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Pairing Pasta and Santa Barbara Wine

It was fun being my own sommelier at the Stars of Santa Barbara wine tasting the other day at The Peninsula Beverly Hills.

This didn't take any expertise, because there were just three dishes to match, all pastas, and a huge choice of wines only a step or two from my table.

At the top you can see what I was eating--truffle macaroni and cheese, spinach and mushroom ravioli in pesto sauce and orecchiette pasta with oven-dried tomatoes, asparagus and fontina cream sauce. These were bland enough not to interfere with any of the wines.

Working at random, I started with:

1. Brave & Maiden's 2011 Union, a blend of 49% Syrah, 35% Merlot and 16% Cabernet Franc from the Santa Ynez Valley and the winery's first vintage. "Wonderful," my notes say, but I was more intrigued by the label, which represents a waterfall in the area, the site of a legend about indigenous star-crossed lovers (above).  

2. Cebada Pinot Nor, Santa Ynez Valley 2012. Even closer to my table was Cebada estate grown wines, all made by owner Sandra Newman (above), who also grows blueberries, mulberries and other fruits, even tea plants, on property in North Santa Barbara County. You can buy her jams, syrups and fresh berries in season at the Santa Monica, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and other farmers markets in the Los Angeles area.

Notice the small blue bottle at the left. It's Cebada's Blueberry Dessert Wine, fortified with aged brandy.  I ended my meal with this. It's subtly flavored with blueberries and not too sweet.

3. Larner Vineyard & Winery Elemental, Santa Ynez Valley 2010. Next to the Cebada table, I found this beautiful, inky dark purple wine from Larner. Soft, so easy to drink, even relaxing, it's a blend of 57% Grenache, 33% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre.  

4. Kaena Grenache, Santa Ynez Valley 2012. I had been eyeing this unusual wine label and went to Kaena's table to find out what it was. It's a Syrah leaf reworked into a pattern from a Hawaiian quilt.  

The guy in the Hawaiian shirt is Kaena winemaker Mikael Sigouin, who is part Hawaiian and raised in the islands. Winemaker for Beckman Vineyards for seven years, he left in 2014 to go on his own. He's known for his Grenache, which I found light and pleasant--you could enjoy it even in hot tropical weather in the islands.

5. Demetria Estate Cuvee Papou, Santa Ynez Valley 2013. If you're organized, you start a tasting with white wines, then move on to the reds. But it never works that way for me. I found this one after deciding I ought to investigate the whites. It's a blend of Marsanne, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, Picpoul Blanc and Viognier, more appropriate with light pastas than a gutsy red.

6. Kenneth Volk Vineyards Albariño, River Bench Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley 2013. And then I found this white wine, with light acids that went really well with the ravioli.

7. Kitá Wines Grenache, Camp 4 Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley 2011. And then back to the reds for this fruity, light and lovely Grenache. Interestingly, this winery is owned and operated by the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. The word kitá is Chumash for "our valley oak."

By chance, a genuine sommelier, Danny Bendett of The Grill on the Alley in Beverly Hills, joined me at my table. Reds with good acid, tannins and structure balance with charred, grilled meats, he said. He thought a Viognier or a buttery, oaky Chardonnay would pair wll with the Peninsula's ravioli with pesto (above).

It was he who sent me to Kitá and also to Jaffurs Wine Cellars, which had a wonderful, jammy Syrah, Santa Barbara County 2012. "Wow" on my notes says it all. 

Of course my tasting didn't stop with this group. I went on to try a few more. Standouts included: Foxen Canyon's Chenin Blanc, Ernest Wickenden Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley 2013--you don't often run into this varietal; Clos Pepe Estate Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills 2012, and Tantara Winery's Pinot Noir, Lindsay's Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills 2012, a real knockout of a wine.

Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Rose, Ballard Canyon 2014, was so pale you could hardly see any color. It's perfect for summer. The wine that I saved for last was Shai Cellars Adome, Santa Ynez Valley 2009, a blend of Syrah and Cabernet. Adome is Hebrew for red and Shai means gift. Although the names are Hebrew, the wines are not kosher. The winemaker and proprietor is Shawn Shai Halahmy, who was born in Israel. 

This was the 12th annual Stars of Santa Barbara tasting, organized by LearnAboutWine. Forty-two wineries took part, which means there were way more than 100 wines on display. In a couple of hours, I managed to sample only about 10 per cent of what was there. It was tough to leave those other bottles behind.   

A Cookbook for Korean Food Lovers

Each time I pick up "Cathlyn's Korean Kitchen," I put it down. Not because I'm bored, but because I want to race to the nearest Korean market for ingredients to cook with.

The latest haul was chicken for barbecue and potatoes for the sweet, syrupy potato cubes that I adore when they turn up among the banchan at Korean restaurants. It was a very good dinner, I must say.  

Cathlyn, whom I've known for some time, is Cathlyn Choi of San Diego. The book is named for her PBS cooking show, which ran for four seasons and still appears in some locations. She's a popular host for Korean events in Southern California, which is where I often see her. And she does much more, including hosting a Southern California television show called Asian Voices, preparing yet another TV series and planning another cookbook.

If Korean food supplies this sort of energy, I'm determined to eat more of it. Choi's book will make this easy. Its 55 recipes include dishes that I love at Koreatown restaurants, plus interesting background on Korean cuisine and eating customs. 

"Healthy, delicious and easy to make" is her style, she said, when we talked about the book over lunch at Yong Su San in Koreatown. The "easy" part really appeals. Choi told me that she cooks at home every day and can get a meal together in less than 30 minutes. What better selling point is there than that?

Launched at the end of November after three years in the making, the book is self-published. This shows the drive she has to get things done.  It's beautifully put together, with design and photos of each dish by her husband, Eric Michelson (above). And the type is large enough to see easily while you're working on a recipe. You can get the book either on Amazon or on Choi's site. 

Here is Choi's version of galbi, Korean style short ribs. I cheated, using chicken instead of short ribs, and this worked out well. However, the book includes a really interesting recipe for chicken barbecue with vegetables. This may be my next project.

GALBI
Short Rib Barbecue
From "Cathlyn's Korean Kitchen"

1/3 cup lite soy sauce
1/2 cup pear puree or brown sugar
2 tablespoons cooking wine
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped green onion
1 tablespoon sesame oil 
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 pound thinly sliced galbi style short ribs (from a Korean market)
1 teaspoon cooking oil 

Combine the soy sauce, pear puree, wine, garlic, green onion, sesame oil, pepper and toasted sesame oil in a deep bowl or plate.

Working one at a time, place a rib onto the plate and, using a spoon, drizzle the marinade over each rib until used up.

Cover the ribs with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.

Heat a grill pan or skillet and drizzle with the cooking oil. Grill the ribs for about 2 minutes or less on each side. Do not overcook. 

Makes 3 to 4 servings. 

Filipino Food Is Getting a Push

It's odd that Filipino food still hides under the radar, given that some 400,000 people in Los Angeles are of Filipino origin, more than 800,000 reside in Southern California, and Filipino-Americans are the largest Asian group in the state. 

Because Filipinos are sociable and like to entertain, the best food is in their homes. What restaurants and markets there are cater primarily to their own community.

If any cuisine is qualifed to go mainstream, though, it would be that of the Philippines, which has something for everyone. Years of colonization and trade have flavored it richly with Spanish, American, Malay, Chinese and Japanese influences, and local dishes draw on premium ingredients that are exported worldwide.

The Philippines is the largest producer of pineapple in the world, the second top producer of coconuts, and a major producer of bananas and mangoes. The United States is the country's second largest export market, especially for food, which means a lot of interesting products are here already. 

These facts came out at a launch of Food Philippines, a branding program to promote the export of top quality food products from the Philippines. The meeting at Sofitel was organized by the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Los Angeles, headed by Jose Ma. S. Dinsay, trade commissioner and director.

Sofitel chefs worked gamely to serve Filipino meals. The plate at the top shows what attendees had for breakfast, including chicken adobo, marinated sliced beef (tapa), longaniza sausages, fried rice and milkfish (bangus).

Dessert was cassava cake (above), as rich and dense as cheesecake. One of the beverages was coconut water with coconut pulp.

Ringed around the room were tables where food purveyors showed off their products, like tablets of pure unsweetened chocolate from Fedco, a federation of cooperatives in Mindanao (above). There, farmers are being taught to interplant cacao with coconut and thus increase their income. 

Did you know that western style hot chocolate came to Mexico from the Philippines? Ireneo D. Dalayon of Fedco explained that Spaniards liked the chocolate so well they had it shipped to Mexico on the galleons that sailed from Manila to Acapulco. 

Another display featured coconut products, including cooking sauces similar to teriyaki, spicy coconut vinegar and coconut cider vinegar.  These should be an easy sell now that coconut has become "healthy."  

Coconut ginger tea (at the right above) is a double whammy healthwise.

Baked goods made from mixes can't compare to homemade, but traditional Filipino desserts such as espasol and sapin-sapin prepared with boxed mixes (above) were excellent. 

Filipinos are known for their breads, cakes and pastries, including cassava cake. The following recipe is not the version from Sofitel but one from "The Coconut Cookbook" by Conrado A. Escudero, published by Mr. and Ms. Publishing Company in Metro Manila.

A leading figure in Filipino food and hospitality, Escudero was born on a coconut plantation not far from Manila. At the time the book was published in 1980, he was director of activities of the Association of Philippine Coconut Dessicators and dedicated to promoting the use of coconut.

The family estate is now the Villa Escudero Plantations and Resort, a popular tourist destination. The book is available on Etsy and eBay. 

CASSAVA CAKE
From "The Coconut Cookbook" by Conrado A. Escudero

1 cup margarine
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups grated young coconut
2 1/4 cups grated cassava
1 teaspoon vanilla.

Topping:

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 egg yolks, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 2-quart glass baking dish.

Cream the margarine and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, coconut, cassava and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Turn into the prepared baking dish and bake about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping. Combine the condensed milk, sugar and flour in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Gradually stir a little of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, then add the egg yolks to the pan and cook 2 minutes.  

Spread the topping over the baked cake.  Place under the broiler until the top is golden brown.

A Wine Worth Emptying Your Wallet

Here's a wine you'll probably never see or taste. And If you did come across it, you probably wouldn't buy it--unless you had a spare $730 lying around.

Furthermore, only 250 bottles have been allocated to the United States. These will go to only three places--Los Angeles, New York and Miami, making the odds against finding it even greater. 

This mystery wine is Sandeman's "Very Old Tawny Porto,"  a special bottling in honor of the prestigious company's 225th anniversary this year. There's no date on the bottle, because it's a blend of old wines, some as old as 70. The blend comes from Cask 33, which in 1963 was laid down to age in Sandeman's cellars by the River Douro in Portugal.

Of all the wines cellared there, only Cask 33 proved exceptional enough to yield the company's first single-cask port. If you manage to get it, you would still have an impressive souvenir when the wine is gone. The heavy, handblown bottle reproduces the original Sandeman bottle from 1790.

In that era, wine drinkers had their own bottles, which they sent to merchants to be filled as needed, explained George Sandeman (above), who came from Oporto in Portugal to publicize the release. A sturdy bottle such as this could have survived many such trips. It's stamped with the initials G.S and the date 1790. Each bottle is numbered, and the label is signed by the head winemaker, Luís Sottomayor. 

What do you get for your $730? A wine so refined that you would serve it only to appreciative friends (or to a boss or clients you're trying to impress). It's a star meant to be drunk on its own. You would not pair it with anything that might conflict with its flavor--no cheese, no chocolates, no raisins, no espresso. Nothing more than walnuts and pecans, Sandeman said.

In his words, this venerable tawny port "has both in the aroma and flavor a great balance, a lot of fresh character, cedar wood, spices, a little bit of honey, a slight tobacco flavor. It has a good rich entry that evolves into the spices, cedar, wood, then becomes quite austere and ethereal and has a long finish."

Red-amber with gold highlights, the wine isn't the least bit hoary with age. "So often old wines become stagnant," Sandeman said. This one "has a lot of liveliness, an alive, clean character."  

If you should acquire a bottle, you can store it for the right occasion. "It would keep unopened a long time," Sandeman said. "It won't evolve a lot in the bottle, but it will change slightly." Once opened, it should be consumed in six to eight weeks. After that, "it would diminish in its characteristics," he said.

The House of Sandeman was founded in London by a Scot, George Sandeman. "I think we have a good reputation for tawny port," said his descendant, being dryly modest during his one-day stop in Los Angeles.

You can test that out for a lot less than $730. The youngest in the company's line of aged tawnies is a 10-year-old. And you can get that for a comparably affordable $30.

Tasting Lebanese Wine at Open Sesame

If you're eating Lebanese food, it makes sense to drink Lebanese wine. And you can do that at Open Sesame in Los Angeles. 

Winemaking goes back thousands of years in Lebanon and has survived despite the hostilities that have troubled the area. Drinking these wines supports an industry that has had to face severe challenges.

To show them off, Open Sesame's owner Ali Kobeissi paired them with several of the restaurant's specialties. 

This made it possible to see how an Altitudes Ixsir white blend of Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon was soft and gentle compared to a more acidic Chateau Musar Jeune composed of Viognier, Chardonnay and Vermentino.

The Chateau Musar is unoaked, meant for early consumption, and good with lively dishes such as shrimp in a red and green bell pepper sauce with tomato, garlic, cilantro and a bit of hot chile (above). 

Both wines are from 2012. The softer Ixsir was in good company with appetizers such as fried potatoes with a smooth garlic sauce, fried cauliflower with tahini sauce (above), hummus and tabouleh.

It also went well with a thin-cut lamb chop (above) that had been marinated with garlic and lemon for 12 hours, making it so tasty you wanted to gnaw every scrap of meat off the bone.

Then on to reds, starting with Altitudes Ixsir Rouge 2010, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Caladoc, Syrah and Tempranillo (above).

This red was soft and easy enough to pair with fish--branzino in tahini sauce with lemon, capers and pickles (above).

The Ixsir Grande Reserve red 2010 (at the top) blends 69% Syrah and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon from five terroirs. This is your wine for heartily seasoned beef shawarma on a bed of parsley and onion with a roasted tomato at the side (above). 

It also matched well with chicken tawook, marinated with lemon, orange juice, yogurt and garlic and served with garlic sauce and pickles (above).

Then came another big red, the Chateau Musar 2003 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignane and Cinsault from old vines growing in the Bekaa Valley. Each grape was vinified separately and aged for two years, then blended and aged in cask one year, followed by four years in the bottle before release. 

Some of that wine lingered as dessert appeared--walnut and pistachio baklava (above).

To finish, there was a choice of Turkish coffee or blossom tea--mint leaves floating in a cup of hot water scented with orange flower water, the perfect restorative after a rich assortment of food and wine.  

Open Sesame, 7458 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Tel: (323) 525-1698.