I have been making some changes to the blog as I make it a key part of my sommelier education and training program. Hopefully I will be able to increase readers and get feeds of my blog hosted elsewhere so like minded folks might read even one article. The focus has never been just wine and the tag cloud to the right will show you how I am tagging my posts for easier indexing by topic. You will continue to see posts on food, pairing, beverages of all kinds, destinations and of course my home winemaking.
If you have suggestions for things you would be interested for me to research and post here please shoot me an e-mail (jasonphelps@yahoo.com) or post a comment. I am eager to learn about many things food and drink and helping to bring that information to others, like a teacher maybe?, is a wonderful way to sharpen my skills.
I added the Foodbuzz Today's Top 9 widget to the right as well. Foodbuzz is a social networking site for foodies, and they are kind enough to offer free widgets that link back to their user published recipes and blogs. Very cool indeed. I am always looking for new tastes and textures and I expect I will find inspiration there. One plan I have is to offer pairing suggestions for recipes/dishes that show up in the list. The recipe authors are responsible for the recipe and preparation information and I hope to be able to offer up serving and pairing suggestions to make a complete experience. I'll start this off with a selection from the date of this post (4/27). You can use the link below to find the recipe after that date, but the widget lets you scroll through all of the items being featured on a specific day.
Strawberry, Caramelized Pear & Blue Cheese Salad
http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/yu/yugoslavia/2189410-strawberry-caramelized-pear-blue-cheese-salad
Salads with sweet ingredients can be a wonderful meal or meal starter, especially with the tart flavors in the blue cheese to counterbalance the sweet. We often use this mechanism with the Strawberry wine at wine tastings. My recomended pairing for this salad would be a medium dry Riesling. The wine should not be too sweet as I would expect it will overpower the delicate sweetness in the salad; a little bit will join up with the salad quite well. A drier Riesling will work, but it might oppose the salad too much so I would be careful to select from a region that is known for a bit of residual sweetness, like the Columbia Valley in WA. For this reason I would not recomend Sauvignon Blanc which is typically dry, but I would for a salad with more vegetables and some herbs in the dressing. If you try it let me know what you think.
Cheers!
--Jason
No comments:
Post a Comment