My Thanksgiving in Three Acts

Filling the House with Smoke

Well, not literally. I can only imagine the crazy ideas you all just had about what went down at my Thanksgiving. I smoked a turkey. And that’s not anything new. But this time it came out damn good, my best ever. And it filled the house full of aromas of smoked meat goodness.

( The smell was so rich and deep. )

We also roasted a turkey and served both with the usual sides including, homemade cranberry sauce, a root vegetable gratin that wouldn’t be good until it was reheated three days later, mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, stuffing, bread and of course gravy.

Thanksgiving Day was all about laughs and good food. No fuss was made of wine pairings and we finished off the Saisons from the prior day before dinner was even served.

We finished the day with board games and homemade pie.

Say Hello to My Little Mojo

On Friday my parents came to visit for the holiday. I had planned a non-traditional menu for dinner to avoid any boredom with the typical post-Turkey Day fare. One of the dishes I made, they were all small bites/portions, was a Cuban Sandwich on a lettuce leaf instead of bread.

Several key elements came together for this plate to have made the impact it did. First, bone-in pork chops marinated in an orange mojo overnight and then slow cooked. Take a look at this little mojo.

Orange Mojo Marinade

¼ cup fresh squeezed OJ

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp lime juice

Peel of 1 orange

2 large garlic cloves, smashed and chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp annatto soaked oil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Mix and pour over pork in a container than can be sealed and refrigerated overnight. Agitate several times during the marinating.

The cooked pork was topped with thick cut bacon that had been baked with melted brown sugar and Dijon mustard on it. The bacon alone was immensely flavorful and had a good spicy bite. I melted Gruyere over the two meats and then placed all of that on top of the lettuce leaf, pickle and a small amount of Dijon mustard. My take on a Cuban sandwich. Everyone said it was the best of the four courses I served.

( Not the best shot, but the best one I got! )

For the first course I served fish croquettes I made following my friend Kelly at The Pink Apron’s recipe. I deep fried them, I would normally use the oven, and served them hot, and with the dijonaise. Wow! Lots of flavor and the fish was cooked just right. The ones in the freezer won’t stand a chance at a party real soon!

I paired wine with each course, finding the Westport RiversSparkling Wine to be a keen match for the croquettes. I used the remainder of it to make several cocktails two days later with no loss of carbonation or flavor. Other wines from my own collection and my trip to Virginia were tasted with several courses.

I served an intermezzo course of grilled butternut squash & pineapple topped with Meyer lemon curd crème fraiche. I followed that with dinner consisting of slow cooked Asian style BBQ lamb, creamed corn muffin and an Asian-inspired slaw. I’ll save more on those dishes for another day.

If the Muppets Can’t Make You Smile, You’re Dead

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. I made three batches of mead on Saturday morning, look for notes on that project at WineMaker Magazine’s web site real soon, and we rung in the holidays with friends Ed & Jim and their house full of guests in the afternoon.

For the party on Saturday I made a beer & cheese bread dip that surprisingly pleased more people and went more quickly than I had expected. It was pretty simple actually. Sadly I forgot to get a picture.

Beer & Cheese Dip

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

¼ cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tsp dried sage

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup beer (I used Shipyard Pumpkinhead)

1 large round loaf of bread

1 loaf of bread, similar type to above

Place all the ingredients, except the beer & bread in the Cuisinart and mix well. Slowly add the beer and mix until smooth. Refrigerate overnight.

Cut a cone out of the center of the round loaf of bread, much like taking the top off a pumpkin. Cube the removed bread and the additional load of bread. Using a spatula place the dip in the bread bowl and serve the bowl and the bread for dipping on a large platter.

We checked out the new Muppet movie on Sunday and spent a couple hours laughing over our shared Muppet memories. Margot and I both grew up watching the Muppets and we pondered over the self-reflection and contemporary relevance questions raised by the movie. We would still watch the Muppets now, it wasn’t exclusively for kids in the beginning, but over time I think the perception of the show and the movies has seen them relegated to the big pile of kid’s shows out there. Who knows, maybe this movie can reverse that trend.We laughed a lot and think most people our age could relate.

Fini

Thanksgiving is what you make it and clearly we made something of this one! The leftovers have been parlayed into nearly a week of different meals with a bacon and pineapple pizza making an appearance tonight.

We finished the weekend with a late day walk up to the old cemetery. The big, gnarly and leafless sugar maples set against the fleeting sun were a sure sign of where we are in the year, the weather notwithstanding!

I hope you enjoyed time with family and friends this Thanksgiving, and I wish you even more good times for the remainder of the holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Cheers!

Jason

Don't forget to enter to win a Spanish Wine Party Pack at http://ancientfirewineblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/wine-spanish-wine-party-pack-from.html

Late Summer Pairing with Rodney Strong Chardonnay

Earlier this month I riffed on a recipe from the book Down Home: Downtown – Seasonal Recipes fromTwo Sonoma Wine Country Restaurants that Robert Larsen of Rodney StrongVineyards had given me at the Wine Bloggers Conference in July.

I got busy with Regional Wine Week and forgot that I had never published my review of the wine and the pairing. It was still late summer-like when I made the dish, a broiled salmon with a Panzanella salad, which is quite different that the weather today after our first snow and with temperatures in the 40’s. I guess this is my subconscious hoping for what is evident to be just a dream, but alas winter is coming.

You can find the original recipe I worked from on page 97 of Down Home: Downtown. One thing to note is that there isn’t a recipe for the drizzle shown on the fish in the book’s pictures so I can’t say what the exact flavors were intended there. Here’s what I did:

For the salmon I used an olive oil rubbed cast iron skillet over medium-high heat to cook it to browned on both sides. I then transferred the salmon to a 400 degree oven to finish the cooking. This takes 2-3 minutes per side. This method is dreadfully easy and ensures your salmon has a bit of crisp on the outside but is gently cooked inside.

For a drizzle I made a poor-mans Aioli with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, garlic and salt.

The Panzanella salad was absent of the corn from the original recipe, contained white onion and had two kinds of sweet heirloom tomatoes from a local farm.  The dressing was made as it was described using balsamic vinegar, garlic, shallot, olive oil, salt & pepper.

Having recently perfected the above cooking method for salmon there is no way that part of the dish could have been better. The faux-Aioli was excellent and the pairing with the wine really did work. That said, I would have used red onion in the Panzanella salad. White onion was what I had and it just didn’t measure up. There was nothing wrong with the salad, I’m just imagining home much more I would have enjoyed it. The addition of the corn would take it up a notch as well, so do it if you make this dish, or something like it.

The Rodney Strong Chardonnay suggested in the book and that I paired with the dish is from the Sonoma County series and is easily accessible in my local state liquor stores. The nose is spicy with a bit of buttered toast. I also picked up lemon and pear. On the palate the pear came back but with more of a baked slant to it. The oak is nicely balanced to be more on the spicy and not overtly woody side. The acidity of the wine is healthy enough for a clean finish.

The wine and the fish were a great combination, the roasty crust on the outside of the salmon was balanced by the oak and the acidity of the wine helped offset the subtle fatty character typical of salmon.  The wine and the salad weren’t as well made of a match, but there was nothing off-putting when they were combined; there just wasn’t any magic.

If you are dealing with the onset of winter like we here in New England I hope this late summer meal offered a welcome distraction for just a moment. If not, go out and cook something befitting warm weather just because you can.

Cheers!

Jason

Summer of Riesling Pairing – Chilean Sea Bass & Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling

The 2011 Summer of Riesling is winding down, but I’m not quite finished yet! This week I paired the Chateau Ste. Michelle (CSM) 2009 Dry Riesling with a pan roasted Chilean Sea Bass for some late-summer magic.

Dry Rieslings are very versatile wines, pairing well with a wide range of flavors and textures. Without the sugar of their more casual drinking oriented peers these wines are easy partners with savory dishes that don’t go too heavy on sauces or earthy flavors. I wouldn’t try to put a dry Riesling up against a steak or pasta dishes with lots of red sauce, but I would go out on a limb with spices, white wine braises, salads and as I did this week, fish.

I had never had the Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling before opposed to being no stranger to their sweeter wines. The standard CSM off-dry Columbia Valley Riesling is the first wine that both my wife and I can remember drinking together who knows how many years ago! We visited CSM in 2010 during our extended trip out west for the WineMaker Magazine conference in Stevenson, WA. Moving beyond the Rieslings we found single vineyard gems like the Wahluke Slope Syrah and the Canoe Ridge Merlots, including the Ethos Reserve Merlot that really knocked my socks off. I’ve enjoyed both the Indian Wells Cabernet and Eroica Riesling several times, and highly recommend all of these wines if you want to see what CSM brings to the table as a winery.

The wine pours a light gold color and brilliantly clear. It offers up peach and tropical notes in the nose, with a hint of petrol to round it out. In the mouth I picked up much more peach and citrus, with the citrus riding along for the finish. I did experience some sulfur aromatics during a few sips, but it wasn’t consistent. The wine is nearly dry with 0.76% residual sugar so just a touch of sweetness comes through if you focus on it.

Preparing Chilean Sea Bass at home was another first for me. This could also be the first time I have ever had it as well, but I can’t specifically remember whether I have had it or not, so I won’t make that claim.

The preparation of the fish was dreadfully simple. I started by slicing half of a white onion, half of a red pepper and thinly slicing two small garlic cloves.  I also preheated the oven to 450 degrees. The veggies were sautéed in an oil coated pan just until they began to wilt. I deglazed the pan with dry sherry and then added vegetable stock, salt and pepper, cooking it until it thickened. While the sauce thickened I heated a cast iron skillet over medium high heat with a tablespoon of oil until it just started to smoke. I salted and peppered the clean fish and placed it in the skilled skin side down for 4 minutes. After four minutes I flipped it, allowing it to sear for 1 minute longer. I then transferred it to the hot oven for about 2 minutes until the fish was a healthy golden brown. To serve the fish I placed half of the vegetable mixture on each of two plates, laying ½ of the fish on top of the vegetables. I light dusting of salt and pepper is all that was required to season it to taste.

The fish melted in my mouth like butter and the nuance from the sherry and stock in the vegetables was a killer combination. The wine accented this dish with the fruit flavors and a touch of acid to make everything pop. I honestly believe this is one of the best food and wine pairings I have ever executed, one I will look forward to repeating and riffing on in time.

Next week brings the end of this ride for 2011, but not without some renewal . On Wednesday I am going to taste and share the Inniskillin Riesling Ice wine for my sweet finish. I’ve had this wine before and drool every time I think about having it again. On Thursday I am going to participate in the Riesling Hour virtual event which heralds the arrival of the 2010 vintage of Finger Lakes Riesling. Having just returned from the Finger Lakes I have several 2010 bottles to choose from when I go to raise my glass!

Cheers!

Jason

Cooking Light Comes Through Again! – Curried Chicken Wraps

Twice recently recipes from Cooking Light made the cut for one of our weekly meals. Last time it was a flatbread pizza that made for an easy summer dinner, and from the same issue. This time I made it for lunch on of the days I work from home. With Margot working in Manchester now she can come home for lunch. Something a little on the gourmet side made by her personal chef is pretty compelling I would imagine!

The recipe for Curry Chicken Wraps with Nectarine Chutney can be found on page 128 of the June 2011 issue of Cooking Light or online here.

( The chutney would be good in many other ways! )

We prepared it similarly, although I had chicken thigh filets, skipped the cucumber and used some romaine lettuce we already had on had in place of the arugula. We assembled the sandwiches on whole wheat pita breads which are a little most substantial than the recommended flatbreads, which is a good thing. The chutney can be a bit messy.

The curried chicken was set to marinate 24 hours ahead and ultimately it was some of the best curried chicken I have ever had. The flavor was pronounced, but not overwhelming and the meat stayed nice and moist through the cooking.

The combination of flavors between the chicken and chutney was fantastic. It tasted like something you might get at an ethnic take out joint. I was pretty proud of my execution and will gladly make these again!

Pairing note: I took two 2010 bottles of our own for a test drive with these, a Viognier and a Sauvignon Blanc. Both wines are challenge to drink so no good pairing can be suggested from experience.

Cheers!

Jason

Flatbread Pizzas for Summer

Weeknight summer eating is always a challenge for us. We want to be outside which means dinner can’t take that long to make and should be lighter, especially if we eat later in the evening.

Margot recently found a recipe for a grilled flatbread pizza with Prosciutto, Arugula and Lemon on page 125 of the June 2011 issue of Cooking Light magazine. This definitely fit the bill. She made it even easier by using fresh Naan bread from the bakery instead of a crust made as part of the recipe.

The next week Margot riffed on this idea with her own recipe for Fig Jam, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese and Arugula flatbread pizzas. Another hit, although the gastronomic effect of these made the first one the winner!

Fig Jam, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese and Arugula Flatbread Pizzas

2 whole wheat Naan breads from the grocery store bakery
2 oz fig & orange jam (specialty food store item)
2 oz soft goat cheese
1 medium onion, sliced
4 Tbsp butter
Splash of balsamic vinegar
Handful of arugula

Caramelize the onions with the butter. This can be done ahead of time. Warm the Naan in a 400 degree oven for a few minutes. Spread the jam evenly on each of the flatbreads. Cover with the onions. Spoon the goat cheese over the top. Heat in the oven for 5-10 minutes to allow everything to warm and the cheese to melt a bit. Remove from the oven and plate. Toss the balsamic vinegar with the arugula. Top each pizza with the vinegar laden greens and serve.

Quick, easy and full of flavor!

Cheers!

Jason

Breakfast for Dinner

I love having what would normally be considered breakfast foods for dinner. I love how much easier those meals can be in comparison.

Last week I made a vegetable frittata that came out perfect. All the vegetables were cooked just right and the eggs for nice and puffy, but not to crispy on top.

Veggie Frittata

1 broccoli crown, cut down into half florets
½ bunch of asparagus, top 2/3 of each stalk cut into 2 pieces
½ large red pepper, sliced thin
½ large red onion, sliced thin
1 cup egg whites/egg substitute from a carton
½ cup shredded low fat cheddar cheese
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Steam the broccoli and asparagus just until they were fork tender. Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Set your broiler on high. Sauté the pepper & onion until tender in the hot oil. Add the garlic to an open spot in the center of the pan and quickly mix into the cooking vegetables. Add the asparagus and broccoli. Sprinkle the cheese over the vegetables and toss to mix. Add egg white to cover the vegetables evenly. Add salt & pepper if you like. Allow the eggs to cook just until they begin to bubble and you can see them have set underneath the liquid top layer. Move the pan to the broiler. Watch it carefully under the broiler until the eggs complete cook and puff up. It should be golden brown on top, but not too brown.

Allow it to cool for just a minute, cut and serve. One quarter of the dish clocked in at just about 3 Weight Watcher points for anyone who is considering how the dish fits into an active diet regimen.

And there you have breakfast for dinner!

Jason

Light & Easy Pasta Bake

Very rarely do I make pasta at home. Margot is usually the one who does and that is maybe once per month. I never really developed an appreciation for it growing up and while I will order pasta when out at a good Italian restaurant, but I don’t often crave it and thus don’t make it at home. This makes Margot sad because she loves pasta, but she understands the issue; and there are many things she doesn’t regularly eat for exactly the same reason.

So it was with great surprise that I should want to make pasta and that I was going to scheme something up to use ingredients we had on hand to make something a little more than cooked pasta with sauce on top. My motivation was the open bottle of wine some new friends has left us.

What I ended up with contains most of what is in a typical lasagna but I used shells for the pasta. When everything was ready it was mixed together and spread into a baking pan and topped with parmesan cheese. It really was simple, and it turned out to be pretty light as well. Not a bad two-fer to get for a dish I don’t often make!

Jay’s Light & Easy Pasta Bake

1 lb ground turkey, browned & cooked through
1 box whole wheat shells, cooked according to package
1 white onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
8 oz light Ricotta cheese
½ jar spaghetti sauce
¼ cup + 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, seperate (fresh grated or jar style)
1 Tbsp garlic paste
2 tsp frozen fresh oregano
2 tsp frozen fresh basil
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.

Mix everything but the pasta and the last 2 Tbsp of the parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Add the pasta and mix well. Pour into a baking dish and spread as one flat layer. Cover with the remaining parmesan cheese.

Bake until golden brown on top.

I served this dish with some olive bread sprayed lightly with white truffle oil and a very nicely crafted Dolcetto wine made by some of our new winemaking friends. It really was a fantastic pairing, and I found that Dolcetto lives up to its reputation similar to that of Chianti for being an easy drinking and very food friendly wine.

Newsflash! I made pasta for a second time in the same week. You can only imagine how excited Margot was. My friend Wayne mine broke his collar bone skiing the same day as I made the first dish, and we made something a little different on Wednesday to take over for a visit. I saw a recipe for “Greek Mac and Cheese” at Kate’s Kitchen and remembered I had a wine from Santorini hanging around, so Greek dinner it was! We all loved the pasta, and Wayne & Meredith really appreciated not having to prepare dinner for one night. Wayne is getting around good, but he needs to try and heal up so his activities as an outdoor adventurer and musician are not permanently derailed from this mishap. I am going to review the wine in a separate post but head on over to Kate’s Kitchen for the recipe for “Greek Mac and Cheese”.

Cheers!

Jason

St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

St. Patrick’s Day can be a nightmare for people interested in food blogs. From the deluge of posts on corned beef & cabbage, soda bread, everything being green and all the other non-at-all Irish “traditions” you could easily have a heart attack trying to sort through all of it. What is a food blogger to do?

Do something different, and keep it simple.

What did I come up with? Put Irish whiskey in everything!

I have enjoyed Jameson Irish Whiskey many times in the past, but it had been quite a while since I had had it. So it made sense to use it in my dinner and enjoy a little as I worked.

Jameson Irish Whiskey

Jameson’s pours with a light amber color. The aromas eluded classification for me which I found odd. In the taste I found sweetness with vanilla, caramel and other spice flavors. Honey showed up in the finish. It is as smooth and sweet as I remember and it went down too easy so I am now blogging under the influence!

We opened with a pairing of Kerry Gold Reduced Fat Aged Cheddar with the whiskey. We were both hungry and the creamy aged cheese really provided what we needed. Margot expressed the aged notes like good parmesan. That is definitely a vote of confidence. The whiskey & cheese combination created new savory flavors, with roasted fennel being the one we both picked out. Pretty cool!

For dinner we paired a brown sugar & whiskey broiled salmon with Colcannon, a mash of potatoes, leeks and cabbage.

Colcannon

5 large potatoes
1 head cabbage
3 leeks
1 cup skim milk
2 Tbsp light vegetable oil spread
2 oz Jameson Irish Whiskey
Nutmeg, salt & pepper to taste

Peel, cut and cover the potatoes with water with large pot. Boil for mashing. Slice the leeks and cook them in the milk over medium-low heat for 15 minutes, or until soft. Slice the cabbage and boil in water for 15 minutes. Once all of the ingredients are cooked, mash the potatoes, stirring in the cabbage and leeks. Add the vegetable spread, whiskey, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Allow the vegetable spread to melt and stir to combine all the ingredients.

Broiled Whiskey Salmon

½ pound salmon filet
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp Jameson Irish Whiskey
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 shakes red pepper flakes

This recipe was adapted from the Irish Whiskey Brown Sugar Salmon recipe that fellow food blogger Megan from the Travel, Wine & Dine blog forwarded to me when I put out the call for recipes containing Irish whiskey.

Mix the last four ingredients to create the marinade for the fish. Pour the marinade over the fish and allow it to sit for 15 minutes. Heat a cast iron grill pan under the broiler until hot. Lay the fish on the grill pan and return to the broiler. Broil for 3 minutes and pour the remaining marinade over the fish. Broil until cooked through. After tasting the cooked fish Margot and I both agreed that some additional acid is required in the marinade, with vinegar being the first thing we thought of.

( very simple, with no flair! )

The fish was sweet with a slight hint of heat from the red pepper. The smokiness from the whiskey was found in the molasses flavors produced by the caramelized sugar. The Colcannon was new for us and Margot was definitely unsure of it from my mere mention of it last week. She “hates” cabbage. Cabbage is definitely an acquired taste and one too many times of being around stinky boiled cabbage could create quite an impression. Thankfully the way it is prepared here retains only some of its aroma and flavor, but adds quite a bit of texture to the dish. The leeks add the onion flavor that really brings the whole dish together. I suspect I will be making this again!

For dessert I went simple and baked sliced apples with sugar and spices, topping them with vanilla frozen yogurt and a whiskey caramel sauce. I won’t bother with the instructions on this one, allowing you to use your imagination!

( I used large ramekins and then ended up having too much space, so they weren't pretty. tasty, though! )

Baked Apples with Vanilla Frozen Yogurt & Whiskey Caramel Sauce

2 Fuji apples
2 tsp Demerara sugar
1 tsp of a combo of Nutmeg, cinnamon & allspice
Vanilla frozen yogurt
¼ cup sugar
1/8 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp Jameson Irish Whiskey
Water to cover sugar in sauce pan
(Makes 2)

The sips of Irish whiskey as I worked definitely stacked up. With that I am definitely participating the familiar (from college) tradition of getting a buzz for St. Patrick’s Day!

No matter whether and how you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day we hope you enjoy it. Raise a glass of something and join in the fun!

Cheers!

Jason

Slow Cooked Venison with Butternut Squash & Parsnips

So I get this weird e-mail from a co-worker last week. “Want any venison?” He doesn’t hunt (that I knew of) so I wasn’t exactly sure whether there was a punch-line somewhere or it was a legitimate question. It turns out it was a valid question. A friend of his uses his house a base for hunting and had taken down a deer over the weekend. Payment for the friendly use of his place was some of the kill. I ended up with a three pound roast.

I’ve had venison several times before, but had never cooked it myself. Margot had seen a recipe for a Beef Tagine with Butternut Squash in a the Jan/Feb 2011issue of Cooking Light magazine (p. 80 or at the Cooking Light website). We had planned on making this recipe over the weekend with some local grass-fed beef. I used the recipe as a guide to develop a slow cooker meal around our newly acquired local venison roast.

Most of the slow cooker recipes I have made call for some amount of packaged stock (chicken or beef). I often use vegetable stock instead, but I felt like trying something different for this recipe. I also needed a bit more volume than the tagine recipe called for it to cook it all day. I used ½ of a bottle of Cote du Rhone wine, 1 cup of water and Vegemite. One of the recommended usages for Vegemite is to add flavor and salt to soups and stocks so I thought I might try it here.

Slow Cooked Venison with Butternut Squash & Parsnips
 1 3lb venison roast, trussed

Marinade
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp crushed red pepper
½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup red wine
5 garlic cloves, whole

Slow Cooker Preparation
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
5 shallots, sliced
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
½ bottle Cote du Rhone red wine
½ cup water
1 tsp Vegemite
24 oz fresh chopped tomatoes (mine were frozen from the summer) or 2 - 14 oz cans diced tomatoes
6 garlic cloves, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 large butternut squash, 1 inch cubes
4 large parsnips, ½ inch slices
Salt & pepper

Place the roast in a zip top bag. Combine the next 9 ingredients and mix well. Pour the mixture over the venison and close up the bag with as little air within it as possible. Shake the bag to distribute the marinade. Double bag the marinating roast and refrigerate it overnight.

Assemble your slow cooker and coat the insert with non-stick spray. Turn it on to high setting and cover. Remove the roast from the marinade, patting it dry. Discard the marinade. Heat 2 Tbsp of the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Apply salt and pepper to the roast. Brown the roast on all sides. Remove the roast and place it in the preheated slow cooker. Add the remaining oil to the pan used to brown the roast, increasing the heat to medium-high. Sauté the onions and shallots until just beginning to get brown. Add the paprika, cinnamon, ginger and crushed red pepper. Mix and allow to sauté for 2 minutes. Add the wine, water and Vegemite. Mix the vegemite in. Scrape all the savory bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the tomatoes and garlic. Simmer for 5 minutes. A slight amount of thickening will occur. Remove it from the cook top.

Pour this mixture over the roast, add the bay leaves and place the cover on the slow cooker. Cook on high for 2 hours. Reduce the heat to low and cook for two more hours. After 4 hours of cooking, add the squash and parsnips, covering them in the hot cooking liquid. Add more wine or water if needed. Continue cooking for 4-5 more hours, until the meat has reached the desired consistency. We like ours to be soft and easily broken apart. Serve the meal in a bowl like a stew with crusty bread and red wine.

I let Margot dig in first. I love to gauge what I am in for from her reaction. She couldn’t stop saying how good it was. “Jay, seriously. This is really good.” I was busy pouring a glass of homemade Amarone to pair with the meal. I handed that to her and asked for a read on the pairing. Her immediate reaction was, “This works perfectly. The meat and vegetables are spicy and the wine complements that very well.” I sat down to dig in myself. Everything she had said was immediately confirmed. If somebody else served this to me and forgot to mention the type of meat, I would never have guessed venison. The wine is full bodied with a little sweetness and a bit of spice that stacked up well with the meat, sauce and vegetables.

The meat was soft and came apart with just a gentle action with a fork. Both the butternut and parsnips were soft but not falling apart. I did thicken (with cornstarch) some of the liquid from the slow cooker to pour over the meat and veggies. This choice really kicked up the flavors, something I would definitely recommend. There is indeed some spiciness from the crushed red pepper. If you have a low tolerance for heat I would recommend dropping the crushed red pepper from the second portion of the recipe.

I look forward to making this type of recipe again sometime. I am not a hunter, but the enjoyment of this meal made me think about how cool it would be to have my very own kill stored away in the freezer!

Cheers!

Jason

What’s For Dinner? Five Spice Shrimp!

Shrimp was on the list for dinner last night. I had a choice. I could use a packaged marinade and broil them like I often do or come up with something else. Serendipitously I saw several recipes that included Chinese Five Spice yesterday, and it got me thinking.

I took a quick look around and found several recipes that combined Chinese Five Spice, garlic, salt and pepper to season shrimp for pan frying. I added some homemade 2009 Viognier for additional flavor and to ensure the garlic paste I was going to use wouldn’t burn. I had already planned to serve a mushroom couscous and steamed broccoli with the shrimp, but that didn’t seem complete.

I continued thinking about Asian influences and figured that with a couple teaspoons of Five Spice and some black pepper the shrimp might have a little heat. I could throw some sweetness at the shrimp to keep things in balance. Plums! Something I had on hand to eat which would work nicely here. A plum and onion compote is where I landed.

Plum & Onion Compote

3 purple plums, cut into ½ cubes
½ medium onion, chopped
2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
¼ cup of water
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 oz spiced simple syrup (2x syrup spiced with cinnamon, clove and allspice)
1 tsp rice vinegar
Additional cinnamon & clove to taste

Using a medium saucepan sauté the onions in the oil over medium heat. Add the plums, water, ginger and garlic and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the coriander, salt, pepper, spiced syrup and vinegar. Mix well. Continue to simmer until the plums are soft but not falling apart. Add additional spices, salt and pepper to taste.

Five Spice Shrimp

30 raw large shrimp, deveined and shells removed
2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
½ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic paste
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 oz dry white wine

Clean and pat the shrimp dry. Toss the shrimp with the Five Spice, salt and pepper. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shrimp and toss to coat with oil. When the shrimp begin to get pink Add the garlic paste and gently mix it in with the shrimp. Add the wine and cook the shrimp through. Immediately remove them from the heat and the pan to prevent overcooking.

For the plating I placed the shrimp overtop the plum/onion compote. The broccoli was steamed using a bamboo steamer and the couscous was the handy boxed kind found in the rice section of your local grocery. We generally season our broccoli with spray butter (Smart Balance to I Can’t Believe It’s Not) and grated parmesan cheese, although that isn’t shown in the photo.

I paired the meal with the 2009 Viognier that I used to cook the shrimp. This particular wine was not as aromatic as I had hoped, but in its later age and mellowing the flavors have come out a bit. It is a great middle of the road wine for a dish that isn’t very rich, spicy or complex.

Cheers!

--Jason