Grilled Swordfish with Tomato & Onion Relish, Food & Wine Matchmaking - Lesson 2.

Time to get back to cooking. My last two posts "Death in the Afternoon" and "Wine Lesson 1", while spectacularly entertaining, have drifted away from my blog raison d'etre. So as penance for my profligate ways today I give you a three-fer. Yes that's right, three for the price of one, a recipe, a technique and your second wine lesson. Let's get started before this post reaches War and Peace proportions.

First the technique. For years I have struggled with lighter, skinless meats burning horribly on the grill. No matter what I did, no matter what extra grill grates I employed, nearly every piece of fish or boneless, skinless chicken breast flirted with incineration. No more.

Here's a trick I picked up from the folks at America's Test Kitchen, yes, those anal-retentive, suck-all-the-available-joy-and-spontaneity-from-your-cooking testers from Cook Illustrated. When grilling, take a piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half. Form it into a grilling tray and place it on top of the grill grate. That's it.

It doesn't seem like enough, but it separates the flesh from direct contact with the grates, but provides enough heat to create those sear marks that everyone raves over. Try it with the following recipe.


Grilled Swordfish with Tomato & Onion Relish
from Cooks.com

Marinade:

1 TBSP finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup oil, canola, walnut, grapeseed but not olive oil.
1 1/2 lbs fresh, boneless swordfish fillets

At least 2 hours before grilling combine the shallots, red wine, orange juice and oil in a medium bowl and blend well. Pour the marinade into a resealable bag, add the swordfish, seal and refrigerate.

Tomato & Onion Relish:

2 TBSP dark brown sugar
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
Rind of 1 orange, finely grated
2 cups peeled, seeded & chopped tomatoes
1 cup peeled, seeded, sectioned and chopped oranges
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

Combine the brown sugar, orange juice, vinegar and orange rind into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until reduced to about 1/2 cup (approx. 10 - 15 minutes).

While the liquid is reducing, place the tomatoes, orange sections and onion into a sieve and drain thoroughly. Pour the solids into a mixing bowl (retain the juices to adjust the relish if needed). Add the hot sauce and mix well.


Preheat your grill over high heat. remove the swordfish form the marinade and pat dry. Place the fish onto your homemade grill pan. Place on the grill and cook for approximately 4 minutes per side depending on thickness (this recipe assumes 1 1/2" thick fillets).

Remove form the grill and serve with a dollop of relish and a glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Which brings us to phase three of today's post. the food-wine combination. As I mentioned in the last food wine lesson, WWBob provided me with the pairings and he made a clear distinction between French Sauvignon Blanc and New Zealand SB. Today we're drinking two New Zealands both from the Marlborough region, a Nobilo and a Cloudy Bay.

Of the two wines pictured, the Cloudy Bay was a clear winner. It had a tropical fruit flavor at the very beginning that quickly gave way to a grapefruit sensation. It was a perfect foil for the richness of the swordfish, while complimenting the relish very nicely. The Nobilo was nice but it just didn't match the fish as well.

I believe Cloudy Bay is a widely distributed wine that's available nationwide. It's a great partner to a rich fish like swordfish.

Phew, I'm tired. No more fooling around, only quick posts from here on out, alright, a few nasty ones about the Tomato Tree, but otherwise, just remember...

You can do it, you can cook.

Food & Wine Matchmaking - Lesson 1

Apple Pie:Vanilla Ice Cream. Hot Pizza:Cold Beer.

Classic pairings. Each is wonderful on its own, combined they are spectacular. Today were going to have our first in-depth food-wine match-up.

A few weeks ago I sent Wine Wizard Bob a list of wine varietals and asked him to pair them up with the perfect food. Over the coming months I'll be preparing a meal designed to highlight the combination of a specific food with a specific type of wine. I'll share the recipe and my wine tasting notes with all of you. Feel free to recreate the experience on your own.

However, before we go on, there is one unbreakable Crabby rule when it comes to wine tasting: We will talk like humans. The first person to describe a wine along the lines of, "sprightly, with the petulant insouciance of Hemingway in Cuernavaca", will be banished from Crab Nation for life. Your membership will be revoked and you will be sent to live with those shiftless lobsters down the reef. Understand? Good!

Now on to the tasting. First on WWBob's list was Sauvignon Blanc, which ends up being a two-parter. What's great about part one is there's no cooking, only buying cheeses. Perfect for a hot summer night when all you want is a cool drink and a little something. Let's hear from WWBob:

"Classic wine and food pairings are all about simple ingredients, perfectly prepared. One of these tasty "togethers" is Goat Cheese and Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley of France. Not surprisingly, the best goat cheese comes from the Loire as well. The best town for goat cheese is Chavignol, its Crotin du Chavignol is the apex of goat cheese.

The twin towns of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume, (not to be confused with Pouilly-Fuisse!), make the best Sauvignon Blanc. Chavignol is adjacent to Sancerre. The soil for both the cheese and the grapes is a composite of clay and limestone. This soil combo creates a wine with a zippy light lime flavor and hints of fruit in a dry crisp white. It doesn't get easier than that and it makes just so much sense."

--WWBob


So I went down to my local market and picked up 2 bottles of wine, a Domaine Daulny, Sancerre, and a bottle of Les Pentes, Poilly-Fume (both around $17). I also got three pieces of goat cheese: an aged (2 weeks) cheese from a local creamery, a French Chabichou du Poitou and an unfortunately named Bucheron Goat Log. Both the wines and the cheeses were opened one hour before the tasting began.

First the wines.
Sancerre: Yellow-Green color, tart-sweet flavor of lemon, lime and (faintly) orange, smell of freshly cut grass.
Pouilly-Fume: Yellow-Green color, citrus fruit flavor but not as tart/sharp, earthy-mineral taste. Same fresh cut grass smell.


The cheeses.
Bucheron: Tangy, creamy with a faint musty smell no real taste beyond the tartness.
Lincoln Log: completely forgettable, bland, no zip, no taste, no nothing.
Chabichou: Smooth, peanut butter like texture, strong musty smell, just a bit of tart sensation.

Together. In every case the Sancerre got a more pronounced citrus flavor. It also got "flatter" with the fizziness disappearing. The cheeses made the Sancerre taste more like lemon and lime. On the othe hand, all the cheeses gave the Pouilly-Fume an almost metallic taste, (not as bad as it sounds). Any taste of fruit disappeared and was replaced by the saltiness you get from salami.

To me the cheeses made the Sancerre taste better whereas the Pouilly-Fume made the cheeses taste better. Even with all that talk about metallic tastes, in the end I wanted another glass of the Pouilly-Fume. The Sancerre just seemed too sweet unless you had the tart offset of a piece of cheese.

Well crablings, that's it for now. Some time next week we're going to visit Sauvignon Blanc again, but this time we'll be getting it from New Zealand and we'll be having swordfish.

Until next time, you can do it, you can cook.

Butter Fried Cod with Agrio-Dulce or "The Terroir of Food"

Terroir, loosely translated, "a sense of place".

I believe with food there is a "taste of place". Maybe it's tied to a specific location, maybe it's tied to a time of year or time of day. Is there anyplace better than a ball park to have a hot dog? When does a gin and tonic taste better than on a summer's day watching a setting sun?

One of my favorite white wines is Viognier, but only at the winery. At the winery it's lush, full of ripe fruit with a nose of wildflowers. Put it on a truck, transport it cross-country and it turns dull, with an almost metallic flavor.

Years ago, while vacationing in Maine with friends, SSSal and I bought lobsters from an oceanside pound. It was little more than a small barn with a pump keeping a constant flow of seawater turning over in tanks filled with hundreds of lobsters. That night we boiled them over an open flame under starlight. Boiled lobster, red potatoes and Carling Black Label Beer, no lobster since has come close to tasting better.

One of the reasons I cook is to try and recapture those moments of taste, to recreate the "terroir" of the food. Another reason is I try to "travel" around the world using my dining room table; I try and guess what the "terroir" would be like someplace I've never been.

Which brings me to today's recipe. I've never been to the Algarve or coastal Spain; I imagine both places to have food centered around seafood with peppers, onions and tomatoes playing a large role. This is a recipe from a cohort ("cohortress"?, it's the internet, I can make up words if I want), Kitchen Goddess. It combines all the ingredients I would expect to find on a visit to Portugal. I did brown the fish (my mistake) and added some crushed tomatoes to my sauce, but the result is still a fresh, subtly flavored meal that I would recommend to anyone. Now if could only get a decent bottle of Viognier....


Butter Fried Cod with Agrio-Dulce
by Kitchen Goddess

Agrio-Dulce Peppers

1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, peeled and finely sliced
3 large red peppers, sliced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
2 bay leaves
1 sprig fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 tsp. sugar
2 TBSP water
1 small can (14 oz.) crushed tomatoes (this is a Crabby addition)

4 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 TBSP Sherry Vinegar
Salt & Pepper to taste

2 TBSP Chopped Basil

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a medium pan (using medium heat), when hot add the chopped onions, fry gently for 25 - 30 minutes. Stir occasionally until softened but not colored.

After 30 minutes add peppers, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, paprika, sugar, wand water and cook for an additional 15 - 20 minutes, until the peppers soften and the onions begin to caramelize. During the last 10 minutes add the can of crushed tomatoes. (Crabby Note: I added the crushed tomatoes because my reduction was not generating the same amount of broth pictured in Kitchen Goddess' version. I also liked the idea of an added tomato flavor).

While the peppers are cooking, whisk together the extra virgin oil and sherry vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. When the peppers are finished add to the pan and toss to distribute.


Butter Fried Cod
by Kitchen Goddess

4 Cod Fillets, skin on
1 TBSP Olive Oil
2 TBSP Butter

Over medium heat, heat oil in a frying pan large enough to hold the fish fillets without crowding.

Add the butter to the hot oil and allow it to brown slightly.

Add the fish, skin side down and cook for 3 - 5 minutes.

Turn the fish and cook for an additional 3 - 5 minutes, cook gently to avoid coloring the fish.

Serve peppers and broth in a bowl. Place Butter Fried Cod atop the peppers and then garnish with chopped basil.


That's it. Simple, delicate. Serve with a nice Spanish White, say a 2005 Esperanza Rueda Verdejo ($12), (unless of course you can get your hands on some good Viognier).

Until next time, remember, you can do it, you can cook. Adio. Adeus. Ate logo. Tchau.

A Bit More on South African Wines and Roast Chicken Revisited

Today is going to be a short, general housekeeping post.

Wine Wizard Bob recently held a couple of wine tasting back in the Boston area. As you might expect, given his recent travel to Africa, he chose to showcase SA wines. Here are a few notes.


Just finished a couple of tastings with two diverse groups. One was for a local Adult Education Group, and the other, (the next night - yes, it's hard work, but someone has to do it), an assemblage of the elite clients of a famous stock brokerage company. {Why do the call them Brokers, when you are trying to get Richer and not Broker?}

Biggest hits were the aforementioned Graham Beck Brut Rose Bubbly, the Raats Family Cabernet Franc and the not previously mentioned Rustenberg John X. Merriman. The Rustenberg was the 2003 vintage and is a classic Bordeaux style blend. It compares favorably to 2nd Growth Bordeaux at only $30 retail in Boston area. It does need to be decanted and allowed to breath for about an hour. They are so confident of the quality of their wine, that Rustenberg states on the back label, that the wine will benefit with 10-15 years of aging. WOW! When I visited them, they served a 1999 in magnum and it was a magnificent, but still youthful wine.

If I could take one winery's portfolio, it would be Graham-Beck. I know I've raved about the Champagne, but that overlooks the sensational whites and reds. Virtually everything is priced in the $15 - $20 range. I realize it may be a little tough to find in certain parts of the country, but make a point of remembering the name and grab some when you come across it. I'm going through a withdrawal of painful proportions from lack of South African coffee and croissants, thank goodness I can get the wines. Jumanji!
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I recently made a roast chicken using the sauce recipe from Pork Roast All'Arancia. In some ways the meal was better with chicken than pork. Here's the recipe and a photo. Enjoy.



Roast Chicken with Orange

Arrosto All'Arancia

Serves 4












3 Tablespoons Butter
1 cup Orange Juice (strained)
1 teaspoon orange rind
1 garlic clove, chopped
Pinch of Red Flakes (more or less depending on how spicy you like things)
Pinch of dried oregano
1 Roasting Chicken, split
Salt and Pepper
12 small new potatoes, or 3 medium russet potatoes, quartered

Bring the chicken to room temperature and preheat the oven to 350 deg.

Melt the butter in a pot, add the orange juice, orange rind, garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano. Rub the chicken with salt and pepper.

Place the potatoes in the bottom of a dutch oven or roasting pan and drizzle, lightly, with olive oil.

Put the chicken in the roasting pan in a single layer, covering the potatoes. Pour on the butter and juice mixture. Baste occasionally while roasting. Remove from the oven after 1 hour. Lightly cover the roast with foil and let rest for 10 - 15 minutes. Carve & serve.

The Great White Hunter Returns or Wine Wizard Bob, I Presume

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. --W.C. Fields


Well he's back. Wine Wizard Bob survived the wilds of South Africa and has sent me a few notes about his trip. He was as captivated by the country and its people as I was. His two week stay was sponsored by a number of South African wine producers. What appears below are Bob's impressions and comments on the trip.


"I loved the country; I just hated getting there. It takes about 17 hours out of Washington, D.C. The only thing worse was getting back; it took even longer thanks to a refueling stop in Dakar Senegal (Africa's most western point). The travel was figuratively and literally a pain in the butt."

"Once you're there the living is inexpensive, delicious and full of vistas. I love a country where the exchange rate is 8 to 1; I couldn't wait to spend those 1000 rand notes."

"While the exchange is 8:1, I'd rate the wines of SA at about 3:1 versus the value of their French/California counterparts, (i.e., a $30 SA wine would cost you about $100 for the same quality French or Californian)."

"What?! They drive on the wrong side of the road? I hope the gas and brake pedals are the same! Driving on the left isn't that complicated, but crossing a not too busy street on foot is both exciting and dangerous."

"The shanty towns are amazingly poor. Six to ten people in a corrugated hut, no running water or electricity. Literally, dirt poor."


"We were out driving one day and the bus suddenly came to a stop. There were baboons crossing the road. No it wasn't a political rally, these were actual baboons!"




"I tried eating everything they put in front of me; I had ostrich, impala and kudu. By far the three best foods in SA are the squid, a fish called Kingklip and the Karoo Lamb."

"Best meal I had was at a winery named Tokara. Amazing food."

"One day I had lunch at a restaurant called La Vierge, (The Virgin). After a lovely meal with views of the vineyards, mountains and sea, I needed to find the men's room. Well, down the stairs to the right, through the doors and tada!!!, three urinals facing floor to ceiling windows. Not for the shy."

"Far and away the world's best celebrity wine maker is Ernie Els. In fact he may be a better wine maker than golfer at this point. His top of the line red wine is about $90 and easily worth it. The worst celebrity wine makers? Arnold Palmer, (stick to iced tea & lemonade), Mario Andretti and Larry Bird, (the Larry Legend Cabernet is just putrid)."

"The wines I tasted were all bargains compared to what you'd have to pay here in the states for equal quality. There were some clunkers but even those were priced appropriately. Here are the winners, some of these will be easy to find, others will be very difficult, but you may get lucky:

Graham Beck Rose Champagne, $20. Think fancy French pink bubbles, but from France it would cost $100.

Ken Forrester Petit Chenin, $10. A smidge of peach flavors with a nice crisp finish. A summer guzzler.

Fairvalley Pinotage @ $10 and Kanonkop Pinotage @ $35. Pinotage is a uniquely SA wine grape, when it's done right it's delicious, unfortunately 90% of the time it's done poorly.

Any wine from the unfortunately named Raats Family Winery. Chenins around $15 and Cabernet Francs up to $30. These may be tough to find.

Bouchard-Finlayson Wines. They make 3 Chardonnays and 2 Pinot Noirs. All fantastic. They are just now building a US presence.

Finally, at all cost, avoid SA sauvignon blanc, unless you like the flavor of asparagus & jalapeno in your wine.


Well there you have it, CrabbyCook's first travelogue. If it ever crossed your mind to travel to South Africa, by all means do it; it will be the experience of a lifetime.

I'll leave you with a quiz. Identify the book and author of the following lines:

I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you-- smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, Come and find out.

Good Luck.
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A special Crabby request. If you find any of the wines WWBob and I recommend could you please post a comment telling everyone where you found the wines (regardless of location).
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Please note, the photos are those that Crabby gleaned from the internet.

Wonderin' Where The Lions Are...

Back in 1996 Sea Shell Sal and I went to South Africa for two weeks. We visited Capetown, Sun City and of course went on safari.

It is the most stunning, confusing, compelling trip I've ever been on. Visiting is an exercise in adaptation. The country is spectacular in its beauty and crushingly depressing in its poverty. Capetown is a photogenic cosmopolitan city bordered on multiple sides by shanty towns of indescribable squalor. Sun City is your worst Disney/Las Vegas nightmare. It is the only place in the country where gambling and pornography are allowed and only the wealthiest of citizens can afford to visit. It was crawling with tourists, primarily from Asia.

That said, it was 1996, apartheid had ended and Nelson Mandela was President. There was a true sense of optimism and hope in the country. While the country would struggle with spasms of violence and questionable leaders after Mandela, I have watched with a tourist's pride as it has grown into an increasingly stable voice in an otherwise dysfunctional continent.

So, why this story? Well, as you read this, Wine Wizard Bob is winging his way to South Africa for a wine industry sponsored promotional tour. As Bob put it, he's traveling to Africa, "to converse, confer and otherwise hob-nob with his fellow wizards" (name the movie).

He will be visiting numerous wine producers in the Paarl and Stellenbosch areas of South Africa. Besides touring wineries and eating the likes of grilled impala and Bobotie, he will also get the chance to go on safari. Safari is one of the great experiences of my life. You sit in roofless Land Rovers and get to within a few feet of lions, rhino, leopards, baboons and the like. This is not Disneyland. Most of the animals are carnivores. Never have I felt so much like bait in my life.

Everyday after our jeep tour, we would go on "walkabout" into the veldt. Our guide always carried a high powered rifle and we were constantly instructed not to get separated from the group. Our biggest fear was from lions.

Lions are extremely territorial and protective of their cubs. When on walkabout, we were all issued small whistles for our hikes. We were to blow the whistles at random times in order to warn the lions of our presence and to, hopefully, have them move off. Additionally, we were issued strongly flavored cinnamon gum. Lions have a keen sense of smell and it is believed that the scent of the gum warns them of our proximity. We were constantly on the lookout for signs of recent lion activity, particularly lion dung. How did we know it was lion dung? The dung gave off a pleasant cinnamon scent and was embedded with many small whistles.


Gotcha!

That is a very old joke.

Before WW Bob left I asked him to recommend a few South African wineries for us:

Glen Carlou, Paarl Valley. A winery owned by the Hess Vineyards of California. They produce very good chardonnay and shiraz, typically at $15-$25/bottle.
http://www.glencarlou.co.za

Graham Beck Wines. Very good merlots and sparkling wines (goes great with bobotie). Also about $15-$25/bottle
http://www.grahambeckwines.com

Ken Forrester Wines. Famous for their Petit Chenin, though that one can be harder to find. Prices range from $15-$60/bottle. A strong, reliable producer.
http://www.kenforresterwines.com

That's all folks. Be back soon. What do you think of the new look?

The lion photo is courtesy of National Geographic, photographer Chris Johns.

Computers, Wine Wizard Bob & White Wine 101

Computers.

Way back when Sea Shell Sal and I worked for computer companies. Back then computers were the size and cost of small SUVs (which hadn't been invented yet). If that weren't bad enough, they did less than the chip set in today's cell phones. We were newlyweds living in suburban Boston. We were into cooking and trying to learn more about wine. A co-worker of Crabby's at Computervision (a now defunct CAD/CAM computer manufacturer), told me about the brother of a college roommate who had a wine store.

Understand, this was pre-high tech, pre-real estate boom; Millis Massachusetts was "back of beyond", a gas station, a liquor store, a traffic light and a Dunkin Donuts. In the midwest they're called "party stores", in the northeast we call them "packies". Millis Discount Liquor was an unprepossessing storefront in a non-descript strip mall next to a candlepin bowling alley on a secondary highway in southern Massachusetts. This was supposed to be where I was going to get wine insight?

CrabbyCook may be arrogant, CrabbyCook may be bull headed, but CrabbyCook is not stupid.

Brothers Bob and Peter Harkey had taken over Millis Discount Liquor from their father. Peter concentrated on beer and liquor, Bob on wine. As the area economy grew and expansion brought people out toward Millis, the wine section inexorably began to consume space. The store is now called Harkey's Wines and Spirits, you can still get a 6-pack, a pint and a lottery ticket, but it has about 4,000 sq. ft of retail space dedicated to wine, and regular clientele from as far away as New York state.

Bob is 6'6" tall and north of 225 pounds. Brother Peter is 6'3" and is ridiculously handsome (Sea Shell Sal's words). Interesting side note, Peter appeared as a contestant on the TV show Survivor: Marquesas.

We became friends with Bob instantly. He would come over on Sunday afternoons. We would cook and he would bring a case of wine and a rack of glasses, we'd taste and learn. Everything we know about wine is from Bob. While it's probably impossible for everyone to recreate the relationship we have, I strongly encourage you to get to know your local wine merchant and have him or her help you learn. It's well worth the time, and the homework is fun.

Today's lesson is on white wine, here's Bob:

The 3 most popular white variety of grapes for wine in the USA today are, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio.

Pinot Grigio is the one I take to someone's house when I don't know what is being served. The wine is neutral in flavor and average in body, so it's a great background wine to interesting food. The chef, crabby or not, gets all the credit. 2006 vintage is outstanding. Look for the small print, if you see the word Venezie, meaning from the Venice area, the Pinot Grigio tends to be smoother than the crisp ones from Alto Adige. A top line, reliable producer is Cavit, typically priced at less than $15.

Sauvignon Blanc is the dry white wine with the most "bite". Crisp and clean, it is wonderful with seafood dishes, creamy dishes and goat cheese. The ones from France tend to be snappier with a lime zest essence. The California ones are the least zippy due to a warmer climate, and have a grassy flavor. Nice with grilled seafood, but not with a butter or creamy sauce. The New Zealand ones have a tropical flavor that turns in your mouth to grapefruit zest as you are sipping the wine. I love them with shellfish. Look for Oyster Bay (New Zealand), Geyser Peak (California) both at <$15, or if you're feeling flush try the Groth (California), over $18.

Where the grapes are grown is almost as important as the variety of grape in the wine. An apple from Michigan, New England, or Washington state has a zip to go along with the sweetness because of the cooler climate. The apples you get in August from warm climes, tend to be mealy, without the nice burst of tartness. Chardonnay from California is creamy and buttery due in large part to the warm climate. Chardonnay from France, struggles to ripen so you get the nice snap in the wine. Serve the California Chardonnay with grilled seafood. The French Chardonnay is better with cream/butter sauces because the acid-snappy sensation, cleans your mouth from the cloying sauces. Louis Jadot is a consistent good producer of French Chardonnay. You can spend anywhere from $15 -$200 a bottle and you will get your money's worth. Chateau St. Jean still offers great value in California Chardonnay for under $15 a bottle. Also consider J. Lohr or Steele (both California) at $12 - $15.

That's it for today. For those of you in the Boston area:

Bob Harkey
Harkey's Wine & Spirits
1138 Main Street
Millis, MA 02054
(508) 376-8833

Mighty Duck

Before Paris and Nicole, before Britney and Lindsey, there was the Brat Pack. The Brat Pack was a group of young actors from the '80's including, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. All of whom except for Sheen appeared in the movie "St. Elmo's Fire". This truly vapid waste of celluloid depicted the lives of six college friends as they started to make their ways in the real world. All suffer the tediously predictable problems that come from having to become an adult. Think of the movie as "Friends" without the laughs, haircuts or $5000/month Manhattan apartment.

Like Par-Nic-Brit-Lin, the Brat Pack's personal lives were tabloid fodder. Estevez's initially perhaps the most interesting, he was engaged to Demi Moore and in 1992 married Paula Abdul (Yep Idol's own Paula, I would love to have seen that gift registry).

In 1984 Estevez would play Otto in the cult classic film, "Repo Man". One of the scenes in "Repo Man" is when a group of street punks rob a convenience store. As the robbery goes bad, one of the thugs lies dying in a pile of cans labeled "Food". No description of what's inside, just black and white labels proclaiming "Food".

Food was boring. Food was generic. Food that wasn't fast seemed excessively complex, fussy and even exotic. Gourmets ate the parts of animals most people threw away (pate, sweetbreads) or ate weird things like sushi, risotto or duck. Thankfully, as people got wealthier and the world got more "globalized" (huh?), people started to get more adventurous with eating.

Today crablings we're making duck legs. I don't want any whining or squeamishness. A duck is nothing but a chicken with a better publicist. This recipe appeared in the Sunday New York Times Magazine (1/27/08). It is ludicrously easy, so no excuses. Ideally you'd make this meal in a dutch oven, like the Le Creuset I pimped in an earlier post, but a big, oven-safe pot will do the job.


Duck Legs Braised With Red Wine and Lime


4 duck legs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 medium yellow onions, peeled and sliced
Grated zest of 2 limes
2 tsp minced serrano or jalapeno chili or large pinch red chili pepper flakes
1 cup red wine
2 tsp lime juice, more as needed
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro


1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 C). Season the duck with salt and pepper. Place the dutch oven pot over medium-high heat, and add the oil. When hot, add the duck, skin side down, and cook until golden brown (approx 2 minutes, but take a peek and make sure they don't need a little more time). Transfer to a plate.





2. Turn the heat to medium-low, add the onions and a little salt and cook covered, stirring occasionally, until they are softened, about 15 minutes. Stir in the lime zest and serrano chili (or pepper flakes). Add the red wine, ½ cup of water and a pinch of salt. Nestle the duck legs, skin side up, on top of the onions. Bring to a boil, and then cover, place in the oven and cook until the duck is tender but still toothsome, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

3. Transfer the duck and 1/2 cup of the onions to a plate; cover to keep warm. Purée the remaining onions, the cooking liquid and lime juice in a blender (or if you have one, use a stick blender and puree right in the pot). Adjust to taste with salt and lime juice. Stir in half of the cilantro.

4. Mound the reserved onions in the centers of 4 plates. Put a duck leg on top of each, and pour the sauce around the duck. Sprinkle the remaining cilantro over each plate. Serve as a hearty appetizer. Serves 4 (as an appetizer or small dinner, add additional legs if you're serving bigger appetites for dinner).

Adapted from “Aroma,” by Mandy Aftel and Daniel Patterson.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Active Cooking Time: 15 minutes (lots of breaks for wine sipping while the onions are "sweating")
Passive Cooking Time 1 1/2 Hours (Plenty of time to work on the Times Crossword Puzzle)
Cleaning Up: Measly. One cutting board, a grater, a knife and the pot.

Tip 1: Peel off the duck skin before eating. It's soggy and doesn't add much to the meal.

Tip 2: Serve with rice pilaf or mashed potatoes (roasted garlic mashed would be best, you'll get that recipe another day).

Tip 3: Serve a Pinot Noir with dinner. WW Bob recommends: Mark West or Castle Rock from California at less than $15 each; A to Z or Erath from Oregon at $15 to $20; or a Jadot French Red Burgundy at about $40 for you big spenders.

Alright, I know I promised a WW Bob story for this post but that's going to have to wait. Post your questions and comments. Until then, just remember, you can do it, you can cook.


P.S. Don't rent "Repo Man", it's crap.

Wine 101 or Sprite on your Honeymoon

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Seashell Sal and I were married. We were living in the suburban Boston at the time; it was so long ago that the Celtics were really good, the Patriots were really bad and the Red Sox truly forlorn. After the wedding in Michigan (SS Sal's childhood home) we honeymooned in Bermuda.

We stayed at the Elbow Beach Hotel, along with seemingly every newlywed couple from the New York City tri-state area. Two things struck us on that trip. One, we were 5-7 years older than nearly every other couple. In fact, some seemed to have gone straight from their high school proms, to the church and then to Bermuda. Two, we seemed to be the only couple interested in drinking wine with dinner.

To this day I can remember a high-haired woman at the next table, in an accented voice reminiscent of a swarm of bees attacking a mule, telling the sommelier that she didn't want wine with her lobster, but she wanted "diet Sprite, cold but with no ice". She went on to tell her already roving-eyed husband that, "they just try and rip you off with the ice". "Gawd".


We learned everything we know about wine through our friendship with Wine Wizard Bob. I'll fill you in on the details of how we got to know WW Bob before the next recipe post. Today is the first of many lessons on wine. You're going to be getting my rules and guidelines. You'll be getting insights from WW Bob as well. Today it's the basics.

Crabby Rule #1: Drink what you like. The old rules of wine pairings were established in simpler cooking times. French chefs weren't widely exposed to chili peppers 100 years ago, Italian chef never saw jicama in the 1800's, etc., so it's much harder today to follow old guidelines.

Crabby Rule #1a: Drink what you like but remember there are classic match ups: German wines with pork, Red burgundy/Pinot Noir with roast duck, Cabernet/Merlot/Bordeaux with grilled beef, lamb or game.

Crabby Rule #2: When you can, drink wine from the area or country that the recipe comes from. Classic pairings happened over time. Like any business, winemakers made what people wanted, chefs cooked what people liked, over the centuries the two matched up very nicely.

Crabby Rule #3: When choosing a wine for a meal think about the dominant component. Heavy beef or lamb, then you need a heavy red wine. Veal, still a red meat but with a delicate flavor, go for a lighter red. Chicken, virtually flavorless, so think about the other flavors in play and lean toward a white wine.

Crabby Rule #4: Some foods just don't go with wine. Here's some insight direct from WW Bob:

Soup is awful with wine. The hot liquid just kills the enjoyment. Your mouth stays warm from the soup and this heat tends to accentuate the alcohol, it just tastes yucky. (Yucky, a formal wine term).

Salad is another troublemaker. It's not the bitter greens, but the vinegar in the dressing. The acid in wine is either lactic(milk), which gives the wine the creamy sensation, malic (apple), the snappy crispness in a fresh young wine, or tannic(the chalk dust wrapped around your tongue acid that comes from the barrel, grape skins and seeds). Now even though the vinegar, acetic acid, is weaker, it "trains" the wine acids to taste even more bitter. Another yucky sensation. So go for the sparkling water with your next salad. By the way, Vin=Wine, and Egar=Sour, and if you age a wine too long it will turn to Vinegar, perfect on a salad too.

This acid reaction is also why strong citrus dishes can be tough on wine. Citric acid fights the wine acids. That's why we don't mix OJ with milk, but then again, I just love those Creamsicles. So there are exceptions.

St. Patrick's Day is approaching, bad news, wine is horrid with the saltiness of corned beef and cabbage, so stick to the Guinness. Did you know that Guinness stout has less calories than most beers and is about the same as most light beers? That's why it floats on top of lagers.

Finally, the biggest disappointment is that almost all dessert wines are lousy with chocolate. Port was the safest choice, but recently I found a grape from the Piedmont section of Italy that is the perfect foil for all those Triple Decadent, Death by Flour less Chocolate Orgasmic Desserts. Brachetto d'Acqui is a low alcohol red wine that is pleasantly sweet with flavors and aromas reminiscent of roses and raspberries. Even though it is red wine, it needs to be served chilled. We get the English word Fizzy from the Italian word Frizzante and this wine is Frizzante. You will open the bottle with a corkscrew and the wine will not "pop" but it will foam a smidge in the glass and tickle your tongue as it goes down. It's also wonderful with a Sunday brunch. Expect to pay $15 to $25 a bottle.


There you go, four basic rules to get you started. As soon as I figure out how to do it, I'll be posting a chart that gives you general guidelines on what type of food goes with which type of wine.

Until then, here's a short list of moderately priced wines that WW Bob came up with that should be widely available in all precincts of Crab Nation:

Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay $12-$15
Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc $12-$16
J. Lohr $10-$20 Any type of wine.
Bogle Wines $10-$20 Any type (but Merlot is best)
Clean Slate Riesling (Germany) $12
Trimbach Pinot Gris $20 (Maybe harder to find, serve lightly chilled)

Well there's a start; we'll be expanding this list over time to hopefully come up with 15-25 reliable wines that most of you can find. Until next time, remember, you can do it, you can cook.