Category Archives: Wine & Food

This recipe was supposed to run last Wednesday. . . but like all good controllers I nodded off at the keyboard.  No, I didn’t.  Not really.  Just kidding, so please don’t call CNN.  What really happened is that I got sidetracked by that two-part series on JPEG vs raw.  My apologies on that.

The great things about this recipe are:

• It’ll make you look like a gourmet chef even if you can’t boil water.
• It’s so tasty your guests will keep asking for a return visit.  Indeed, I have at least three couple who keep hinting so much you’d think this was the only thing I know how to cook.
• It goes with a multitude of side dishes, but I like to serve it with my sun-dried tomato polenta (sauteed until crisp on the outside) and marinated grilled asparagus.
• It pairs well with myriad red wines (more on that later).
• It’s so simple to make that even a husband can do it.

Ingredients:

• 1 rack of lamb—frenched (I get mine already prepped from Costco)—per four people when served during a multicourse meal, otherwise you may need more per person
• 2 tbs. good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Really, really good Dijon mustard (I use Amora almost exclusively, but you’ll probably have to order it online)
• ½ to ¾ cup chopped walnuts or pecans (finely processed, but not too finely; leave some texture)

Step 1.  Brush the rack of lamb with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper at least one hour before serving.  Let the seasoned lamb sit out to get up to room temperature.

Step 2. Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C).  Heat a large, cast iron skillet to moderately hot, almost smoking.

Step 3. Place the rack of lamb into the heated skillet, searing both ends and all sides for two minutes each.  You’ll have to do the curved, fatty side in at least two or three stages to follow that curve.  The lamb will be nicely browned on all sides when you’ve accomplished this.  Set the lamb on a rack over a roasting pan and allow it to cool.

Step 4. Rub a thin coat of mustard over the lamb, covering all areas accept along the inside curves following the bone and the bones themselves.  That mustard is your tasty “glue.”  Dip the lamb into the walnut or pecan crumbs, coating evenly.  Keep this nut coating on the thin side, as you don’t want the nuts to overpower the delicate flavor of the lamb.  Place the lamb, fatty side up, back onto that rack over the roasting pan.  This recipe can be done up to this point before your guests arrive, allowing you to save the last, finishing step until just before you’re ready to serve the main course.

Step 5.  You’ve served the salad.  You’ve served the soup.  You’re serving the appetizer.  Place the roasting pan with the lamb into the oven.  Let the lamb roast for fifteen minutes.  Remove the lamb from the oven and place it onto a carving board, then loosely tent the lamb with heavy duty foil.  Let it rest for five to ten minutes.  Take your incredibly sharp chef’s knife and slice away the individual chops.  If you did this correctly, they should all be on the medium rare side.  If you prefer your lamb rare, reduce the oven time to twelve minutes.  Serve two chops per person along with your chosen sides.

Word of warning:  There’s not much in this world that’s worse than overcooked lamb.  Overcooking lamb is the primary reason many people turn their noses up at lamb today—that’s the way their mothers did it and they never got over it.  Overcooking causes lamb to give off a pungent, almost sickly sweet smell that ‘s a real turnoff, and the taste gets really gamey, and not in a good way.  But rare to medium rare?  Absolute heaven.    Oh . . . and mint jelly?  Don’t need it.  That’s what your mother used to try to hide the fact that she ruined the lamb by overcooking the heck out of it.

Wine pairings:  You’ll recall that I wanted to post this recipe because it pairs well with a lot of red wines.  Over the course of this blog’s history, I’ve done entries on Bordeaux-styles, Châteauneuf-du-Papes and GSMs, Zinfandels,  and Malbecs, and this rack of lamb recipe will go well with any of these choices.  Indeed, what I would like you to do is to hold a wine tasting dinner using this as your main course, but to do it right will require four couples and at least two racks of lamb because you’re going to go through four bottles of wine among the eight of you.

Here’s how to do your tasting:  Place four wine glasses at each place setting along with a glass of water to cleanse the palate between tastings.  Serve a different wine in each glass from the above list of four wines, keeping the order the same from left to right at each setting.  Do not let your guests know which glass holds which wine.  Over the lamb course, have your guests try out the different reds and let them see how each compliments the protein in the lamb in different and distinctive ways, and conversely how the lamb affects the taste of the wines.  After the main course, compare notes as to what scents and flavors your guests detected in the wines, and ask them to describe how that particular combination enhanced the flavor of the meat.  Finally, before desert, reveal which wine was in which glass and let your guests announce their personal favorites.

The proper way to sample wine:  This is going to sound like pure pretentious snobbery, but there’s a method to the madness.  Each wine glass should be filled to less than halfway.  The first thing you want to do is to compare the colors of the different wines.  While you’re doing this, also check that the wine clarity.  Tilt the glass and take a look at how the wine gradually changes color as the sample thins toward the edge of the glass (doing this with a white napkin in the background is best).  Checking for color is a clue to the varietal (grape) and how long it’s been aged.  Looking along the edge of the wine in a tilted glass is another aging clue, with a dark, almost brick-like reddish color extending all the way to the edge being a sign of longer aging.  Now, swirl the wine and hold the glass to the light.  Watch for the “legs” that form along the side of the glass.  This gives hints to how much “body” the wine has—the more pronounced the legs, the more concentrated “feel” the wine will impart in the mouth.  Swirl the wine again, but this time stick your nose well below the rim of the glass and inhale deeply.  What scents do you detect?  Don’t mention what you think people want to hear, or what you’ve heard others say.  Just close your eyes and concentrate, then blurt out the first things that come to your mind.  You’ll be surprised at what you might come up with, and you’ll be shocked at how many may agree with your assessment.  Swirl and take another deep sniff, this time concentrating on even fainter scents and impressions.

After this second sniff it’s time to take your first sip—but savor it.  Let it coat the entire mouth.  Chew it.  You heard right.  Get those teeth moving and actually chew the wine.  If your teeth feel as if you’re running pearls across them or otherwise impart a rough sensation, the wine has a lot of tannins—perfect to go with the proteins in red meats.  Swallow and inhale deeply through the mouth.  Do the tastes and sensations linger well after?  Then the wine has a long finish.  But one taste is not quite enough, which is why you should have at least two sips’ worth in your glass.  Repeat the tasting with a second sip to see if the flavors and sensations are consistent, or if they changed because your senses were “shocked” by the initial sampling.  At this point you should have a complete understanding of the wine being tasted.

Between wines:  Make sure thoroughly rinse your mouth with water before going to the next wine, or the different characters and flavors will interfere with your assessment.

Now, get back to that lamb and discover how each wine works in a different way to enhance the flavor, and how the lamb itself changes your impressions of the wine with which it is being paired at the moment.

I hope you find these wine blogs and recipes fun and informative, as I very much enjoy writing them.  If you have a particular favorite wine about which you would like to know more, please leave a comment and—if I’m familiar with that particular style or varietal—we’ll see about getting a blog out on it.

Andy runs the wine department at my local Costco.  Andy is also a follower of this blog.  Andy and I had a little chat this past Saturday about wines and the wine-related articles I’ve authored over the past several months.  It was then that he made two requests for upcoming articles—Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc.  Well, a wise blogger listens to his audience, so today it’s Malbec.  Look for Sauvignon Blanc in the coming weeks.

Malbec traces its popular beginnings as one of the blending grapes for French Bordeaux-style reds, but it’s pretty much fallen out of favor in France because the thin-skinned Malbec grape is very sensitive to frost damage and the vines are hard to protect from disease.  Yet, whereas the Malbec grape is decreasing in popularity among French vintners, it has found renewed interest in Bordeaux-styles reds from California (where it is often used in Meritage blends) and, most notably, in Argentina.  In fact, Malbec is now practically synonymous with the Argentine wine industry, just as Merlot and Carménère define for many people the wines of Chile.

The Malbec grape produces an intensely dark wine with a deep purple color reminiscent to California’s popular Petite Sirah (also called Durif).  And as with Petite Sirah, the wine tends to run toward the tannic side.  As such, Malbec benefits greatly from proper cellaring for a few years to allow the tannins to mellow a bit.  This is not a wine you want to drink young.

To the nose Malbec imparts subtle yet complex scents ranging from chocolate and coffee to licorice and herbs with hints of spices. Beyond these subtle notes you’ll detect leather and pepper.  The strongest compliments start with a predominate plum and gradually taper off to some of the darker fruits such as blackberry, dark raspberry, and even currant and black cherry.  In the mouth, Malbec forms a very full-bodied texture with a jammy sensation not unlike Zinfandel.

Because of its tannic nature, Malbec pairs well with many of the same dishes as the Bordeaux-style red, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and Zinfandel (think: red meats, game, and roasts).  But beyond that, you would do well to think of Malbec as your grilling and barbequing wine, similar to Shiraz.  Malbec and Shiraz share a peppery characteristic.  As such, both also go well with spicier Asian and Mexican and even certain Indian and Cajun dishes.  Hearty tomato sauces can also benefit from Malbec’s robust nature, so don’t hesitate to pair it with the more rustic Italian pastas and sauce-based pizzas.  On the vegetarian side, consider Malbec as a great compliment to earthier offerings such a mushrooms and eggplant.  If you’re going pair this wine with lighter vegetables such as zucchini, consider concentrating the flavors by caramelization or you’ll run the risk of the wine overpowering your main dish.

Malbec forms a very versatile companion to a large variety of dishes in anyone’s culinary repertoire.  You’ll definitely want to experiment with this one once you familiarize yourself with its characteristics and identify its limitations.  But don’t limit yourself to straight Malbec; try it as well in Bordeaux-style blends using Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Carménère and Merlot.

Over the past several months we’ve covered Bordeaux-style reds, Châteauneufs, Zinfandels, and now Malbecs.  All have similar pairing characteristics as far as red meats, yet each has a distinct character that allows for specialization beyond just beef or lamb.  Understanding these differences in characters will give you—the home chef/dinner host—the fundamentals to understanding basic red wine pairings.  To get you started with a common food denominator, one with which you can compare how all four of these wines work in different ways to compliment a single main course, Wednesday’s blog will be one of my most-requested dishes—pecan- or walnut encrusted rack of lamb.  It’s a remarkably simple recipe that will have your guests raving about your culinary skills for months afterward.

One of my favorite varietals is Zinfandel, and several California vintners positively excel at producing it.  No, I’m not talking about that bland, insipid, slightly sweet rosé known as White Zinfandel.  I’m talking about the full-bodied red stuff.  Don’t get me wrong.  Rosés have their place.  Occasionally.  As a fun Summer drink best served well chilled or perhaps paired with fish, lighter meats, cream-based pasta dishes, or spicy Asian-based offerings.   But if you’re a staunch red wine advocate, it almost seems a shame to waste this great grape on anything but its heartier red incarnation.

Zinfandel is a great alternative to Cabernet-based Bordeaux-style wines or even Châteauneuf-du-Pape and its GSM cousin.  As such, it pairs quite well with many of the same foods, including red meats.  And as with Châteauneuf it can also hold its own with lighter offerings ranging from the darker game fouls (think: duck or goose) to even the more robust pork dishes (butt or shoulder roasts for example) and spicy barbeque.  Just don’t go too light or the tannins in this wine will overpower the pairing.  Chicken is pretty much out of the question, as are the whiter pork cuts if too lightly or timidly seasoned.

The grape itself has quite an interesting history. For many years it was thought native to California.  Indeed there are California vines dating back 130 years or more still producing “Ancient Vine Zinfandels.”  But we now know that it’s genetically identical to Italy’s Primitivo and very closely related to the Crljenak grape from Croatia.  Alas, that makes Zinfandel an import rather than a true, home-grown discovery.

The flavors of Zinfandel are not usually all that complex, but they are exceedingly stout and robust.  The term “jammy” is often used because of the intense, heavy, berry-like flavors that the better examples produce.  The primary berry notes are blackberry followed by raspberry and plum.  Other, more subtle perceptions include anise, cedar, and even the peppery notes more often associated with Shiraz.  And, of course, since this is a wine best aged in oak, you also get the ever-present vanilla scent typical of aged reds.  Beyond the flavors and scents, these wines are very alcohol intensive.  Don’t be surprised to see typical bottles at 14.5%, and I’ve sampled some as high as 15.5%.

My favorite examples of this varietal come from Rosenblum (especially their Rockpile Road appellation)and Seghesio (Sonoma and Alexander Valley Ranch appelations), but they’re not super-cheap.  Most examples start north of $20 a bottle and can go as high as $45.  If that’s a bit steep for your wallet, you can also get a fairly good Ancient Vine California Zinfandel  from Cline (the 2008 vintage scored 88 with Wine Spector) for around $16.

But don’t just stop at straight Zinfandel. California vintners have had great success in using Zin as a blending grape with Cabernet Sauvignon and other traditional Bordeaux varietals to produce a unique variation on the Bordeaux-style theme.  Don’t be afraid to give these tasty innovations a shot.  You’ll be glad you did, and pleasantly surprised at how well the better examples can compete against the more traditional blends.

As with many of the more tannic reds, Zinfandel does benefit from a few years cellared away at the proper temperature (around 57°F, 14°C).  Best to give your recent acquisition of this remarkable wine at least a couple of years to mature and mellow.

One last pairing tip that will surprise you and delight your guests. Try a glass of Zinfandel with chocolate, the darker the better.  For some reason Zinfandel seems to counter the bitterness of dark chocolate and the two compliment each other very well.