Prosciutto

Food & Wine Pairing: Prosciutto Truffle Salad with Pepperwood Grove Pinot Noir

03.01.2012 14 Comments

Welcome back to wine week! To get caught up, make sure and read yesterdays post:

Rule one: Acid needs acid

I loved (LOVED!!) this recipe and pairing. I am much more of a red wine person and learning about versatile red, with a higher acidity and lower tannin level than most reds, I am able to serve a red wine as a stand in where most people would typically put a white. Because, remember, pairing is more about acid and tannin levels than white versus red.

I CAN have a red wine with white meat!! As long as I can pick the right one.

The wine in this pairing is Pepperwood Grove Pinot Noir, 2009

I really liked this wine, and I loved that I am now able to pair a red wine with white meat if I so desire. Still maybe a bit to tannin heavy for a light, white fish, but works perfect with pork or possibly a chicken dish. AND It’s UNDER $10!! I love that. I love that I can serve a beautiful wine, paired perfectly with my beautiful salad, and no one will ever know that I so incredibly affordable.

This was a recipe that I followed the closest. And I loved it so much I made it twice in the same week. It is easy, full of flavor and has a fancy boldness that is perfect for a dinner party.

It has a super easy homemade dressing that you mix right in the salad bowl.

Printable: salad-recipe

I only made a few minor changes to this recipe:

Since I had truffle oil on hand from when I made this, I used it in place of the olive oil.
Instead of rubbing the bowl and the bread with garlic, I used a microplane to grate it to a paste and spread it on the bread, and just added the garlic paste to the dressing
I grilled the bread slices on my grill pan and served them on the side
I added chopped tomatoes

I really hope you love this salad as much as I did, its simple, fresh and delicious.

Seek out the wine if you can, and remember that it is a red that you can pair with high acid dishes if you are one of those people who doesn’t particularly fall in love with whites.

More food and wine parings coming this week. Stay tuned!

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Halloween Recipe: Avocado Witches Fingers

10.10.2011 35 Comments

Spooky Halloween treat. Looks like slimy, severed fingers, makes you hungry, right? That’s the best part about Halloween, you get to make crazy, gross, appetizers that are inspired by dismembered body parts and people love it.

Spooky Avocado Witches Fingers

4 Avocados
peeled, pitted and halved
1 tbs lemon or lime juice
2 ounces goat cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 ounce prosciutto slices

Cut each avocado half into 4-6 slices. Place in medium bowl and gently toss in lemon juice.

Fill the center of each avocado slice with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon goat cheese mixture.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and chili powder.

Wrap each avocado “finger” with 1/3 slice of prosciutto until the goat cheese is secured to the avocado. Make sure to leave the tip of the avocado exposed, to resemble a finger nail. Arrange the avocados in the shape of a hand on the plate to add extra spookiness. Serve and Enjoy!

Check out my other Halloween Posts:

DIY Glow In the Dark Chosts. Take 5 minutes!

Inside Out Caramel Apples

Prosciutto Wrapped Scallops with a Mango Sriracha Coulis

16.06.2011 20 Comments

A few years ago I found an article in Cooks Illustrated about why I wasn’t able to get a restaurant quality taste out of my grocery store scallops. I had always assumed it my because I just didn’t have the cookin’ chops to compete with a restaurant chef. And while that may be true, it wasn’t the main reason my scallops lacked taste. Here is my Scallops lesson of the day:

Wet vs. Dry

If you buy scallops at the grocery store, they will be wet 99% of the time. This is bad. It means that someone decided to saturate them in a solution of water and phosphates. Because of this, the scallops have a difficult time browning and they have a slightly soapy taste and rubbery texture. If you have a great seafood market, ask if they have dry scallops. If they aren’t sure, the scallops are probably wet. A dry scallop will be, well..dry. If it is sittin’ in a bowl of milk liquid, it’s a wet guy.

I’ll just assume that ya’ll have wet scallops, since that is what is most commonly available, but if you can find dry, buy them. The taste difference is huge (at least to me).

Ingredients

1 quart of water

1/4 cup of lemon juice

2 tbs Kosher or Sea salt

8 jumbo scallops (10-20 per lb size, the little guys just don’t hack it)

2 tbs butter

8 slices of prosciutto

1 tsp-ish of black pepper

1/2 cup fresh, diced mango

2 tsp olive oil

2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp siracha

pinch or salt

Combine the water, lemon juice and 2 tbs of salt in a bowl and soak the scallops for 30 minutes (if you are 100% bet your $20 worth of seafood on it sure that they are dry, skip this step). Remove the scallops and place them on a stack of about 4 absorbent paper towels, then top them with more paper towels and press down slightly. Allow the scallops to drain and dry for about 10 minutes. In a sauce pan, melt the butter on medium high until very hot. Fold a slice of prosciutto in half the long way and wrap around your scallop (you can also cut it in half to make two long strips if you’d like) securing with a tooth pick.

Season the top and bottom of your scallops with pepper. Once the pan is hot, add 4 scallops to the pan (you don’t want to crowd the pan or your scallops will never brown) and cook for about 4 minutes, then turn over and cook on the other side for an additional 4 minutes or until the top and bottom both have a nice brown sear.

in a food processor, combine the mango, olive oil, honey, siracha and a pinch of salt and puree until smooth.

Top the scallops with the coulis and enjoy.