Ancient Fire Cellar Update

I'm going to end the year with the type of post that was the genesis for this blog, a cellar update. I shared a year in review, the Top 10 Ancient Fire Moments of 2012, last week and while that highlighted all types of adventures Ancient Fire, what's bubbling away or aging in the cellar is the passion and the heart of what I am all about.

There is definitely lots going on at Ancient Fire these days. I'm going review the home fermentation projects of just the last few months and also share hints at where we will be going in 2013.

( Grenache grapes from Central Valley, CA. )

The Fall harvest netted two batches of local Concord grapes, Vermont blackberries and juice/grapes from the Central Valley in California. Several different fermentations were undertaken including my first pyment (grape/honey wine), a blend of French Colombard juice, Muscat grapes and orange blossom honey. The Concord grapes will be made into two Rosés, a red pyment and the leftovers were already made into a spiced holiday wine similar to a Swedish Glogg or German Gluewhein. I also fermented the remainder of my wildflower honey for use in meads, some of which will be infused with tea and other spices. A Syrah/Grenache (CA) blend will hopefully produce a straightforward dry red wine that I can enjoy with a range of foods in a year’s time. The remainder of the Colombard and Thompson seedless grapes were used to make a white blend that will be our house wine in 2013. The Central Valley Cabernet Franc is going to be used in both a red pyment with the remainder bottled on its own.

We didn’t brew any beer again after the Stout/Porter experiments and my fresh hopped ale at the end of the summer, but we have plenty of plans for new brews in 2013.

Two days ago I brewed two barleywines, my first ever, both of which should be in prime drinking form for Fall/Winter 2013. I brewed in the snow as you can see from the picture to the left. I'm the Postal Service of brewing I guess. These are big beers (lots of malt) and the blow-off tubes are already outgassing like mad.

In 2012 I already have plans for a Scotch Ale, an Imperial Pilsen style ale, a Belgian Dubbel, a Belgian Wit and a Weizenbock. I would also expect a new edition of our Lime Ale to be made just before the summer party season kicks in. Two braggots are also on the docket, one a Belgian/Saison style and the other with some form of black or dark brown ale as the base.

The most recent cellar enhancement project at  Ancient Fire was the installation of wine racks to store the growing cellar of commercial wines. The short video below captures the current inventory and shows off the new storage space. 

All of the carboys (containers in the pool) are the conclusion of the 2012 production, including all of the libations described above. My cellar is more organized now which makes "shopping" in the basement all the more fun!

The only wine I plan to make in 2013 is strawberry, and only if the local crop is worthy. This decision is based on a couple of factors. First, I've got lots of wine inventory, both commercial and homemade to drink, and I'm saving my resources for a new special project late in the year.

Ancient Fire cider is going to make a big comeback in 2013. I've made cider in five different years, but it has been a while (2009) since I made one I was happy with. The 2012 cider that was a blend of local sweet cider, pears and ginger smells like a chemical lab and is likely going to be dumped. I can't say what went wrong there, but I plan to get back on track with cider when the season comes around again next year. The picture to the right is fresh cider flowing out of a tote that my brewing club purchased in 2011. I made a couple decent ciders from it. 

The rough vision is to source cider from several orchards including both dessert blends and traditional cider styles. Leading up to cider season I also hope to acquire several once-used whiskey barrels that will be used to age some of the cider. And don't be surprised if a cyser (apple/honey blend) also makes an appearance. Other ideas include a second attempt at an apple/pear blend, hopped cider and fruit/ apple blends. Definitely lots to look forward to!

In the meantime I've got lots of blending and bottling to do which why I've been furiously cleaning bottles this past week. The stack of bottles in my garage was the largest it had ever been, but thankfully it has almost been converted from dirty to clean or recycled bottles.  I've developed a special relationship with my dishwasher this week, let's hope it doesn't get tired of my willful (mis-) use of it and walk out on me!

Happy New Year to all. I hope everyone finds a delicious beverage in their glass tonight. Raise that glass high and make a joyful sound. We've earned it! Be safe and see you in 2013.

Cheers!

Jason

Wine Riot Post #2 and Getting Tagged

This is going to be one jam packed post. Wine/cider awards, the final recap from the Boston Wine Riot and getting tagged in the food blogger game of tag.

First off last week was a big week for the Ancient Fire homemade wines and ciders. Margot took a Silver Medal for her Blackberry Cabernet in the Amenti del Vino Competition. I took First Place in the Common Cider category for my hard cider in the New England Regional Homebrew Competition. This was Margot’s first win and the first win for our ciders. Needless to say we are pretty excited with both of these results. With the cider finish we now have medals for wine, mead and cider. Next year I want to slot in a win for beer and hopefully wine a mixology competition. What will that mean? That I know how to drink!

In yesterday’s post we presented the overall Boston Wine Riot session we attended and offered reviews of couple of red and white wines. Our coverage wouldn’t be complete without three additional topics, the food, the crash courses and reviews of bubbly and dessert wines.

We tried food selections from three of vendors, Redbones, KO Catering and The Upper Crust Pizzeria. In our first round (you gotta eat when you are drinking!) Margot had the Pulled Pork Sliders from Redbones and I had the Classic Aussie Meat Pie from KO Catering. Margot loves BBQ so this was a match made for her. I had a bite and agreed that the pork was tender and juicy with excellent, but not overpowering, flavor from the sauce. The Classic Meat Pie from KO Catering contains a filling of ground beef, onions, spices in a tomato based sauce. The flavor was fantastic and the crust was cooked very well. Both selections did the trick after an hour of sampling wines. A bit later we got slices of “The Swellesley” pizza (on thr right) from Upper Crust. I saw chorizo in the ingredient list and had to. I missed the red pepper flakes though and it ended up being spicy. Margot fought through it though. The pizza was thin crusted with the right amount of sauce, chorizo, garlic, basil , red pepper flakes and parm cheese. It definitely hit the spot! Margot was feeling the effects of the wine and went back to KO Catering for the Curried Veggie Pie. The crust was right but the vegetables didn’t have enough curry seasoning and were in need of salt. While it filled the need for food, it didn’t feel like it was what was expected.

During the session there were crash courses being offered every 30 minutes on all sorts of wine related topics. We attended two after a friendly Wine Riot staff member brought them to our attention.


In the first course, “In Vermouth, Truth”, Andrew Quady (shown on the left) of the Quady Winery explained some of the history of vermouth, how it is made and served samples of both the dry and sweet versions they make at Quady. This crash course was of particular interest to me as I plan to make my own vermouth early next year. We already have the wine aging, we just need to decide on the herb blend and source the ingredients. Both of the vermouths were very flavorful and I could see enjoying both on the rocks as they do almost everywhere else in the world (the wine drinking world) outside the US. The 50/50 cocktail with the orange twist was a crowd pleaser and something I could see serving at home to spread the word about vermouth.

The second crash course was about pairing Chinese take-out with three different styles of wine. Each attendee was given a plate with some fried rice, General Gao’s chicken, and bone-in BBQ rib. We paired the food with a sparkling wine, medium-dry Riesling and a Pinot Noir. The sparkler was a great match, but honestly it seems to go well with almost anything, and the Riesling also resonated with me. The Pinot came off as tart and overly tannic which was odd since it was a low tannin (so it was presented) selection. I worked at the Pinot pair with the BBQ rib, but just didn’t find it. At any rate it gave me an opportunity to think about a pairing that I really hadn’t ventured into yet. Ideas for another day.

Our wine reviews wouldn’t be complete without a couple of sparkling and dessert selections, which we very much enjoyed.

Sparkling Wines/Ciders

2008 Farnum Hill Kingston Black – the Kingston Black is a old cider apple with a specific flavor. It makes a dry cider with strong aromas and flavors but very pleasing. Farnum Hill is the gold standard for cider in my experience and the fact that they are a NH business means I’ll wave their flag all day long!

Mionetto NV Moscato – this sparkling Moscato was sweet and bubbly with wonderful fruit flavors and a palette cleansing finish. The Italians definitely know how to make a refreshing bubbly!

Dessert Wines

Quady Winery 2008 Essensia – picking just one of the Quady Winery dessert wines was hard. They make two things, vermouth AND dessert wines, and both are fantastic. Made from Orange Muscat with oak influence and some fortification this is am extremely complex and flavorful wine. I can only say that I could have spent the whole afternoon at this one table slowly sipping and exploring these wines. If you like sweet wines these are not to be missed!

Peter Brum Eiswein – anytime I get the chance to try a real German Eiswein (ice wine) I do. We saved this for our last wine of the day and we were rewarded for our patience. The honey, dried fruits and mouth coating sweetness was all there. It had that right balance of acidity and sweetness that you would expect. Can I have some more please?

Update after posting: Check out The Passionate Foodie's coverage of the Wine Riot. You'll see some common themes!

Kim at the Liv Life blog tagged me last week. The way this works is that you get tagged and have to answer eight questions from the person who tagged you. In addition you have to tag eight others and pose eight new questions to them. Got all that? Here I go with the eight questions I have to answer.

1. What is your favorite restaurant? This is a tough one for me because we don’t eat out but maybe once per month. I love eating in my home kitchen but that is a boring answer so I’ll share a memorable experience we had years ago. For a time Ming Tsai had a very popular show ion Food TV called East Meets West. We lived in MA at the time where his restaurant The Blue Ginger is located. For our anniversary we booked a reservation and anticipated a great meal. At the time Ming was a big celebrity and I didn’t figure he’d be at the restaurant on the random night we chose to be there. Sure enough he was and sure enough our server asked him if he would come out to talk to us. Well, he did and I couldn’t get a word out. Margot still makes fun of me for being so star struck that couldn’t talk. That is so not me, you can’t normally shut me up!

2. When dining out do you prefer a fancy, dress up affair or casual with flip flops? Somewhere in between. Not super black tie fancy, but getting dressed up a bit does help frame an occasion. Khakis, button-up shirt and my dress shoes offers class and comfort all in one.

3. Do you do fast food? If so, what is your favorite? Only when we are travelling. We use it for the convenience that it offers, but try to stay away otherwise. McDonalds always does the trick when we are flying.

4. Do you remember one of the first recipes that you ever made? If so, do you still make it? Oatmeal raisin cookies. I learned how to make these in junior high Home Economics class. I am sure I made stuff before this but I can’t recall them specifically. I haven’t made them in a long time. I should.

5. The world is open to you. A personal private jet with pilot is waiting for your direction... Where will you go? Australia & New Zealand. So much food, wine and adventure in the same place.

6. How close do you now live to where you were born? About two hours. I moved back there right after college and we have been moving back towards where my wife was born since. We have gotten as far as the next town over. I think that is close enough!

7. Wine... red, white or bubbly? All of them! Depends on what and where I am eating. They all have a role in a multi-course meal.

8. Why did you start blogging? Because I thought it would help me ferment (a little beer, wine and cider-maker joke) my food and wine pairing education. Little did I know it would explode!

OK, with my answers out of the way I now need to tag eight bloggers and pose eight questions to them.

My Tag Questions

1. Desert island dish. You are on a desert island, what dish will you take to survive?
2. What kitchen utensil explains your food personality the best?
3. When you were younger, you pick how long ago, how hard would you have laughed if someone told you this is what you would be doing right now?
4. What is the nastiest, grossest, most detestable food you have ever had?
5. What is your favorite food you don’t make and how far would you travel for it?
6. Who is the best person to have in the kitchen with you, and why?
7. First alcoholic beverage you ever had.
8. What is your biggest food blog challenge and how are you working to overcome it?

The bloggers I am tagging are:

Kim at Lighter & Local
Brian at A Thought For Food
Jessie at the Messie Kitchen
Janis at Bite Me New England
The Baking Barrister
Don at The Manly Housewife
Evan at SwEETs by E
Belinda at Zomppa

Whew! This took longer than I expected.

Cheers!

--Jason

Ancient Fire featured in the JMaz 365 Photoblog

Just wanted to pass along this great feature for Ancient Fire on my friend Josh's 365 Photoblog. Awesome photo as well! He asked what to photograph and I said to shoot whatever looked good, candid's, posed, food and wine. Excellent and work and a nice way to have a great day remembered. Thank you Josh.

http://jmazphoto.com/2010/07/corked-and-tagged-191365/

I am actually looking at the pictures later and getting my blog from the wine maker tasting earlier in the month together. The pictures came out great so expect a lot of them!

Cheers!

Jason

Cooking with Ancient Fire Wine

Every adventure has some twists and turns. The Manly Housewife is guest posting today with the conclusion of the Stuffed NY Strip story.

There is a lot to be said about the old adage that things happen for a reason. At the very least, a good argument could be made for this saying from my particular situation. I truly believe it happened for a reason. See, I just started blogging not that long ago, less than a month, actually, and it has been a great experience. Any blogger, as I am sure can tell you, gets very excited when he or she discovers site hits. Having recently re-watched the movie “Julie & Julia,” I now see it through different eyes. I had to laugh at the part when she gets all excited over her first blog comment. While just beginning my blogging adventure, I stumbled upon a site called Foodbuzz (if you’re a food blogger, visiting Foodbuzz is a must). Now that I have successfully launched my blog, it has sent me on an exhilarating rollercoaster ride of interesting visits and intriguing comments. I mention all of this as a preamble to an exciting story that happened all because of Foodbuzz. Three days after launching my new blog on Foodbuzz, I received a comment that one of my dishes had been paired with a wine. To let you know just how excited I was, I called everyone who knew I was doing this blog (and a few that didn’t) to tell them all about it, which really was a lot of people. Not only did this recipe (Smothered Pork Chops) receive great honors by being featured on Foodbuzz’s Top 9, it now had been paired with a great wine. We all have visions of grandeur in the things that matter most to us, and I love to cook. It’s not only fun, but it’s a passion to me. Only a few will understand the elation of having well-respected people pay respect to one of your dishes. After this great honor of pairing my dish with Pinot Noir and, specifically, the Francis Coppola Diamond Collection, I felt my desire of cooking elevate to a whole new level. I immediately contacted Jason at Ancient Fire Wines to thank him for granting me such a great honor, and I told him that I would love to do some additional pairings with him in the future. You see, The Manly Housewife has been an idea of mine for quite awhile, albeit an live-in-motion, ever-evolving idea, but an idea none the less. Each achievement only helps to confirm that this is exactly where I need to be. Jason and I had several conversations back and forth about ideas we could incorporate into our respective blogs to increase traffic, of course, but also to emphasize and complement one other’s talents. We finally decided on choosing a dish and both making our renditions of this dish. Now, before I go into my interpretation of the dish, let me quickly state that I did not fully keep up my end of the bargain, but that’s all explained as you read on below. . . .

Jason and I agreed to do a replica of a dish I had at Chef Pointe Café (an amazing, contradiction of a place, not far from my house). This is the craziest place you might ever eat. It’s been featured on Food Network because of its 5-star quality food, inspired, prepared, and served in, of all places, a gas station. Recently when I was there, I had the stuffed New York Strip Steak and was so intrigued that I was inspired enough to try to re-create it at home. We thought this would be a great dish to try and see what combinations we could each come up with. To fully explain how I didn’t keep up my end of the bargain is this: I did not use a New York Strip; instead I chose a ribeye. I like the ribeye better (and they were on sale). Also, because of a mishap on my part, which you can read about here Mandolin Safety, I omitted the potatoes and did not take as many pictures (it’s hard to snap photographs when your thumb is wrapped in a pressure bandage). And, lastly, after the mishap, I decided on stiffer drinks than what I had initially intended, knowing that Jason would totally rock that part with his recipe, and he did! But the show must go on. So my wife and I invited my parents over to enjoy a quiet evening of good food, good drinks, and good company.

Now that I am done rambling let’s get it on with the recipe. . .

Stuffed Ribeye Steaks
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 20-oz Ribeye Steaks (we’re talking about ¾” to 1” thick Fred-Flinstone-Style Steaks)
• Smoked Gouda Cheese (I used approximately ¼ -pound block of cheese and divided it between the four steaks)
• 8 Slices Canadian bacon
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 2 Yellow Squash, cut into ¼ inch rounds (again, careful with the Mandolin slicer)
• 2 Zucchini, cut into ¼ inch pieces
• ½ Small Red Onion, cut into wedges and then separated
• 1 ½ Cups Your Favorite Prepared Italian Dressing
• ¼ Cup Red Cherry Tomatoes
• ¼ Cup Yellow Cherry Tomatoes

 Directions (Steak Prep)

1. Sprinkle both sides of the steaks with salt and pepper.
2. Cut a slit along the fatty edge of the steak, ¾ length of the steaks.
3. Into each steak, add a generous slice of cheese and 2 slices of bacon (I would suggest quickly pan searing the bacon 1 minute both sides to help it crisp up).
4. Secure the stuffing inside the steaks with 3 to 4 toothpicks.
5. Let steaks sit for covered in the fridge for about and hour (this will allow the steaks to soak up the salt and pepper).

Directions (Vegetable Prep)

1. Slice Squash and Zucchini into ¼ inch pieces, discarding the stemmed end pieces.
2. Cut onion into wedges and separate into individual pieces.
3. Keep tomatoes separate from the rest of the veggies.
4. In a large bowl combine Squash, Zucchini, onion, and Italian dressing and mix well.

Directions (Cooking the Meal)

1. Spray grill grate with grilling spray prior to lighting.
2. Fire up the grill to medium high heat. You want it warm enough that you can only hold your hand for 2 seconds 3 inches from the grate.
3. Places steaks on the grill and don’t touch (moving them will cause the juices to leak out and make the steaks cook unevenly). Now here is a trick of mine: if the grill is to the correct temperature, you should cook ¾” to 1” steaks 7 minutes on each side for medium-rare steaks. For this recipe, I suggest closer to 8 minute each side to allow the cheese to fully melt and the center to warm up.
4. In a grill pan, add vegetables, excluding the tomatoes, and sauté’ over the grill.
5. Cook the vegetables until you begin to see that nice charred look around the edges.
6. Add tomatoes to the pan and continue to roast.
7. If done right, you should finish the veggies and the steak right about the same time.

To serve, add a couple of spoonfuls of vegetables to a plate. Remove toothpicks from steaks and serve over the top of the vegetables.

I hope you enjoy this meal. I still have my war wound from the mandolin accident, but the food was fantastic and well worth the pain. My original plan was to pair these steaks with a Grenache wine and a Hefeweizen beer. But, instead, due to my painful injury, my wife and mom enjoy a simple glass of White Zinfandel, while Dad and I jumped straight into the whisky stash. This was truly a fun and exciting co-blog that Jason and I did. He an I would both entertain offers to do this kind of combo blog with any other food bloggers. If you would like to pair up and do a joint blog like this one, please contact Jason at his Ancient Fire Wine Blog, or leave a message here.

Good Food, Good Drinks, Good Friends. . .

The Manly Housewife