My good friend Michele Wernick recently launched a new company called MW Music and Wine Marketing. MW brings together Michele’s extensive experience in the music business and her deep passion for wine to leverage marketing, promotions and sales, for one another. Michele hosts events which she calls MW Experiences, and I was so proud to be a part of her first dinner Experience, which she hosted at her home in Laurel Canyon for 18 people. Michele is also an ambassador for the Boisset Wine Collection. My job was to create a tasting menu to accompany the wine and music of the evening. It was a very fun afternoon and I thought I should share the menu and a few of the recipes with you.
The menu consisted of seven wines (the seventh one was a surprise and wasn’t listed) and six courses.
We began the afternoon with a corncake with a mango salsa and crème fraiche. We paired this with the Raymond 2016 Sauvignon Blanc. What made this a great pairing was the tropical fruit notes in both the food and wine. Also, the acid of the lime in the salsa helped to break through the tartness of the wine and the crème fraiche brought in the right amount of fat to coat the palate and carry the flavors of both through. It’s a very simple recipe and looks quite elegant with not much work. I’ve included the recipe at the end of this post.
The next course was a white gazpacho with pear and grapes. White gazpachos have an almond base. Almonds are a wonderful mild nut that can offer creaminess and texture without feeling gummy or having an aftertaste, like a walnut. It can also stand up to heartier white wines because of the texture and fat content. We paired this soup with a Buena Vista 2015 Chardonnay.
Following, we paired the Deloach 2015 Pinot Noir with a Spanish-inspired dish of Shrimp with Garlic, Chilies, and Parsley on top of a Tomato Crostini. What made this a fantastic pairing was the garlicky spiciness of the shrimp with this beautiful light red. This was one of my favorites of the night, along with many of the guests – people asked for seconds! I have to be honest, there was a lot of butter and olive oil in this dish and the shrimp was deglazed with dry sherry. So, it was both smoky and rich.
Next up came the Crispy Chicken with Cumin Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula. Cumin-roasted tomatoes are hands down one of my most favorite condiments. I make huge batches of this stuff during tomato season and can it, so that there is always some available in my pantry. I put it on everything. Look for an upcoming post on canning and condiments. It’s a keeper for sure. We paired the chicken with a medium-bodied red blend called Frenchie. This wine rocks! I keep bottles of Frenchie at my home regularly, if I need an easy red that goes great with almost everything. The Frenchie is bold enough to pair with a strong flavor like cumin, but can also be great with fish or pasta. Plus, it has a VERY endearing label – not that you should buy wine based on the cuteness of the label!
The star of the evening was the Pomegranate Glazed Short Rib with Potato Celery Root Mash. This dish was paired with two wines – Wattle Creek 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon and LVE Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 by John Legend. Both wines are bold and lush with notes of black cherries and dark berries and paired perfectly with the short rib. The short rib is rich and meaty and glazed with pomegranate molasses, so it’s both tangy and mildly sweet.
I love a good cheese plate, but sometimes you just want something different. For this tasting, I did a Fig and Goat Cheese Tart with Pistachios. It was paired with a very interesting and unusual wine – a sparkling shiraz: The Wattle Creek Sparkling Shiraz. I had never had a wine like this before and folks either love it or hate it. For me, it wasn’t my favorite, but others adored it. Because it was sparkling, it needed fat to counter it. Goat cheese is mild, creamy, and works well with fall fruits. It was surprisingly an amazing pairing. I also had a balsamic brown sugar drizzle, but at the last moment, I decided to drizzle honey over it instead. In a future post, we will discuss the cheese plate and alternatives.
All-in-all it was a fantastic night or food, wine and music. Michele and I are collaborating on a bunch of new projects this Spring. Be on the lookout for more about MW Food and Wine Experiences.
The Recipes:
Roasted Corn Cakes with Mango Salsa and Crème Fraiche
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 15 for hors d’oeuvres
Ingredients
For Corncakes:
6 tbl. Medium-grind Cornmeal
1 c. All-Purpose Flour
½ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Baking Powder
2 Egg
½ c. + 2 tbl. Whole Milk
2 tbl. Melted Butter
1 1/3 c. Corn Kernels – Fresh Or Frozen
To taste Cayenne Pepper
2 tbl. Vegetable Oil
For Salsa:
1 Mango – Small Diced
1 Red Onion – Small Diced
1 medium Jalapeño – Small Diced
2 Juice of 2 Limes
1 c. Crème Fraiche
40-ish Cilantro Leaves
Equipment Needed
Cutting board, 2 mixing bowls, and a large frying pan or skillet
Process:
Make the salsa first to let the flavors marinate together. Dice the mango and red onion and jalapeno. When you dice red onion, make sure to soak the onion in cold water for about 10 minutes and drain well before mixing all of the ingredients together. Add the lime juice, salt and pepper and set aside.
For the corncakes, roast the corn kernels first. I like doing this on the grill, but you can also do this in the oven. Just until the kernels get a little charred. If you do this on the cob, let it cool and then remove the kernels.
In a separate bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Add the corn and stir.
Prep your frying pan or skillet and add the oil on medium heat. Make the cakes by dropping a tablespoon of batter around the pan. Flip once and cook until lightly browned on both sides. Remove from pan and let cook on a rack.
To assemble, top a cake with a little crème fraiche, a tsp. of salsa and then top with a small dollop of crème fraiche and a cilantro leaf.