Rooftop Gourmet

In 2007, the Boston Red Sox brought up Dustin Pedroia from the minors and he produced 8 HR, 50 RBI, a .317 Batting Average, a Rookie of the Year award, and a World Series Championship ring for only $380,000. Talk about value!  This is the same concept that 90+ Cellars, a relatively new and local company, offers with their wine. 90+ Cellars, “is taking advantage of the current economic conditions and purchasing high quality and highly rated finished wines direct from wineries at a discount and passing the savings on to our customers. Our primary selection criteria for wine opportunities is not just price and availability – the wines we purchase must have a pedigree of 90 or higher ratings, best buy or gold medal accolades from major publications. Other companies that offer this concept are usually buying the winery’s excess or distressed wine that they cannot sell on their own for pennies on the dollar. We are buying the winery’s best and most highly rated finished wine, which they would normally sell under their own label. Wineries are willing to sell to us because they either produced more than they need or sales may have slowed down. The wineries in return are promised complete anonymity, which we take very seriously.”

I think that this is an amazing concept and it gives the consumer a chance to try some wines that they typically might not splurge for but now are able to afford and enjoy. I decided to pair the 2007 “Lot 6″ Barossa Valley, Australian Chardonnay with my grilled swordfish dish. I picked up a thick slab of fresh swordfish from Yankee Lobster and seasoned it with fresh thyme, salt, and pepper.

While fighting off the nagging rain, I managed to get out onto my deck and grill the fish to perfection without getting soaked. Due to the density and weight of the swordfish, I decided to pair the fish with a sauce that is typically reserved for something other than seafood. I made a creamy walnut sauce in the blender by pureeing buttermilk soaked bread, garlic, thyme, and toasted walnuts to a smooth consistency. When the rich, nutty sauce was spooned over the grilled swordfish it didn’t overpower the meaty flesh at all.

The fish was still moist and flavorful, while the herbaceous cream sauce tied the fresh fish together with the sweet, roasted butternut squash. I added some steamed Swiss Chard to the dish to give it some bitterness and acidity. The Lot 6 Chardonnay was surprisingly rich despite no oak barrel aging, and it paired beautifully with this dish. The tropical fruit, and pineapple aromas were pleasing, followed by some intense complexity and peach flavors on the palate.

There was plenty of acidity on the finish which I consider to be a key component to being a great food friendly wine; just what was needed to cut through the creamy walnut sauce. The finish seemed to linger forever with subtle honey and citrus flavors; only fading due to another heaping fork-filled bite. Even though all of the components to this dish are extremely rich and wintry, I was still able taste the swordfish because of its meaty texture. Of all white fish, the swordfish is the most dense and almost has the consistency of chicken.

Don’t be afraid to throw rich flavors at bold pieces of fish like swordfish or salmon… they can handle it. If you’re looking for high quality wines at an affordable price, make sure you pick up some 90+ Cellars; it’s like driving a Mercedes and paying for a Mercury.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I peeked into the fridge to see what I could make for dinner and I went into one of those fridge comas where you don’t realize that you’re staring into the abyss with the door wide open for about fifteen minutes.  I got so frustrated by the random mix of ingredients and my loss for creativity that I opened the dreaded “Take Out Menu” drawer. After scrolling through nine different Chinese Food menus that I yanked out of my mailbox (they’re all the same anyway, I have no idea what I was looking for) a lightbulb went on in my head. I had some fresh Chinese Lo Mein noodles in the fridge and a hodgepodge of vegetables… I could make my own Chinese Food!

This was a daring move because I  have never really attempted to make Lo Mein but I have been experimenting with a lot of Asian flavors recently so I went for it. I picked up a skirt steak from the grocery store and rushed back to get it into a marinade. Skirt steak is one of my favorite cuts of beef because it is ridiculously flavorful and super inexpensive; the key to its tenderness is in the angle in which you slice it.

I raided the fridge and pantry and came up with a marinade consisting of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ponzu, dried ginger, chilies, honey, and fresh tangerines. A perfect balance of heat, sweet, salty, bitter, and Umami… yes Umami. The proposed “fifth sense” that has become more widely known as of recently; is tricky to describe. Umami is due to the detection of carboxylate anion and glutamic acid, a natural occurring acid in meat, cheese, broth, stock, and other protein-rich foods and serves as a flavor enhancer… I just call it savory, rich, and earthy (soy sauce has all these components).

After about eight hours in its Umami rich bath, I simply grilled the steak to medium-rare and sliced it thinly against the grain of the meat, making sure to save the marinade which I reduced later to saute the vegetables. I had some spinach, radish, and shallots and that was about it so I sauteed the spinach, cut the radish into matchsticks, and fried the shallots to add some crunch to the Lo Mein. The noodles only took a few minutes to cook and in no time I was tossing all of the components together with a little sesame oil.

When it comes to spicy Asian food, I typically turn to semi-sweet Alsacian whites such as the 2007 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer. The acidity that this wine lacks is made up for with tons of fruit and minerality. It is full gold in color and has aromas of ginger, clove, and herbal tea. On the palate, the fruit hits you boldly up front with tons of lime, tangerine, and honey but it finishes with a peppery crispness.

The oily, nutty-ness of the sesame oil and the salty soy sauce worked perfectly with the sweet flavors in the Gewurztraminer. The one thing I learned from this experience is that Chinese food at 3:00 am after the bar is good, but homemade Chinese food is better!

As I was taking the trash out yesterday I noticed some construction going on behind my apartment building so I wandered over to see what was going on. Someone was replacing the front steps to their building and there was a huge pile of old bricks laying in the street. Strangely enough I immediately thought about an old Tuscan cooking technique that has been around for centuries and I knew what was in store for dinner. I walked over and grabbed a handful of bricks and carried them up four flights of stairs to my kitchen where my girlfriend looked at me like I had three heads. Pollo al mattone, or chicken under a brick is classic Italian dish where, sure enough, you cook the chicken under the weight of a brick.

The idea is to basically fry the chicken skin side down in its own fat and juices. The weight of the brick presses the bird to the dry pan and while cooked slowly over medium-low heat, the fat in the skin starts to render. Soon enough the chicken will be pan frying in its own fat. The result is a golden brown, crispy, crackling skin and a tender, juicy inside. The preparation and butchering of the chicken is probably the most important part of executing perfect results. I start with a whole chicken (it’s extremely cost efficient to buy whole chickens and butcher them yourself) and with cooking shears, I snip both sides of the breast bone and remove it; splitting the entire chicken in half. I discard the wing , dislocate the leg from the thigh, and de-bone the breast making sure to leave all of the skin intact. What I end up with is a boneless breast and a leg with the skin on… a perfect portion (for me at least).

 The next part is loud and obnoxious so make sure to warn your neighbors before they call the police. Using the bottom of a heavy skillet smash the half chicken on your cutting board until it is as flat as possible. This is extremely important because you want as much surface area of the chicken touching the pan as you can. I wrapped my bricks in tinfoil so that my chicken didn’t taste like 40 years of the bottom of my neighbors’ shoes, and got a pan on the stove with a little olive oil. I placed my chicken in the hot pan skin side down and quickly applied the pressure from the bricks.

I wanted to serve the chicken with a fresh salad with tons of acidity because I thought that something light would be nice with the crackling, salty skin. I shaved some fennel bulbs and stalks and simply tossed them with baby arugula, tangerine supremes, and shaved red onion. Just a dash of extra virgin olive oil and some freshly squeezed lemon juice and the salad was complete. The sweet tangerine was great with the faint anise flavor of the fennel and the salad in general really lightened up the whole meal.

After the skin on my chicken was nice and crisp, I finished it in the oven to cook throughout with a little rosemary, thyme and garlic. I chose to pair this dish with the 2008 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc-Viognier blend from California. The wine is comprised of roughly 80% Chenin Blanc and 20% Viognier, resulting in a wonderfully light, yet complex wine. The nose is very floral and citrusy, and the wine tastes like melon and pear with a slightly off-dry finish.

There was just enough acidity and lime flavors that paired nicely with the golden brown skin, and the juicy meat didn’t overpower the wine at all. I typically don’t care for Viognier but when blended with the Chenin Blanc, it was very pleasant; definitely a good choice to pair with turkey. If you’re looking to change things up this holiday season, try cooking your Thanksgiving turkey “al mattone”, or take a walk through a construction site to get inspired for dinner.

Due to the recent “Green Movement”, I constantly get asked about certified organic wine and one specific bottle usually pops into my head. The 2006 Mas de Gourgonnier Rouge les Baux de Provence is a magnificent wine that is truly expressive of the land and area it comes from, and they have been making this wine organically for decades. A vineyard that has been sprayed with pesticides and chemicals looks like the moon; not a weed or bug in sight, only vines growing out of really hard soil. A vineyard that is organic such as the Mas de Gourgonnier domain looks a lot more like a picture of life and nature. There are birds and insects flying around, weeds, and cover crops (intentionally planted crops to distract nasty pests and renew the soil)  growing in between the rows of vines.

In Provence, and in this vineyard specifically rows of garrique grow throughout the limestone rich soil and emit an amazing herbal and floral aroma. Garrique is the term for a low, shrubland that when in season is filled with aromatic flowers, thyme, rosemary, and lavender. When garrique grows in a vineyard it is usually what gives wine its earthy or barnyard tones. The Mas de Gourgonnier vineyard which is flooded with garrique and also lined with organically grown olive trees inspired this slow cooked lamb dish.

I decided to use New Zealand lamb meat for its gamey flavor along with Cassees des Baux olives (grown specifically in Provence) which have a firm, meaty flesh and faint fennel flavor because they are brined with fennel seed. I stewed the lamb meat with tons of fresh rosemary, olives with their own brine, and an entire bottle of Mas de Gourgonnier along with some other aromatics until the lamb was melt-in-your-mouth tender. I plated the chunks of fragile yet succulent  lamb with an assortment of roasted root vegetables while I reduced the red wine sauce and ladled it over the meat.

The earthy, pine like aromas from the fresh rosemary and the briny olives were a great compliment to the rich red wine sauce and it worked perfectly with the gamey lamb. Just like the wine, the flavors in the dish all came together and were totally expressive of  the particular region; transporting me to Provence. The wine is composed of 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Carignane, 20% Old Vine Grenache, and 10% Syrah; combining specific accents, flavors, aromas, and textures from each grape varietal and coming together to create an amazing wine.

The wine spells like perfumed, herbal, smoky blackberries and has a silky texture despite the bold tannin structure. It tastes like black cherries and finishes with hints of black pepper and the unforgettable aromas of garrique. The sediment lingering in the last glass of the bottle reinforces this wine’s unfiltered, 100% organic credentials. Sometimes going green can be absolutely delicious.

Everyone loves comfort food on a cold, wintery day and my go-to meal to whip up is usually chicken Parmesan. Aromas from a homemade tomato sauce that has been simmering on the stove top all day long fills the air. The tender chicken encrusted in crispy breadcrumbs covered with gooey, melted mozzarella cheese, and sprinkled with tangy Parmesan-Reggiano. Last night I decided to make individual baked chicken Parmesan in over-sized ramekins.

This is a great meal to assemble ahead of time in personal servings and freeze them so that they’re ready to go in short notice. If you don’t have over-sized ramekins, this would still work in a baking dish, loaf pan, or pie dish. I started off by getting my tomato sauce going with a minced yellow onion, toasted garlic, and 2 cans of milled San Marzano tomatoes, which simmered on the stove top all day long.

I brought out one of my favorite tools… the meat pounder/tenderizer and pounded the chicken breasts flat before I cut out perfect circles with a ring mold (a cookie cutter would work fine). The chicken then went through the breading station… first the flour, then egg wash, then the breadcrumbs. I wanted a little bit of extra crunch on the outside so I mixed regular breadcrumbs with panko breadcrumbs. Panko is a type of breadcrumb that is made in Japan, and it totally gives the coating an extra crunch and much more texture.

After the chicken was quickly pan fried to golden brown it was time to start assembling. I simply layered the ramekin with sauce, chicken, Parmesan cheese, slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella and repeated 3 times. I baked the chicken Parm ramekins in the oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese was melted and the Parmesan on top was nice and crispy.

Letting these things cool before digging in was the hardest part because they looked amazing but we had to show some patience so that the sauce didn’t run everywhere. After about 10 minutes resting, I flipped it upside down onto a plate and viola… a baked chicken parm tower! I paired this meal with the 2008 Seghesio Zinfandel who’s 2007 predecessor was in the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the Year list.

This wine is full bodied and packed with gobs of jammy fruit. Zinfandel is typically high in alcohol because of its intense fruit. The natural sugars in these baby grapes shoot the alcohol level up and some can be a little over powering. The Seghesio does a great job of balancing the power with loads of plum and raspberry fruit and a hint of licorice spice.

California Zin is usually a great pairing for classic comfort food dishes such as chicken parm, beef stew, or meatloaf because of its versatility and all around crowd pleasing presence. If you’re a fan of chicken parm like I am, give this version a try and make a couple of extras to put away in the freezer for another cold, rainy day.