Last year my husband and I decided to make a new tradition
out of our anniversary. Each year we are going to cook together and create a
3-4 course meal, complete with wine pairings. Last year’s 3
course meal started with an Avocado and Grapefruit salad, continued with Rack
of Lamb Persillade and Asparagus with Hollandaise sauce paired with Veuve
Clicquot NV Champagne (which was my
favourite food and wine pairing of 2012!) Neither my husband nor I can remember
much after the bottle of Veuve and unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to blog
about it then.
This year, we decided to continue with the French theme as
it is also a way for us to pay homage to our trip to France in March 2011. My mother
gave me a great food and wine book a few months ago, Wine & Food: A New Look at Flavour by Joshua Wesson.
The book discusses all types of wines from light-bodied whites to full-bodied reds, sparkling and sweet wines; each section talks about the varietal
flavour profiles and suggests ideal food pairings. The book also contains
approximately 50 food recipes with 4 different wine pairing suggestions per
recipe. The back of the book contains themed 4 course meals using recipes
from the book, with wine pairings for each course. One of these was themed “Bistro-Style Supper" and features wines from around France for the pairings. I decided
to run with this. The menu 2nd Annual “Holyantle” themed Anniversary Meal was:
Savoury Cheesecake
PEI Mussels in Wine & Herb Sauce
Grilled Lamb Chops
with Blueberry & Portabello Mushroom Coulis
Maple Squash Puree
Roasted Buttered
Beets
Tarte Tatin
I know, PEI is not in France. But I wanted to incorporate
one highlight of our 5th year of wedded bliss, and our trip to PEI
for my sister’s wedding was one such highlight. It therefore became the 2nd
course.
In order to not overload ourselves with food right off
the bat, I made the savoury cheesecake for dinner the night before, which
includes ingredients such as blue cheese, cream cheese, roasted garlic, roasted
red peppers and a parmesan crust. I paired it with Ruinart’s NV Rose Champagne.
We also used the leftover champagne the following night to pair with the
mussels. Unfortunately, the heavy fattiness of the cheesecake overwhelmed the
delicate fruit flavours of the champagne, and I thought the higher acidity
level of the champagne would cut through the fat component in the cheesecake. So
we ate the cheesecake and then drank half of the Ruinart afterwards. We ate the
leftover cheesecake for brunch the day of the big meal. When we paired the
champagne with the mussels, the delicate flavours of both the food and wine married
well and ended up becoming a nice, light course to start our dinner.
I paired the grilled lamb chops, beets and squash puree
with M. Chapoutier’s 2010 Crozes-Hermitage. Full-bodied with chewy but well-integrated tannins, this red features notes of plums, animal hide and smoke.
My husband used some of the wine in the coulis. Adding
the wine you plan to drink into your cooking enhances your food and wine
pairing. In this case, the C-H paired well with all of the main items-the
smokiness of the wine enhanced the barbecued lamb and added a flavour dimension to the
sweetness of both the coulis and the beets.
The last course was Tarte Tatin, which is made by
caramelizing apples in an ovenproof skillet and baked upside-down with the
pastry on top. I paired it with Chateau Guiraud’s 2010 “Le Petit Guiraud”, a
young, sweet wine from Sauternes with a complex flavour profile that includes
honey, orange blossom, butterscotch and candied orange peel.
This pairing was easily the highlight of the meal, along
with the tarte. When pairing wines with dessert, you must ensure the wine is
sweeter than the food or the dessert will overpower the wine. This wine was my favourite pairing of the night: the wine was
sweeter than the dish, and complimented without overpowering the dessert. Both have an excellent flavour concentration to complement eachother with subtle differences that contrast eachother, allowing both to stand out on their own! This is a must-try pairing!
To summarize, here is what I learned in pairing wines
with these dishes:
-If you want a highly acidic wine to cut through the fat
components in food, make sure you match the weight of the wine to the weight of
the food. In the champagne/cheesecake pairing, the cheesecake was too heavy for
the delicate champagne. The oysters and the lighter sauce were more delicately
weighted, and that is why they worked better with the champagne.
-If you have a flavour compound in the wine (like the
smoke in the Crozes-Hermitage) and a similar flavour exists in the food (the
barbecued lamb), the two should complement eachother well, keeping in mind to
match the weight of the wine with the weight of the food.
-Use the wine you are serving in your cooking-this helps
guarantee a flavour match
-When pairing wine with dessert, make sure the wine is
sweeter than the food!
-Have fun with it! Wine and food were made to go
together, so try different things out and see what your palate prefers!
If you've read this far into the post, I will reward you
with the recipe for Tarte Tatin! Enjoy!
Tarte Tatin: As found in Wine & Food: A New Look at Flavour
3 oz/90g unsalted butter
6 oz/180g sugar
Pinch of salt
3 lb golden delicious apples: peeled, cored and quartered
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375F. Melt butter in a 10 inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add sugar and cook until the sugar turns light amber in colour, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt. Arrange apple wedges on their cut sides in the pan in a tight concentric circle, then fill the centre with the remaining wedges.
2) Return the pan to high heat and cook until the sugar and juices become deep amber in colour, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and with tongs, turn apple wedges to their other cut side. Return pan to high heat and cook for another 5 minutes or until this side of the cut apple wedges turns amber.
3) While the apples are cooking, roll out the puff pastry on parchment paper into a circle 11 inches in diameter, or an inch larger than the diameter of the skillet you are using. Using a 10 inch plate as your guide, trim the pastry into a 10 inch circle. Keep pastry cool in the refrigerator until ready to use.
4) When the apples are ready, remove the pan from the heat. Carefully flip the puff pastry onto the apples and lift off the paper. Gently tuck the pastry down around the edges of the apples. Cut 4 1 inch slits in the centre of the pastry to allow steam to release during baking.
5) Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is puffed and golden brown. Remove the tart from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Gently place a large platter on top of the skillet and invert or flip over the pan while holding the platter strong. Lift off the pan; the tarte should release easily from the skillet. Serve warm with icing sugar or whipped cream as garnish.
