June 10,
2014 New Recipe Brown bread, cheese and Swedish caviar spread
canapé
Today was a
strange day food wise. I ate a bowl of
granola for breakfast with fresh pineapple and ½ of a mango and mango
yogurt. Then I was not hungry for the
rest of the day until 4:00 when Carey Smoot came by to discuss her case and her
recent trip to the Azores with me over a glass of wine. I made a new appetizer I have become fond of
for her.
Brown bread
canapé
I sliced a piece of whole grain bread from Costco thinly and toasted it. Then I spread either Delice cheese or goats’ milk cheese on the slices of bread. Then I spread a thin layer of Kalles Swedish dill flavored cod fish roe caviar (Ta Lin) on the cheese. I garnished the canapé with a piece of fresh dill from the garden.
Today I wanted to try two new wines I bought at Total Wine 10 days ago. I opened a bottle of D’Autrefois 2013 Pinot Noir Rosé (Total Wine $11.99) to drink with the canapé. The wine was delicious, especially with the creamy acidity of the cheese combined with the salty, creamy texture of the caviar.
I think a lot of Carey’s food sense and liked that she liked the canapé and wine.
This is the time of the year when the 2013 rosé wines are released. This is when they are at their most intense fruitiness, so this is the ideal time to buy and drink a 2013 rosé. My favorite rosé is a rosé of pinot noir. There are actually lots of good to great pinot noir rosés in the wine world. My preference is either Anderson Valley, California or southern French, with Willamette Valley, oregano a close third. The only reason why I do not favor Willamette Valley is that they tend to be a bit jammy and I prefer a cleaner more elegant wine. For those of you who love the big fruit bomb wines, Oregon may be your favorite, such as Benton Lane.
The French D’Autrefois was perfectly to my taste; clean, elegant and slightly fruity. I will buy more of it.
I had thawed out a bag with about ¼ lb. of bay scallops in anticipation of making fish chowder. Suzette arrived at 6:00 and we discussed dinner. Carey had suggested salmon cakes but Suzette did not want them.
Suzette and I finally decided on a pasta with salmon and scallops with a white wine cream sauce with chard from the garden. So we picked chard from the garden and I cleaned it and we used the last of the fresh chopped garlic and Suzette boiled some old multicolored Christmas tree macaroni and in a separate pan heated butter and olive oil and sautéed PPI salmon and the scallops and added the chard and garlic and then added about 3 Tbsps. of 2011 Marques de Riscal white Verdejo from Rueda and then heavy cream to make a sauce.
We plated the pasta and scooped the seafood in cream sauce over the pasta. I poured glasses of the Riscal verdejo white wine and we took our glasses and plates to the gazebo in the garden for dinner. Melissa returned during dinner and joined us for a glass of wine as we finished the bottle.
Rueda is a hot new region in Spain and the Riscal wine empire had been instrumental in developing it as a Denominoción de Origen. One of the new marketing schemes is to put a small black label on each bottle to designate the wine as having a Rueda origin.
Here is more about Rueda from Wikepedia. Rueda is located along the Douro River in northern Spain between Segovia, Avila and Valliodid in the Province of Castile Leon, northwest of Madrid.
Rueda is a Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) for wines located in the Community of Castile and León. It comprises 72 municipalities, of which 53 are in the province of Valladolid, 17 are in the north of the province of Segovia, and 2 are in the north of the province of Ávila.[1] It is known primarily for its fine white wines based on the verdejo grape.[2]
A Verdejo from
Rueda.
The first
documentary evidence of wine production in this area dates from the 11th
century, when King Alfonso VI
offered title to lands to settlers in the recently reconquered area. Many
individuals and monastic orders accepted the offer and founded monasteries with
their own vineyards.
During the 18th
century the land planted to vines was greater in extent than it is now and was
exclusively under the Verdejo grape variety. The
wines produced enjoyed great commercial success in part due to the clarification
process used which involved the use of local clay.
In the years
between 1890 and 1922 the phylloxera louse destroyed
over two thirds of the vines, which were replanted by grafting onto louse
resistant New World rootstock. However, the new varieties were
selected according to productivity criteria rather than quality ones and for
many years the wine produced was sold in bulk.
The idea of
creating a DO was first raised in 1935 but it was not until 1972 that major
investment by the Rioja winery, Marqués
de Riscal, signalled the start of a second era of quality wine
production, again based on the Verdejo variety. Official DO
status was acquired in 1980.
The DO is
centred around the town of Rueda, in the province of
Valladolid about 170 km northwest of Madrid. The land is a flat high plain at an altitude of
between 600 and 780 m above sea level. The River Duero
flows through the area from east to west.
Climate[edit]
The climate is continental
(long hot summers, cold winters) with a certain Atlantic maritime influences.
Temperatures vary widely and can drop below zero in winter (-1°C) and can reach
30°C in summer, which is not as high as similar wine-producing regions in southern
Central Spain. There is a risk of frost, freezing fog, high winds and
hailstones in winter/spring. On the other hand there is only a very small
possibility of drought.
Normally it
rains in spring and autumn, with an average rainfall of 400 mm/year, while
the vines receive 2,700 hours of sunlight per year.
Soils[edit]
Close to the
River Duero the soils are alluvial with a high lime content (max 24%). To the
south the topsoil is brown and sandy with a gravel and clay subsoil. Drainage
is good, has a rich iron content and is easy to plough.
Grape Varieties[edit]
The main
authorised white varieties are: Verdejo, Viura,
Sauvignon blanc, while the authorised red
varieties are Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot and Garnacha.
The authorised
yield for white varieties is 8,000 kg/ha (10,000 kh/ha if on trellises) though in practice the yields are only
between one quarter and one half of this level. Most new vineyards are planted
with rows at 3 m intervals to allow mechanisation. Irrigation is only allowed
under special circumstances. Vines are often trained close to the ground to
resist the strong winds that are characteristic of the area.
No comments:
Post a Comment