Pairing the right wine with food shouldn't be an intimidating prospect. The choice can be as easy as choosing what you like, with a little help from Frank McClelland and Christine Matheson, thanks to their new book, Wine Mondays.
Seasonal Menus
While the title Wine Pairings sounds like it would be focused on making the best wine selection to go with food, its greater service is in providing seasonal menus, complete with recipes, then offering wine suggestions to go with them. There are chapters for each of the four seasons. The recipes are slightly involved, so new or hurried cooks may not turn to this book for everyday recipes, but rather special occasions.
Easy Cooking and Drinking Instructions
There is a brief introduction to the book which gives blissfully short descriptions of some simple, but important, ingredient choices to make at the grocer; kitchen equipment that will make cooking a pleasure, and basic wine tips that are helpful in deciding on things like temperature, glass choice, and pairing well with a chosen menu.
Recipe Excerpt:
Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Candied Chestnuts
Ingredients:
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
- 5 large egg yolks
Directions:
- Combine the milk, sugar, chocolate, cocoa powder and vanilla bean pod and scrapings in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- Prepare an ice bath. Fill a large bowl halfway with water and ice, then nestle a smaller bowl in the ice water that's in the larger bowl. Be careful to ensure that none of the ice water drips into the smaller bowl.
- Reduce the heat to low. Place the egg yolks in a medium-size bowl and whisk about 1/2 cup of the hot liquid into the yolks to temper them. When well incorporated, pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon until it's thick enough to coat a spoon, about 5 minutes (180 degrees F on an instant=read thermometer). Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium-size bowl. Place the bowl into the ice bath and stir the mixture until it has cooled.
- Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Served topped with Candied Chestnuts.
Candied Chestnuts
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup roasted chestnuts
- 2 tablespoons candied ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
- Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the chestnuts, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Cook over medium-high heat until the syrup is thick enough to coat the nuts, 6 to 7 minutes, stirring often to make sure the nuts are well coated. Transfer the nuts to the baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, until the nuts are a golden caramel brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
Author: Frank McClelland and Christie Matheson
Publisher: Harvard Common Press, 212 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 978-155832377-3
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