When Mrs. B’s birthday was approaching, I asked her what she wanted to have for dinner.  My offer was to make anything and open any bottle of wine, because that’s how we roll in Chéz Bakas.

She just said she wanted some sort of cream based pasta and that’s it.  I ended up making 2 courses because it was a school night, and she didn’t get home until almost 8pm.  So here’s what we had:

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Créme D’asperges Soup

paired with P Gimmonet Brut Champagne

2 lbs asparagus
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 potato (wrap in a towel and microwave for 5 minutes, cut into cubes)
6 cups chicken broth
3 TBSP butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 TSP fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup créme fraîche or heavy cream
3/4 TSP sea salt
1 TBSP fresh ground pepper

Cut tips from a dozen asparagus

Cut asparagus into 1/2″ pieces (not the base of each stalk – flavor is bitter).
Cook onion, potato and garlic in 2 TBSP butter in large pot over medium low heat. Stir occasionally until onions are soft.
Add 6 cups chicken broth, bring to a boil, then simmer covered until asparagus is soft – about 20 minutes.

Purée soup in small batches (seriously! small batches.  I burned the @#$* out of my hand when the top of the blender popped off).  Tranfer small batches into a large bowl.  Once all soup has been puréed into a smooth texture, pour back into the pot and add créme fraîche.  Add more broth to thin if needed.  Bring just to a boil and whisk in 1 TBSP of butter.

Add lemon juice, then serve garnished with reserved tips.

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Linguine with Lemon Orange Cream and Crab Cake

paired with 2007 Hahn SLH Pinot Gris

2 TBSP butter
3 shallots, minced
1 cup chicken stock (or broth)
2 TSP grated lemon peel
1 TSP grated orange peel
1/2 TSP cayenne pepper
1 cup frozen peas (thawed)
1 cup heavy cream
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
12 oz Linguine (cooked)
3 TBSP fresh mint leaves, sliced thin
salt and pepper
fresh grated Parmesan cheese

For the crab cake I saved some time and picked one up from Whole Foods. My crab cake recipe of choice is here.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.  Sauté shallots until translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add chicken stock and simmer over medium-high heat until it’s reduced to about 1/4 cup.  Add cream, lemon and orange peel and cayenne pepper.  Simmer until sauce thickens—4 minutes.

Stir in peas, then simmer another 2 minutes.  Add in half the mint leaves and lemon juice.  Stir in cooked pasta until coated, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in a large bowl or plate with crab cake on top, garnished with remaining mint leaves.  Add fresh grated Parmesan to taste.

I found this fascinating quote today on Palate Press:

Gourmet market Vine & Table played host, and Laurent chatted amiably with the attendees. “Do you let anyone pick your food for you?” he asked, when questioned about the 100-point rating system popular in the wine world. “Then why let them pick your wine? Trust your palate,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye, adding that this will eventually lead you to Burgundy.palatepress.com, An Evening With Laurent Drouhin, Apr 2010

You should read the whole article.

We love cooking with wine at Chez Bakas, and although leftover wine in the bottle doesn’t happen often, when it does I get excited about recycling the wine.  Leftover wine usually happens when we either try a bottle we don’t care for or when it just wasn’t necessary to finish the entire bottle.

Recycling and reusing is a good practice around the house, especially in the kitchen.  Use as much of each food item as possible, and reuse every drop of wine when you can.  Here are a few great uses for leftover wine:

1. Sauces

courtesy of getty images

Reduction sauces are an ideal way to use leftover white or red wine.  If you haven’t experimented with reduction sauces, take a run at it and play around with the basics of making a sauce.  Often times a stock (ie. Beef, Veal or Chicken) mixed with wine can be simmered for a while until the liquid is reduced to a sauce.  Stocks that are homemade are flavorful and easy to do, but they can also be found at most grocery stores, sometimes know as broths.  The Julia Child stock recipe is tried and true.

A 1:1 ratio of wine to stock is an easy recipe for sauce.  Pour them together into a saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer down until the sauce is thick and almost not liquid.  I love doing this with ports or red wines for beef.  Pasta sauces simmered with red wines and a bay leaf are also more flavorful.

Some recipes that use wine for the sauce:

Poached Chicken in Truffles & Cream Sauce (uses white wine)

Chicken with Rosemary & Lemon Sauce (uses white wine)

Seared Duck Breast w/ Cherry Port Sauce (uses port)

Presidential Rack of Lamb a la Richelieu (uses white wine)

Filet with Mushrooms & Madeira (uses madeira)

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2. Marinating Meats

courtesy of prevention.com

Marinating beef in red wine is an awesome way to add flavor and tenderize meat.  This is a great thing to do when making stews or even before grilling.  I especially like reusing wine this way because red wine can get kind of nasty to drink if it’s been open for longer than a few weeks, but not too nasty to use for marinating.  Here’s a recipe to try where the meat gets marinated over night:

Bouef Bourguignonne (marinate with red wine)

3. Hearty Stews

courtesy of getty images

One of my all time favorite recipes is the one listed above.  Bouef Bourguignonne not only uses beef that’s marinated but it’s slow cooked all day with an entire bottle of wine poured in.  On a cold day, a warm hearty stew-like dish warms the soul.

The idea isn’t too dissimilar to the concept behind sauces where slow simmering creates a thicker, richer sauce, but with stews, all the ingredients soak up the flavors and gain a wonderful texture.

As mentioned above, red wine can get too nasty to drink after being open too long, but works fine in stews even if it smells a bit off.

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When President and Mrs Reagan visited Paris in the mid 1980’s they did have many official functions including a diplomatic dinner with President and Madame Francoise Mitterand at the Elysee Palace (the White House of France)
Naturally, the diplomatic decorum demanded that the American guests of honor should return the invitation.
The Reagans were staying at the US Embassy and decided to honor the French President and first lady with non American food. The chefs at the US Embassy were French chefs.
The Lamb recipe is very fancy in terms of prestige. It was put together by chef Auguste Esccoffier at the turn of the 20th century. It was named in honor of Cardinal Armand de Richelieu, who was chief minister to King Louis XIII in the 17th century.

INGREDIENTS
2 racks, 6 chops each., have the butcher cut the chine bone for easy serving of chops.

Marinade:
1/2 bottle of white wine
1/2 cup of quality olive oil
1 medium onion sliced
1 whole bay leaf crumbled
1/2 teaspoon of dried marjoram, or 2 TBSP of fresh if available
8 black peppercorns, coarsly crushed
1/2 TSP of dried thyme, or 2 TSP of fresh
salt to taste

Marination needs to be a minimum of 4 hr. Overnight would be good. Keep turning and spoon over the rack.

Place in the oven and grill at 450 degrees for 30-40 minutes depending on cooking level preferred. Keep to lamb warm in the oven while the sauce is being made.

Sauce:
Place the drippings in a fry pan. Remove some of the fat. Add a cup of port or madeira. Reduce under high heat. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of butter one at a time. Serve the sauce in a gravy boat at the table.

marinate lamb AT LEAST 4 Hrs.

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INGREDIENTS
1 cup Soy Sauce
1 cup Sherry
4 6-OZ duck breast halves
12 frozen dark sweet cherries, thawed and halved
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup beef stock
1/2 cup ruby port
1 fresh thyme sprig
1 TSP cornstarch dissolved into 2 TBSP water
1/4 cup butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Whisk soy sauce and Sherry in medium bowl to blend. Using a sharp knife, make diagonal slits on the duck breasts 1/2-inch apart making sure to not cut too deep (not through meat). Place duck, skin side up into glass baking dish. Pour marinade over. Cover duck with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours.
Bring cherries, chicken stock, beef stock, port and thyme spring to boil in a heavy medium saucepan over high heat. Simmer until mixture is reduced to 1/2 cup.

marinate the duck breasts

Meanwhile, heat heavy large skillet over medium heat. Remove duck from marinade. Add duck breasts, skin side down to skillet. Cook until skin is crispy, about 10 minutes. Turn duck over and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 5 minutes for medium. Transfer duck to cutting board or other surface.
Add cornstarch mixture to port-cherry sauce. Bring to simmer, whisking constantly. Add butter one piece at a time until melted.

Slice duck breast and fan out on plates. Spoon sauce over duck then serve.

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1. In 1963, television sponsor, Coca-Cola approached TV producer Lee Mendelson about doing a documentary about cartoonist Charles Schulz and his comic strip. The documentary led to a two minute film that became the first animated Peanuts characters.

2. Vince Guaraldi wrote some original music based on the piece, and that first composition became the tune called “Linus and Lucy.”

3. The Peanuts documentary films was never sold, but CBS had committed to Coca-Cola. Executives from Coke asked Mendelson if he’d create a Christmas special. Charles Shulz spent the next week creating scenes called, “School Play”, “Sad Christmas Tree”, and “Ice Skating”.

4. The Children who sing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing were from the Bay Area in California.

5. Animators had difficulty animating Charlie Brown’s head because it was round. Side to side movement didn’t look right. Many of the characters heads didn’t look right after they made the jump from comic strip to animation.  Snoopy was the easiest character to animate which why he’s in so many scenes.

6. CBS execs were not impressed when they previewed Charlie Brown Christmas. They didn’t like the voices done by real kids, there was no laugh track, it moved too slow and they didn’t like Linus reading from the Gospel of Luke. Execs were quoted as saying, “You can’t read from the Bible on television.” Ultimately, CBS had made a commitment to their sponsor and reluctantly aired the special.

Charlie Brown and Linus

7. The originally airing of Charlie Brown Christmas brought in 15.4 million viewers, placing it second in ratings behind Bonanza. Charles Schulz and Lee Mendelson won an Emmy award for Outstanding Children’s Programming.

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Strawberry and Almond Spinach Salad

INGREDIENTS
1 LB baby spinach leaves, washed
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1/3 cup slivered almonds, drizzled with honey and slightly toasted
1 cup sliced strawberries
2-3 TBSP chopped fresh dill

INGREDIENTS FOR DRESSING:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar or Truvia
1 TSP garlic, minced
1/4 TSP sea salt
1/4 TSP fresh ground pepper
1/4 TSP dry mustard powder
1/4 TSP onion powder
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk together the red wine vinegar, sugar or Truvia, olive oil, garlic, salt, black pepper, dry mustard and onion powder.

Wash dill and pat dry or use a spinner. Trim off feathery ends, discarding thick stems. finely chop dill and set aside. Wash and slice strawberries.

Wash spinach and spin dry or pat dry with paper towels. Place spinach in large mixing bowl. Thinly slice green onions and add to spinach in bowl. Add slivered toasted almonds and chopped dill and mix together.

Whisk dressing a few time to be sure it’s well-mixed, then add desired amount of dressing to salad and toss.  To keep dressing from making leaves heavy, pour dressing around sides of bowl mixing spinach against it rather than pouring dressing directly on to spinach.

Arrange salad on individual serving plates. Toss sliced strawberries with 1-2 TBSP of dressing, then arrange strawberries over salad on each plate and serve.

Wine Pairings:
The strawberries deliver a bit of tanginess that would benefit from a touch of salt and pepper. This recipe is meant to be easy to make and easy to transport to parties. It’s colorful, it’s light and it’s healthy. Better yet, this recipe is created to pair with wines you’d expect to find at holiday parties like Chardonnay or Pinot Gris. An unoaked Chardonnay will be even better because the fruit and acidity will be more complimentary with the strawberries. Here’s a few wines I’d recommend:

+ Bethel Heights Pinot Gris – Oregon
+ Spann Vineyards Chardonnay/Viognier – Sonoma
+ St. Supéry Oak Free Chardonnay – Napa

Roast Lamb with Shallots, Mint and Mustard

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS For lamb:
1 crown of lamb made from two 8-rib racks (about 4 1/2 pounds total)
3 TBSP butter, room temperature
1 TBSP plus 1/2 TSP Dijon mustard
2 TSP dried rosemary

1 cup dry white wine
large shallots, chopped
1/4 cup chicken stock
3 TBSP fresh mint, chopped

For Spring Vegetables with Mint:
1 1/2 pounds new potatoes, halved
1 baby carrot bunch, stems trimmed to 1 inch, peeled
1 10 OZ. basket pearl onions, peeled
1 LB fresh asparagus, trimmed, cut crosswise into thirds

3 TBSP butter
3 TBSP fresh mint, chopped

Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon mustard and 1 1/2 teaspoons rosemary in bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper. Place lamb in roasting pan. Rub all over with butter mixture. Roast 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. and continue roasting until thermometer inserted into lamb registers 140°F. for medium-rare, about 40 minutes. Transfer lamb to platter; let stand 15 minutes.

Pour off fat from roasting pan and set pan aside. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy large skillet over low heat. Add shallots and 1/2 teaspoon rosemary; sauté until shallots are tender, about 5 minutes. Add wine to roasting pan and bring to boil over high heat, scraping up any browned bits. Add wine to skillet. Add stock; boil until slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon mustard and mint. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon vegetables in center of and around roast. Serve, cutting lamb into chops and spooning sauce over.

To make spring vegetables:
Place potatoes in vegetable steamer and steam 10 minutes. Add carrots and onions and steam until vegetables are almost tender, about 10 minutes longer. Add asparagus and steam until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes more.

Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add mint and vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and stir until vegetables are coated with butter.

Wine Pairings:
The right selection of lamb will make all the difference. Colorado lamb is some of the best in the country and should be readily available at most decent markets. The resulting holiday dish will be tender and flavorful which bodes well for a lighter style red wine. Cabernet or high alcohol reds will most likely overpower the flavors. Here’s a few I recommend:

+ Chateau Musar Rouge 1995 – Lebanon
+ Twisted Oak River of Skulls – Calaveras County, CA

+ Lucienne Pinot Noir Doctor’s Vineyard – Central Coast, CA

+ Cougar Crest Cabernet Franc – Walla Walla, WA

Herb Crusted Filet of Beef

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS
1 3-lb. Beef Tenderloin
3 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup Madeira
2/3 cup Vermouth
1/4 Cognac
1 bay leaf
1 TBSP butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 TBSP marjoram
1 TBSP fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 cup cold water
sea salt and pepper

HERB CRUST:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed
1/2 cup fresh herbs, chopped (thyme, marjoram, rosemary, parsley)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

At least 2 hours before cooking, combine all ingredients together (not Herb Crust or Madeira) in a large bowl or pan. Place meat in mixture and cover entire cut of beef with herb mix. Refrigerate for later cooking.

To make herb crust, place bread in food processor with herbs and garlic. Process until well blended and fine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Grill Method: Preheat grill to medium high. Take beef out of marinade and set marinade aside for later. Cook each side of meat 4 minutes or so giving it a nice sear on all sides. After searing, move beef to upper rack or cooler side of grill and cook 20 minutes.

Oven Method: Preheat oven to 425°F. Oven sear beef (brown sides, about 5-7 minutes each side) then reduce heat to 350°F. Cook for 30-35 minutes making sure to baste throughout cooking.

After beef is done cooking, remove filet from grill or oven and place on a platter, then cover with foil tent. Place platter in oven with oven off and door open, or with the oven on WARM for 20 minutes. Take the marinade that was set aside and pour it into a small saucepan with 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil and reduce liquid by half, add madeira, then reduce by half. Serve sauce on the side late with beef. If you cooked the beef in the oven, you can use the roasting pan instead of a small saucepan so you get all the yummy bits.

To finish, rub herb crust mixture all over beef, brush a light amount of olive oil if needed. Place herb-covered beef back on the grill and cook each side about 2-3 minutes per side taking care to not burn the crust. If using the oven, broil each side for 2-3 minutes taking care to avoid burning.

Carve beef and serve with sauce on side.

Wine Pairings:
Here’s a regal beef dish that’s sure to be a crowd pleaser. If you actually like the people you have over at your house you can bring out the good wines to impress them. Better yet, pull out a magnum. If it’s your family and they’re driving you up one wall and down another you can opt for the lower tier swill. If you dine at Chez Bakas, chances are it’s all good stuff. Because this beef dish requires a little extra preparation, why not serve a wine that’s got a little extra Bruce Lee round house kick to the taste buds? I’d serve these wines with this dish:

+ Quinta do Crasto Old Vines Reserva – Portugal
+ Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon – Washington
+ St. Supéry Dollarhide Ranch Cabernet – Napa
+ Vilafonté Series C – South Africa

Garlic Roasted Chicken

garlic roasted chicken

INGREDIENTS
1 free ranch whole chicken
2 whole heads of garlic, unpeeled and cut in half horizontally
2 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup white wine
3/4 cup chopped fresh herbs: Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Marjoram
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 375°
Rinse chicken inside and out with cold water. Drain and pat dry. Mix together 1 TBSP fresh ground pepper, 1TBSP sea salt and herbs in a small bowl.
In a 9×14 roasting pan, cover chicken with olive oil making sure to coat entire bird. Rub salt, pepper and herb mixture all over chicken including inside the cavity. Wrap chicken legs together with string. Put halved garlic heads into pan around chicken. Put roasting pan in oven on center rack and cook for 20 minutes. Baste chicken with wine and roast for another 25 minutes. Baste chicken again using pan juices. Turn chicken over and repeat process. After 90 minutes chicken skin should be golden brown. Chicken is done when clear juices run from thigh after poking with a knife.

Place chicken on platter with tail in the air so moisture and juices flow downhill to breast meat. Cover with foil and let chicken stand 10 minutes before serving with roasted garlic.

Wine Pairings:
Here’s a chicken dish that’ll go with that buttery butterball Chardonnay you’ve been wanting to open. It’s chicken. Keep it simple and enjoy! A few wines I’d serve:

+ Au Bon Climat Nuits Blanches Chardonnay – Santa Barbara
+ Sokol Blosser Evolution – Oregon
+ Domaine Jean-Marc Vincent, Les Hautes, Auxey-Duresses 2006 – Burgundy

Snowball Cookies

snowball cookies

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
2 TBSP sugar
1 TSP vanilla
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 cup flour
1/4 TSP salt
Powdered sugar

Cream butter
Add all other ingredients, except the powdered sugar.
Mix well.
Shape into 1″ balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees 15 minutes.
These should be light in color, not brown.
Cool and roll in powdered sugar.

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By the time people reach 80 years old they’re most likely retired or taking it easy somewhere with grandchildren.  Not John Shackford—he still runs Shackford’s in downtown Napa roaming the aisles answering any question about anything and everything related to kitchen gadgetry.  John is a walking encyclopedia of kitchen knowledge with several decades of knowledge tucked away in his noggin.

Shackford’s is a family business specializing in all things kitchen, including parts.  You can find virtually anything you need for any kitchen tool there in stock.  You have a Cuisinart coffee maker made in 2001 that needs a replacement thingy?  He’s got it, or he’ll get it.  And John is on top of the trends too.  Today he mentioned paella pans being a hot item this winter.

What’s even better are the prices.  In 2009 consumers have become savvy at finding bargains, and this place if full of them.  Everything in the store is on sale.  It’s like combining TJ Maxx with Williams-Sonoma in a hardware store setting.  Aisles and aisles of pristine pots, pans, spoons, racks, platters, glassware and anything else you can image are all packed onto basic looking wooden shelves.  This is the kind of store foodies would geek out in for hours.

Shackford’s is open Monday thru Saturday 9:30-5:00.

Shackford’s on Yelp

Guest post from Kevin Vandever

My wife and I along with friends, Peter and Renee, were visiting Paso Robles, CA for some wine tasting about 4 years ago and we decided to start our Saturday’s tasting tour at Hansen’s Winery. Bruce Hansen and his wife Sheila run Hansen’s and are very nice people so we all hit it off pretty quickly. The fun started in the tasting room with their outstanding Cabs, Zins, and one of the best Viogniers I have ever tasted, but soon expanded to placed beyond. Bruce seemed to feed off our enthusiasm for his wine so he invited Peter and me to check out his operation. He gave us a tour of his facility, let us push the “cake” (the grape skins) back into the juice, and even allowed us to play mad scientists with him as we blended various samples from the barrel room. That was especially fun and we came up with some great blends. While Peter and I were experimenting in the barrel room, Sheila was giving the ladies a tour of the rest of the property, which included feeding and walking her horses. We all were having such a great time, but were getting hungry so they invited us to stay for a late afternoon lunch. We had been shopping earlier that day and had picked up stuff for sandwiches so we set up a picnic table, broke out our food, and enjoyed some Hansen wine for lunch. In total, we spent around 7 hours at Hansen’s and left just in time to visit another winery or two before joining them at their favorite restaurant for dinner that evening. We have become good friends with the Hansen’s and no trip to Paso is complete without visiting their place. We sometimes stay in their guest house. Whatever the case, we have learned to make Hansen’s our last stop if we care at all about sampling anyone else’s wine

serves 4-6

1 4-lb. whole frying chicken
finely chopped herbs- thyme, parsley, rosemary, marjoram, bay leaf
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
36 unpeeled garlic cloves
fresh herbs for the pot- bay leaf, bunch of celery, bunch of parsley, sprigs of marjoram, rosemary, sage and thyme
1 cup dry white wine
10 small white potatoes
12 small white onions
4 carrots, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 lb peas, fresh or frozen
2 TBSP flour
Salt and Fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Put chopped herbs inside chicken.
Pour 1 cup olive oil into large dutch oven with lid. Add fresh herbs to the pot and all of the garlic.
Set the chicken on the bed of herbs in the pot. Roll the chicken around in the herbs coating all sides of the chicken, add dry white wine. Add vegetables to the pot surrounding the chicken.
Cover and bake for 1-1/2 hours.
Remove from oven and let sit for 15-20 minutes without lifting the lid. Serve in a bowl or on a plate.

This is a tasty one-pot meal that has everything you need.  It’s perfect for a weeknight when there isn’t as much time after work to prepare an elaborate meal.  Wine pairings for this meal are pretty easy.  Chardonnays, unoaked Chardonnays and White Chateauneuf-du-Papes pair well.  Some great wine pairings that come to mind:

Hahn SLH Chardonnay
Clos Poggiale AOC Vin de Corse White
Robert Skalli Chardonnay
Chateau Musar Cuvee Blanc
Maison Bouachon La Tiare du Pape

Beer Pairing:
Allagash Tripel Reserve
Avery White Rascal