New posts soon!

I have been absent, I am sorry. Being a blogger is a change that I am still adapting too. But I have been planning a couple of new meal pairings and doing research so I can better give advice about the food and beer pairing.

I very much enjoy blogging and want to make it a regular thing I am still just figuring out how to fit it in with all the other crazies of life.

Tips of the day.

Okay so I got behind for a couple days and will give two tips of the day today.

• Tip 1-Spicy foods should be paired with an off dry high acid white wine. Off dry meaning between no sweetness at all and sweet. This pairing helps lower the spicy of the food, while still letting the wine shine.
• Tip 2- If it grows together it goes together. A pretty simple concept. Pair wines with foods that are from the region that wine comes from.

Pairing basics

This post is going to focus on some of the simple guidelines for food and wine pairing. Similar concepts can be used for beer but there are much less official rules for beer pairing. I will go more in-depth in the future but today will just go over the most basics things to know to create a successful pairing.

In food and wine pairing there are 13 guild lines which help you determine how to pair a food with a wine, or vice a versa. The most important for a basic pairing are

• The food sweetness level should be less than or equal to the wine sweetness level.
• The food acidity should be less than or equal to the wine acidity level.

Basically you want the wine to have the more dominate trait so it does not become muted and over powered by the food.

You also need to decide if your pairing will be based on contrast, similarity or neutrality.

• Contrast would be a sweet port wine with a salty blue cheese. The sweet and salty will be playing off of each other and helping balance each other.

• Similarity would be a pinot noir with a mushroom risotto. Both have earthy equalities, this is also known as a bridge ingredient.A bridge ingredient is a flavor in the wine and a ingredient in the food.
  

• Neutrality would be a young dry white wine with a simple salad. They go together and it is refreshing but there is no wow factor.

And always, when in doubt pair with bubbles!

From this post on I will try to post a tip of the day on days I do not post a full blog post.

Wine Pairing

Today’s pairing is a wine pairing.

Dinner was Bow-tie pasta tossed with fresh tomatoes, olives, caramelized onions, mozzarella, prosciutto, and tomato basil feta. Along with Sour Dough Bread.

It was paired with a 2009 Melon de Bourgogne by Roots. Melon de Bourgogne another name for a Muscedet, a white wine originally from the Loire region of France. Although the wine we drank was from Oregon. The wine has a little bit of sweetness with some honey, peach flavors along with a nice tartness, bright acidity and a hint of brininess.

I did not follow a recipe with this dish but will give you an idea of what I did. The pasta, bread and mozzarella were all homemade.

First I diced the tomatoes and macerated them in olive oil, salt and pepper, for about 30 minutes.

Then I started sautéing the onions over low heat in a little bit of butter until they were just caramelized and then added the prosciutto which I had cut into strips. After about 5 minutes I added the olives, feta and tomatoes. I tossed in the pasta, which I had already cooked, along with some cubed mozzarella and mixed until the pasta was coated. After it was on the plates I topped with a bit more mozzarella and feta.

I would had added fresh basil if I had had any.

I was careful to not add any extra salt to the dish because many of the ingredients already had salty flavors (olives, feta and prosciutto) and did not want it to become overpowering with the light briny flavor the wine had.

I think they paired quite nicely together. The wine was bright and crisp which help refresh the palate from the slight creamy and salty aspects of the dish. The dish in turn brought out some more of the sweet and tart flavors from the wine and mellowed the briny aspect.

We had strawberry shortcake for a tasty dessert afterwards.

Beer Pairing

Today’s Pairing is a Beer Pairing

Dinner was thin cut pork chop in a Dubbel beer sauce, creamy quinoa and sautéed rapinni .

This dish had a spicy kick from black pepper, although the sauce had some essence of the Dubbels light crispness. Normally this dish would have had too much spice for me but when paired with the Dubbel it became nicely balanced. The Dubbel offered a nice cooling from the peppery food.

This dinner is based on using a common ingredient or bridge ingredient in its most literal form- the beer in the food and as the beverage.

The Food:

http://thankheavenforbeer.com/2010/09/28/belgian-dubbel-pork-chops/

This is the recipe I used for the pork that inspired the pairing. Although I made my own changes, I did not have any figs or plums so used some dried cherries I had that had been soaking in wine and adjusting the seasons for our personal tastes. These changes probably are what added to the extra spiciness of the dish.

For the rapinni, which is similar to broccoli rabe, I simply sautéed in olive oil and seasoned.

I cooked the quinoa as per the box, then added a touch a butter, salt, pepper, and sour cream.

The Beer:

Dubbel Overhead Abbey Ale (8-10-2009)

7.2%

The beer pours a deep red color with aromas of apple, pear and caramel. The complex flavor consists of raisin, dried fruit, cherries and toffee. The carbonation is high and hop bitterness is non-existent.

This blog will be:

I took the past week to observe my cook and eating habits to best figure out how to blog and what to blog. I am not ashamed to admit that many nights dinner is simple not blog worthy. And in attempts to support my education (I am attending a wine academy and thinking my focus will be on food and wine pairing) though blogging I will be using this blog as a pairing blog.

I will either be posting a

* Wine pairing that I cooked

* Wine pairing that I ate out

* Beer pairing that I cooked

* Beer pairing that I ate out

* or just general tips on pairing food and drinks.

I have a great passion for food, but love the enjoyment of eating more than cooking it, and at home my boyfriend and I are always experimenting with new foods and pairings. He is a very talented home brewer so we always have access to beer for pairings. And live in an area with great wine shops for me to splurge and treat myself to great wines for pairings, or just enjoyment!

I don't know how this passion will work into my feature but I hope it does.

Blog.

Hello. Not sure exactly what to say. This blog will track my culinary adventures of the food I cook and the food I eat. I enjoy cooking and LOVE eating.

And just for clarification, I do not want to lead anyone on, but I do not like Avocados. They will not be featured on this blog. But the color Retro Avocado I love.

Until next time.