back once a sitter is properly secured.

2. Is food being served?
A) Cheese/Crackers = kid-friendly, proceed.
B) Wine pairings =Adults only
C) Wine education/Winemaker events, etc.=Adults only
D) Evening/Night events = Hey, didn’t I say to get a sitter?
E) Wine dinners = see above, adults only

3. Is your child well-behaved?
Children and/or parents causing a disturbance should leave the tasting area immediately. What kind of behavior? Any behavior that disrupts the wine experience. This includes actions or outbursts that requires constant discipline and/or excessive cuteness and especially shenanigans.

My daughter attended casual tastings for two years at a local boutique wine store. My wife and I would take turns at the counter while the other spent quality time with our daughter outside. We were extremely fortunate our favorite wine store was 20 meters from a park. After a few weeks, the owner insisted we bring our daughter into the tasting room.  We were a initially uncomfortable and hypersensitive to the impact she would have on other enthusiasts. If anything other than an awhhh or goooo was muttered, she was quickly relocated to the park. She did be-friend the owner’s lovable lounging Retriever, providing her a tasting room playmate.

Casual wine tastings are about wine discovery and socializing.  It was our Saturday family outing, and our young daughter was surprisingly accepted by the usual suspects. Probably because of her adorable enthusiasm while smelling our wine.  A child’s age and disposition greatly influence their ability to abide by the most import rule above, #3.

Now at four, our daughter is more active and still acquiring proper food/wine etiquette (she is a child after all). There is at least a 90+% chance her presence alone will annoy at least one person and over 70% chance she will not remain within compliance of rule #3. My son is a toddler and also a high risk. Unless there is a published kid-friendly policy, mine will always be with the sitter. Only on rare occasions would I prefer to have my children at a wine event. This weekend is one of those occasions.

Our family is attending the Crane Vineyards Tomato Festival. It is a great opportunity for my children to see and experience a vineyard. It’s all for the kids:) I have attempted to contact the winery in advance concerning their tasting room policies.  If children are not welcome, my wife and I will happily split time at the counter. Above all, rights and regulations of wineries should take precedence over individual opinions, and parents are obligated to understand and respect the expectations of other wine enthusiasts.

But if the timing and setting is right, there’s no reason you shouldn’t should start a healthy respect and appreciation for wine early!

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Enhancing My Palate

Does removing sugar from your diet really heightened your wine tasting experience? An interesting article by Sarah Siddons, ”Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Palate,” inspired me drink coffee sans sugar. Ok, there is no way I am giving up sugar completely…I gotta have my chocolate. My goal is to test this theory on myself after drinking my coffee sugar-free for the past two weeks.

My formal testing environment will be at Paul’s Restaurant (@paulsrestaurant) for the #PinotSmackdown tomorrow night, August 18th. I am no professional taster and my taste buds are abused from my Louisiana heritage. (The only food we didn’t subject to mass seasoning, I’m looking at you Tony Chachere’s, was cereal.)

Purifying my palate may require a lengthy detox period, but I will begin with small increments. If it is really possible to enhance my palate, I will give it a go!

After one month, a complete evaluation will determine if chocolate will join the naughty list along with my morning sugar rush. On second thought, Giving up chocolate would be just cruel and I fear my body would retaliate.

Now, I just need to do more research.

Cin Cin!

Lemons make enemies

By-product of Limoncello

What do you do when Limoncello gives you (left-over) lemons? One option is to become enemies of the neighborhood kids, with some delicious, gourmet lemonade. That powdered mix is no match for this batch of the Best Lemonade Ever! I could easily challenge the market with this freshly made lemonade which used the 8 zested lemons from my homemade Limoncello (in progress).

While my wife and daughter were planting an herb garden on a very sunny Summer day, yesterday, I decided to juice the lemons into a refreshing afternoon treat for them. It was tasty, but I do think it could use a little less sugar. However, I did not hear any complaints. Deciding to keep, like the Italians, my best juice to be enjoyed in-house, the neighborhood lemonade stands are safe…for now.

Want to be a winemaker in Tuscany?

The family owned winery Tenuta Valdipiatta in Montepulciano offers you the opportunity to be a winemaker. This “Adopt a Barrel’ program is ideal for wine enthusiasts with a desire to development their personal style from the estate produced fruit with the guidance of the staff. You select the varietal(s) (Sangiovese, Canaiolo Nero, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, among others) for your blend, and determine how long it will age. This program requires a 250 litre barrique investment, which will produce about 300 bottles with your custom label. Estimate total costs to be approximately 22-44 euro per bottle. Unfortunately, there are no half or quarter barrel programs. I checked! If this is more than you want to invest, try the Barrel and Barrique tasting for 65 euros per person with Lidia. You will receive a technical description of the vineyard, climate and viticulture practices. Fermentation, blending and aging are discussed as you explore their cellar. Plugs are then pulled from the barrels and you are treated to aging Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, along with Cabernet and Merlot blends. Use this as a baseline when you sample the finished product in the tasting room. Lidia poured Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Super Tuscans and Vin Santo, served with bread and estate produced Olive Oil. It is a very relaxed tasting with no urgency to usher you out for the next scheduled tasting. If you’re looking for a quality producing small winery to visit while in Tuscany, consider Tenuta Valdipiatta. Our tasting Tenuta Valdipiatta Via della Ciarliana, 25/A 53040Montepulciano (Siena) – Italy Phone/Fax: (+39) 0578 757930 Email: info@valdipiatta.it Website: www.valdipiatta.it Website: www.agriturismovaldipiatta.it

Best Value in Montepulciano?

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Our winery tour and tasting at Avignonesi was the best value of our vineyard tours and a must stop on any Montepulciano or Montalcino wine tour. You will receive an in depth overall description of the vineyard and the fruit produced, but the cellar tour will blow you away. I am normally more fascinated how the land and climate produces the grape and its characteristics, but my first thought of Avignonesi is of the cellar!

Dark, black mold covered ceiling and walls will be the first thing you notice upon entering the cellar. No need to be alarmed, the mold is actually penicillin and improves the air quality on the cellar. The  underground tunneling system is lined with oak barrels.

You can also find the owner’s private collection carved off the main tunnel. It is almost completely absent from light and gave me chills peering into the darkness imagining the treasures stored ten feet away.

I could have spent hours in the cellar and tried to slow the pace considerably to prolong the experience. You will also get to walk through the Vin Santo barrels which are stored above ground where they utilize seasonal temperature fluctuations during the aging process. The small caratelli barrels used for aging are stored off the floor and exposed to natural light through the facility’s windows.

Our tasting included a Bianco Avignonesi, Chardonnay Cortona, Rosso Di Montepulciano, Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano and Merlot Cortona known as “Desiderio”. This is a very good flight, but the Nobile and the Desiderio were the standouts.  For an additional cost, you can indulge in a glass of Vin Santo, white or red. Both are fabulous and were enjoyed very slowly.

This tour and tasting is a mere 15 Euro per person, unless you add the Vin Santo, and you will not be disappointed.  Arguably the best 15 euro spent in Montepulciano.