Salmon | Healthy and Sane

Beer vs. wine pairing party

March 9th, 2011

It was a long day at work today, which makes memories of this past weekend that much fonder.

On Saturday, we were invited to our friends’ Kevin and Trisha’s house for a beer vs. wine pairing party. The idea was to bring a dish that pairs well with one or the other and have some fun! Almost immediately I thought of bringing something spicy to pair with a Riesling, and then a moment of brilliance hit me – mini banh mi sliders. Oh yes I did!

Of course it’s me and I can’t just make a favorite recipe and call it good. And well, dessert needed to happen as well (just in case we didn’t have enough). I made some meyer lemon curd a few days prior so the idea of white wine cupcakes with meyer lemon curd filling and marshmallow wine frosting was born. Sounds fitting for a beer vs. wine party, no?

I started with the white wine cupcake recipe base (using half all purpose and half white whole wheat flour – they were perfectly tender, no whole wheatiness in sight. Yes, that’s a word!)

Then scooped a bit of the cupcake insides (which I saved for a little snack later Winking smile ) and filled the cavities with the meyer lemon curd (don’t overfill them with the curd or they’ll be too intense).

Lastly came the frosting part. I used 1/2 of this recipe for the marshmallow frosting – it wouldn’t harden so I added extra cream of tartar until it came to the right consistency) and it really tasted like marshmallows. I was so excited I forgot to add a bit of wine to it. Oh well, still amazingly delicious! [Adam said it was one of the best desserts I’ve ever made!!]

The recipe made 18 cupcakes. 18 addictively delicious cupcakes. Good thing I had some friends to share it with!! Smile

So now on to the party. We had some super talented cooks, that’s for sure. Andrew impressed us all with his salmon tartar cornets with sweet red onion crème fraiche (recipe from The French Laundry Cookbook!!)

Unfortunately, while I was totally drooling over this, I couldn’t taste the final product given the ahem, red onions. Sad smile I am certain it’s the most amazing appetizer though (I mean, common – it’s Thomas Keller’s recipe!!) so I plan on tackling it one day. How impressed are you with Andrew? He even made the little cones from scratch!

For his pairing, he chose the pale ale by the Victory brewery since he just passed his PHD exam. I liked all the pairings from this dinner so I’m going to direct you to Kevin’s post for more comprehensive beer reviews since he knows a lot more about beer than I do. All I can say is that it went down easy! Winking smile

Next up – my banh mi sliders!! I used grass fed beef instead of turkey, but otherwise followed the recipe to the T. It’s really the best!! I love how the meatballs have a bit of heat, which is enhanced by the spicy mayo and sliced jalapenos and then cooled off by the pickled carrots and daikon radish. Man, I loved these little guys!!

This sweet Riesling was a really good pairing for this spicy dish.

Happy customers Smile

More finger food! Mac & cheese mini cakes to be exact! I believe Melissa used the Wine & Food magazine recipe but don’t quote me on this. These little cakes were perfectly portable, cheesy and indulgent.

… and paired really well with this crisp prosecco. Seriously, best party idea ever!!

Onto some Mexican cilantro chicken with all the fixins (cheese, salsa, tortillas), paired with the Hennepin Belgian style saison.

The chicken had so much flavor and I just love the body of saisons – kind of like wheat beer but with so much more character. Yummmmm.

Our stomachs were getting quite full but there was just one more savory course. Pizza!!

Prosciutto, mozzarella

and balsamic caramelized onion and goat cheese

Paired with a surprisingly light Syrah. Can’t go wrong with pizza + wine!

At this point all of us really needed an eating break so we moved to the living room for some couch (and more drinking) time. Smile

Eventually these molten chocolate cakes (from the Flour bakery cookbook) baked and well, you can’t let perfectly molten chocolate deliciousness wait for you! Now can you? (don’t answer that!)

Paired with this aged Mikkeller Belgian strong ale (brewed with chocolate!).

Heaven!

My cupcakes were a bonus dessert and we all enjoyed them at our leisure.

Someone kept hoping to sneak a bite but we were a bit quicker Winking smile

What do you prefer – beer or wine? What’s the coolest “theme party” you’ve ever been to? I’m totally stealing this idea and plan on hosting one of my own this summer! Party smile

Lunch is served!

January 17th, 2011

This weekend has been ridiculously busy despite having almost no “official plans.” For some reason Adam and I decided to reorganize our closets and bookshelves, finally put some pictures on walls that have been mostly bare since we moved in (a year and a half ago!) and my personal little project was to itemize everything we have in our kitchen cupboards, fridge and freezer and plan meals around the stuff.

We were at it all morning, “cutting the fat” as I keep calling it – getting rid of books we’ll never read or reference, clearing out full drawers… it’s been exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. And now it’s time for lunch!

All the way on the bottom of our freezer I found 2 salmon patties (apparently they’ve been hanging out there since June when I made the salmon burgers with strawberry and tomato salsa – mmm, this dish even made it onto the top 10 of 2010 list!). I quickly put them to use… we have more cleaning to do!!

English muffin with wild salmon patty, tomato, cucumber and yogurt caper sauce + baby carrots. Yum!!

Yogurt caper sauce: 1/4 cup nonfat yogurt, 1T capers (chopped), 1 sm. garlic clove (minced), salt, pepper, a tiny bit of caper “juice” and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Lunch is served! Smile

Do you ever go on serious reorganization sprees? Looking at my newly reorganized bookshelf just makes me smile. I hope we can finish this project over the next few weeks – it’s going to look SO good!!

Next up on my-to: going through all of my Cooking Light magazines… such a tough job Winking smile

Thursday recap: birthday celebrations

July 16th, 2010

I left work at 6:15 last night, seeing evening sunlight for the first time in days. It was pretty awesome. I highly recommend it Random highlights/thoughts of the day:

- It was my aunt’s birthday yesterday (thus leaving work early) – happy birthday, Dodina!!

- Roasted rhubarb is genius. I added it to my salmon/hummus/avocado wrap and it contributed a fun sour/tangy flavor to it. Yum

- Dinner at my first Persian restaurant, Lala Rokh, (remember it from here?) was not as great as I hoped it would be. Too much lamb, not enough vegetarian/seafood options as legit meals (lots of vegetarian apps though!).

- It is possible that I can get used to the taste of caramelized onions!!!! They were added to the bulgur with my dish and I didn’t even taste them. The bulgur was delicious! I need to research this one a little more. This could be a pretty awesome discovery (I hate my serious aversion to onions. Maybe there is hope for me after all )

- The look on my aunt’s face when the waiter brought out a giant chocolate cake that had her name on it (I pre-arranged that, brought one from Whole Foods) was priceless. I love surprising people with things I know they’ll like! Dodina is her nickname btw (doda = aunt in Hebrew, many years ago we just made Dodina into a word and called her that ever since).

- A spontaneous stop at Charlesmark Hotel for another drink with the hubs (because we were having too much fun on our walk home and didn’t want it to end) was one of the reasons I love living in the middle of a City. There is always something to do, you just have to get away from that office desk!

- Not randomly going for more food because I wasn’t stuffed (something I’m supposed to feel after a restaurant meal?) was my most proud personal accomplishment of the day.

- Bootcamp at lunch rocked (I’m getting better already!!). I told you I’ll make it there!