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Ikal Wine: New from Argentina

It's been a double-barreled Argentine week--a wine tasting one day and an Argentine lunch the next.

The tasting introduced the first wines of Bodega Ikal, a new, higher elevation winery in Mendoza.

Ikal is owned by a team that includes Sandra Beltran and Jerry Ward, Houston residents who came to Los Angeles for an introductory tasting at Lou wine bar.

Ikal released its first wines in 2009. Production is tiny, just 2,000 cases. Of these, 700 are Malbec, the remainder divided among Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Torrontes.

The 125 acres of newly planted vines aren't ready for wine-making, but the property includes 18 acres of older vines. Grapes for Pinot Noir and Torrontes are purchased from neighboring vineyards.

The high, dry location near the Andes eliminates the need for pesticides and fungicides, Jerry Ward says. The number 1150 on the labels indicates the altitude in meters (almost 3800 feet). Each vine is drip-irrigated, necessary because average annual rainfall is only 4 inches.

The ambitious project will one day include a 12-room boutique hotel and residences where buyers can raise their own grapes.

How are the wines? Selling for $16 to $19, they match the price with higher quality than bargain-priced South American wines in markets here.

The 2009 Chardonnay is crisp and tropical, with a touch of minerality from the rocky Andean soil. It is fermented in 50% neutral French oak and 50% stainless steel to preserve the fresh flavors.

The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is deeply colored (as far as I could tell in Lou, which is too dark to observe wine colors and clarity, as you can see in the photo at right).

Big, soft and round, it is very good if you're looking for pleasant drinkability right now.  "A lot of people who don't like Cabs like the high altitude Cabs from Argentina," Ward says.

The 2007 Pinot Noir sat 1 1/2 years in lined concrete tanks for natural settling. It's light and elegant, with cola and cherry tones, made, as Ward says, with "one foot in the New World and one in the old."

Winemaker Luis Martinez grew up in the cellars of Mendoza and has studied in California and the Haut Medoc in France.   "We strive for old world wines with a gravelly, minerally, river stone character," Ward says.

The 2008 Torrontes, fermented  in stainless steel, is lightly floral, balancing slight sweetness with strong minerality.  

Ikal will make Malbec its signature wine. The 2007 is clean, lean and balanced, not dripping with fruit. A sommelier attending the tasting chose it as a personal favorite. 

The name Ikal is Mayan for poetry. Mendoza is obviously not a Mayan community. The name was taken from a previous enterprise of Ikal's owners, a hotel in Playa del Carmen on the Riviera Maya. 

At Lou, the wines were accompanied by the wine bar's famous pig candy (bacon caramelized with brown sugar), olives and cheeses, but nothing Argentinian.

For that I went the next day to Malbec in Pasadena. Ikal wines aren't on the list there, because they haven't arrived in Los Angeles yet. However, Bodega Ikal's Ward had said that Argentinians drink chilled Bonarda with barbecue. And so I chose a Bonarda (unchilled) to go with that quintessential Argentine dish--grilled steak.

Malbec's entraña (skirt steak) was juicy and delicious, accompanied by what Ward says is rare in Argentina, a salad.

In restaurants there, chimichurri sauce is usually served on the side, but Malbec spoons it right onto the meat, and also serves it with bread. 

Lou might do well to copy this garlicky herb and olive oil mixture for the next time an Argentinian winemaker comes to town.

Lou Wine Bar, 724 Vine S., Los Angeles, CA 90038. Tel: (323) 962-6369.

Malbec, 1001 E. Green St., Pasadena, CA 91106. Tel: (626) 683-0550.

Meeting Up with James Dean

There I was, having ice cream with James Dean at his last stop before the head-on collision that killed him.

That accident happened September 30, 1955, and Dean's final moments have been turned into a tourist attraction.

His photo greets you as you drive into the gas station at Blackwells Corner on State Highway 46 in Lost Hills.

Dean may have stopped there to fill the tank of his Porsche 550 Spyder and then gone inside the cavernous Blackwells shop, which some call the nut house, because it sells the pistachios and almonds that grow in this part of the San Joaquin Valley. 

At the back is an oldtime soda fountain, where Dean sits at the counter, dressed for the road in a leather jacket.

The huge shop was eerily empty when I came in.  Sitting next to Dean made it even eerier (you can see us in the photo above, which was taken by Mira Advani Honeycutt). 

The figure is only a dummy, but it feels as if Dean is actually there, perhaps trying to recreate that day and change its fateful outcome.   

I don't know what he ordered--someone else in the shop set the drink cup in front of him-- but I asked for a cone packed with butter pecan and dulce de leche ice creams, then left for a smooth drive back to Los Angeles.

Dean went in the opposite direction, to the end of his short life--he was only 24--near the meeting of  State Highways 46 and 41, now known as the James Dean Memorial Junction.

It's a barren place, notable only for that tragic crash. The sign there keeps Dean's memory alive. No matter how hot it is outside, you can't help but shiver as you drive by and ease up a little on the gas pedal.  

Blackwells Corner, 17191 Highway 46, Lost Hills, CA 93249. Tel: (661) 797-2905.

The Sweetest Corn Soup Ever

If you don't have super sweet fresh corn, don't even think about making this soup.

Its essence is fresh, natural sweetness, lightly perfumed with tarragon.

I use Mexican tarragon, because it grows so easily in California and pops up fresh each year. But French tarragon would be lovely too, if you have it.

The inspiration for this sweet corn chowder was the creamed corn at Eva restaurant in Los Angeles. Owner/chef Mark Gold told me that he cooks corn cobs in water to make broth in which he then cooks the corn kernels. To finish the dish, he combines the corn with a bechamel sauce infused with tarragon and bay leaf.

The fragrance as the corn cobs simmer is mellow and buttery, the very essence of corn.  The aroma permeating the kitchen is one of the pleasures of making this dish, which you can then serve with a salad and good crusty bread--a light summer meal to enjoy as long as the sweet corn harvest continues.

SUMMER SWEET CORN CHOWDER

3 cobs sweet corn
5 cups water
1 green onion, bottom part only
1 clove garlic
2 bay leaves
Salt
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
3/4 cup milk 
1 sprig Mexican tarragon or French tarragon

With a sharp knife, cut the kernels from the cobs. Place them in a bowl and reserve. There will be about 2 1/2 cups kernels.

Break the cobs in half. Place them in a Dutch oven. Add the water, green onion, garlic, 1 bay leaf and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 1 hour. 

Turn off the heat and let the cobs cool in the broth. Then remove them and discard. Strain the broth and reserve. There will be about 2 cups. 

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook and stir 30 seconds. Add the milk, remaining bay leaf and the tarragon sprig. Cook and stir until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens so that you can see the bottom of the pan as you stir.

Set aside to cool, stirring occasionally. Do not remove the herbs. 

Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a large saucepan. Add the corn kernels and stir 1 minute. Add 1 1/2 cups of the reserved corn broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes, stirring often.

Gradually stir several spoonfuls of the corn and its liquid into the white sauce, then return all to the saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook and stir 1 minute. Taste and add salt as needed. If too thick, add a little more of the corn broth.  

Let the chowder cool in order to develop the flavor. Reheat to serve, removing the herbs.

Makes about 1 quart, or 4 servings. 

In Defense of Chef McDang

Chef McDang has returned to Thailand from his recent trip to the United States. So he doesn't know that he has taken a lot of flak for using "store-bought" green curry paste in a recipe for green chicken curry that was published on this site a couple of weeks ago. 

In McDang's defense, the offending ingredient could have been suggested innocently.

The curry recipe appears in his just-published cookbook, "The Principles of Thai Cookery." The intent may have been to make things easier for farang cooks, who, faced with buying all manner of exotic ingredients and pounding them to a paste, would simply head for the nearest Thai restaurant.

Another factor may have been the haste with which McDang had to assemble the book to meet a deadline.

While in Los Angeles, he admitted that it contains errors and promised to revise them for a second edition.

If you have bought a copy, as I did, don't worry. The aim of the book is to make the principles behind Thai cooking clear, not just to cram in a lot of recipes, and it does this quite well.

The purpose behind the recipes is to clarify the structure of Thai cookery and teach basic techniques. If you read the written material carefully, you will learn how to cook any Thai dish successfully.  

Chicken green curry is one of eight curries, three without coconut milk and five with. If you don't want to use that infamous store-bought paste, then you can pound your own. It's one of 26 pastes for curries, soups, stir-fried dishes, marinades, sauces and salad dressings in the book.

Try to pound you way through these, and you will have to admit that Chef McDang is no culinary lightweight.

If you can manage just one, here is his green curry paste. The green chiles used are prik chee fah, a mild large chile (you could substitute mild jalapenos) and the tiny, fiery hot chiles called prik kee noo.

Chef McDang specifies Thai shallots and garlic cloves, which are smaller and more intense than their American counterparts. He also calls for cilantro root, but cilantro in American markets is sold without roots. Unless you grow your own, the only alternative is to substitute the stems.  

CHEF McDANG'S GREEN CURRY PASTE
From "The Principles of Thai Cookery"

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
5 Thai green chiles (prik chee fah), sliced
20 small green Thai chiles (prik kee noo), sliced
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons thinly sliced lemongrass (lower thick part only)
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped galangal
1 teaspoon chopped kaffir lime rind
1 sprig cilantro, both roots and leaves, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons peeled, sliced Thai shallots
2 tablespoons Thai garlic,  peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Roast the cumin and coriander seeds to concentrate the scent. Pound with pestle and mortar into a powder and place to one side.

Pound all of the green chiles with salt until a paste is formed. Add the lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime rind, cilantro, shallots and garlic and pound further to make a paste. Add the shrimp paste and pound until smooth.

Add the ground cumin, coriander and white pepper to the paste and pound to mix well.

A Quiet Friday Lunch at Eva

A quiet Friday lunch with a friend called for a place where we could eat the freshest food prepared simply but with great taste. And so we went to Eva.

We didn't have to waste time studying a menu because there wasn't one. Lunch at Eva is prix fixe--three courses with a couple of options for $22. And it's delivered verbally at the table.

That day Eva's famous fried chicken was one option, served on a bed of the equally renowned creamed corn.

The other was salmon cooked sous vide, then pan seared, accompanied by tiny potatoes, fresh artichoke hearts, a trace of lemon sauce and garnished with chopped chives and agretti sprigs.

If you haven't encountered agretti, it looks like a sea vegetable or fat rosemary or chives on a stem. The texture is crisp, the flavor delicately vegetative. It must be in farmers markets now because it showed up on two of my dishes, starting with the first course, hamachi tartare.

Bound together with creme fraiche, olive oil and sea salt, the chopped tuna was formed into a square in the bottom of a big white bowl.

(Please, Eva, throw out that bowl. The ugly chips in the rim made it look like the kitchen didn't care. This wasn't the case, but why ruin beautiful food and careful presentation with something so off-putting?)

The tiny cherry tomatoes around the tuna were intensely sweet. A yellow tomato slice and dribble of parsley oil added color, and a thin jalapeno slice jazzed up the light flavors. The alternative was a salad of Little Gem lettuce with orange cherry tomatoes and chopped chives.

Dessert was a single choice, and I don't know what other dish could have competed with fresh peach cobbler anyway.

Champagne and orange blossom honey went into the sweet sauce for sliced yellow and white peaches. Over the top, chunks of toasted almond crumble. It was like eating a big cookie torn into pieces.

Menus at Eva change as rapidly as new items appear on the market. Our server said the restaurant was already on its fourth menu for August, and when we were there, the month wasn't even half over.

Eva restaurant,  7458 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tel: (323) 634-0700

Dinner in a Community Garden

It was a California dream, dining high above the city with only the night sky and the last fading clouds of sunset overhead. The long table was lined with congenial companions, faces glowing in the candlelight. No crowds, no traffic, no hustle, only the fresh smell of growing things around the small clearing where the table had been placed.

This was not a dream, though. It was dinner at Ocean View Farms, a community garden in Mar Vista.

Such gatherings don't usually take place there. This one was arranged to promote  Giving through Growing, a project of Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi in partnership with the American Community Gardening Association.

The aim is to encourage gardening as a way to beautify the community, with such side benefits as exercise and a bountiful harvest for one's own table.

For the Mar Vista dinner, Woodbridge enlisted the help of Outstanding in the Field, an outfit that sets up dinners at farms. ranches and gardens across the country.

Composed of freshly harvested, natural foods, the dishes were served family style to promote the communal spirit.  

The night's produce came from purveyors extending from Venice and Santa Monica up the coast to Arroyo Grande and inland to Filmore, Littlerock and Santa Paula.

The chef was Sara Woodward of Tavern restaurant in Brentwood. 

Her only equipment was a 5x2-foot grill in a tent up the hill from the dinner site.

By the time the cooking was done and she came out to take a bow, it was too dark to see her.

Zak Walters of Salt's Cure in West Hollywood plated the appetizers that Woodward had made (they're in the photo above).

These included seared albacore on aioli with cherry tomato agrodolce, sweet red pepper strips wrapped around ricotta, and crostini topped with fresh lima bean puree and tapenade.

With the appetizers, guests drank Woodbridge's new non-vintage brut sparkler, produced from Chardonnay grapes. Introduced in 2009, the wine was launched nationally this May.

Warned to wear sturdy shoes and bring wraps, because nights on the Westside are cool, they then walked through gardens abloom with tomatoes, roses, squash, herbs and anything else the community gardeners wanted to plant.

Located on an ancient sand dune, Ocean View Farms has some 500 plots and a waiting list of 600. And, yes, the location is high enough to glimpse the Pacific. No wonder there's a three-year wait to get in.

Those who succeed pay $30 a year and donate 12 hours of community service, ranging from picking up trash to turning steaming compost.

After watching how the composting is done, guests worked their way to the table, where they found crusty sourdough from Tavern to nibble on while they sipped Woodbridge's 2009 Pinot Grigio. Sprigs of Thai basil had been wrapped in dinner napkins along with the menu.

The first course, an helrloom tomato salad with burrata and grilled eggplant, dazzled with brilliant colors and flavors.

Drizzled over the top was pesto made by David King of The Learning Garden in Venice, using Genovese basil and heirloom garlic.

Next came grilled Santa Barbara spot prawns with golden tomato confit, garlic butter and herbed breadcrumbs, followed by grilled fresh sardines with dandelion greens and a squash casserole. These were wonderful to taste but hard to see, because it was growing so dark, as the photo shows. 

Julee Harmon of Ocean Jewels Seafood walked around with samples so that diners could see the spot on the shell that gives the prawns their name.

Wines, poured freely, kept conversation going and helped to ward off the cold. They included Woodbridge's 2009 Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2008 Zinfandel.

The young, fresh 2009 Moscato was poured with the dessert, peach crostata topped with honey creme fraiche.

The dark, barely filtered honey had been supplied by beekeeper Maurice Vickers of Santa Monica.

Dinner broke up slowly--who would want to leave such a peaceful, friendly scene? As they departed, guests were handed a produce sample and an envelope. Inside was a card printed with the saying by the late Robert Mondavi that had inspired the evening:

"This is my life, fine food and fine wine, bringing everyone together around the communal table."

Get Wine Tips from a Pro

What's the smart way to order wine by the glass?

Ask the server, "What did you open today?" advises winemaker Janet Myers.

This is how you can avoid bottles that have deteriorated because they've been opened and left to stand for a day or longer.   

Myers is director of winemaking for two top Napa producers, Franciscan Estate and Mount Veeder Winery, and exhibits such passion for the field that you know what she has to say is worth hearing.

In town last week, she hosted a lunch at Lucques that ended with a bittersweet chocolate tart topped with mascarpone and accompanied by pistachio ice cream.

This brought up the topic of pairing red wine with chocolate, because the tart had been chosen to go with the Mount Veeder 2005 Reserve Napa Valley Red Wine, a blend that is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon.

"I'm not always in that camp [matching Cabernet with chocolate]," she said, "but I liked it with this dessert."

The pairing worked because the tart was slightly sweet and accompanied by two creamy components, she said. "A little bit of cream with chocolate helps to tie it all together."

Matching Cabernet with cheese is another matter. "Give me a Blue and a Cab, and I'll be happy," she said, laughing.

On corks versus screw caps: " We wouldn't still be using cork if it weren't the best closure there is. A screw cap is not as reliable as a cork. You can get more air intrusion."

On the other hand, Myers would use a screw cap for an unoaked Sauvignon Blanc, where she wants to show pure fresh fruit.  "Cork is a piece of wood. It imparts a flavor," she pointed out.

In making the Franciscan 2009 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, Myers wanted to bring out lemongrass, lime and grapefruit flavors.

Fresh and natural, the wine was 90% tank fermented. That's a change from the oaky Chardonnay-style Sauvignon Blancs that have been popular. "Those days are over," she said.

On high alcohol wines: "As much as people say they don't like alcohol, they do like alcohol," Myers said.  "It's sweet." And she talked about high end, super expensive wines that have residual sugar, naming no names. "That's just wrong, in my opinion," she said.

On buying low-priced wines: "At a lower price point, Merlot is better than Pinot Noir. You can't blend Pinot. It's too transparent." 

The part of her job she likes best is being out in the vineyards and making the blends. The Mount Veeder red wine combines 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 7% Malbec.  The 2006 Franciscan Estate Magnificat blends 56% Cabernet Sauvigon, 40% Merlot, 3% Malbec and 1% Petit Verdot.

Depending upon the year, Magnificat is made from three to five varietals. "This is the 2006, a big vintage. The wines will age for a long time," she said.

On Malbec: "Malbec helps almost any Bordeaux blend," Myers said. "When I add Malbec, I'm adding stuffing. It gives a fullness, a velvetiness, a suppleness. It doesn't have the tannins of Cabernet, but it has deep color and smells like a blueberry-raspberry compote. It's a delicious varietal."

Hard to grow, it tastes different here from Malbec in Argentina, she noted.

On Chardonnay: "I'm not a fan of overly buttery Chardonnays, but I like big flavors,"  Myers said. The 2007 Franciscan Estate Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay is such a wine, made 100% from Carneros grapes and native yeast. Franciscan's Napa Chardonnay, made with 50% Carneros grapes, costs less than half the price.

On pairing wine with food: The lunch menu made Myers' tastes clear. The Sauvignon Blanc was an appetizer wine, to eat with bread, almonds and olives.

Myers chose sweet corn soup with roasted poblanos to eat with her glass of the Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay. The alternative was a salad of nectarines, jamon serrano and burrata with dates and chopped toasted Marcona almonds. Those two dishes are in the photos above.

Choosing a dish for the Magnificat was a no-brainer--Niman Ranch hanger steak with Bearnaise sauce, French fries and arugula salad--big, robust food for a big wine.

How is L.A. Thai Food? Hmmm

Perhaps I shouldn't have asked the question, because I wasn't happy with the answer.

"Are there any good Thai restaurants in Los Angeles?" I wanted to know. The reply, with a disdainful look, was, "Not quite."

I wasn't talking with some snide foodie but with Chef McDang, who for six years has come from Bangkok to teach Thai cookery at Le Cordon Bleu culinary colleges across the country.

Chef McDang (that's his professional name. The real one is ML Sirichalerm Svasti) was here only long enough for one class at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena and another at the Hollywood campus. So I suppose he didn't eat around very much, and that was some consolation.

McDang is a showman, which you can tell by the blonde and red highlights in his hair. He appears on TV in Thailand, writes newspaper food columns and has produced cookbooks in Thai.

His first cookbook in English, "The Principles of Thai Cookery" (McDang Dot Com Co. Ltd ), has just been published in Bangkok, and he signed copies at a reception in his honor at the Thai consular residence here.

"Our food culture goes far beyond the food itself," he told the guests. "It's our soul. Thai food is what Thai people are."

McDang devotes most of his Cordon Bleu lectures to Thai food philosophy and culture and the structure of the cuisine, and a smaller portion to cooking. This time, the dish he taught was green chicken curry.

That curry was in the buffet at the reception along with other dishes from his book, including duck larb salad with duck cracklings, marinated pork, roast beef panang, curry fish cakes and pad Thai that obviously pleased the young Thai dancers who had performed  at the event (at top).

In the book, McDang writes,  "As with any Thai dish, it should take only ten minutes to make your curry--after you have prepared your raw ingredients, of course." 

When it is finished, he says, the flavor profile  should be "multi-layered: salty, creamy sweet, pungent from the curry paste, and, finally, a different kind of sweetness from the sweet basil leaves."

CHEF McDANG'S GREEN CHICKEN CURRY
Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai 
From "The Principles of Thai Cookery"

2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons store-bought green curry paste
1 cup coconut cream
1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thigh meat, sliced
4 cups coconut milk
4 to 5 kaffir lime leaves
2 teaspoons palm sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce
5 round Thai eggplants, quartered
2 large red Thai chiles (or red jalapenos to taste), sliced diagonally
1/2 cup sweet basil leaves

Heat the oil over medium heat in a thick-bottomed pot. Add the green curry paste and stir in a little of the coconut cream to make it smooth and spreadable. Cook over medium-low heat until fragrant and the color turns intense green (about 1 minute).

Increase the heat and add the chicken. Stir to cover each piece with the curry paste and to seal in the juices. The chicken does not have to be cooked through.

Add the rest of the coconut cream and coconut milk. Stir to mix and bring to a boil. While waiting for the curry to boil, tear the kaffir lime leaves over it. After it boils, add the palm sugar.

Taste the curry. It should taste slightly sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Balance the flavor with fish sauce and taste again. The curry should taste salty, with an underlying sweetness.

Add the eggplants and allow to cook for about 2 minutes. Check the seasoning again before adding the chiles. Stir to mix.

Turn the heat off and toss in the basil leaves. Stir to infuse the curry with their fragrance.

 Spoon into a bowl and serve with steamed rice.

Makes 4 servings.

The True Taste of Summer

It's been cool in Los Angeles, but despite the low temperatures, I know for sure that summer is here.

The indicator was a lemonade stand two blocks from my home.

Three kids had set up a table with snacks and pitchers of delicious looking cool drinks. One pitcher held traditional lemonade with lemon slices, the other strawberry lemonade with apple slices. A mother had cut up the fruit.

I was on my way to a neighborhood party and so couldn't stop. It was a BYOG (bring your own glass) situation anyway. But I really wanted that drink, so I planned to rush home after the party and come back with a glass. Unfortunately, the young entrepreneurs had gone.

I hope business was good enough to bring them back. I have lemons in my backyard, but  lemonade offered with such high hopes and happy smiles would taste better than anything I could make.