Category Archives: Wine & Food

September 26, 2012 · 12:00 am

Thank You, Bill, Whoever You Are — Great Blue Cheese Dressing

Do a web search for blue cheese dressing and you’ll come across this incredible offering from some guy named Bill. It’s posted over at AllRecipies.com, and it is quite simply the most delicious salad dressing I have ever tried. I’ve modified the recipe slightly to try to mitigate the fat content without sacrificing the flavor.

What you’ll need:

Not a Lot Going In, but Oh So Much Coming Out

¾ cup light sour cream
1 ⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 Tsp Worchestershire
½ Tsp dry mustard powder
½ Tsp granulated garlic or garlic powder (prefer the former to the later)
½ Tsp salt
½ to 1 Tsp fresh, finely ground black pepper
⅓ cup finely crumbled, good-quality blue cheese
Skim milk

Place into a bowl the first seven ingredients.

Combine the Basic Ingredients

Whisk together until smooth.

Whisky Business — But It’ll All Smooth Out in the End

Even if your blue cheese comes crumbled, get out the chef’s knife and crumble it even more.

Before . . .

. . . and After the Great Crumble

Put aside the whisk and get out a spatula. Blend in the blue cheese.

Here Comes the Big Blue

Here’s what you get in the end:

Let the Flavors Meld Awhile

You’ll best be served by making this at least one day before use to allow the blue cheese flavor to better permeate throughout the dressing. Also note that this is an incredibly thick dressing, especially after it’s sat in the refrigerator overnight. So, if you like your dressing thinner, mix in a little skim milk. But go easy. Thicker means richer when it comes to this dressing. That’s especially true if you’re thinking of using this as a dip with your favorite Buffalo chicken wings, or as a vegetarian party dip for raw broccoli and carrot and celery sticks.

I especially enjoy this blue cheese delight on spinach with cranraisins, bacon bits, and coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts. It’s also great on sliced tomato and fresh basil, or as the star attraction in a Wedge Salad.

Today’s wine pairing lesson — A good blue cheese is both salty and tangy. It assaults the tongue with an explosion of flavor. It is, in other words, the perfect compliment to the typically bland salad ingredients. But that salty tanginess means that you’ll have to find a wine that tones it done considerable. What counteracts spiciness? Sweetness. But don’t overdo it, especially if you’ll be serving hearty reds after the salad course. That leaves out the dessert wines such as Sauternes or a honey-sweet Muscato. So, moving down the sweetness scale toward dry we arrive at the semi-sweet Rieslings. If, on the other hand, this salad is your main course, then by all means go with a super-sweet dessert wine.

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September 24, 2012 · 5:45 am

Cream of Roasted Corn and Poblano Soup

It’s easy. It’s elegant. It has a slight kick. It’s my corn and poblano chile soup.

I got the idea for this little gem some years ago from a local restaurant called Thyme Matters run by Owner/Chef Alejandra Chávez. Ursula fell in love with this soup at first taste, and I told her that I would have little trouble duplicating it. And, indeed, I nailed the flavors on the very first attempt. It really is that distinctive in taste and easy to make.

What you’ll need:

4 to 5 fresh poblano chiles, roasted and peeled
4 ears sweet corn, kernals shaved from cob after roasting
5 cups good, low-sodium chicken stock
½ cup Half & Half, or to taste

You’ve seen me roast poblanos, sweat in a plastic bag, and skin chiles before in my Chile Rellano recipe. But, if you need a refresher, just click on that link and read the directions (or see the photos below).

Roasting Poblano Chiles

Make ’em Sweat

Skin ’em Alive

Gut and clean ’em Like a Fish

Coarsely Chop the Poblano Chile

For the corn, remove the husk and silk and wrap in heavy-duty foil. Roast in an oven at 375° for 30 minutes, turning and rearranging the ears half way through the roasting. Cool and shave off the kernals.

Freshly Roasted

Mix together the chopped poblano and corn kernals and place them into a food processor.

In Goes the Corn and Poblano

Pulse initially, until well mixed, and then chop until granular looking, but don’t purée. You want some texture in this soup.

The Basic Mixture

Place the corn/poblano mixture into simmering chicken broth. Simmer for about five minutes.

Simmer the Corn and Poblano in the Chicken Broth

Add the Half & Half — more if you want creamy, less if you’re health conscious, or about a half cup if you want the best of both worlds.

Add the Half & Half

Let simmer another minute or two, stirring well. What you’ll have is a soup and warms you up as it warms your tongue. But don’t worry. It’s not that spicy.

Congratulations. Here’s your latest culinary masterpiece:

Soup’s On! Step Back and Don’t Get Trampled in the Stampede!

Don’t forget the wine pairing. Since this is a light dish a white is indicated. The mild heat of the poblano chile would seem to beckon for a little sweetness, but remember that you already have that heat-taming sweetness built into the soup with the sweet corn. So, to keep from battling the corn, I would recommend staying on the dry side. That leaves my go-to white for so many occasions — a nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough appellation. Save the red for the meat course that follows.

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September 17, 2012 · 5:45 am

Glacier Brewhouse

Brewed in Alaska • By Alaskans • For Alaskans

With that motto on the menu, you just know you’re entering a fine dining establishment. Well, tasty, at least.

Today we reach the end of our Alaskan adventure with a return to our favorite Anchorage dining establishment — Glacier Brewhouse.

Ursula and I first discovered this Anchorage treasure last year. This year we just knew we would be going back, even though we had severe reservations. No, not those kind of reservations. The I-want-to-show-up-and-not-wait-two-hours-to-eat kind of reservations. Thus, planning ahead, we had reservations for three visits — two dinners and one lunch. That’s what I refer to as “severe reservations.”

First off, this is not your father’s brew pub. If the hand-crafted hefeweizen and the India pale ale I had are any indication, then everything they brew here has to be simply outstanding. Hefeweizen is a Bavarian-style wheat beer that is known for it’s cloudy nature, but this particular example is positively opaque and as flavorful and robust as it looks. Don’t feel left out if you’re a teetotaler, however. The Glacier Brewhouse also make a very good root beer. House-brewed cream soda is also on the menu, but neither Ursula nor I gave it a try . . . at least not this visit.

Beyond the brews, however, is the incredible food. In particular, the Hearty Alaskan Seafood Chowder is an absolute must. This rich and tasty treat contains roasted corn, shaved fennel, red peppers (which accounts for the color), and bacon in a cream-and-crab broth flavored with a hint of dry sherry. Go for the bowl. It’s only two bucks more than the cup, and you’ll regret reaching the bottom too soon. Accompanying your bowl will be a basket of fresh bread slices, but the bread is nothing about which to write home. It lacks the crispy crust and flavorful interior of a traditional European-style rustic bread.

Hope you’re still hungry, because there are a lot more enticements awaiting you. Pictured below you will see the crispy cod sandwich, a pulled pork and slaw sandwich with homemade potato chips, and an example of one of Glacier Brewhouse’s wonderful rustic pizzas. Another pictured dish is, if I recall correctly, the crusted Alaskan cod Jasmine rice cake topped with a coconut curry sauce.

This place alone is almost worth the trek up to Anchorage.