Redeeming Rosé

For a long time now I have been guilty. Guilty of slandering a type of wine that deserves nothing but reverence! Alas, I know I am not alone in thinking that all wines called "rosé" taste like Ernest & Julio Gallo's White Zinfandel. (For those of you who enjoy this wine, I apologize. But really, you MUST do yourself a favour - just keep reading!) In fact, there is a world of great, dry rosés out there. I've read about "Rosados" from an area of Spain called Navarre which are supposed to be fantastic, but have yet to try one myself.

About 2 weeks ago we were looking at wine (I was looking for the perfect white to go with my stuffed mushrooms - a Viognier from Australia turned out to be perfect) and I was approached by a gentleman working there asking if I needed help. Well, actually, first he stopped to comment on the beer I was holding - Kronenbourg 1664- a really great French beer.
Anyways, we then started talking about a number of wines. After he finished telling me one of my favourite wines tasted like tap water (well la-di-da!) he proceeded to tell Percy and I about rosés. He simply couldn't believe that we had yet to enjoy a rosé in the summer heat, especially when dining al fresco. In fact, he told us a story about this man (a vintner maybe?) that he had spoken with while visiting Bordeaux. Apparently it is practically sacrilege to drink white wine if you are Bordelaise. So, what's the next best thing?? "Le rosé naturellement!" And of course this was all delivered in a great mock French accent. However, that's not the end of the story....he then brought us over to the US section and showed us a rosé that was almost $20 cheaper than usual. Apparently, and this brings this article full circle, in the southern states rosé has a bad rep due to White Zin and so it can be hard to sell rosés at full price. Well, after tasting this wine that suits me just fine:

Kendall-Jackson
Grand Reserve 2006 Rosé Wine
California

Check out your liquor store or wine market for this one. In Calgary I found it at Willowpark. I don't know if it's still on for $11 (rather than $30) but it's worth every penny, either way.

So - hide from the sun no more! When you're armed with a refreshing glass of rosé you can handle the heat. And if you don't believe me, go to Willowpark and ask my wine guy - he'll tell ya! Unless of course you think the Bordelaise don't know their wine.......

Pairing rosé with food is easy according to my wine guy. Since the response "anything" is not good enough for me, I did a search:

Pair rosé with:

• pizza (yes!)
• rich patés
• tomato seafood sauces
• pork
• roast turkey (what a nice change for Thanksgiving and Christmas!)
• tuna, shellfish, shrimp
• salads
• vegetarian casseroles

Thanks to nataliemaclean.com for this information. Natalie also has a great new-ish book out: "Red, white, and drunk all over. Check it out, it will make you jealous, and impassioned.

p.s. I'm about to leave for Northwestern Ontario to visit with my family on the lake. I will return August 14th - check back then for more! I think I'll share a favourite family recipe from the cabin.

Soba Veggie Salad with Sesame Oil Dressing

I love salads, but I get bored fast eating the same thing (except with pizza!). Day after day of regular tossed salads just isn't exciting enough. Alongside these meatballs, which are pork meatballs with an almond sauce (drool) is a soba noodle and veggie salad with a tasty sesame dressing. I like making different salads as it is a great opportunity to clean out your crisper. With all the fantastic fresh produce available right now, what better time then to get creative with veggies?

Soba Veggie Salad with Sesame oil dressing:
(for 2)

Any of the soba noodles I've ever bought come in packages that contain 4 individually wrapped servings each good for 2 people in this recipe, which makes it easy. Soba noodles are Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour. If you can't get soba noodles, you can use vermicelli, it will taste great.

• soba noodles (or vermicelli)
• half an english cumcumber, chopped
• 1/2 cup edamame (fresh soy beans. Peas or beans would be good too)
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• a few green onions, chopped

Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. Rinse under cold water until cool. Add these to a salad bowl with all the chopped veggies.

To make the dressing, add to a lidded jar:

• 1/2 tsp sesame oil, or to taste (be careful with this, it's very potent!)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar (you could use white wine vinegar instead)
• the juice of one lemon
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 tsp red chili paste, or 1 small chopped chile (optional)

Shake the dressing in the jar until all the sugar has dissolved and it becomes emulsified. Toss the dressing with the salad and eat! Hope you enjoy this.

Check out this link to learn more about Soba noodles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soba

Cooking al fresco - Pizza

We were so lucky this year to find the most beautiful
camping site on Kootenay Lake. The grounds were
crawling with flowers, herbs, vegetables, and dogs (the dogs have nothing to do with cooking, no worries, it was just
notable). The oregano pictured here was growing mere feet from our tent just begging to be put to good use.
What better than a twist on a classic - pesto - with oregano
instead of basil.

We decided to use the pesto as a base for our pizza, since
we love making it on the grill. See our ingredients
pictured on the right. Using good quality extra virgin olive oil was key in this dish. I used some olive oil to finish by drizzling it all over when the pizza was cooked.













Applying the pesto to the crust, yum.
We used oregano, olive oil, garlic, a little lime juice, salt and pepper.














And.....the finished product! Growing alongside the oregano were chives in blossom. We used these edible flowers to decorate the pizza, very pretty and very yummy.

Thank you to Percy for taking these great pictures!

You can check out these

sites to see more edible flowers:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8513.html
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

I think pansies in a salad would be beautiful! I also saw on one of these links the idea to freeze flowers within ice cubes - what an elegant drink that would make.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

Yum...Sweet Onions! Beginning in May, these fantastic onions from Georgia appear in grocery stores. I believe the usual season is from May to June but just yesterday I found some at Co-op and promptly loaded a bunch of them into my cart. If you haven't tried these onions, you really must, they are sweet, juicy and crunchy and just another great piece of produce to look forward to in the summer. My mom looks for these in her grocery store every summer - as a kid I didn't understand the excitement associated with this yellow, bulbous vegetable, but now I get it. I like using them in dishes that feature raw onions - try them in a favourite salsa or chutney recipe, you don't need to worry about them overpowering your dish. They're also good sliced up raw and piled onto a cheeseburger - yum!

Here's a recipe you could use them in, although they take a little heat in this one:

Portobello Mushroom Burgers
For 2
2 portobello mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil (I always use cold-pressed extra virgin for everything (because I LOVE it), it's up to you)
1 tbsp diced garlic
3 tbsp red balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Toppings:
Thinly sliced Vidalia onions
Thinly sliced cheese, whatever you like, I always use something stinky

Marinate the mushrooms in the above ingredients for one hour.
On a hot grill place mushrooms gills down and grill for about 6 minutes. Flip the mushrooms and place some onions and cheese on the gills. Grill for another 6 minutes.

These make great burgers! They're nice and meaty, and very filling. Percy (my boyfriend) who always wants meat, was even happy and full after eating these. Serve on a toasted bun with your favourite condiments. I like mayo, avacado, BBQ sauce, even mustard and ketchup. If you want to be gourmet, you could make lemon aioli, or your own spiced up mayo creation.

To learn more about vidalia onions check out: http://www.vidaliaonion.org/

p.s. I do have some outdoor cooking pictures from camping, I meant to share these with you right after we got back from camping but I'm having a hard time getting those pictures to load up! Bear with me, we should be able to get them up yet!