Creating Appetizers for Wine Pairing

I've been working very diligently to create the appetizers to pair with wines for the Winefest Renaissance 2015, to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Aberdeen Area. As with the past two years, I have selected 6 wines to showcase, for the purpose of teaching people to take the time to really taste a wine, using a wine rating sheet of my design. This forces one to take note of the particular aspects of a wine, from the immediate bouquet, the "legs" that give some indication of viscosity, the taste of the wine itself and all the possible adjectives to describe. All these things will give a person more knowledge of what it is about a wine that they like or dislike. Does one like earthy wines or floral wines? Or maybe peppery with leather? How about blackberry and cedar? These last all describe various red wines. White wines have other adjectives such as  apple, peach, grapefruit, mineral, chalk, butter, honey, vanilla and many more.

Wine with "Legs"

Once one establishes the particular attributes of sight, smell and taste, is it a wine you like? If not, sometimes a particular food will make a wine more palatable, sometimes changing its character completely. With a proper pairing of food, a wine can be enhanced dramatically. Just as an improper pairing of food can made a wine taste awful. The goal during my presentation at the Winefest Renaissance is to make little appetizer foods that encompass the correct food flavors to show a wine's character to best advantage.

Part of my newest Varietal/Food Pairing Sheet

To assist myself in the creation of a proper pairing of food with a wine, I created wine varietal and food pairing charts. I had 5 pages made, with 5 kinds of varietal or blend per page. Some are blends, such as Bordeaux or Meritage, that always use a particular few varietals to create a blend. Most of my sheets contain single varietals and with these lists of foods to pair, I look through and come up with ideas. One particular wine was giving me fits this year. It is the Menage a Trois 'Midnight'. I had not yet actually tasted this wine, but had read about it. I do like the original Menage a Trois blends, both red and white. The "Midnight" has 4 varietals in its mix, instead of three. The part that stumped me was the mixture of Petite Sirah and Petit Verdot. Though I know I have tasted Petite Sirah on its own, I had no recollection of the particular attributes. And as for Petit Verdot, I had no clue at all. So, back to the internet and the beginning of another wine varietal and food pairing sheet!

Sara Lee on left, my mini on right

As it turns out, the Menage a Trois 'Midnight's' claim of deep dark color can be attributed to the Petite Sirah, known for its deep, dark inky color. The Petit Verdot mostly contributes the tannic structure or backbone. Once I had those concepts in my mind, it was a little easier to see how some of the food suggestions could make more sense. Pizza, Italian food, Mexican food; these were the suggested items. I opted to make some kind of mini pizza for this Wine Tasting Event. 

Then came the search for what form this appetizer would take. I completely changed my approach 4 separate times. Once it came down to the creation of a sample, I tried making pizza dough and rolling it out like for cinnamon rolls and filling, slicing, baking. Nope. This was messy at best. I tried using regular English Muffins (I used Sara Lee). Nope. My husband and I both agreed: too big for just tasting. But still, the English Muffin was really tasty for this application. I had been wanting to make English Muffins for quite some time already, and since there is a recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart (which book I have been touting for over a year now), I finally went for it. I created small English Muffins about 2½-inches in diameter. I used a few to test with the pizza toppings and they were just the right size. I had reached Eureka!!

Final size: one tiny muffin half

What remains for the creation of these appetizers is to first make a whole lot more of the little English Muffins. The toppings will be set in place and baked on the day of the event. Most people eat pizza cold, or at least room temperature at some time, and these will be at room temperature. To test out the taste comparison, I bought a bottle of the Menage a Trois 'Midnight' to drink with these little bitty pizzas. It was an absolute perfect pairing!

I know not everyone will have the time or ability to make tiny English Muffins. If anyone does, I made each ball of English Muffin dough to weigh 33 grams on my little kitchen scale, or a scant 1.25 ounces. They are just cute as can be. They are still about the thickness of a regular English Muffin, so they are sturdy enough to hold the toppings and easily held to eat neatly without utensils. 

Ready to bake

For the toppings, I wanted to use sausage initially, but instead opted for pepperoni. To make the toppings easy to apply, I mixed together in a bowl some store-bought pizza sauce, a little grated Parmesan cheese, some pepperoni (about one or so slice per muffin half) chopped finely and a little green pepper, just because I love green pepper on pizza! I always make garlic steeped in olive oil to brush on pizza dough before ever applying toppings, and I did the same here. I brushed each English muffing half with the oil, then placed a small dollop of the pizza sauce mixture, spreading to the edges. One of the particular cheeses mentioned for this kind of wine was cheddar, so I made sure the type of shredded cheese topping contained cheddar. They are easy to assemble this way and they baked at 375 for about 10 minutes to perfect melty goodness. 

Perfect size and perfect melty goodness

Best of all? They were absolutely perfect when tasted with the Menage a Trois 'Midnight'! I could not have asked for a better way to show how well a food can taste with a particular wine.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Mini Sliders to Pair with a Barbera Wine

The 3rd annual Winefest Renaissance fundraiser, held by the Boys & Girls Club of Aberdeen, will take place this year on March 28th. I have selected the wines I will be presenting along with the foods I plan to pair with the wines (to both the food and wine's best advantage, I hope). I do not have the wines to taste here at home, though I would like to buy some of them to try out myself. My creation of the foods to pair with these wines is based on various criteria:

Pork & Chicken Thigh Fresh Sausage Mini Sliders with Cherry Onion Mustard

• The descriptions of the bouquet of the particular wine (found online in many places, but most prominently on the site of the winery itself) such as cherry cola, blueberries, red fruits.
• The descriptors for the wine's flavor characteristics, such as blackberry, plum, black cherry, herbs, oak, vanilla.
• My own lists of foods that pair best with a particular varietal.

Size of Sausage Patties

When taking into consideration the descriptors for aroma and flavor, in many cases it helps to select a particular food that also has that flavor. In the case of the Terra D'Oro Barbera, I created tiny little sliders. The testing is done, the sliders are perfectly flavored, and I believe they will fit the criteria and pair well with the Barbera wine at the event in late March.

I wanted to use full flavors. Barbera is a wine that plays well with food, much as does Pinot Noir. I created a fresh sausage patty using both pork loin and chicken thighs and lots of wonderful spices and herbs to make them flavorful. I made the patties very tiny, about a scant 2-inches in diameter. Yesterday I made my Mom's Bread Updated recipe, which yields 4 loaves. After forming 3 loaves for bread, I took the portion of dough for the last loaf and made my tiny little slider buns. This amount yielded about 26 little buns, at between 67 to 71 grams apiece. I use a little kitchen scale to ensure they were all the same relative size. At this small a weight, it is easier to use grams to quickly see the differences. Once the breads were formed to rise, I started on the Cherry Onion Mustard. It turned out so wonderfully tasty, I couldn't stop snitching little tastes of it. Yum.

Size of the whole Slider Sandwich

Once I got all the components done and put together, I could not have been happier with the flavors. The little sausage patties were perfectly seasoned, the Cherry Onion Mustard was a perfect match and the buns were the perfect size, light and fluffy and airy enough they did not make the tiny, two-or-three-bite sandwich too bready.

I "ground" the meats in a food processor. When using a food processor for this purpose, it leaves any fat in long, unappetizing strings. Because of this, I trimmed all visible fat from the meat, leaving very lean patties. I did add in a little lard to the meat mixture, just for some succulence for the meat.

Pork & Chicken Thigh Sausage Patties

Pork & Chicken Fresh Sausage Mini Sliders

Makes about 26 mini slider size patties
 
½ pound pork loin½ pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 teaspoons chili powder½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon (more if desired) Chipotle powder½ teaspoon ground mace½ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves, rubbed½ teaspoon dried oregano leaved, rubbed
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 cloves fresh garlic minced or through a press
1 tablespoon lard
3 tablespoons powdered milk

Trim all visible fat from the meats, cut into small chunks. Process one meat at a time, till ground similarly to sausage meat. If any fat was left on the meat, it will be found now! As the meats are ground, remove them to a bowl. Add in all the spices, lard and milk powder and mix well but lightly with fingers or a spoon. If making these patties as mini slider appetizers, form the meat into tiny patties to weigh 0.75-ounce or about 21 grams. Optional: Make 4 larger patties for regular sized buns. If making these tiny patties, flatten each little portion to about ¼ inch thick. On medium high heat, melt extra oil or lard to fry the patties. As tiny slider size, they cooked through in about 3 to 4 minutes, flipping them halfway through cooking.

I was particularly taken with the thought of the "cherry, black cherry and cherry cola flavors listed in the wine's aroma and flavor. The thought of using cherries somehow in this recipe seemed a no-brainer. Cherry and mustard? Oh, yes! It is wonderful to find a match of a sweet element with a savory one, and this recipe for Cherry Onion Mustard is really flavorful on its own! Granted, we do not generally sit with a bowl of mustard to eat, but this mixture is so flavorful, with the perfect balance of sweet to sour and just enough tang to stand up to the well-seasoned meat patties. I believe this Cherry Onion Mustard would go well on any full flavored meat, and even to serve with cheese. I thought, while cooking the jam, about the possibility of canning this mixture, as it is most wonderful. As yet, I have not researched this, but if or when I do, I will post it here. For now, I have plenty to use for the event.

I realize not everyone has pickled mustard seeds in their fridge, but I do. I felt that they would lend a little bit of texture and color to the mixture. Using the pickled mustard seeds is not absolutely needful. Another whole grain mustard will also work well instead. 

Cherry Onion Mustard

Makes about 2 cups

Cherry Onion Mustard with Pickled Mustard Seeds

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped (2 cups)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cherries, finely chopped
2/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup (plain) rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely minced
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Pickled Mustard Seeds
OR: 2 tablespoons each Dijon & whole grain mustard

In a large sauce pot melt the butter and add in the oil over medium to medium low heat. Add in the onions and salt. Saute very gently. If the mixture is cooking too quickly, lower the heat. For the first 15 minutes of cooking, stir the mixture occasionally, so the onions cook evenly. Continue cooking for another 15 minutes, stirring very often, to reduce the onion and very lightly caramelize. From the original 2 cups, there should be about ½ cup once well sauteed.

Add in the cherries with the sugar, vinegar and rosemary. Cook this mixture over medium low heat, or whatever temperature maintains a simmer for about 10 or 15 minutes, until the mixture is looking much like a jam. Remove from heat and add in the mustards and stir well to combine. Store in a clean jar with a tight fitting lid in the refrigerator for 3 - 4 weeks.

Lastly, the Bread

Tiny little buns

As for the breads, if you do not make your own, simply buy frozen bread dough. Once thawed, use one loaf and cut off small balls, about 25 grams apiece, and flatten them as much as possible; they will puff up later on anyway. Set the flattened balls onto a greased baking sheet and let them rise to about doubled in size. Before baking, for a prettier finish, use one egg yolk with a tablespoon or two of water whisked in and with a pastry brush, apply the egg wash to the little buns, being careful not to poke them and deflate. My little buns baked in a preheated 350 degree oven and were done in about 12 minutes. Depending on your oven, keep watching at about 10 minutes. They should be golden and shiny.

To form these tiny sliders, cut each little bun open and set one sausage patty on. Use about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the Cherry Onion Mustard to the top of the patty and serve with the bun lid askew for a jaunty presentation. 

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

That Wine Tasting Time of Year

Lemon Thyme Chicken Fillo Cups

Up here where I live, this seems to be the time for wine tasting events. The larger wine tasting event that will come in late March this year hasn't even started its planning yet, but I was asked to make a few appetizers for a smaller event on the 18th of this month. Less formal, this get-together takes place in someone's home, for about 25 people. I have not much information on what all will be taking place there, though I was given a list of the 9 wines to be served. The wines range from very light white to deep, dark and bold. Trying to pair 3 appetizers to cover all these wines (all but two are reds), well, I have been poring over my wine and food pairing charts to try and make my appetizers pair with the most wines possible. 

Yesterday I made 2 new appetizers, which I served as our dinner last evening, to get opinions on flavors and how things could be improved. I was the only wine drinker at the dinner table and I was not drinking any of the wines to be paired, though I believe for all intents these appetizers were great as is and will work well with the wines they were created to pair with. One little change will be made on the meat roll-ups. It will not change flavor, but only make it easier to roll and skewer. But I will get to that recipe when I finalize them with the changes I am making. 

Lemon Thyme Chicken Fillo Cups

When I am asked to make appetizers to pair advantageously with particular wines, I spend a lot of time in research before ever beginning the creation of the food. I want the food to taste good with the wine, and hopefully also enhance how the wine tastes. For example, some things I research:

• What flavors are associated with the particular wine? Some possible adjectives: smoky, fruity, dark berry, strawberry, citrus, herbal, pepper, earth, leather, and the list is nearly endless. I use these to gear the foods towards these flavors or aromas.
• What does the vintner suggest as a food to pair with the wine? The vintner knows best how his wine was made, and what flavors are involved, so he has the best idea. Many others also will comment on food pairings for particular wines also.
• Are there particular herbs or cheeses that are recommended to pair with the wine? Not every site will get this involved, but there are many places that even have full recipes attached. I do not use these recipes, but I read them to become familiar with the thought process behind the pairing.

The next step in my process is to make a list of the flavors and foods to incorporate in the appetizer, things that will play well with the wine involved. To that end, in the last couple of years I have spent innumerable hours compiling lists of the particular foods

mini fillo shells

(meat/fish, nuts, cheese, herbs, sauces and even desserts), that will pair with particular grape varieties. I add to these lists as I find new information. At this point in time I have lists for these white wine varietals:  Albarino, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Torrontes and Viognier. I have lists for these reds: Bordeaux type blends, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Chianti blends, Gamay, Grenache, Malbec, Merlot, Mourvedre, Nebbiolo, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Zinfandel.

Made into a cheese ball

For possible pairing with a full flavored Chardonnay and also for the Pinot Noirs to be served, the appetizer I created would use bacon and well flavored chicken. Some of the online suggested food pairings for these wines included things like curried dishes. Thyme was specifically mentioned as an herb to use. I prefer to make appetizers that need no utensils, so I chose to use Mini Fillo Shells to hold the mixture. While creating this recipe, I had very fixed ideas of how these would taste, and I geared my process to use flavors that would coincide with my mind's "taste-buds". I wanted a sort of lemon and pepper chicken concept as a base. I included bacon in the mixture to boost flavor and bring in a smoky note. Cream cheese and Chevre would bind the mixture. Thyme added that herbal note I was looking for. 

Individual bites rolled in almond meal & thyme

I am extremely happy to report that the flavors came out tasting precisely as I imagined they should. I have no changes to make to this recipe. It is simple to make and can be made in advance. The actual filling of the mini fillo shells should take place last minute, but this part takes little time at all. I used a pastry bag with a large open star tip, but filling the little shells can be easily accomplished with a couple of small spoons. If refrigerated, the mixture could also be rolled into small balls - these little balls could be placed in the mini fillo shells (shown above), or on a cracker, or rolled in herbs or nuts and set out as individual bites, or even made into one large "cheese ball" to be served with crackers or pita chips. 

I used my own Pickled Red Onion as a garnish for these. I liked the pop of color and the pieces give just that tiny piquant bite. It takes about half an hour to make the pickled onions but requires at least 3 days for them to come to best flavor. If using these, plan ahead. They are a wonderful accent to most any dish and great to have around at any time. If not using the pickled red onion, other options might be slivers of scallion, thin slices of gherkins or just some more tiny thyme leaves sprinkled over the whole plate. The Tandoor Spice called for is my own mixture (find recipe here) and the flavors are great. You might easily substitute 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, or the full teaspoon of your favorite Curry Powder or Garam Masala (find one recipe here).

Making the mixture up to 3 days in advance helps with do-ahead planning.

Lemon Thyme Chicken Fillo Cups

Lemon Thyme Chicken Cups

50 - 60 appetizer bites

6 ounces meaty bacon, fried
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
6 ounces Chevre (goat cheese), softened
2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2 large)
1 teaspoon Tandoor Spice
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 boxes (15 each) mini fillo shells

Finely chop the fried, drained bacon. You should have at least a half cup. Set this into a large bowl. Add in the 2 cheeses with the lemon zest and thyme leaves and set aside.

Cut the chicken into approximately ¾-inch cubes. Place them in a bowl and sprinkle on top the Tandoor Spice, salt, garlic and pepper. Toss well to coat and let set for about 20 minutes.

cheeses, thyme, bacon & zest in bowl  |   chicken browned   | cooked through with lemon juice  |        chopped chicken   

Heat a large non-stick skillet on high or medium high heat. Add in the olive oil and then the chicken pieces. Toss the chicken quickly and constantly to brown completely on all sides, about 4 - 5 minutes (You will need an extractor fan going for this!). Lower heat to medium low and add in the lemon juice, stirring often for another 4 - 5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside to cool to lukewarm.

Once you are able to handle the chicken, either chop it by hand into very small bits, or pulse in the food processor. Do not pulse too finely. Add the chicken to the bowl with the bacon and cheeses and with a mixer, beat until all ingredients are well combined. At this point the mixture can be refrigerated for up to 3 days if needed.

No need to thaw or bake the fillo cups before using. They are delicate, so do not apply pressure to the cup itself while filling. If using a pastry bag, the chicken mixture will have to come to room temperature first, or it will not pass through the piping bag. You will need a large tip with a wide opening for the mixture to pass through. Pipe mixture into shells. Conversely, use two teaspoons to drop bits of the mixture into the shells. Or, form balls and press the balls gently into the shells. Top with your preferred garnish. Even a small cilantro leaf would be lovely. Do not fill the cups too far in advance or they will lose their crispness and become soggy. 

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.