Limoncello

Preparation

Apparently I had a lot of catching up to do on the food blog, posting a few times this week should catch me up to where I am right now.  I’ve experimented with a lot of things that I’d been wanting to try and finally got to a lot of them.  Hopefully later this week or next week I’ll cover a cool lamb dinner I made a couple of weeks ago because it was fantastic and because I’ve got more things I’ll be making in the coming weeks and don’t want to fall so far behind again!  So the next post will definitely be the lamb dish I made (especially since I’ve been asked by a lot of people for the recipe).

5 weeks in the jar

So here’s a brief post on something I make at the onset of the cooler months - which for us here in New York, is around October.  Citrus fruits are good in the cooler months.  And I love limoncello.  Not that stuff you find in liquor stores that’s bright yellow and gooey and thick - personally I think that’s gross.  To me, a proper limoncello is the kind you make at home.  And everyone always sounds so impressed when I saw I make it at home, but the truth is, it’s really easy to do.

I have a large jar, I’m not exactly sure how large it is but it’s very large.  To make the limoncello, I peel 12 lemons - and I only use the peel, no pith (the white part - it tastes bitter).  I place the peels in the jar and then add 2 liters of vodka.  It doesn’t have to be expensive vodka - Absolut or Iceberg will do.  I seal the jar and let it sit for 5 weeks.  I shake it once a day and keep it out of the sunlight.

The finished product!

At the end of the 5 weeks, I decant it (and it smells amazing) into a large bowl or pot, and in a medium sized pan, I make a simple syrup of 6 cups sugar and 3 cups water.  Simple syrup is easy to make - swirl the pan around but don’t stir it - that might make it grainy instead of clear and smooth.  Once the syrup cools, I add it to the lemon infused vodka, stir it, and put it in bottles (usually a few empty vodka bottles) and it’ll last in the freezer for about a year (if you can prevent yourself from drinking it all in under a year!).

Sounds really easy, right?  That’s because it is.

There are also 2 variations on limoncello, which I’ve made a bunch of times as well.  One is mandarino - I peel 9 mandarin oranges (I’ve used tangerines instead) and use the same amount of vodka and simple syrup.  The other is zenzerino - that’s the peels of 7 naval oranges and 1/2 lb fresh grated ginger and the same amount of vodka and simple syrup.  (At least that’s what the recipe calls for - I prefer finely chopped ginger as it doesn’t just turn to sediment instead and the drink remains clear once decanted.)

Enjoy limoncello after dinner, or use it as an ingredient in some really fun cocktails!

Venison, More Homemade Bread, and Madiran

Here’s something interesting I had been wanting to work on for quite some time - venison.  I enjoyed it in restaurants and I just really wanted to attempt it at home.  And my first observation is that venison apparently is far easier to find in a market than quail is.  Go figure.

Anyway, I heard that juniper pairs particularly well with venison.  It kind of does, except that I like the flavors of meats, especially game type meats.  So both gin marinade and crushed juniper berries for a crust were recommended to me, and I did try both.  It worked of course but next time I’d go without so much juniper.  The meat certainly is delicious though.  So all I really did was buy venison tenderloin (d’Artagnan product) and marinate it briefly in some Tanqueray (just a very small amount), and then crust it with crushed dry juniper berries.  I cooked it at probably around 350F.

The sauce on the venison was a drizzle of cooked blackberries with wildflower honey, sugar, and apple cider vinegar (with a sprig of rosemary) which after it cooked and cooled, I put it through a sieve.  It was good.

The side dish I made was another homemade loaf of bread which was fun and it seemed so much easier than the first time.  (See my quail dinner post for the first loaf of bread.)  This time I sauteed a small amount of finely chopped onion and added it to the bread dough, along with finely chopped fresh sage from my rooftop garden, and the crust was topped with grated Swiss cheese.  The bread, I think, was amazing.  I’d do that one again in a heartbeat, and of course I’ll keep learning new flavors too.

The wine I chose to pair was a Madiran - the 2008 Chateau Peyros Vieilles Vignes.  I love Madiran - they’re so wonderfully dry and rustic and expressive, and made of mostly Tannat, often with some Cabernet Franc.  It’s a very honest wine (with nutritional benefits - read up on Tannat and resveratrol!) - and it’s a great pairing with something gamey like venison.  (I like Tannat paired with lots of things actually, and regularly make excuses to do so.)

Anyway it was quite a learning experience and delicious.

Autumn Appetizer - Goat Cheese Stuffed Figs

I’m a summer sort of person - I love the hot weather, I love drinking rose’ on the porch or dock, I love watching baseball, I just prefer summer over any other time of the year.  But when it comes to recipes and cool flavors and aromas, few things can top autumn.

I’ve got so many food related posts to work on as I’ve been experimenting quite a lot in the kitchen these days, but something I’d like to share this weekend is my favorite autumn appetizer.  It’s easy and fairly quick to make and very seasonal, and I’ve been making it for a few years and each time I enjoy it more.

Basically, they’re goat cheese stuffed figs.  Simple enough, right?

We have fig trees in our yard but they’re easy enough to find in a store at this time of the year, and I mean fresh figs, not the dried kind, as they’re easier to stuff when they’re fresh, as opposed to reconstituted.  Anyway, I recommend black mission figs.  And you can buy the small log of fresh plain goat cheese or you can buy the crumbled kind (which is actually a lot easier when stuffing, but it’s up to you and depends on what you can find, obviously).

I begin by cutting the stem plus a bit of the top off the fig, and then I clean some of the inside out of the fig - leave some but clean some out.  When you’ve cleaned out all the figs, begin stuffing them with goat cheese.  Once they’re all stuffed and on a platter, sprinkle them (and be conservative) with ground nutmeg, and drizzle with fresh lemon juice (again, be conservative) and honey.  It’s to die for.

I’d recommend some prosciutto di Parma on the side - the delicate meat and saltiness is perfect alongside the sweet fig and tangy goat cheese.  And I’d also recommend a sparkling wine - I almost always go with a sparkling rose’ when pairing with this appetizer.

Sounds easy and delicious?  That’s because it is!

Goulash & Blaufrankisch

Being a sales representative for a company that imports and distributes mostly French wine and having a name like Jacqueline, often people assume I’m French until they find out otherwise.  And generally, I identify myself as a Sicilian American, since that’s pretty much how I was raised.  But I’m also Hungarian and Slovakian (or, as I’d like to call my Hungarian heritage, Magyar).  And what I’ve noticed in the past few years is that while it’s quite common to be of Italian, Irish, German, Polish, etc. heritage, being Hungarian is a little less common and lately there have been quite a few Hungarians and Hungarian Americans coming out of the woodwork - it’s like we find each other somehow and embrace the common thread.

But Hungarian or not, I’m sure you’ve all heard of goulash.  It’s a delicious Hungarian stew or soup, and I’ve been enjoying making that, even a little more often now.  It’s generally served over egg noodles (that have bee lightly buttered and sprinkled with parsley).  The stew itself consists of vegetables, beef, wine (of course), and it would hardly be Hungarian without paprika.

How about I just tell you how it’s done?  It’s a little time consuming as I’ve clocked it even when I’m moving as quickly as if I were making marinara sauce, and prep time and cook time combined, it gets to somewhere between 2 and 3 hours.  Anyway, I use about a pound and a half of stewing meat (but I still cut away any fat) and cut it into fairly small pieces.  Some say to toss them in flour, but since my dad doesn’t care much for flour in most dishes, I tend to avoid the flour.  And it doesn’t seem necessary anyway.  I heat a bit of olive oil in the large round Le Creuset Dutch oven and brown the meat, seasoning it with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.  Once the meat is cooked, I remove the meat to a separate bowl but keep the juices left behind.  In the juices, I cook 3 medium sized yellow onions cut into thin rings, roughly a dozen garlic cloves peeled and cut in half, and one of those packages of baby portobello mushrooms (I believe that’s about 8 oz), which I cut into quarters.  I add a bit more olive oil and cover the pot, cooking on med-high heat until the vegetables are softened but have not browned.  I then deglaze the pot with some red wine (some recipes call for sweet red wine but I prefer a good quality dry red with some fruit characteristics).  After letting it cook a bit longer, I add about 2 cups of beef stock and I put the meat back in, as well as a small jar (drained) of roasted red peppers which I love (and I cut them into fairly small pieces), and a quarter of a cup of paprika.  Stir it all together and cover and cook on simmer-low for somewhere around an hour and a half.  The meat will be a lot softer and the stew will have thickened a bit and reduced somewhat.  Once it cools a bit, I add a cup of sour cream and stir it in, and heat it up again and serve it over the noodles.

It’s really easy, just a little time consuming, like I said.

My favorite pairing is currently Blaufrankisch, from Austria.  I’m a sucker for Austrian wines, both red and white, as I mentioned in my last blog post.  But something about the dry, spicy, earthy, and somewhat tart red wine like Blaufrankisch just seems so perfect with the goulash.  Eventually I’ll try a Hungarian red with it, but for now, Blaufrankisch suits me just fine (and as in the case of Zweigelt and how I like saying the word, it’s the same thing with Blaufrankisch, I like saying it).

So, in 3 days, I’ll be sitting in a Guild of Sommeliers master class on Austrian wine - while I’ve got a cool new blog post coming on this blog about a great experiment I did this week, my next blog post will probably be on the Austrian class, and it’ll appear on my other blog, Champagne Taste, so please be sure to check it out!

Pairing: Red & Fish?

Niles Crane is convinced he’s got a case of the munchies in one Frasier episode - and he feels he’s doing something radical by pairing “Chilean sea bass with this aggressive Zinfandel!” - he’s right, of course.  You don’t want to pair a wine with a food it might overpower.  But let’s face it - there are few really hard rules in food and wine pairing, and believe me when I say it’s ok to pair some heavier whites with meat dishes and some lighter reds with fish dishes.  (I’m quite open minded with lots of pairings - just don’t try to convince me to drink brut Champagne with cake or chocolate - it’s not romantic, it’s disgusting.)

I’ve had red Burgundies with fish lots of times and it’s often a good pairing (salmon really loves Pinot Noir!), and I’ve done lighter style Tuscan reds with fish as well.  A good Beaujolais (and I mean Villages or Cru) pairs nicely with fish dishes, and of course you can do most lighter style reds with fish - and keep this in mind - it’s especially important to me when applying the idea to lighter style, bright acidity reds, but in general it’s a good idea to get a slight chill on your reds.  No, I don’t suggest serving it as chilled as a while, but Americans tend to drink our reds at room temperature, as opposed to cellar temperature.  My suggestion then?  Put your bottle of red in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before opening it - trust me, it’ll taste and feel better.  And if it’s got bright acidity with some tart red fruit characteristics, you’ll really want to get that little chill on it, so it won’t have that “bite” to it.

Anyway, most times I drink red.  I do love a good white, especially those from Burgundy, Alsace, and Germany - but oftentimes it’s red that satisfies me.  So recently, I wanted fish but wanted a red that night too, and I was alone cooking that night, so I wasn’t about to open 2 bottles.  For my dinner, I went with a gorgeous piece of sashimi grade tuna, and Asian noodles in a sauce of rice vinegar, soy sauce, lime juice, and wildflower honey, and sesame seeds, carrots, and scallions.  You’re probably thinking, ok, where’s the Riesling and Gewurztraminer?  On most days, I’d be thinking the same thing. But when I crave red, I crave red, and there’s nothing I can do about it.  The red I chose was a Zweigelt.  Zweigelt, you ask?  Zwhat’s that?  Well, it’s a fruity light-to-medium-style red from Austria. Austria makes wine, you ask?  YES.  And I love Austrian wine!  In fact, in less than 2 weeks, I’m attending a Guild of Sommeliers master class on Austrian wine, and I’ll be sure to tell you all about it on my other blog, Champagne Taste.  Anyway, the Zweigelt is a cool thing and it’s good with fish dishes and other light, subtly flavored culinary concoctions.  I find that Austrian wines are very expressive, which is often the case with grapes grown in a cooler climate wine region - the grapes are able to take on the characteristics of the terroir - the soil, air, etc., and then express them to the drinker, uninhibited by other factors like excessive heat, excessive sunlight (excessive sugar and alcohol levels, etc.) - and we can learn more about the characteristics of the wine region that way!  Zweigelt is often a lot less expensive than other Austrian wines like the red Blaufrankisch and some whites including Gruner and Roter Veltliner and Riesling.  And plus, like other Austrian grapes, Zweigelt is fun to say.  It’s got mostly soft red fruit characteristics and a slightly funky, earthy nose, and a clean feel (usually) - so it’s a great red for chilling a bit and pairing with fish.  How did my pairing turn out?  FANTASTIC.

So no aggressive Zinfandels with fish, ok?  But the lighter reds - go for it.

Quail and My First Homemade Bread

Roast Quail,
Balsamic Drizzle

I miss having more time for writing on both of my blogs - I like having a busy schedule but I just miss my writing time, especially when I’m inspired to drink or create something really awesome in the kitchen and have no time to relive the moment.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that for a dinner with my sister, we’d have quail.  And I also decided that with the quail, I’d bake my first loaf of bread.  I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  See, at the local grocery stores and butchers, I’ve seen quail available.  But the day before our dinner, I couldn’t find quail anywhere.

Fresh from the Oven

So the search for quail began.  I called probably around 20 stores on Long Island to see where I could find the quail.  The issue at that point was hardly the fact that I couldn’t seem to find the quail - it was actually the poor customer service I was receiving on my quest.  And this time, I’m not holding back on the names of the businesses.  Most locations I called had no idea what quail was.  An Uncle Giuseppe’s worker went so far as to ask me if quail is seafood.  How can customers possibly find what they’re looking for if the store employees have no idea what’s in their store’s inventory?  After much frustration with local stores, I called D’Artagnan directly, and spoke with a customer service representative - I attempted to order quail for next day delivery, but missed the cutoff by an hour.  I asked her if I could pay a penalty fee to have it shipped next day - I know how this stuff works, as I have to process sales orders for my own job - instead of answering me, she simply hung up on me.  Needless to say, finding quail was an aggravating experience.

Herbed Homemade Bread

And then I called a poultry farm in Huntington - and they had quail - and said they’d hold 4 quails for me.  See?  It’s that simple.  And that’s one of the many reasons why it’s best to shop small and seek good customer service.  So I made the drive to Huntington and was very pleased with what I saw at the farm and shop - I’ll be going back there again!

So what happened with the quail?  We trussed them, rubbed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with sea salt, and sauteed them in the Le Creuset pot for a while, and then transferred them to the oven, until they became golden brown and crispy, and then made a quick balsamic drizzle for them, and voila - perfect quail for dinner!

Langhe Nebbiolo

And about the bread - well, I found what looked like a fairly simple bread loaf recipe, and for someone who makes bread all the time, it probably is very easy - but doing this late at night after work and doing it for the first time made for a challenge and a mess of dough everywhere, but it wasn’t so bad after all - I think I was just worried that it wasn’t going to rise!  But rise it did.  And it was a beautiful and delicious loaf of bread.  The flavors I used were fresh chopped basil, thyme, and rosemary from my rooftop garden, and lemon zest - and a crust of grated parmigiano reggiano - not bad for a first attempt at baking bread!  (And for a bread loaf pan, I highly recommend Emile Henry - heat is distributed correctly and the loaf doesn’t stick to the pan.)  And the leftover bread after our dinner was used for a delicious breakfast with poached eggs - perfect.

What did we pair with our quail and herbed bread dinner?  A Langhe Nebbiolo from Piemonte - dry and bright and clean with lovely cherry and flower petal notes.  There’s an ideal pairing right there.

So, all challenges and frustrations aside, that was a fantastic dinner!