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You Don't Need Basil for This Pesto

Don't throw away those carrot tops. Put them into pesto.

I got the idea when I bought tender young carrots at the Windrose Farm stall at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

"Do you want me to cut off the tops for our compost?" asked the girl who handled my purchase. I decided to keep the feathery greens and asked what she did with them. 

Her suggestion was to turn them into pesto, which I did, using the ingredients she suggested. There it is at the top, framed by Windrose carrots. 

Serve the pesto with pasta or on crackers or baguette slices as an appetizer.

CARROT TOP PESTO

Tops from 1 bunch baby carrots
1/3 cup walnut pieces
1 large clove garlic
Salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Remove the tops from the carrots, wash them and drain well.  Pluck the leaves, leaving only the tender stems at the top. There will be about 1 cup leaves.

Place the leaves, walnuts, garlic and a dash salt in a food processor. Process until the nuts are ground.  Add the olive oil and process again until well blended.

Makes about 1/2 cup.  

Disclaimer: Carrot leaves contain allergens that may affect some people, just as some are allergic to peanuts. They are high in nutrients, however, and not toxic. 

Tasting with a Legendary Vintner

Even vintner Bernard Portet (above) seemed surprised at how well his Pinot Noir dealt with spicy flavors.

Portet was eating ceviche seriously spiked with serrano chiles. The place was Duplex on Third, where he had brought wines for a dinner tasting.

A legend in the Napa Valley, Portet co-founded and was head winemaker at Clos du Val in the Stags Leap District. After retiring in 2009, he founded Polaris Wines with a former colleague, Don Chase. Under the label Heritance, they are focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc but have added Pinot Noir. Their 2011 Pinot, from Stanly Ranch vineyard in Carneros, was released this January. It's a limited production, only 217 cases.

This is the wine Portet turned to when even the cool, crisp Sauvignon Blanc that he is holding in the photo above couldn't alleviate the fire from the ceviche.

The success of this unlikely pairing illustrates Portet's approach to winemaking."Wine is to go with the food, compliment food, go well with the food," he said. For Heritance, he is making "wines that are enjoyable, yet complex," more palatable and less austere than what he made at Clos du Val.

And they're not high alcohol bombs. "I'm not trying to make explosive wines, but wines that come gently into the mouth," he said. The Pinot Noir is 14.2 % alcohol. "Acidity shows more when there is lower alcohol," he said. 

Portet has responded to changing tastes. "The taste of people has evolved in 25 years," he said. "Consumers have gone from not being afraid of aging a wine for three to five years to, they want to drink it now." 

Born in Cognac, France, Portet is the ninth generation in a wine family. His early lessons in grape-growing and wine-making came from his father, who was vineyard and winery manager of Château Lafite. In 1968, he arrived in the Napa Valley.  "I have the privilege of having 44 years of wine-making behind me," he said.

The Heritance label sums up his background: 1 (for one family), 9 (for the number of generations) and 4 for the number of continents where he has made wine. 

Heritance is what Portet calls a "winery without walls." The partners don't have their own vineyards. They buy grapes, but not from just anywhere. "I do believe very much in the idea of terroir," Portet said.

The grapes go to a custom crushing facility where he supervises every step in the production of the wine. 

The 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, which didn't quite extinguish the flames of the ceviche, is blended with 12% Roussanne from Paso Robles. The result is a wine more tropical and California-like than the usual Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend, he said.

But this was a one-time experiment. The 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, which will be bottled in May, is blended with 7 to 8% Semillon.

You might ask why a winemaker would order a spicy first course at a wine dinner rather than a mild option such as oysters, a caprese salad or Maryland crab cakes, all of which are on the menu at Duplex.

The answer is, Portet has loved ceviche since first tasting it in Chile (his wife is Chilean, from Valparaiso).

And he's closely linked to South American wine country. Polaris's other label, Ñandú is a Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. Portet goes to Mendoza two or three times a year to supervise the making of this wine.

The 2010 Malbec, which he brought to the dinner, is blended with 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. Malbec is a small black grape with not much acidity. "Cabernet is necessary for the balance of the wine," he said. "Even 2% makes a difference. With the Cabernet the tannins of Malbec reappear." 

Portet chose a more reliable dish to go with the reds that followed the Pinot--pappardelle with lamb ragout, maitake mushrooms and cherry tomato-garlic bread crumbs.

This was an easy pairing with the 2008 and 2010 Heritance Cabernet Sauvignons, which, Portet said, reflect the difference between a normal year (2008) and a cold vintage that resulted in green tannins and spiciness (2010).

Up next for Polaris is a single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon that will be bottled in June. And Portet is thinking about a white or red Rhone blend with grapes from Paso Robles. 

If he does this, it will clearly be a Paso wine. "I try to make sure you recognize the variety [of the grapes] and the terroir," he said.

Food and Fun with Bordeaux Merlots

Having lunch with French winemakers means lots of bottles going back and forth, lots of clowning and fun, like in the photo above. And good food too.

This happened at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills, when Le Circle Rive Droite (The Right Bank Club) held tastings arranged by Learn About Wine.

Founded in 2002, the Cercle represents the best vineyards from the right bank of the Gironde estuary in Bordeaux, where Merlot is the top grape. Thirty-two châteaux poured their wines throughout the day.

After a morning seminar for sommeliers, the wine people headed outdoors to the sunny Verandah Terrace for lunch. French accents dominated conversation, and bottles covered the tables (above). When these had been tasted, more appeared as tables exchanged their bounty.

The wines were older vintages, from 2005, 2008 and 2009, and one from 2000--Château Moulin Haut-Laroque (really nice, above). 

Lunch started with a mixed green salad (above) with shaved vegetables, tomatoes and pine nuts. The dressing was acidic and salty, which I thought it would kill the wines, only that didn't happen. The two poured at my table with this course not only stood up to the salad but became even more delicious with it.

These salad-loving wines were Château La Rose Perrière and Château La Vielle Cure (above), Merlot blends from 2008.

Next came a dish friendly to all the wines, chicken on a bed of mascarpone polenta with tomatoes, zucchini and sweet corn (above).

Sitting at my table was Yseult de Gaye, whose family has been in the wine business for a century (above and at the top). She brought Château Grand Corbin Manuel 2009, a good match for the chicken.

Lunch ended with cheeses, bread and crackers and then a platter of cookies (above). The chocolate cookies at the left went well with the wines. The others were just plain good, like the remaining wines I tasted.

They were Château Fontenil 2005, Château Boutisse 2005, Château Fayat 2009, Château Montviel 2006, Château Rol Valentin 2009 and Château Bonalgue 2009.

At the end came two young wines. The first, Château Magrez Fombrauge, represented an outstanding vintage, 2010. The baby was the 2012 Château Cassagne Haut-Canon.

The 2012 vintage will produce "some of the best Bordeaux we've seen," according to Dr. Alain Raynaud, president of Le Cercle Rive Droite. Even better news from Dr. Raynaud: "The prices will be reasonable when the vintage is finally released, making it a great year for consumers."

Celebrating Malbec Day at Lucques

What could be nicer than a glass of Malbec with a great lunch at Lucques?

The answer is, 14 glasses of Malbec with the same lunch. This happened at a master class presented by Wines of Argentina in honor of the third annual Malbec World Day April 17.

The "students"  were handed a glass of Finca Las Nubes Rosé of Malbec 2011 as they arrived. This dry rosé was made by José Luis Mounier at a high altitude winery in the Cafayate Valley in northern Argentina.

The rest of the wines came in three flights, poured into glasses that formed a cheery crowd behind the lunch plates. The first flight, at the top, included the 2012 Finca Flichman Reserva Malbec 2012, the 2011 Lagarde Malbec, the 2010 Alamos Winery Selección Malbec and the 2010 Ricardo Santos Malbec.

You wouldn't mind having any of these on your table, especially because the suggested retail prices are $20 or less, making them great buys.  At $12.99, the Finca Flichman was the lowest-priced wine at the tasting. Founded in 1890, this is one of Argentina's oldest wineries. 

You may see Alamos Malbec in markets for less than the Selección, which is $20, but don't get excited. It's a different wine at a lower price point.  

As Master Sommelier Tim Gaiser from San Franciso lectured on the wines, the class ate spiced lamb loin with roasted baby carrots, dandelion greens and black olives (above).

The hardest part of the session was pouring the wines into a dump bucket when it would have been nice to sit back and enjoy them. 

But they had to make way for the next round, composed of the 2010 Finca El Origen Gran Reserva Malbec (at right), the 2010 Don Miguel Gascón Reserva Malbec, the 2008 Navarro Correas Alegoría Malbec, and the 2011 Domingo Hermanos Domingo Molina M2 Malbec.

The Domingo wine represents the Cafayate Valley and the Rupestre Valley in Salta in the north.  The other wines at the tasting were from Mendoza, where the first grape cuttings were planted in 1853.

To go with these richer and more expensive wines (the Domingo Molina M2 is $35), lunch escalated into a hearty plate of chicken paillard with Swiss chard bread pudding, wild mushrooms and walnut butter (above).

The final round brought on the priciest of the wines, the 2008 Renacer Malbec ($70), which is a limited edition wine aged two years in new French oak and then 6 months in the bottle. At 15%, it was the highest in alcohol in this group.

The others were the 2009 Nieto Senetiner Nieto Reserva Malbec followed by three blends: the 2010 Salentein Numina Malbec Blend (61 % Malbec, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon and smaller amounts of Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc); the 2009 Luca Wines Beso de Dante Malbec Blend (60% Malbec, the rest Cabernet Sauvignon), and the 2008 Familia Zuccardi Zeta Malbec Blend (73% Malbec and 27% Cabernet Sauvignon).

At $45, the Zuccardi Zeta was the second highest-priced wine at the tasting. The Nieto Reserva sneaked into this round at only $14.99.

To pair with this elegant group, Lucques sent out plates of braised beef short ribs with turnip greens, roasted cippolinis and horseradish cream (above).

Sated with wine and food and hardly able to touch the platter of cookies that served as dessert, the tasters had to sit back and agree with Sommelier Gaiser, who said of Malbec, "Whatever you do to it, you really can't change its soul."

What's in These Truffles? Bacon!

An all-bacon party this weekend brought out an incredible assortment of food, from bacon spring rolls and bacon-infused vodka to more desserts than you ever thought could be made with bacon.

I took chocolate-peanut-bacon truffles (at top), around which I arranged bacon-chocolate bark. The bark is easy to make. All you do is mix crumbled bacon with melted chocolate, then spread it out on foil or wax paper to harden.

The truffle recipe came from Cakebread Cellars' culinary director, Brian Streeter. It's easy, too. Here are the steps:

First, grind peanuts, bittersweet chocolate chips and sugar in a food processor until very fine (above).

Next, mix in creamy peanut butter until smooth.

Place the mixture in the refrigerator until firm, then form it into 1-inch balls and return to the refrigerator. 

Cook bacon until crisp and drain it well on paper towels.

With a heavy knife, chop the bacon into fine crumbs.

Melt chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, stirring occasionally as the chocolate softens. Mix in the chopped bacon and let the mixture cool slightly. 

Coat the peanut-chocolate balls with the melted chocolate mixture and then with cocoa. The shape will be irregular, but that's the way truffles are in nature. 

These are only slightly sweet. Perhaps that's because they're meant to go with red wine--Cakebread Cellars Syrah. No one brought that to the party, so I substituted a Spanish Garnacha, and that was a good pairing too.

If you don't plan to serve the truffles with wine and want them sweeter, you could use semisweet chocolate chips instead of bittersweet. I had a little coating left over, and that's how I got the idea of making bacon bark.  I liked it so well that I cooked more bacon and melted more chocolate in order to have enough bark for the party. 

PEANUT BUTTER AND BACON TRUFFLES
Cakebread Cellars

1/2 cup salted dry roasted peanuts
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
6 slices bacon 
1/4 cup cocoa for coating, plus additional cocoa

Combine the peanuts, 2 ounces of the chips and the sugar in the work bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture is ground to a medium fine texture. Transfer to a bowl, add the peanut butter, and stir until evenly combined. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon until crisp, drain on paper towels and chop fine. Set aside.

Remove the chilled peanut mixture from the refrigerator and form into 1-inch balls. There will be about 24. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining 6 ounces of chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water over medium heat. Stir occasionally, until smooth.

Remove the bowl from the heat, stir in the chopped bacon and set aside to cool until just warm to the touch. Sift the cocoa into another bowl and set aside.

Working with a few peanut balls at a time, coat them evenly with the melted chocolate mixture, then place in the bowl of cocoa and coat completely. Add more cocoa if necessary.

Transfer the truffles to an airtight container sprinkled with additional cocoa. Repeat with the remaining balls. Refrigerate up to a week. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Makes 2 dozen.

Paiche Presents Peruvian Small Plates

The seco sauce on Paiche's tamalito verde (above) was so good, and the corn dough so tender, that I wanted to keep on eating. But I couldn't, because I had to share the single small tamal with a friend.   

We were eating at a trial-run dinner before the restaurant opens officially tomorrow. Located In Marina del Rey, Paiche is the latest gig for Peruvian chef Ricardo Zarate and partner Stephane Bombet. It's a small plates place, which means minimalist servings at non-minimalist prices. Be prepared to pay well for what you eat. The single tamal was $14.

The seco sauce, made with pureed cilantro, appears again in seco de paiche (above). Paiche is the Peruvian fish for which the restaurant is named. The small slice of fish sits on a stack of rice and beans.

To taste paiche in a more pure state, order it as tiradito (above). The thinly sliced fish is splashed with tamari and aji amarillo lemon vinaigrette (aji amarillo is Peru's yellow chile). A spoonful of sweet potato mousse sits on on the center slice under the decoration. 

Paiche plays with Peruvian traditions, making tiradito with seared Wagyu beef (above) and adding Parmesan sauce along with an aji amarillo vinagrette. Even though it has a touch of black truffle, the Wagyu is a bargain at $12 compared to the $14 tamal. 

The frituras (fried things) include uni shrimp toast, a wad of sea urchin sprawled over buttery tasting fried bread topped with diced tomatoes. The shrimp paste spread over the bread is so delicate, it's hard to detect. That's rocoto honey sauce on top. Rocoto is another Peruvian chile.

In Peru, Chinese fried rice is as popular as hamburgers or macaroni and cheese are here.  Paiche's version (above) includes mixed seafood, according to the menu. However, the name of the dish, chaufa de langosta, means lobster fried rice. That makes it more luxurious than what you usually get in Peru. 

The restaurant was jammed for the practice dinners, so the kitchen was under a lot of pressure. That might explain why the churros (above) weren't fried through, or else they were supposed to have soft centers. The crocks on the plate hold lúcuma and chocolate sauces. Not available fresh here, lúcuma is a fruit common in Peru and Chile. 

Somehow, Paiche has managed to get all its food, cocktails, wines and beers onto a single double-sided menu. That means very small print for the wines and beers, because there are a lot of them. Hint: Take along a magnifying glass.

Paiche, 13488 Maxella Ave., Marina del Rey, CA 90292. Tel: (310) 893-6100.

Sauvignon Blanc for "Breakfast"

Ah, breakfast in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel. What a treat, to relax in a serene dining room facing a sunny patio abloom with greenery.

Shall we start with coffee? Certainly not, because this is going to be a morning wine tasting. The wines are from Napa Valley's Cakebread Cellars, brought by brothers Dennis and Bruce Cakebread, who had just landed at LAX.

If morning seems an odd time to taste wines, it's routine at Cakebread, where tasting for blending gets done between 10 and ll a.m. "It's noon somewhere," jokes Bruce Cakebread, winery president. 

First up was the sprightly Sauvignon Blanc 2011, a better eye-opener than a shot of caffeine. If you were having goat cheese on an English muffin, this fresh, acidic wine would be a good match.  

Next came the oaky, complex Carneros Chardonnay Reserve 2010, a fine companion to Brie, perhaps melted over toast.

Eggs benedict with smoked salmon? Cakebread's 2011 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir could work there. And if you wanted a chorizo omelet or a carnitas breakfast burrito, both of which are on the breakfast menu at the Polo Lounge, the Dancing Bear Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 could stand up to either one.  

On the other hand, this elegant Cabernet deserves to be appreciated on its own, with bread and cheese, which is what we did.

The Polo Lounge assembles a handsome cheese platter (above), complete with a label that names each cheese. Our platter had Nicasio Square cow's milk and San Andreas sheep's milk cheeses from California, Wisconsin's Moody Blue, and chevre from Oregon. Because it was morning, the platter included rolls and jams as well as fig bread, dried fruits and almonds.  

At Cakebread, wines aren't necessarily paired with the same old safe stuff. The Cakebreads like the Sauvignon Blanc with chicken in mole verde, the Chardonnay with fresh corn pozole and the Cabernet Sauvignon with red mole.

The winery has an active culinary program, and these dishes are specialties there.  As I was salivating at the descriptions, the recipes were on their way to me from Brian Streeter, culinary director. 

We didn't taste the Cakebread Syrah, but this wine is suggested with chocolate-peanut butter-bacon truffles. You'll get that recipe soon, because I'm making the truffles this week for a party. The other recipes are more complex, so I can't test them in a day. 

To taste in person at the winery, consider attending Cakebread's 27th annual American Harvest Workshop Sept. 7 through 10.  Dinners, cellar tours, grape harvesting, seminars and farm visits are just some of the activities. Top chefs from around the country are coming to cook.  

If you're really ambitious, you could apply to be one of 10 guests who will shadow the chefs throughout the festival and cook alongside them. The qualifications are stiff, like trying out for a reality TV show. "Culinary bootcamp," is how Dennis Cakebread, winery vice chairman, describes the experience.  "It's not for the faint of heart."  

If you don't make the cut, you can still take cooking classes at Cakebread. And if you can't get away, you can still taste workshop food. Streeter,who is program manager for the event, drew on recipes from 60 participating chefs for "The Cakebread Cellars American Harvest Cookbook" (Ten Speed Press, 2011), which is available online, in bookstores and at the winery. 

Appetizer of the Week: Tanzore's Tuna

Seared tuna is all over the place, but if you want to taste it Indian style, go to Tanzore on La Cienega Boulevard.

Executive chef Jayanta Paul coats ahi tuna steak with Indian spices such as coriander, cumin and red chiles, then sears it in extra virgin olive oil.

He serves the tuna on a bed of raita, not the usual cucumber, cumin and yogurt mixture, but raita that combines yogurt with cubed avocado, bell peppers, chives and a dash of ginger, green chiles and cumin powder. 

To provide some crunch, he adds another fusion touch--tortilla chips. These are made in-house from tortillas cut fine and deep-fried.

And there's more--a pile of tuna tartare on top.

Eating this, it's hard to imagine you're on Restaurant Row in Beverly Hills and not in some chic place in Mumbai, Kolkata or Delhi.

Tanzore, 50 N La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. Tel: (310) 652-3838.

Could This Be L.A.'s Best Polenta?

A friend who dislikes polenta marveled over this version at Tapenade, the new small plates restaurant in West L.A.

This soft and creamy white polenta has a faint hint of lemon and just enough grittiness to make it interesting. Chef Ressul Rassallat keeps the formula a secret, except for the topping:  big flakes of Parmesan, chewy hen of the wood mushrooms and a sprig of fried thyme.

It's not the only notable dish at Tapenade. The crispy Brussels sprouts (above) get just as many raves. They're crisp at the edges and tangy with red wine vinegar and capers. 

The scallops (above) with potato and caramelized shallots are so light they almost fly off the plate. 

The few desserts on the menu are only a start. Ask for something special, and Rassallat will whip it up, like this combination of warmed fruits, walnuts and vanilla ice cream with strips of vanilla bean (above). 

But if you stick to the menu, you'll be happy with chocolate panna cotta topped with coffee chantilly cream, berries and little pearls of chocolate. It's served in a jar, just like the restaurant's signature green olive tapenade.

Tapenade restaurant, 11301 W. Olympic Blvd. (in the Olympic Collection), No. 116, Los Angeles, CA 90064. Tel: (310) 312-6233.