Napa, California Isn't Just About Cabernet - Sangiovese Takes on Cabernet Sauvignon

As shown here, proof of a super not Tuscan wine tasting. If this was a race of sorts, the stock race car pedigree would be a Ferrari with the Andretti family's Napa Valley Sangiovese 2004, a beautifully structured, well thought out wine. I say that to describe the beautiful aged colour of deep garnet red with brick red tones. It's moderately intense nose is a clear and clean expression of sangiovese, peppery, dried sage, aged tobacco, dried raspberries all integrated with French oak in the bouquet and on the palate. The ripeness was balanced with some nice acidity and residual sugar. This was an intriguing and luxurious version of this Italian grape, elevated to an ethereal wine experience in Napa. 

I loved this wine. Tasted among friends is always a great stage to enjoy the best food and wine. I put  out a simple offering Jarlberg white and Danish blue cheese and dried salami with a whole grain  baguette was all we needed for contrasting flavours. The salami and white cheese complemented this 

wine reminiscent of a the best Chianti Reserva. 

Sangiovese is a staple grape of all Tuscan wine such as Chianti and some Super Tuscan Cab blends. But this grape and wine grew up on noble terroir, Napa Valley. The land and winemaking

 of Napa, regardless of the grape made this wine special and notable in many ways. For all intents and purposes, this wine became the lap car, the opening act at a Rock concert where the second wine was the main act. The Formula 1 car in the race was the show stopper. 

My foodist friend Brent brought over the main act to this showcase duo, a Rockstar concert of a wine tasting experience. Lakoya Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, Mount Verdeer Napa Valley sounds impressive not even out of the bottle. With an annual production of a mere 571 cases in 2004, this wine is rare. 

The real estate on which these grapes were grown and carefully tended to is worth more than some 

urban cities and certainly as noble and worthy as the best of Bordeaux growing Cabernet. 

This prestigious Napa Cab was huge. Decanted out inky black, still with purple hues as if it was just pressed juice. Beautiful long legs revealed its impressive ripeness with a 15.1 percent alcohol on the wine. BIG blackcurrant, cedar, anise seed, blackberries, ripe, complex with a beautiful

 nose of vanilla from ample time in French barrels. A hint of residual sugar and still  a very firmly tannic wine. Good acid balance and full bodied, bottles of this will improve over the next 5 to 10 years. The blue cheese and salami and bread were a must for this Formula 1 of a blockbuster Napa experience. This wine was very concentrated, structured and very well made. The  long finish makes this wine a clear winner in any circles, and a true attention getter and Rockstar of a wine. This is what I think of when I think of Napa Cab. 

Discover High Bush Cranberry Sauce - Another Alberta, Canada Best Kept Food Secret

Alberta High Bush Cranberry Sauce with Liqueur Infusion:

Ahhhh, another version of cranberries that I'd never heard of until a food friend, Steven told me about them. "There are cranberries in Alberta." he said. "AND they make a wonderful cranberry sauce."
I was skeptical. Until one day he brought some into the office courtesy of his foraging family member earlier in the year: Autumn harvest: vintage 2015.

He more than kept his promise and proved his story of a wonderous red berry from the Foothills of the Canadian Rockies. He brought me a 3+ cup bag of these frozen red round gems known locally as high bush cranberries. About 5 to 8 mm in diameter, these pearl-sized berries have a slightly tannic, mouth-puckering cranberry-like taste. Thin-skinned and full fruity flavour with a pleasant forest earthiness and full of pectins, they cook up very nicely and have all the nuances, pucker and texture for a fine "cranberry" sauce. These wild and organic berries are loaded with anti-oxidants as evidenced by the dark crimson colour of the finished sauce.  Read on for photos and my recipe.




The high bush cranberry as described by Valerie Lagonja in her Blog, ACanadianFoodie.com She refers to them as kylina to the Ukranians and pembina to the French.

So I wait and plan to make them into a wonderful whole berry sauce for our next turkey dinner. It's my dad's 79th birthday... and he likes turkey!

Well that day has come. I've got my hands on an 18 pound beauty of poultry. It's a free-range organically fed turkey from a small local hobby farm, Diamond Willow near Calgary, Alberta.

The family dinner is planned for this weekend with the centerpiece of a perfectly seasoned herb roasted turkey, stove-top prepared stuffing with pan drippings, roasted yams and mixed veggies, and much more to celebrate the BIG day. AND of course my experimental version of Alberta wild high bush cranberry sauce.

The piece de resistance might possibly come from this simple-to-prepare essential partner to the best of the best turkey, the cranberry sauce. Some love the stuff, others loathe it but as for tradition in our family and millions of others, a roast turkey is somehow incomplete without the cranberry sauce.

This special sauce from Alberta cranberries, of all things is rare. So I needed to preserve the unique fruitiness of the berry while ramping it up a notch with my original recipe as follows:

So here's my recipe: Alan Chong and his High Bush Cranberry Sauce with Liqueur infusion. 

Ingredients:   

2 1/2 cups High Bush Cranberries (frozen)

1/2 cup date palm sugar

1/2 cup water

pinch of sea salt

15 ml Cointreau liqueur

Method:

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine date palm sugar (seen here in large lumps) with water and bring to gentle boil until sugar is dissolved (about 5 minutes) to create a simple syrup. 

Immediately add the high bush cranberries and pinch of sea salt to the saucepan. 

Stirring occasionally and lightly crushing about half the berries releasing the pectins necessary to congeal the sauce. Continue cooking for 4-6 minutes until a rolling boil is maintained for 1 minute. 

Then immediately remove from heat. Add the Cointreau and stir into the sauce.
Careful most of the alcohol will boil off and may splash up. 

With a spatula, pour all this yumminess into a heat-safe serving bowl. 

Use a clean canning jar and lid or other glass or ceramic sealed container for

keeping refrigerated for up to 4 weeks. 

It's brilliantly crimson, mildly tart and tannic with hints of earthiness and a hint of citrus from the liqueur infusion. The date palm sugar imparts another level of subtle flavour and unique sweetness that I find less harsh than plain white sugar, cane or otherwise. This special sauce is a perfect home grown and wild accompaniment to a perfect roasted turkey dinner gathering. A healthier option to a much sweeter commercial cranberry sauce. Also, there's something special about knowing the source and story behind that great food. 

Truly unique and festive yet perfect for any turkey or special occasion with poultry as the main. 

Try this same recipe with fresh or frozen cranberries, lingonberries or red currants. 

Enjoy more recipes and FOODIST inspiration, check out, bookmark and comment on my short FEFL Blog archive. 

Share what you're cooking that's EPIC and experimentally awesome! 

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Paparadelle Pasta - Fresh and Handmade Because You Can

 

Fresh Paparadelle Egg Pasta

 

Paparadelle with basil-garlic chicken-tomato reduction and olive oil

 

Monday was pasta night at our home. Food enthusiasts are always willing to make something new, something never prepared in their repertoire of cooking experiences, not because we must but because we can. That was my mode of action that day. I had 2 cups of semolina flour, a fresh free range organic egg, and a little over 1/4 cup of cold filtered water. Those were all the ingredients needed to make a beautiful handmade fresh pasta, about a pound of it. I started my little culinary journey and mixed all 3 ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl by hand until a firm ball was formed. about a minute. Then I kneaded it for 5 minutes or so until just before I started to work up a sweat. Covered it with plastic film and rested it for at least 30 minutes at room temperature while I frantically searched the pantry for where I thought I had last seen the Kitchenaid pasta maker attachment. Nowhere to be found! With fresh inspiration still in my heart, I needed a finished pasta dish.

 

Roll out the Dough

I quartered the semolina dough ball, placed it onto a well floured cutting board and began to hand roll it, first by hand into a 1 inch log, then with a rolling pin into an oblong sheet.

 

 

 

 

 Instinct kicked in to roll lengthwise then alternating to widthwise until I had an evenly rolled sheet of 1/16 inch thick pasta. Be sure to keep it well floured.

 

 

 

A pasta machine would have spared me more than half the time for making this simple but time costly treat. Another practicality without the pasta cutter is making a cut that would be appropriate for the dish. Fettuccini would have been a "nice" choice of width but to hand cut it without a ruler would be next to impossible.  

 

Paparadelle! the obvious handmade choice!

Using a pizza cutter the pasta sheet is easily and quickly cut into strips. Using a pastry cutter it lifts off the board easily. I made sure to dust the cut pasta with more flour so as not to stick together prior to cooking. Refrigerate if not used immediately.



Even at only $25 an hour, this pasta dish was going to run $50 just for preparation time. So was the fresh egg pasta going to be worth the effort? For the food enthusiast, Absolutely yes! ...just for the experience of it alone! On a regular night a fresh pasta source is invaluable for that fresh pasta texture.

 

 

 



 

Cooks in 3 to 4 minuti, always in ample well salted water.

 

 

 

 Prego! Fresh Egg Pasta

 

 As a food enthusiast, I love to create something new and different that does not compromise on the taste and texture. I discovered that fresh handmade pasta is truly one of those main dish treats. Tender and forgivingly chewy, this pasta absorbs the perfect amount of flavour and is the star of the dish of a simple tomato reduction with olive oil, fresh basil, parsley and garlic with tender pan seared pieces of chicken breast.



 

Buono appetito.

 

An Epic Food & Wine Event - 2013

An Epic Food & Wine Event - 2013

Over 8 weeks ago I set out a challenge for a group of my best food enthusiast friends: "Choose a wine you love and create a great food pairing for it.

Everyone reached out of their normal cooking comfort zones including me and sought to create an impressive and memorable food and wine pairing as part of an overall evenings' tasting menu progression. We were the hosts and i gave menu guidance in expediting. It was a group effort.

Here is the summary of this fun culinary event. I encourage you to host a similar event with your enthusiastic foodie friends. It can really bring out the best in food and it becomes a great food and wine paired evening. I even had guests bring their own preferred plates, garnishes and such. We ended up with a fantastic progression of food and wine that lasted about 6 hours with my friends oohing and yumming the evening away over delicious tasting sized portions of Foie gras pate with 1998 Sauternes to Icewine marinated quail.

I marvelled over the spectacle of food and wine.

from left to right,

Canadian Roquefort,

Terrine of braised beef, veal marrow & asparagus

Organic Chicken Liver Pate

 Comox Brie, Organic red flame grapes.

with Bellenda Levis Prosecco with a white peach wedge.

Alan C,

Roasted cardamon Beet & Chevre salad with honeyed balsamic reduction, garden chives & microgreens, olive oil drizzle.

with NV Lillet, Bordeaux, Aperitif

 Alan C.



Foie gras pate on house made Ginger Crostini-grilled pear, microgreens.

with 1998 Ch. Grillon, Sauternes,

Alan C.

   Icewine Marinated Quail- fennel & grapefruit with citrus dressed greens.

 with 2012 Gray Monk Pinot Gris

Nicole W.

 Cedar plank Chevre Phylo Puffs & Misto salad with Bartlett pear fan 

with Cuvaison 2009 Napa Pinot Noir

Mary-Lee N.

 Bordeaux braised lamb and tomato ragout.

with 2005 Ch. Labat, Cru Bourgeois, Haut Medoc

 Brent L.

Elk tortiere en croute - pumpkin chutney.

with 1982 Glorioso, Rioja Gran Reserva

Mark S.

   Bison tartare, quail egg on roasted scallion butter crostini.

with 2005 Tenuta Olim Bauda Barbera D'Asti

Alan C.

 14 day marinated flank steak on parmesan toast-14 day microgreens.

with 2009 Conundrum

Brent L.

 Asian fusion Rack of Lamb, grilled asparagus- spiced mulberry glaze.

with 2009 Hillside Estate Gamay Noir

 Nicole W.

Berry and Marscapone phylo stacks-house made icewine chocolate truffles.

with 2011 Cascinetta Vietti Moscato D'Asti

Shannon T.

 

And the finale, house made

2012 Grey Goose Limoncello.

Alan C.

And that completed the 12 course, Epic Food & Wine Event 2013. See you next year. Tell us about your epic food and wine event!

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Out of the Ethereal... My first Blog

 

 

 

Out of the Ethereal... My first Blog...

 

 

Swirling Clouds of Mother

It's Mother's Day, 2013. I look up within 30 minutes of completing my 5k "race" (I don't maKE A HABIT OF RUNNING nor typing much) which took me at least that time and behold I saw this image from the heavens. The brilliant morning of overcast cloudcover evolved into this magnificent array of upper atmospheric swirling. Calm at ground level, this image captured the greatness of the day on the iPhone 4S.
A few weeks later, here I am inspired and actually creating and posting my first true personal Blog!

FOOD ENTHUSIAST FOR LIFE- FEFL. So hello world!
It's about good food, created for enjoyment and for the health of it and for lifestyle.

Food choices are one of the most important choices that we make in our creating and sustaining our personal environment. Water and food are our daily sustainance. It's our personal environment that we feed and grow. We truly are what we eat! And we become what we have consumed over the years. Consider that in an all realms way; mind body soul. I love to create great stuff and i love to share it in the form of entertaining people that can appreciate some of the finer things in food, wine, wellness, health, art, and the art of meaningful conversation. I love that we can learn so much from each other especially when viewed in the a non-confrontational context.

So, my Blog will entertain you with ideas about food , images, concepts, experiments, health, wellness, and of course opinions focused around elements of food and life. After all, much of life is about food and certainly food is a necessity of life. One thing i know for sure is that I'm a food enthusiast for life!

And so born Out of the Ethereal..."Swirling Clouds of Mother",  My first Blog: FEFL

Alan Chong, author, food enthusiast, chiropractor, photographer, dad (in no particular order)