Cooking is beautiful - - it’s art using Le Creuset and local produce en lieu of paintbrushes and pastels. The combining of ingredients…the chopping…the preparations are, for me, therapeutic…creative…and even sensual. There is nothing like drinking a glass of fine wine, stirring your creation and dancing to Amos Lee in-between tasks.
My man and I are obsessed with cooking. Since I am southern and he is Serbian, our creations can wreck your diet in a heart beat and have enough spice to kill any germ within a mile radius. When the opportunity came to blog about our cooking adventures, we jumped at the chance to combine our love for food with our love for writing. We invited another couple to join us for dinner and a Moroccan dish was chosen - Beef Tangine with Sweet Potatoes. This dish was packed with flavor with an abundance of turmeric, paprika, cayenne pepper and green chilies. Selecting wine for dinner was a little intimidating, so I went into Vine &Table to get wine recommendations. Our friends aren’t experienced wine drinkers, so the wine needed to both hold up to the dish and be smooth enough for everyone to drink. Jeff suggested the 2007 vintage Vietti Barbera D’Asti, an Italian Red from the Piedmont region, and the 2004 vintage Kuentz-Bas Millésime Pinot Blanc, an Alsatian white wine. Since there was one non-wine drinker, Matt suggested that we also serve Kingfisher beer, an Indian beer that would stand up to the Moroccan spice.
So….the cooking begins. We are running late (as usual). I click on Pandora and choose the Amos Lee station for ambiance (after all, what says Moroccan better than Amos Lee). I patted down the stew meat and begin to brown it in olive oil. Veso works on the goat cheese stuffed zucchini. I slice the onions and sweet potatoes, add cilantro and other spices, throw in some wine for good measure and put the Tangine in the oven. For dessert, we create a risotto-like rice pudding using left over Riesling and Fume Blanc instead of the Muscat called for. Being southern, I grew up on rice pudding, but this one incorporated a different technique. I add the rice to melted butter, stir in the wine, cream and milk….stirring….stirring…stirring (constant stirring and slow incorporation of the liquids makes for a good risotto so it should make for an amazing rice pudding). We put the rest of our creations in the oven and *ding-dong* the doorbell rings….15 minutes early. No problem….
We set out a platter of marinated olives, artichokes, and dates for pre-dinner munchies and opened the Pinot Blanc. The aroma of crisp pears and apples fills the room. The wine was crisp, smooth and well balanced with a beautiful fruit forwardness that lingered ever so softly in your mouth.
Suddenly, I hear a familiar alarm go off...that trusty smoke detector that seems to sing with joy every time I cook. The individually wrapped baby zucchinis were dripping olive oil onto the oven floor! I opened the oven door and smoke billowed out filling the kitchen with a thick haze. Smoke detectors throughout the house began to cry danger!-danger!-evacuate!. Doors were opened, windows cracked…and finally….the incessant beeping stopped. Nothing says “I’m a great cook” like the sound of a smoke detector blaring while your dinner guests stand by. Time to open the red wine to calm my nerves!
We sit down for dinner - the Barbaresco d’Asti was a beautiful red wine with soft aromatics and a smooth finish that melted in your mouth. It paired wonderfully with the earthy Beef Tangine…..as a matter of fact, we were wishing we had purchased another bottle. Dessert came and we finished off the last of the Pinot Blanc. The crisp fruitiness of the wine paired well with the creamy rice pudding with flavors of allspice and nutmeg.
We sit around the table talking and catching up……and I remember why I love the art of cooking……it leads to the art of eating!
Check out Becky’s Blog, The Divorced Diva’s Guide to Survival at www.divorced-diva.blogspot.com.
