MAKE EVERY BITE COUNT - FOOD AND WINE PAIRING

There are several ways to approach the wine and food pairings, whether doing it is at a restaurant or to enjoy the proper wine with your dinner at home. The first step is to decide on the food to be served. At the Inn, I always start with the food. It is much easier for our wine expert and me to match wine to food than food to the wine. If you will be doing multiple courses, make sure to start with lighter flavors and work your way up to bigger, bolder flavors, then end with sweet dessert. The wines will progress the same way and the flavors from the earlier foods and wines will not overpower the following courses.

Once you have the foods decided upon, now comes the tricky part of matching the wines. Of course, the most important choice is to make sure to drink what you like. If you prefer a particular wine regardless of the food you are eating, by all means drink that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with drinking a light white wine while eating a steak, just as there is never an issue with drinking a big cabernet sauvignon with a piece of light fish. What matters most is that you like how your wine tastes. However, to make every bite count, by matching the flavors and characteristics of the wine to the flavors of the foods, I think that you can more fully enjoy how certain wines pair with some foods.

Now that you have decided to try to match wines to your foods, the most basic guideline to follow is light foods go with light wine and heavy foods go with heavy wines. But you must also keep in mind the accompanying ingredients. For example, a Sauvignon Blanc goes very nicely with a piece of fish with a light sauce. However, if you were to add tomatoes and a rich lobster stock to the sauce, a medium bodied red wine like a Pinot Noir will actually be a great choice. The old rule of white with fish and red with meat is a great place to start, but do keep in might what else will be on the fish or meat.

If you are going to do a spicy dish, this will certainly determine what type of wine you choose. Certain wines more perfectly complement the spiciness of certain dishes, just as the spiciness can bring out the good (or bad) flavors of the wine. A slightly sweet Riesling or Gewürztraminer is a very good choice for spicy foods.

The best way to find the best pairing for your food is to do a little internet research. There are hundreds of websites that can guide you to the right match. Simply Google the name of the dish and add “wine pairing” and you should have several hundred links to choose from for a suitable wine choice.

If you are planning a special dinner, another option is to test the dish beforehand with two or more wines. Yes, this can be time consuming or costly, but you get to sample wines and make sure you know how to prepare the dish before the big dinner. Sounds good to me! Make sure to taste each wine without the food first, then, taste each one after taking a couple of bites. See how the flavors all come together (or not, if they are the wrong choices).

Now, if you already have a special bottle of wine, you can always match a food with that. The bottle may have some basic suggestions. If not or if not enough information is provided, go to the winery’s website and look up that wine. There will probably be some more detailed suggestions on what to have with the wine. The next step is Google the name of the wine and add “food match”. There should be plenty of links to follow.

Remember- wine and foods go great together, so do not get too intimidated with finding the perfect wine to drink with your meal. Focus on flavors and characteristics of the foods, do some research, ask questions at the wine store or even call a Chef. I have taken many phone calls and emails from family, friends and strangers asking for advice on what to drink with a particular dish or what to eat with a particular wine.

With all of the wines out there to choose from, it can be somewhat daunting, but drink what you like, like what you drink and make every bite count.

Poached Pears with Spicy Honeyed Vermouth Syrup
This dessert is very easy to prepare, looks fancy and difficult and matches very nicely with a sweet dessert wine like a sauterne or late harvest Riesling.

6 servings
1 bottle dry white vermouth
½ cup honey
½ teaspoon black pepper (preferably freshly ground)
½ teaspoon powdered ginger
1 cinnamon stick
6 pears, preferably Bosc

In a sauce pan deep enough to hold the pears, add all ingredients except pears. Bring to a boil, then, turn to low simmer.

Peel pears, leaving whole with stems intact and cut out core. A melon baller works best to core from the wide, bottom end for this.

Put pears into pot, turn up heat slightly, cover and cook pears until soft enough to easily pierce thickest part with a knife, approximately 20-25 minutes. You can do the pears in batches if needed.

Remove pears from syrup to cool.

Once all pears are cooked, reduce liquid uncovered until it is a thick golden syrup. Let cool.

To serve, place one pear on dessert plate, drizzle with some of the syrup. Garnish with mint and some unsweetened whipped cream. Serve with your favorite dessert wine and enjoy.

Orlo Coots is Head Chef at Adair Country Inn and Restaurant. Enjoy his cooking Thursday through Monday. (603) 444-2600. Orlo can be reached at cheforlo@hotmail.com for any questions about this recipe or any other food-related questions you may have. Remember- whether cooking for 1 or for a crowd, make every bite count.

MAKE EVERY BITE COUNT

As I prepared to write this month’s column, I stopped to think about how I try to make every bite count while cooking here at Adair Country Inn & Restaurant. While making sure to properly season and properly prepare and cook each item of food are important steps, it is really much, much more than that. Also involved is making sure to get the best quality and freshest foods you can buy and correctly storing and handling them.

I then thought about how I go about researching and planning our Dine Around the World menus. I spend time searching on the internet for authentic dishes and food items for each country we “travel” to. The internet has made making every bite count much more accessible. From sites that present culinary traditions and national dishes to shopping sites that allow anyone to purchase just about any ingredient in usable amounts for reasonable prices, the internet has been a very important tool to make sure that our travels are as authentic as possible. It is no longer necessary to just use what is available to somewhat recreate a national dish from a far off country. We are able to research and order the special ingredients that are the difference between the finished dish being a close approximation to it being just like the way the dish is served in the country of origin. It is very satisfying to hear a guest say “We lived there for 2 years and that dish is exactly the way it tasted over there”.

While we do have a very nice Asian market in Littleton, there is very little else nearby when it comes to procuring specialty ingredients. A perfect example is when I was preparing the dishes for our Guatemala dinner, a few of the recipes called for annatto paste, guajillo and pasilla peppers. All the recipes gave alternate ingredients, but those would have made the dishes less authentic. As we strive to make every bite count, authenticity is the goal. I searched on the internet for sources of these ingredients and was able to have them delivered to the Inn. Again, they were delivered in quantities that did not cost too much or such that I will need to use them in every other dish to get rid of them.

So, when you go to prepare you next meal- whether it is a traditional Thanksgiving meal or a special ethnic meal, use all the tools available to you- fresh food, proper seasonings and research on the proper ingredients and preparation. This will help you to fully enjoy the meal knowing that you have made every bite count.

Here is the recipe for our Apple-Cranberry crisp, which was our most popular dessert this past fall foliage season. Fresh local ingredients prepared simply to bring out the full flavors of the fruits. This is a great dessert for your Thanksgiving table.

-butter a 9x9 baking pan
-preheat oven to 350
-serves 6

for topping:
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces butter, cold, cut into pieces
1/2 cup oats (not instant oatmeal)

for filling:
5 apples- mixture of Granny Smith and Macintosh
6 ounces cranberries
¼ cup and 2 Tbsp sugar

To make topping:
Chop walnuts to medium fine pieces, set aside
in processor, put brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt into bowl and
process until sugar is no longer lumpy.
Put butter onto mix, process until mixture resembles coarse meal.
add oats and walnuts, process just too combine
(mixture can be made 2 days ahead and refrigerated).

To make the filling:
Peel, core and quarter the apples. can use peeling machine or peel by hand.
Put apples, cranberries and sugar into mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.
Put fruit mixture into prepared pan. Put walnut topping and spread evenly.
Bake 40-50 minutes until fruit is bubbly and topping is nicely browned.
Serve warm with ice cream.

— Orlo Coots is Head Chef at Adair Country Inn & Restaurant. Enjoy his cooking Thursdays through Mondays by making a reservation at 603-444-2600. Orlo can be reached at cheforlo@hotmail.com for questions about this recipe or any other food-related questions. Remember — whether cooking for one or for a crowd, make every bite count.