Grill It!

Grilling is a great theme for a wine group gathering. There are a lot of wines that pare well with grilled food. There are lots of great appetizers benefit from the flavor kick that grilling adds. In a previous life, I ran a flavor business for Kraft Food Ingredients and our lead tag line was:

Nothing influences that flavor of food more than how it is cooked

Our biggest selling flavor was, you guessed it…Grill Flavor. The truth is that many of the grilled foods that you have bought in a supermarket or enjoyed at a fast-food establishment were not cooked on a grill. Rather, they benefited from a flavor system that was developed by Kraft foods that we sold to food manufacturers in the United States and around the world. Of course we made a full line of cooking flavors like: Fried, Smoked, Roast and Sauté, but nothing sold as well as Grill.

It is no surprise to me that my appetizers that benefit from a grilling step are the most popular things I make. The best examples are:

Grilled Gorgonzola Stuffed Shrimp

Grilled Pizzas

Grilled Flank Steak with Goat Cheese on Toast

It has gotten to the point that if I don’t bring one of these apps to our wine group gatherings, I get complaints. Our friends just love them.

Above Grilled Pizza, Bottom left Grilled Flank Steak Tapas. Bottom right Gorgonzola Stuffed Shrimp

Some might ask why I am writing this piece in the middle of winter? Actually, we are currently in the midst of the biggest snowstorm we have seen in Memphis in 30 years. And, we are still grilling. When we bought our house 30 years ago, the house had a covered back porch. The realtor suggested we could add value to the house by closing in the porch. That never happened as we have kept it open for the grill and a fry station that we use rain, shine, or snow.

Above left daughter Jenn and Ethan’s grill in Ottawa, Bottom left my grill on covered porch in Memphis. Right, internet parody on grilling in Canada

No matter the time of year, the theme of grilling is a great one for a wine group. You could start with a chardonnay pared with the shrimp. Move on to a Rioja with the Grilled Flank Steak Tapas and finish with a Cabernet Sauvignon for the Grilled Pizza. You can’t go wrong with the food and you would be sure to have a good time.

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Homemade Ravioli…Making It Isn’t Easy

But homemade ravioli is certainly worth it. The difference between homemade ravioli made with pasta that has been made with Double Zero flour and store-bought ravioli is like night and day. The texture and mouthfeel that the Double Zero flour gives you is fantastic.

Dean Zanella is a friend of ours that is a chef in Chicago. He makes gnocchi that is unlike any gnocchi I have ever had. To me, most gnocchi are very heavy gut bombs. Dean’s gnocchi are light and airy. I asked him how he got them to be so light. He told me that it was his grandmother’s recipe from Italy and that he could tell me but would have to kill me to protect the secret. Fast forward 15 years and we visited Mama Agata, a chef on the Amalfi coast in Italy. Low and behold, her pasta made with Double Zero flour, produced the same light texture and mouthfeel as Dean’s grandmother’s recipe. Ever since then I have been making some pretty good ravioli.Chefs Harry Crane, Dean Zanella, John Hogan and Lucien Vendome

Making ravioli is a couple hour endeavor. It just takes time. You have to make the pasta dough. Then you have to make the filling. Then the process of making the pasta dough can get pretty tough. It is the kind of thing that if you do it regularly it gets easier. For me, I do it so infrequently, that there is a learning curve every time I make ravioli. It just isn’t easy. Then again, with a second snowstorm in a week, I have a couple hours to play with.

Cheese Ravioli In A Light Savory Herb Sauce

One little detail is that you need a pasta machine to make decent pasta. My brother-in-law Bob Hamilton gave us one 25 years ago. I used it a few times, but until I learned about Double Zero flour, using the machine was more trouble than it was worth. It sat in the attic for years but now it has been promoted to a kitchen shelf.

This story brings me back to a Bolognese sauce I had once at a hilltop castle in northern Italy in the 1990’s. It was amazing. I tried for years to replicate it without success. I thought that maybe it was the setting, the day, phase of the moon. Then I told the story to my favorite chef Lucien Vendome and he asked: Have you tried adding heavy cream? Voila!

My ravioli made with Double Zero flour isn’t easy to make, but pretty darned good. Try it with my Bolognese sauce made with heavy cream and you won’t be disappointed.

Bolognese Sauce

The Perfect Comfort Food

Some times even your wine group needs a little comfort food. It doesn’t need to be a cold snowy day to have comfort food theme for your wine group gathering. There are not many foods that are more comforting than French Onion Soup.

French Onion Soup Recipe

Why not kick off your wine group by greeting your guest with a small ramekin of french onion soup and a nice glass of chardonnay? For me, the challenge with French Onion Soup is that I love it, but a bowl can be too filling. Hence, the idea of starting out your guests with a small ramekin works pretty well. My bet is that even when you encourage friends that they don’t need to finish it, by the end of the evening, everyone will have slurped the last drop and scraped the caramelized cheese.

Another favorite of mine is a dish I call Bistro Clams. It combines some of my favorite food groups, seafood, garlic/herb butter and bacon. You might need a piece of baguette to sponge up the last drops of butter and a glass of cabernet, but you can’t go wrong with this appetizer

Bistro Clams Recipe

Enjoy the comfort.