Adventures in Northwest Wine and Food
For me, food and wine is a
true sensory experience. My husband & I love to cook for our friends and we are always
testing out new recipes on them. With the addition of wine, food can take on a whole
new dimension. I have immersed myself, as much as my day job allows, into wine.
Specifically wine from the Pacific Northwest.As a Washington State native, I grew up with the fresh seafood and produce native to the area. I look forward to local strawberries in the spring & sweet corn in late summer. As well as fresh caught Dungeness Crab out of Puget Sound and the flavorful beef produced by local farmers. The Northwest offers an abundance of wonderful ingredients to work with.
This site is dedicated to the Food & Wine of the Pacific Northwest. Please join me as I explore all it has to offer!
My first thought when I read the theme was brownies. To me, brownies are one of the best desserts. Dense,
chewy, dark chocolate brownies.
The brownie recipe out of the
new Thomas Keller cookbook, Ad Hoc, fit the bill nicely. I mean how can you go wrong with a brownie
recipe that calls for 3 sticks of butter?!
I paired these rich squares of goodness with a dessert wine from Wedge Mountain Winery. Their Roses & Rubies is a raspberry dessert wine that is a very unique. It clocks in at 18% alcohol, which is acheived through natural fermentation without the addition of brandy or spirits. This wine screams raspberry the moment you pop the cork. The aroma is intoxicating. This worked so perfectly with the brownies. Not so cloyingly sweet, with this great tartness on the back palate that balanced the bittersweet chocolate in the brownies. This is a definite winner in my book.
There are a few different methods of cutting the fries.
If you have a sharp knife and a steady hand you could cut them by hand.
We opted to use a french fry cutter. We nicknamed this puppy "the beast" because it is. After much struggling with
a raw potato, we decided that blanching the potatoes is the best course of action. The end result
was what we wanted, a nice even 1/4" cut fry.
You have the option to use a deep fryer or a heavy high sided pot. We have deep fryer, so that is
what we opted for. The nice thing about the deep fryer is that it regulates the temperature for
you. With the dutch oven, you will need a clip on thermometer and have to keep adjusting the
temp of the burner. We filled up the fryer with peanut oil, which is best for frying and dropped in
our first batch. This recipe calles for a double fry method. The first fry is at 320 degrees for
5 to 6 minutes. The second fry is at 375 degrees for 2 to 3 minutes.
What this does is give the fries a crisp golden brown exterior and a soft creamy interior.
A convenient side note that Keller mentions is that you can do the first fry up to 3 hours before the second fry. So, if you are serving these for company or at a party you can get your first fry done ahead of time.
We were very please with the results of this Cookbook Challenge. It was not difficult and I look forward to it making it again soon!
Filed under Eating In
So we decided that for our inaugural week of the Cookbook Challenge we would make french
fries. Not just any run of the mill french fries, but Thomas Keller's Pomme Frites out of his
Bouchon cookbook. I look forward to the crispy goodness!
Filed under Eating In
Filed under Eating In
We attempted to recreate our little bit of Europe tonight. We used a basic baking soda flatbread
recipe, added sliced mozzarella, salami, home pickled onions, parmesan cheese on top. Popped
it in the oven for about 10 min, pulled it out briefly to crack an egg right in the middle, back
in the over for another 5 min. We were pretty pleased with the results.
Filed under Eating In
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