Gewurztraminer and Chicken a True Love Affair

Lately I have been searching the web for new recipes to try and blog about. I have found a lot of great meals that I plan to make in the future. I founded a great website, finecooking.com, this website has so many great ideas for dinner. I had some chicken that I had to cook and I knew I wanted to drink a Gewurztraminer with the chicken. I am in absolute love with Gewurztraminer, especially from Alsace. Plus it's a great pairing!! You don't always need red white with meat. So I Googled Gewurztraminer and  chicken and found a meal that I couldn't wait to make. Braised Chicken with Gewurztraminer, it's a lot like Coq au Vin but delightfully different. It's also a meal that takes some time to make, so it's not an easy weekday meal.

Braised Chicken with Gewurztraminer
Here's what you'll need:
Two-Three pounds Chicken Thighs seasoned with salt
Cup of grapes I used seedless green
Large yellow onion chopped
Two garlic cloves chopped
750 ml Gewurztraminer
Two cup chicken broth
Thyme
Half cup heavy cream
Two teaspoons corn starch

You need to start by browning the chicken in Dutch Oven over Medium/High heat in a tablespoon oil. Don't crowed the Chicken if need be brown them in batches. Set them aside in a bowl, and dump out all but two tablespoons of fat. Add the cup of grapes and cook about two/three minutes. Set them aside and add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook until they are softened. Then add the garlic and cook two more minutes. After the onions and garlic have added their aroma to the room add in the wine making sue to stir up all the brown bites left from the chicken thighs and let reduce by half.

Return the chicken to the pot, add the both and thyme. The recipe called for two tablespoons but all the comments said it was a bit bland, so I added twice as much thyme. Let this come to a simmer, then cover and let cook for 25 minutes. Then take the chicken out of the pot and set a side in a bowl.

Now for the sauce. Bring the liquid to a rapid boil and reduce to two and half cups. Whisk together the cream and corn starch together. Whisk the mixture into the liquid making sure to whisk it until the sauce thickens up. Salt (I used a grey sea salt with herbs that I bought at Beacon Hill Wine and Gourmet in Melrose.) and pepper (I used my own blend of white, green and black pepper corns) to taste. Again the comments were that this came out bland so I added about a tablespoon of each. Put the chicken and grapes back in the sauce and let simmer another five minutes. I served the dish with egg noodles and green beans.

Wow, did this come out great. In the fall when Moscato Grapes are available I would use them instead of the green grapes, but other than that this is a meal that I want to make when people come over for dinner. It took over a hour and half to cook and had a lot of tasks, but it was real easy to make and was the type of meal that makes you feel like a five star chef.

THE WINE:
So what do you serve with a meal like this? No brainier: you serve the wine that you cooked with. It's the perfect pairing as it will not over power or be over powered by the sauce. As I said, I love Gewurztraminer. Most people think it's a German grape but they would be wrong. Gewurz is the German word for spice but the wine is from the village Tramin in Italy. They do speak German in this region. The grape does best in cooler climate so it does well in Northern Italy, Germany and parts of France, mostly Alsace.

In Alsace it can range from dry to very sweet, I personally like the more off-dry styles, like the Gewurztraminer from Joseph Cattin. They have been growing grapes in Alsace since the 18th century, in the 1850s they started making exceptional wines from the region. At the end of the 19th century phylloxera came to destroy European vineyards (sent from the USA by accident). Joseph Cattin studied how to beat the tiny pests and became a very important person by saving the region. I love many of the wines from this vineyard that I have tasted, especially the Riesling and Gewurztraminer. The Gewurztraminer has a wonderful fragrant nose of spicy, tropical fruit and rose petals. As you taste it you get lost in spicy, exotic fruit. It has a great body and the acid really helps calm down the sweetness. This is an fantasticly awesome bottle of wine. I can't wait to dink another bottle of this wine.    

Cheap Eats

In times like these we can't always eat caviar and drink Champagne. Noel and I are moving in a few weeks and we have to tighten our belts to save some money. Tightening belts does not mean you have to eat or drink crap!! Noel and I came up with a great meal that cost close to nothing. It's a stir fry that you add to ramen noodles. I love ramen, they are 20 cents a package, but they can be pretty boring by themselves. By adding the stir fry to them we had a meal that not only cost less than $10 to make but also put a big smile on our faces. I bought some stew beef that was on sale at Shaws. I got pound and half for around $5 and was able to make two meals out of it. Then when at Russo's Market I bought a stir fry sauce that was $1.45 that I marinated the in beef over night. The next day I cut up some garlic, a shallot, half a yellow pepper, handful of snow peas, small amount of baby shiitake mushrooms and some bean sprouts. All these veggies cost us less than $3.

I started with the beef, cooking it for a few minutes before adding the garlic, mushrooms, shallot and a pinch or red pepper flakes. Then after a few minutes I added the yellow pepper and snow peas. As all this was cooking I started the water for the ramen. Ramen is great because it only take three minutes to cook. As all this was cooking in the bowls I was serving this meal in I added the seasoning from the ramen and the bean sprouts. I poured a half cup of the hot water from the noodles, stirred it all up and added the noodles. Then I topped it all off with the stir fry making sure to get some of the sauce in the soup. The meal came out great, there is a restaurant called Wagamama that makes meals just like this but charges $15 each. I made the same thing at home (Noel even said it was better) and it cost less than half that for two meal. Perfect for any day of the week. 

I picked one of my favorite vineyards for the wine. Viu Manent Reserva Malbec. It went great with the meal especially the sauce. I not a huge fan of Malbec, it can be boring at times. Viu Manent makes great Malbec. Great ripe fruits especially berry fruits, with hints of coffee, and mocha, it's got a great body and nice lingering finish. The people at Viu Manent really put love into all their wines and their Malbecs are not exception    

Redtree in The White Mountains

Over the weekend my buddy Tom and I went on a White Mountain hiking trip. It was awesome, we had great weather, great views and we made great food. This time we took a 16 mile trip hitting six mountains, most of them under 4,000 feet, but the last one is a top 10.  Moosilauke is 4802 feet and has some of the best views I have seen so far. 360 degrees and it's the first of the 4,000 plus in the Whites so you have an outstanding view of the rest of the chain. It was a pretty challenging hike, the first day we had to climb straight up, 3,200 feet, right away, and from then on until we hit Asquam Ridge Trail, the trip was up 3,000, down 2,500, up 2,500, down 3,000, up 4,000.

When we finally hit the ridge it was all smooth sailing to the top. The top was really stunning, as you come out of the tree line the turf turns from rocky to a grassy field. Most of the mountains I have been on top of, especially above 4,500 feet, have been all rock face. The hardest part of the trip was the 2.6 miles down, 4,802 feet. I thought the decline would never end, it was like we were marching to the core of the earth. All in all, the trip was one of the best.

If you read The of Love of Wine and Hiking post  you would know that I like to eat well when I'm out hiking. This time I bought some beef jerky  at Nasty Nonni's in Saugus, Janey's beef jerky. It's gourmet beef jerky!! SO GOOD!! So we had the beef jerky, couscous, and asparagus for dinner. It's real easy to do and uses very little gas for the stove. You boil 1 1/4 cup water to 1 cup couscous. While the water is coming to a boil add the asparagus, shallot and beef jerky. When it comes to a boil add the couscous and take it off the heat. Let it sit five minutes and eat. The beef jerky comes back to life and is a real nice treat after a long day of hiking. The problem this time it was a little bland. I had in the pack a red pepper, garlic clove, lemon rosemary oil and old bay. I should have sauteed the shallot, garlic, red pepper and asparagus before adding water and beef jerky. It was a good meal and was great after such a long day. Luckily I had wine and bought a dessert from REI. It was a chocolate pudding: just add cold water, stir up, and let sit 10 minutes.

Breakfast, on the other hand, came out awesome. We brought some eggs (we had already taken them out of the shell and had in a ziplock bag) and made scrambled eggs. We had a dried sausage that I bought at Beacon Hill Wine and Gourmet. I cut that up, added half garlic clove, half red pepper (cut up), the rest of the asparagus and sauted them in the lemon rosemary oil. After it started to smell great, we added the eggs and let them cook about five minutes, then covered them for three more. This was better than any breakfast I've had in a long while. It was a great start to an eight mile hike.

I do like to bring wine with me camping. It is a treat that is worth it's weight in gold. It is hard to bring wine because there's glass (weights a lot) and you have to to bring a half bottle or less due to space in the pack. Lucky for me Redtree Winery just came out with a plastic 187ml (about one glass of wine) bottle of wine. They have Cabernet, Chardonnay and White Zinfandel in this size so far. Great for camping, at the pool, on a boat or when you just want a glass of wine at night. Redtree makes good, inexpensive, everyday wines that go great with dinner. I love their mission statement, "Redtree offers consumers fresh, fruit forward, distinctive varietals of consistent quality and exceptional value that are ready for immediate consumption. These wines are ideal as an aperitif and complement everyday meals as well as special occasions.   We bring global winemaking expertise and resources, focusing on what the consumer demands:  a fruit forward wine style, consistency and excellent value.  We are small enough to provide outstanding service, while big enough to bring the world of wine to our portfolio - authentic, bold, and progressive.", it's so true. I took the Cabernet up with us and it went great with the dinner. Nice dark jammy cherry, medium/full body and softer tannin. Next time I make a stir fry at home I may just open a bottle. Redtree is a wine that my company sells and it's pretty popular wine for us. Right now they are having a contest on Facebook. It's about who has the best looking case stack in a store. If you are on Facebook please go and vote for me, the second link will bring you to their Facebook page, my picture is The Wine Emporium, Boston by Dan.