Appalachian Harvet

If you were to be asked, what would your idea of fall in the Appalachians bring to mind?
Would it inspire visions of a mountain cabin, roaring fire with smoke issuing from the chimney, or would your mouth start to water thinking about the taste of a bountiful harvest or even spiced apple cider? I have created by own Appalachian version of a cold-weather classic butternut squash soup with Kalamata Tapenade on crustini. I served this recently for a business meeting at our home, and everyone loved this meal, with several people taking a copy of my recipe home. The basic soup can be prepared the day before as well as the tapenade.

Appalachian Harvest Soup
5 tbs butter
2 ½ pounds of butternut squash , peeled , seeded and cut into ½ inch pieces (around 6 cups)
2 c. chopped leeks (white and greens only)
½ c. chopped peeled carrots
½ c. chopped celery
2 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2 tbsn nutmeg
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp dried sage leaves
5 c. chicken stock
2 c. apple cider
2/3 c. sour cream
½ c. whipping cream or heavy cream
Chopped fresh chives
Melt butter in a heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add squash, leeks, carrots and celery; sauté until slightly softened, about 15 min. Mix in apples, nutmeg, thyme and sage. Add stock and 1 ½ c cider and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until apples are tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Cool slightly.
Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Return soup to pan. Boil remaining ½ C cider in heavy small saucepan until reduced to ¼ cup, around 5 minutes. Cool. Place sour cream in a small bowl, whisk in the reduced cider.
Bring soup to a simmer. Mix in whipping cream, ladle soup into bowls. Drizzle with the cider cream and top with chives.

Olive Tapenade
20 pitted Kalamata olives finely chopped
1 small can of sliced black olives, finely chopped
1 tbsp drained and rinsed and chopped balsamic capers
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix all ingredients and add fresh cracked pepper, chill and serve.

Crustini
1 large baguette cut into ¼ slices
Olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, place bread on cookie sheet, brush each side with olive oil and bake until crisp.

The PG Files

It has been another crazy-busy week around here, so I’m sharing another use-what-you-have-in-the-cupboard recipe.
We have affectionately started calling these dishes the “Pantry Gourmet Files.”
Tonight’s dish is Chicken Portabella Afredo Florentine; I know that’s a mouthful for something that is supposed to be easy. It begins and ends by taking items on hand -- canned chicken, baby bella mushrooms, Alfredo side dishes, baby spinach, butter, garlic and some Pinot Grigio -- and cooking them up. This dinner was surprisingly good! I served it with some fresh sourdough bread made earlier in the day.
Ingredients:
1 can white meat chicken, drained
2 packs of Alfredo pasta sides (I used Lipton’s)
1 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms
2 cups uncooked baby spinach
2 tbs butter
1 tbs garlic
¼ cup olive oil
1/3 cup Pinot Grigio
Salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, prepare pasta as directed.
In a frying pan over medium heat, pour the oil, add the garlic, chicken, wine, mushrooms and spinach.
Heat through until spinach is wilted and add to cooked pasta.
Serve with fresh crusty bread.

This was one of the easiest meals that I have made in a long time; look for more PG Files to come.
Cheers,
Erik

A touch of passion

When talking about food each bite, flavor, and texture lends to the romance of the dish, like drinking a glass of Champagne paired with fresh strawberries. The sweet nectar of the strawberries on your tongue, followed by the sparking champagne bubbles tickling your nose this creates the passion of the moment. Food as well as romance must be fun; laughing at yourself when you spill sauce on your favorite shirt on a first date with that beautiful redhead you met last week. Or creating the perfect cheesecake that melts in your mouth like a lover in your arms; this is my definition of passion. I challenge my readers to share their own stories about having a passion for food and life!

Wine and Music Notes

Being the music lovers that Kathleen and I are, we have delved into discussions about pairing music and wine. She has written about this on our magazines website, I wanted to take the opportunity to try my hand at it as well, how do you even start with the choices out there for both wine and music.

Wine and music are both such creative outlets; with wine it’s in the nose, taste, and finish. Music is very similar you have the intro, bridge and outro; I’ll list out my choices for several pairings, and encourage you the readers to try these and see what your own parings might be.

Chardonnay-Something bluesy – I’m thinking Ruthie Foster
Sauvignon Blanc-The Cranberries
Pinot Grigio- Colby Cailat
Riesling-The Avett Brothers

Cabernet Sauvignon- Has to be heavy- Rob Zombie
Pinot Noir-Stevie Wonder
Syrah-Chopin Nocturnes
Merlot-Evanesence

As in life we have to find enjoyment and inspiration sometimes in the littlest of things. So the next time you sit down to try a new wine why not try some new music as well.

Cheers,

Erik

BYOB Tasting

Kathleen and I attended our first wine Meet-up event Tuesday night, it was a BYOB “bring your own bottle” tasting. The event was held in Greenville SC in the loft at Sobys, this is one of the best venues for a wine tasting. The loft has beautiful hard wood floors and exposed brick walls, adorned with art and memorabilia. Dignitaries such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain have stayed here when they were campaigning in the area.

The event was hosted by the Meet-up CWO (Chief Wine Officer) Richard Peck and his wife Susan. As the members arrived they were welcomed with an opening glass of wine, which was a Naked Chardonnay from Australia. We had a great turn out of around 40 attendees and quite a few great wines for tasting of both red and wine varieties.

Wines I really enjoyed:

2006 Schug Pinot Noir

2004 Bodega Sur de Los Andes Bonarda

1995 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon

We are looking very forward to more events like this to come!

Cheers,

Erik

http://group.insidegrape.com

Southern Comfort

When you think Gullah cooking, what comes to mind? Visions of crawfish, shrimp or Low Country boil, maybe? Well, here’s one of my favorite all-time, cool-weather dishes, and it is true Southern comfort food. This dish has several names, but I’ve always known it by Perleau (pronounced Purr- LOW). This particular version was handed down to me and has been around since before the Civil War. You really can’t make an easier dish -- its all done in one stock pot, and an hour later, it’s on the table. I have simplified this recipe to save on time, but not on flavor. I use an herb rotisserie chicken found in most grocery stores to cut down on cooking time. I have never had anyone not love this recipe or turn down a second helping.

Perleau

Ingredients:

1- Herb rotisserie chicken, the skin needs to be removed and the meat pulled from the bones
1- Package breakfast sausage crumbled
1- Package smoked sausage sliced into ¼ inch pieces
1- Large sweet onion chopped
3-C uncooked rice
21/2-C chicken stock
2-Cans beer (I use Budweiser)
2- Tsp salt
2- Tbs black pepper
1- Pinch cayenne pepper


In a large stock pot on medium-high heat, cook the breakfast sausage until browned and remove sausage, leaving the drippings in the pot.
Pour the onions into the pot and cook until clarified. Add the chicken stock and beer, and bring to a boil on high heat.
At this point, add the rice, chicken, smoked sausage and seasonings to the pot, reduce heat to medium-low, and cover and cook one hour until rice is done.
I serve this with a salad and fresh French bread sliced and toasted.

Anyone out there want to try their hand a paring this with a wine?

Cheers,

Erik

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Southern Flavor

In the South, we have a certain ingrained love of food. As Southerners, the rumor has always been we will cook anything on two and four legs. While some of that is true, I can't imagine the person who would want to eat a possum!

I’ve been cooking for over 20 years and have developed my own “flavor” for the food of the South. I’ve cooked for country music stars and businessmen alike, and no one has every left my table hungry. My goal with this blog is to post some recipes, along with my food and wine adventures. The South, after all, has a rich wine history -- from Jefferson at Monticello continuing today in the booming Southeastern wine industry, where wineries are springing up across the lanscape.

So go on, travel the unbeaten dirt roads with me to discover news on food and wine as well as a laugh or two along the way.

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The adventure begins

I want to start this adventure with a few recipes I created on the fly tonight. Having a busy life, complete with family and work, who has the time to make a quick and tasty dinner?

Sometimes the best dinner comes from using what you find in the fridge and cupboard, not even knowing the direction you will take until the journey begins. So, I looked around and used what I had on-hand. What do you get when you take a pack of chicken, mushrooms and some great wine and a few other odds and ends? One AWESOME dinner!

Tonight’s dinner ended up being a wonderful skillet chicken recipe. It features Viognier wine, olive oil and season salt, with angel hair pasta with a Chardonnay sauce for two.
Like all true Southerners, I love to cook in cast iron, and I believe you can’t get the same effect from cooking with any other type of pan.

Chicken Viognier skillet
Ingredients:

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbs- Olive oil
1 C. Viognier (I used a 2005 Smoking Loon Viognier)
2 Tbs season salt

Preheat oven to 375
Using the olive oil, coat the bottom of the cast iron pan
Sprinkle the chicken breasts with the season salt and place in the pan.
Pour in the Viognier and place the pan in the oven on the middle rack. Turn the chicken breasts after 10 minutes and continue to cook for an additional 10 minutes. Place the pan on the top rack to finish the chicken off for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the chicken on a plate while you make the sauce. Reserve everything in the pan for the sauce.

Angel hair pasta with Chardonnay sauce
Ingredients:

½ box of Angel hair pasta
1 1/4 C. Chicken broth
1 C. Chardonnay (I used a Three Sisters 2002 Chardonnay Reserve)
1 Tbs fresh basil
½ Tsp Oregano
1 C. sliced portabella mushrooms
¼ C. Onion
8 Kalamata Olives pitted
1 Tbs flour
1 Tbs butter
Kosher Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Fill a 2-qt stock pot with water and heat to boiling, adding 2 pinches of Kosher salt. Place pasta into the pot and cook until al dente (slightly firm) and drain. Place the pasta back into the pot and toss butter to melt and coat. Taking the cast iron skillet complete with dripping, pour chicken stock in the pan and cook over medium heat, add the onion , mushroom, basil, oregano and olives. Cook until the onions are clarified and season to taste. Mix flour and remaining chicken stock, whisk together and pour into sauce to thicken. Slice the chicken and place in sauce, ladle over the angel hair pasta and serve.

I recommend finishing the bottle of Chardonnay Reserve with this meal.

Enjoy and happy adventures.

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