Blame it on Rioja

As you can see, a key part of the Holly Jolly Sabbath, first discussed in yesterday’s BioR post, is the consumption of clareé, which is to say, a mulled wine made from red wine gently simmered with a some very interesting spices, as we shall see.

Poster artist Wolfy of Kayrock Screenprinting came upon the recipe quite serendipitously and, as you’d expect from an artist with an uncompromising comittment to a  largely lost art form, Wolfy isn’t about to throw some cinnamon and nutmeg into a pot of simmering wine and call it a day.

Luckily for us, faithfulness to tradition in this case does not mean having to spirit in the illicit roots or bark of some exotic South American shrub. But it does mean a trip to Manhattan and a visit to Bell and Bates Natural Foods in Tribeca.

So precise he is when it comes to the correct composition and proportions for his clareé that Wolfy felt obliged to email me a revised PDF of his recipe (reprinted below), explaining,

…I ventured forth to Bell Bates in Tribeca to buy the necessary spices today and realized that there is one ingredient missing from the list I sent Lily. It is Malabathrum; or as we have slowly translated and discovered, Cassia bark, the best substitute and of a higher quality. I have corrected the pdf and left it as parts per volume, the specific measurements in ounces referring to 24 bottles worth of Clarée.
Cheers,
Wolfy

Cheers to you and your brilliant idea. May the Holly Jolly Sabbath live forever………

Please note: All spices are whole, preferably wrapped in cheesecloth.

Grapefruit Drizzle: Lily Peachin puts the final touches on a new holiday classic

The great thing about coming up with your own recipe is that you get to do it exactly the way you want–no needless nods to misbegotten ceremony (Ambrosia anyone?) or to someone else’s notion of what goes with what.

Sometimes it’s as simple as bringing together a handful of your favorite things.  In the case of Brooklyn wineshop owner Lily Peachin, that meant composing a salad of Bibb lettuce, avocado slices, and grapefruit sections (a few of her favorite things) and topping the whole thing off with the juicy and colorful  pips of the Christmas-y pomegranate fruit and a drizzle of vinaigrette made from the free-run juice of the sectioned grapefruit.

Lily’s handful of favorites on a plate–a variation on a salad her mom, Gail Peachin, came up with after a trip to Mexico a few years ago–proved such a hit this year,  it may just end up a holiday perennial in her household for many years to come.

Bibb Lettuce Salad with Avocado, Grapefruit, and Pomegranate Seeds

1 Head of Boston Bibb lettuce, ribs removed, rinsed and spun dry

1 Yellow Grapefruit

1 Ruby Red Grapefruit

2 Ripe California Avocados

1 Pomegranate, seeds removed

2 tsp. White Wine Vinegar

4 Tbl.  Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1.  Over a bowl (to catch runoff juice), peel each grapefruit with a sharp paring knife, making close rounded cuts along the length of the fruit from top to bottom in order to remove strips of both the rind and outer membrane in the same motion.  Once the fruit is peeled (and while continuing to catch the runoff juice), section out each wedge of juicy pulp from its inner, pinwheel-like membrane with close incisions, avoiding traces of both membrane and pith.  Set aside grapefruit sections and reserve

4 Tbl. Fresh Grapefruit Juice

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine the vinegar and reserved juice. Using a whisk, gradually add olive oil until dressing is emulsified.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

(Steps 1 and 2  can be done several hours  in advance.)

3.  Just before serving,  slice avocados into two-inch wedges and remove from skin.  Arrange three or four leaves of lettuce onto six-inch salad plates, topped by three or four slices of avocado and an equal number of grapefruit sections.  Shower plates liberally with pomegranate seeds.

4.  Drizzle each plate generously with dressing and serve immediately.

Serves 4

Lily Peachin is the owner of Dandelion Wine in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. To accompany her salad, of the 500 or so labels she stocks on her shop’s shelves, she recommends both a sparkling 1997 Lambrusco Rosato from the house of Lini in Correggio and López de Heredia’s Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva 1997.

While researching patatas a la riojana for a recent post on a wine dinner in Connecticut, I came across a series of cooking videos made in Spanish by a blogger in San Sebastián named José Mari. His blog is called Cocinar para los amigos, or ‘Cook for your friends,’ and I am having a really hard time trying NOT to watch all of them, TONIGHT.

(more…)

I have long been a fan of Loriñon, the workhorse brand of Bodegas Breton in Rioja Alta, whose winemaker, José María Ryan, oversaw dramatic innovations at Viña Real across the river in the early part of the decade. But only recently have I come around to tasting their whites, and though I have never been especially fond of barrel-fermented modern white Rioja, I quite like this subtle incarnation made from 100% Viura, fermented in American oak, and kept on its lees for four months before bottling.

If the Sierra Cantabria group’s Organza blanco is Rioja’s buttery answer to oaky Napa Valley Chardonnay, I’d say that Loriñon is Rioja’s ‘mountain fruit.’ Lean and lemony, with just a hint of oaky/yeasty richness, Loriñon’s barrel-fermented Rioja blanco offers more complexity and weight than Rioja’s neutral stainless steel-fermented sippers without sacrificing food-loving acidity.

And speaking of food, here is the recipe for a pintxo (tapa) whose compatibility with this wine I can personally vouch for: The Bergara Cocktail from the great Bar Bergara in San Sebastián, whose chef/owner Patxi Bergara paid a special visit to the Napa Valley this week for the Worlds of Flavor Conference at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. I’m out here this week to help coordinate the Rioja campaign’s participation (promotion of our collaborative DVD, a series of themed tastings, plus two seminars led by wine badass Doug Frost MS MW), and it just so happened that we were pouring the Loriñon blanco last night when Señor Bergara arrived at our booth with several trays of the Bergara cocktail.

Let’s just say that this particular moment called for a very brief work stoppage in the interest of research.

Bergara Cocktail

40 slices of pineapple in syrup
40 boiled king prawns
10 apples
1 med. jar Mayonnaise, 1 med. bottle Ketchup, 1 small bottle Tabasco
3 small tins trout roe
1 Pullman loaf

1. Combine Mayonnaise, Ketchup and Tabasco in a large mixing bowl and stir until well integrated. Reserve.
2. Dice pineapples, king prawns, and apples, and fold into mixing bowl with reserved sauce. Keep mixture chilled until an hour before serving.
3. Using a small cookie cutter, cut four small disks out of each slice of Pullman loaf and, using a baking sheet, toast both sides under the broiler.
5. Scoop fruit and prawn mixture onto each toasted disk of bread, just enough to cover.
6. Garnish with small dollop of trout roe.
Makes 80 pintxos.

Bodegas Bretón Loriñon barrel-fermented Rioja blanco 2006 is $11.99/bottle at Winerz.com

Had the privilege of enjoying ripe local tomatoes twice this past weekend, first at Chanterelle, where I had lunch with two friends on Saturday, and again last night at Dressler in Williamsburg, where giant tomato disks are stacked together with hunks of watermelon, a summer perennial that’s getting a lot of play these days on both restaurant menus and on the glossy pages of fancy food magazines.

The appearance of tomatoes in local markets (and of corn and peaches) defines late summer for a lot of folks like me, and like with every seasonal bounty, there is always a quest to see how many different ways we can use them at home.

(more…)

CLASSIC COMBINATION: Chuletillas de cordero asadas (Grilled baby lamb chops), piquillo peppers, and fries, taken at Posada Mayor de Migueloa, Laguardia, Spain, September 9, 2007.  Photo: Jon Stamell.

It’s that time of year when one of viticulture’s most bracing demands comes a-callin’: the winter pruning of the vines.  By clipping the canes of each plant after the vines have shut down for the winter, a wine grower can reduce the quantity of fruiting buds and, therefore, improve the quality of the buds that eventually flower and bear fruit later in the season.

In Western Europe, the practice of grilling meat over the smoldering embers of vine clippings dates back several thousand years. In Rioja, the ancient practice of cooking meat over sarmientos in fact came to define the regional cuisine, and today traditional asadores, restaurants specializing in grilled meat, are still everywhere, thriving even as edgier cooking has made its way into the valley.

At the same time, Rioja’s cuisine helped to shape the evolution of its wine.  John Radford points out in Wines of Rioja that, even if it were possible, it’s unlikely that a red wine like Rioja would have fared very well along the seafood-rich estuaries of coastal Galicia. In other words, razor clams and sea scallops called out for high-acid, aromatic whites (i.e., Rias  Baixas, Ribeiro, Valdeorras); in Rioja, grilled baby lamb chops, or chuletillas de cordero, called out for something quite different.

And speaking of lamb chops, a reader named Marco Romano left a comment on one of my most recent posts and confessed that “Rioja is the wine that turned me into a lover of wine with food. Grilled lamb chops marinated in olive oil, garlic, pimenton, cumin and arbol chilies over charcoal with a Rioja reserva. Ah…”

Of course, I immediately asked for a recipe, and he quickly complied.

As for the grape vines, well, that’s the hard part.  A 2006 Wine News article on cooking with vines, written by Carole Kotkin, suggested contacting Kalmazoo Outdoor Gourmet, which sells grape vine chips, although I took a look at the website, and “grape vines” appears to be missing from the order form, even though it’s mentioned as an option on the product list. A phone call is definitely in order.

Or you can do what I plan to do next week, after I get back from Napa: call your nearest winery.

Grilled Marinated Lamb Chops
Recipe submitted by Marco Romano
4 loin chops, or 8 baby loin chops (chuletillas), if you want to get really authentic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. sherry vinegar
3 cloves roasted or raw minced garlic
1 tsp+ pimenton
1 tsp+ ground cumin
Ground arbol chilies* to taste
Salt & pepper

Mix the oil and vinegar with the garlic and spices, and marinate lamb for 2-4 hrs. at room temperature. Grill over hardwood in an outdoor pit.**

Serves Two
Wine Pairing Suggestions: Mr. Romano recommends the following Reservas

Lopez de Heredia “Vina Tondonia”
Muga “Seleccion Especial”
Contino
CVNE
Sierra Cantabria
Marques de Murrieta
Monte Real
Rioja Alta
Vina Real

*Chiles de Arbol, usually sold whole, are available at Latin markets across the country and at select Whole Foods.

**A good substitute for vine chips would be chips of some easier to find fruit woods: apple, apricot, cherry, nectarine, or peach.  Check out barbecuewood.com or kalamazogourmet.com. I must confess that I have never cooked with wood before, but the three websites linked in this post seem to have enough information to steer us in the right direction. Still, proceed with caution.

Photos and styling: Lisa Leonard Lee

I opened my inbox yesterday to find that my friend Lisa had not only taken the time to write down the recipe for the wonderful lamb tagine Violeta and I enjoyed with her and her husband Billy at their home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn Sunday night, but also made the dish again to test the recipe and take these lovely photographs!

“The photo I took of the tagine on Sunday was horrid,” she wrote me. “So I decided to remake the tagine, for my own culinary edification, and to get you a proper recipe, with photo.”

There is a special place in my heart for perfectionists.

(more…)