A Port Primer

A few years ago I wrote a little guide to Portuguese wine. At the time I drank Ruby Port on occasion, but really didn't know anything about Portuguese table wines or Port. As part of my research I tried plenty of Portuguese table wines and found them to be tremendously accessible--inexpensive, distinctive and food friendly. Given the budget of the project I didn't get to try as much Port as I would have liked, but this year I got to try plenty including some at Taylor Fladgate's scenic tasting room, overlooking the Douro.

What is Port?
Port is a delicious treat. It's a fortified wine that can be served with cheese, fruit, nuts, cake or chocolate but frankly, it's wonderful on its own. It's also terrific for cooking and making sauces. Tawny Port, either chilled or at room temperature can be served as an aperitif or as a dessert wine. Because once opened, a bottle of Port keeps longer than a typical bottle of wine, it's a lasting luxury and makes a wonderful gift.

How is Port made?
Port is wine made of a blend of several different grapes, each adds aroma, color, body, flavor or a combination thereof. To be called Port, it must be made in Portugal, though there are "Port style" wines made in Australia and the US. Grapes are grown on the steep hillsides of the Douro region where narrow terraces are planted with vines. The fruit was traditionally crushed by foot, which is gentler and prevented the seeds from being crushed and making the wine too tannic or bitter.

A Short History of Port
Until the 1950’s the wine was transported via flat bottom boats across the Douro river to warehouses called lodges. Now the wine is blended and aged at the winery, but traditionally wine was fermented at the Port lodges in the upper Douro valley and then shipped to the cooler the city of Oporto for aging and blending before being exported. In some ways, Port is as much a British wine as it is Portuguese, the fortified style was intended to make it more stable so it could be easily shipped to England. By the eighteenth century the British established most of the famous Port brands that still exist today. Had it not been for high tariffs on French wine, Port as we know it, might not exist.

The port lexicon can be confusing, but here are the rudimentary basics you need to know plus some of my favorite picks in the Reserve and 10 and 20 year Tawny categories:

Ruby Port is indeed ruby red and the least expensive, fruity style. It is aged 2 to 3 years only.

Reserve Ports are non-vintage but aged up to 5 years in wood. They are young, sweet and fruity but more sophisticated than typical Ruby Ports. Many Port producers have special brand names for their Reserve Ports such as Graham's Six Grapes or Fonseca's Bin 27. Reserve Ports can be a great value, I particularly like the Smith Woodhouse Port Lodge Reserve (about $20), it's rich and smooth, with luscious ripe fruit and a very long finish. In the refrigerator once opened they will last from a couple of weeks up to 4 months.

Tawny Port is easy to identify because of its tawny color. It can be non-vintage, aged, or vintage also known as colheita. For a Port to be colheita it must be from a single year that is considered exceptional. Aged Tawny Port can be 10, 20, 30 or 40 years old. Dow's 10 year (about $30) has lovely toffee and cider notes, it's wonderful chilled. Taylor Fladgate 10 year (about $30) is exceptional with caramel and apricot aromas. I also like Graham's 20 year (about $50) which has notes of coffee, honey and toasted nuts. These wines have already been aged and are meant to be drunk right away, they will not continue to improve in the bottle. If kept in the refrigerator once opened they will keep several months up to one year.

Vintage Port spends 2 -3 years in wood and then is aged 10 - 30 years. Vintage Port is only about 1 - 2% of all Port and is limited to the best years that the Port producers (also called shippers) "declare."

Of course the best way to decide which Port you like is to try them. Each of the major Port producer has a different style. Top quality brands to try include Dow's, Fonseca, Graham's, Niepoort, Sandeman, Smith Woodhouse, Taylor Fladgate and Warre's.

On the eve of Thanksgiving I'm pretty sure you've already figured out what you are cooking or eating tomorrow, if you haven't, you could check out my post on Bay Area Bites with links to three "winning" recipes.

The reason I haven't been posting here very frequently is that I've been doing a lot of recipe development, 22 new recipes to be exact and before that I completed 30 more recipes for another client. I'm terribly sorry the recipes aren't available yet, because a number of them are really perfect for Thanksgiving and I plan on serving two of them tomorrow. I promise to share them as soon as I can.

In the meantime, here are links to two very useful "before and after" Thanksgiving links I think you'll enjoy:

Fine Cooking to the Rescue! Emergency Fixes for the Top Ten Thanksgiving Disasters

Gourmet's Delicious Uses for Leftover Turkey

Finally, don't forget! Come see me at the Union Square Williams-Sonoma store in San Francisco on Saturday from noon to 2 pm. I'll be signing my new book and sharing delicious samples.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Amy

Meet me at Union Square?

This Saturday, November 29th I'll be at the Union Square Williams-Sonoma store signing my brand new cookbook, New Flavors for Appetizers and doing a little demo of a super easy recipe--three ingredients and no cooking!

The book features recipes that are organized seasonally and for the most part, take very little effort to make but use interesting and exciting ingredients. Since completing the book this Spring, I have revisited the recipes and made many of the appetizers time and again for parties and potlucks. I'd be more than happy to show you my favorites, tell you the stories behind the recipes and anything else you'd like to know about writing a cookbook.

Please do stop by the store anytime between noon and 2 pm and say hi!

cheers,

Amy

Book signing and demo
12 - 2 pm
Williams-Sonoma
340 Post St @ Stockton
San Francisco, CA


View Larger Map

Test Kitchen Tales

I became a recipe developer by accident, and not by design. I posted some of my favorite recipes online and not long after I was contacted by various companies and publishers to help create recipes for them as well. It's been wonderful to do something I love and make a living at it.



My process is the same as it always was, I am inspired by any number of things, it could be the season, an ingredient, a place, even a memory. I do lots of research, reading recipes in cookbooks, on blogs, magazines, and even asking friends and family for help. I create an outline of what I intend to do and take it into the kitchen. I cook and take notes and then I taste. I also have an official taste tester, Lee. Between the two of us we discuss and dissect and I tweak the recipe to get it to the point that I am satisfied.



While in New York last month I got to spend some time with recipe developers at Saveur, Everday Food and Gourmet. I saw their kitchens, tasted their food and chatted with them about how they get the job done. Some of the kitchens were large, some were small. All had cookbook shelves and counters for notetaking. Their process involved more group critiques than mine and I learned Gourmet recipes can take a month and a half to create! I have never gotten as much as a week per recipe from any of my clients.



Generally speaking, one thing I don't have to do is convince anyone about my recipes. Here's a kitchen story told to me by Gourmet test kitchen editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez. The staff at Gourmet was unconvinced of the value of pressure cookers. Only after making a certain recipe, without admitting the use of the pressure cooker, were they won over; that recipe is in this month's edition on page 98, it's for Tuscan Lamb Shanks with White Beans.



After a quick browning of the meat and sauteing of the vegetables all the ingredients including unsoaked beans(!) are placed in the pressure cooker and 30 minutes later? Done! Having tasted it I can tell you it's a winner. So was this ridiculously good recipe for Banana Upside Down Cake, another clear favorite among attendees to the Gourmet Institute.

Lunch at the Bar Room at The Modern

I polled several friends before heading to New York and the restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art, The Bar Room at The Modern was recommended over and over again. I wasn't the only one in town eager to dine there, Alice of Alice Q. Foodie put together a lunch of fellow food bloggers Lisa from Homesick Texan, Deb of Smitten Kitchen and Gourmet food editor and all-around nice guy, Ian Knauer.

When eating with foodie friends, it's de rigeur to over order, share, nibble off each other's plates, and generally get lost in conversation and that's a perfectly good description of my final lunch in New York. Service was never rushed, helpful and proactive but not pushy. Even in an incident that will surely require dry cleaning, the staff showed themselves to be consummate professionals.

Here's what we ordered to share, the Modern Liverwurst, with pickled vegetables. It was a very refined version and there was plenty to share.


An Alsatian thin crust tart with creme fraiche, onion and applewood smoked bacon. I adored this and could have eaten one for lunch with a salad. It was a combination of crisp crust, creamy with melting onions and smoky flavors.


I must admit I ordered the homemade Alsatian country sausage with turnip choucroute and whole grain mustard because I feared I was not going to have time for a Papaya King dog. Turned out I had two of them at the airport. Really, there is no comparing the snap of a garlic hot dog to a homemade sausage except to say both were delicious, succulent and tremendously satisfying.


My final entree was one that most of the table also ordered, the finest duck confit I have ever eaten with a lovely pool of passion fruit sauce. It was tender, crisp, and so rich that sadly I couldn't eat the whole thing.


Last but not least, we had an order of beignets with various sauces. They were light and puffy and positively wonderful. And how could we not order them when an order worked out to one per person? Really, the food, service, not to mention charming company, were without fault. Thank again to Alice for making all the arrangements.


A few more blogger reviews of the Bar Room at The Modern:

Alice Q. Foodie

The Gastronomer's Guide

Manger La Ville

Yaokui

The Amateur Gourmet

Dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar

After the session with David Chang at the Gourmet Institute I was even more eager to try dining at one of his Momofuku restaurants.

Though Chang has written that he believes we are moving towards a less future with less cheap industrial meat, he is firmly in the carnivore camp. Be forewarned, at Momofuku Ssam Bar, the menu says, "We do not serve vegetarian friendly items," and they're not kidding. It is a very meaty menu. It's also a menu full of surprises.

I was a bit taken aback to see a list of four different root beers on the menu. I was even more amazed to discover how wonderfully well root beer pairs with the spicy, lusty flavors of his food.

What did I eat at Momofuku Ssam Bar? The famous steam buns with pork belly hoisin, cucumber and scallions, of course. They melt in your mouth and might possibly be a candidate for my next round of the parlor game "name your last meal."





A perfectly tender charred chili spiced calamari salad with ginger, scallions, crunchy radishes and bits of feathery mizuna. You may have had calamari salad before, but you've never had it like this. It was an addictive combination of textures and tastes, not too spicy but juicy and bursting with flavor.


The least Asian influenced of all the dishes we tried, was several different cuts of Long Island duck with djion spaetzle, brussels sprouts and Five Spoke cheddar. Sharp and creamy spaetzle and bitter sprouts balanced the richness of the expertly prepared duck.


A refreshing house cured hamachi with edamame, horseradish, pea leaves was our last dish, save for a nibble of Satur Farm's crispy fried brussels sprouts with mint, scallions, and a fish sauce vinaigrette thanks to Anil of Six Apart and Alaina of Serious Eatswho coincidentally happened to be dining right next to me at the long central communal table/bar. Beware the food blogger sitting next to you! Your food is not safe from my fork!

I really can't say enough good things about the food at Momofuku Ssam Bar. The biggest problem is wanting to order everything on the menu. As it was I missed out on a whole section of offal that included crispy pig's head torchon, Sichuan beef tendon with mango and peanuts and blood sausage with seckel pears, lime pickle and frisee. More to try next time I suppose...

Next up--lunch at Bar Modern

Cooking Secrets from David Chang

David Chang, James Beard Rising Star Chef for 2007, is one of the most hyped chefs in New York, so much so that he even jokingly once referred to himself as "overrated pseudo chef," in an interview at Serious Eats. Yet one of the reasons I wanted to go to New York was to hear David Chang present at the Gourmet Institute and to eat his food. I was not disappointed. His food is luscious, bold and sexy and his obsession with perfection and quality seem to fit comfortably with his innovative use of traditional techiniques and delectable flavor combinations.

There were three recipes and several techniques I learned from his session at the Gourmet Institute that I will surely be adding to my repertoire. First off he shared a recipe for "tare" which he described as a type of Japanese barbecue sauce that gets added to many dishes and sauces. The basic formula was 4 parts dark soy sauce, 1/2 part brown sugar and 1 part mirin. After allowing it to simmer he placed a knife (honing) steel he heated over a flame into the pot to infuse the sauce with smoky flavor.


Pickled mustard seeds were used as a garnish on braised pork belly with daikon and apple. It's another simple recipe I will play with using different types of mustard seeds, and can use as a finishing touch to add crunch and a pop of spice to all kinds of dishes, especially vegetables. Chang made them by combining 1/2 cup mustard seeds with a cup of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar and simmering until thick.


But the true focus of the session was on dashi, a "universal ingredient" according to Chang and one that can be used not only as a soup broth but also as a braising liquid. After demonstrating a more traditional method of making it using hand shaved katsuboshi or bonito flakes he also showed the audience his bacon version. The traditional version was used for a soup of cockles with fingerling potatoes, scallions and sea beans.


For the bacon dashi, Chang's technique was to simmer konbu (a type of dried seaweed) then add uncooked smoky bacon and allow it to steep like tea for 15 minutes, extracting the flavor and juices from the bacon. Could you use the same technique for making dashi with roasted tomatoes, porcini mushrooms or dried shrimp? Why not? Chang used the bacon dashi for a soup with salt-pickled Fall vegetables and a sliver of Benton Smoky Mountain ham. The pickled vegetables were made by curing sliced carrots, radishes and savoy cabbage with equal parts salt and sugar for an hour.

Next up--dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar

Links to a few more David Chang articles and interviews:

David Chang profile on Eater

ABC Dateline David Chang interview and recipes

Chang on What the 21st Century will Taste Like from Esquire magazine