Texas Wine Twitter on Tuesday, September 6: Food & Wine Pairing Advice

If you like to lurk rather than comment, ease your transition to interactivity by joining a Twitter conversation about pairing wines and foods next Tuesday, September 6 at 7 p.m.

The live “conversation” takes place completely on Twitter and will feature an interactive discussion (via Tweets) with Texas wine maker Don Pullum of Sandstone Cellars.

Here’s what the event’s organizers want you to know:

Sandstone Cellars’ Don Pullum, Texas grape grower and consultant winemaker, will present three recipes and six wines from Texas and beyond that highlight the role of acidity in both food and wine, and discuss how acidity plays a key role in wine and food pairing. His selected food and wine pairings include:

Andalusian Gazpacho

• Texas Wine: Duchman Family Winery 2009 Dolcetto Bingham Family Vineyards

• Non Texas Wine: Bonny Doon 2010 Vin Gris de Cigare (California)

Kefta Kebabs with Couscous

• Texas wine: Haak Vineyards 2008 Tempranillo Reddy Vineyard

• Non Texas wine: Campo Viejo 2007 Crianza Rioja (Spain)

Vanilla Ice Cream with Warm Apricot Jam

• Texas wine: Texas Hills Vineyard 2010 Orange Moscato Newsom Vineyards

• Non Texas Wine: Quady 2009 Essencia (California)

Pick up one or more of the wines, possibly even prepare one or more of the recipes, and participate in September’s TXwine Twitter Tuesday.

The recipes can be found below, or from here: http://vintagetexas.com/blog/?p=5325

Andalusian Gazpacho (serves 4 – 6) can be made the day before and refrigerated

3 ½ oz stale bread (crust removed)

2 lbs very ripe tomatoes (peeled)

1 green bell pepper (finely chopped)

2 cloves of garlic (peeled)

¼ cup white wine vinegar

Juice of one lemon

2/3 cup Extra Virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons sea salt

Soak the bread in 2/3 cup of water for a couple of minutes. Squeeze out water. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend to a fine puree. Pour into a large bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Place the below garnish items in individual serving dishes and serve with the Gazpacho.

Garnish

1 small onion (finely chopped)

1 firm ripe tomato (peeled, seeded, finely chopped)

1 green bell pepper (finely chopped)

1 small cucumber (peeled, seeded, finely chopped)

1 hard boiled egg (finely chopped)

Wine Pairings:

Texas Wine: Duchman Family Winery 2009 Dolcetto Bingham Family Vineyards
Non Texas Wine: Bonny Doon 2010 Vin Gris de Cigare (California)
– — –

Kefta Kebabs with Couscous (serves 4)

1 small brown/yellow onion (roughly chopped)

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 lb ground lamb (may substitute ground lean beef)

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon sea salt

Lemon wedges as garnish

Chili garlic sauce (Tuong Ot Toi Viet-Nam by Huy Fong Foods) as garnish

Place peeled onion, parsley, and coriander in food processor and puree. Add lamb, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt. Process until well integrated.

Divide the Kefta mixture into eight even portions, molding each portion into a football shape. Insert a metal skewer into each kebab, lengthwise, and place on tray. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

Place kebabs on a lightly oiled pan and place in a 400 F, preheated, oven for about ten minutes. Take from oven and let rest two to three minutes before serving over the couscous.

Couscous

Pick up some couscous at your local grocery and prepare as directed on packaging.

Please keep the garnishes separate from the course. We’ll be tasting the dish and wine without the garnishes and then with the garnishes.

Wine Pairings:

Texas wine: Haak Vineyards 2008 Tempranillo Reddy Vineyard
Non Texas wine: Campo Viejo 2007 Crianza Rioja (Spain)
– — –

Vanilla Ice Cream with Warm Apricot Jam

Select your favorite vanilla ice cream at the grocery (for this pairing, do not use low fat product)

Warm apricot jam

Apricot jam from your grocery

Juice of ½ lemon

Heat ¾ cup of apricot jam in a saucepan and stir in lemon juice. May loosen sauce with a little water.  Set sauce aside. We’ll be tasting the ice cream and wine without the sauce and with the sauce.

Wine Pairings:

Texas wine: Texas Hills Vineyard 2010 Orange Moscato Newsom Vineyards
Non Texas Wine: Quady 2009 Essencia (California)

NOTE: If you’re new to Twitter, here’s how you participate:  just sign up for a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com. To make it easy to follow and participate in the discussion, go to the Tweetchat room set up for TXwine Twitter Tuesdays: http://tweetchat.com/room/TXwine. No registration is required; you can login using your Twitter account. In the Tweetchat room, participants are invited to follow tweets, add comments, and share thoughts. Participants should use the hashtag #TXwine with Tweets, if using TweetDeck or another Twitter application.