It was an easy enough idea - Let's have a wine tasting party.  Acutally a South American Malbec tasting party.   Husband and I had bought a couple of Malbecs at our favorite wine shop.  After the third bottle in as many weeks we realized we really couldn't compare something tasted 3 weeks apart.  Argentinian and Chilean Malbecs are generally cheap with most under $20 and many under $10 so why not buy several and open them all at once.  Well that's alot to drink for one reason.  Hence the idea for a party.  But how does one do a wine tasting party at home?  I mean at a winery they have the bottles you taste a bit and you buy or not.  But just wine doesn't make much for a party - unless you really drink alot!  I searched the web for info on a wine tasting party but couldn't find much if anything to help.  So we'd have to wing it.  The guests were easy we invited friends who love wine but what should we serve besides wine?

After many possible plans what we decided was to get together relatively early (4:30pm) to have the tasting (6 wines).  Then a couple of hours later (7pm) serve dinner.  They key was not to have too much for dinner and to serve something with the wine. That way we would not be starving by dinner time and not stuffed after dinner.  To go with the wine we went to our favorite Cheese Monger and got four cheeses to match our Malbec.  The cheese monger helped us wonderfully picking mostly Spanish cheeses to match the S. American Malbecs.  We also had some veggies, bread and crackers to keep the cheese course from being too heavy. 

Besides not being to heavy dinner had to be easy because after tasting six wines neither Husband nor I would want (or be able ) to cook anything elaborate.  So we had a pork roast cooked on the grill with a fruit salsa that was prepared earlier in the day, roasted beans and sweet potatoe fries.  Dessert? Well not that we really needed anything but just to top things off we had sliced mixed fruit (from our neighborhood farmers market) with home made whipped cream.  

The event was a hit as were the wines...

Below is a listing of the Malbecs we tasted in our order of preference. Some were bought at The Wine Club  and others at BevMo.  The first place wine was $30 (nope nobody new the price when judging) and all others were under $15.

1. Luca Vintage 2004 Altos de Mendoza, Argentina
2. Finca El Portillo 2005 Valley de Oco Mendoza, Argentina
3. Tamari Reserve 2003 Mendoza, Argentina
4. Montes Reserve 2004 Colchaqua Valley, Chile
5. Filus Reserve 2003 Lunlunta Valley, Argentina
6. Alamos 2004 Mendoza, Argentina

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Pinotage is a South African grape variety that's a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage grapes.

It has a wonderful, full flavor that goes especially well with some of the local foods: bobotie (a minced meat casserole with nuts, raisins, and spices with an egg custard top), springbok (like venison), and fish. 

To find out more about Pinotage wine, take a look at the Pinotage Association in S. Africa. 

Unfortunately, many of the really fabulous tasting Pinotage wines are not available in the United States. However, several from larger wineries are available so you can start your Pinotage exploration. At a local wine store, The Wine Club, I attended their South African wine tasting event which did feature a Fairview Pinotage along with one of my husband's favorite white wines, Chenin Blanc, also popular in S. Africa. Chenin Blanc has a crisp flavor, definitely different than Chardonnay, which is very popular in California, but not as much to my taste buds. I much prefer red wines.

So branch out to other wines of the world such as Pinotage. 

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...Ah the lure of gardening for the cooking aficiando. I get caught-up in it every year. And every year something I plant does really well. I mean really well, actually too well in that I get tomatoes, or eggplant, or zucchini, or cucumbers galore. This year its zucchini and cucumbers. For the past month I've been picking a zucchini or two everyday and about 20 cucumbers a week. I think they are finally starting to slow down. But what to do with all those cucumbers and zucchini? Well if I truly have too much I give excess to food banks such as SecondHarvest. But more often it’s a matter of I'd like to use the food but I'm sick of raw cucumbers.

Cucumbers seem difficult to find diverse recipes for. The best thing I've found to do (other than giving Husband 2 a day for lunch) is to make pickles. Now I'm not talking about canning pickles where they cook on the stove and you have 20 gallons of cucumbers for the year. I'm talking about cucumbers that go directly into the refrigerator. Its quick, easy and they taste great. If you've never done it I highly recommend you try it. Generally the recipes use 5-10 pickles, take little or no cooking and are edible in 12 hours. I make both Dill and Sweet pickles this way.

As for stuffing my zucchini with my cucumbers - I'm sure such a recipe exists out their but do we really want to combine two ingredients that are about 95% water?

Dill Refrigerator Pickles (modified from here)

1 onion sliced or coarsely chopped
2 c. white vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. non-iodized salt (ie. canning salt)
Several sprigs of dill or 1 tbsp. dill seed
4-6 Cucumbers

1. Place onions through dill in a gallon glass jar.
2. Fill jar 1/4 full with cold water.
3. Shake jar to mix ingredients and dissolve sugar/salt.
4. Wash but do not peel cucumbers. Slice cucumbers and put into gallon. Continue adding cucumbers until jar is full.
5. Fill jar to the top with cold water. Shake jar with above ingredients. Fill jar with cold water to the top.
6. Place in refrigerator. Pickles will be ready to eat in 12 hours. Keep in refrigerator. They generally last 3 - 6 months.

Notes:

• I have found 4-5 sprigs of dill works for our tastes.
• I do the initial 1/4 filling before cucumbers are added to ensure the ingredients get well mixed.
• The cucumbers can be cut into a variety of shapes including lengthwise slices, wedges, and crosswise slices. It’s really just a matter of personal taste.

Sweet Refridgerator Pickles

The sweet pickles recipe I use can be found here. I only use half the amount of celery seed.

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Have you ever eaten arepas ? They are a Venezuelan staple. At first I didn't like the soft mushy center and would have them made very flat with just a crispy outside filled with ham and cheese, tuna or any other number of fillings. After a few months of living in Venezuela, I became like the locals and ate the arepas the way they are meant to, with a soft doughy center.

Arepas are kinda like an English muffin, but with a crispy outside and a softer inside. They are used in place of bread for a sandwich like meal or snack. They can be savory with the fillings I've already mentioned but could also be a sweet with something like guava jam.

It's been many years since I lived in Venezuela and I used to make the arepas for my family in the USA, but haven't in so many years. And now that there is a great Venezuelan coffee house in Palo Alto, Coupa Cafe, that serves probably 20 different arepas, fabulous hot chocolate and such wonderful desserts that I don't have to even mourn my not making arepas anymore.

If you live in the SF bay area and haven't tried arepas or Coupa Cafe, I'd highly suggest it.

Chao Vicki

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How many kids like Fig Newton cookies ? Well as a child they were my favorite. My grandmother would actually send me a box for my birthday. But then again what kid chooses blueberry crumb pie for a birthday cake ? Me.

So now as an adult, having fresh figs is the best. A reminder of great summer days and the better flavors of fresh figs.

A more grown-up version of fig newton cookies Fig And Almond Squares from Cooking Light (September 2006)

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