TableConversation.com

Dry Creek's Super Chenin Blanc

Want to get in on a hot (actually cool) trend? And without spending much money?

Then pick up a bottle of Dry Creek Vineyard's Dry Chenin Blanc 2015. The official winery price is $13, but online and elsewhere, it can be a lot less.

What you get is a fresh, spirited wine, with loads of flavor and an edge of sweetness, even though the sugar content is so low you're hardly aware of it. Given the reasonable price and high quality, this could be your basic summer wine. 

An icon at Dry Creek, Chenin Blanc fell out of favor in the rest of California due to a flood of nondescript versions and a switch in public taste to dryer wines. Now "it is having a nice comeback," said winemaker Tim Bell (above), who was warned not to mess with the Chenin Blanc when he joined Dry Creek in 2011.

The grapes came from Wilson Ranch in the Sacramento Delta. This is "ground zero for Chenin Blanc in California," he said.

In Los Angeles for a series of tastings, Bell poured six wines during lunch at Cafe del Rey in Marina Del Rey. This restaurant, overlooking the yacht harbor (check out the view, above), was chosen because Dry Creek founder David Stare is an avid sailor.

For this reason, most Dry Creek wines have nautical labels, although the winery is in Sonoma County and not beside the sea. The painting above is on the label of the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Another Dry Creek icon wine is the delightfully citrusy Sauvignon Blanc 2015, for $18. "The go-to for entertaining at the winery is oysters and this Sauvignon Blanc," Bell said. Dry Creek Vineyard was the first to plant this varietal in the Dry Creek Valley, and it has become the Valley's signature white wine.

The four reds that Bell brought (above) included two Zinfandels. "It's what we're best known for," he said.

The first was the Heritage Vines Zinfandel 2014, from four old vineyards in Dry Creek Valley (above). It's made in a fruit forward style and blends Carignan, Primitivo and Petite Sirah with Zinfandel. The price is around $22.

For $10 more, you can have the Old Vine Zinfandel 2013.  "The heart of this is an old field-blend vineyard," Bell said. This means the wine might contain a trace of what was once known as Pinot St. George and is now called Negrette. An old varietal from southwestern France, it was planted in California before Prohibition.

The soft, lovely 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon reflects Dry Creek founder David Stare's taste for Bordeaux wines. "We've always followed a Bordeaux model," said Bell, meaning that the wine is 80% Cabernet blended with four other grapes, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. It's $25.

The last wine was The Mariner 2012, a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon with 25% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot and the rest Malbec and Cabernet Franc (above). "This Cabernet Franc is the best I've ever worked with," said Bell, which means that even a small portion in the blend is a very good thing.

The Mariner is Dry Creek's flagship Bordeaux blend, from grapes grown in estate vineyards. "I try to create the blend so it's not rough and dry but still has the structure to age," Bell said.  As a result, the wine is smooth and pleasant to drink right now. The price is $45.

Try These Three Quick Fixes

It doesn't take hours of work to make something really delicious. Here are three examples, an appetizer of shishito peppers (at top), a vegetable side dish and a pear and cheese combination that could be either an appetizer or a dessert. They're all from Chef Tom Fraker of Melissa's Produce.

PAN-SEARED SHISHITO PEPPERS

1 pound shishito peppers
Canola oil, as needed
1 cup soy sauce
1 lemon, zested and juiced
Crushed red pepper flakes, if desired

Quickly fry the peppers in hot oil until they just turn golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Or lightly rub them with oil and roast at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, lemon and crushed pepper.

To eat, dip the shishito peppers into the sauce.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

 

SRIRACHA-HONEY ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

 

Buy pre-roasted Brussels sprouts, or roast raw sprouts, brushed with oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  Coat the roasted sprouts with a half and half mixture of Sriracha sauce and honey. Reheat if necessary and serve hot.

KOREAN PEARS WITH BALSAMIC REDUCTION AND BLEU CHEESE CRUMBLES

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

6 tablespoons packed brown sugar

4 Korean pears, cored and quartered or cut into thin slices

1/2 cup crumbled bleu cheese

 

To make the balsamic reduction, in a small heavy saucepan, heat vinegar and brown sugar over moderate heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved, then simmer 1 minute. Set aside to cool.

 

Divide the quartered pears among 4 small plates or arrange the sliced pears on a serving tray. Drizzle with the balsamic reduction and sprinkle with bleu cheese.

How to Make a Good Bowl of Gumbo

This wonderful bowl of good stuff is blackeyed pea gumbo with okra. The okra isn't  simmered with the meats and vegetables, which is the usual way. Instead, the sliced okra is cooked separately until the slime is gone, then stirred in at the end of the cooking time.

The recipe is from Chef Tom Fraker of Melissa's Produce. For rich, full flavor, Fraker puts in two kinds of sausage, chunks of chicken and blackeyed peas. He likes the gumbo over rice, but you could also serve it with French bread and a salad for a great dinner with, hopefully, leftovers so you can have it again.

BLACKEYED PEA GUMBO
Chef Tom Fraker, Melissa's Produce

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 (12-ounce) package  okra, ends trimmed; sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
½ pound andouille or kielbasa sausage, cut into ½ inch slices
½ pound hot linguica sausage, cut into ½-inch slices
½ pound chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup cipolline onions, peeled and diced small
1 cup organic celery, diced small
1 cup organic green bell pepper, diced small
3 cloves peeled garlic, minced
4 cups chicken stock or broth
2 cups organic tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup organic parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
½ teaspoon ground rainbow peppercorns
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
2 bay leaves
1½ teaspoon file powder
1/3 cup cold water
1 (11-ounce) package steamed blackeyed peas
Tabasco sauce to taste, optional

In a saucepan, melt the 1/3 cup of butter over medium heat and whisk in the flour.
Whisking constantly, cook until a golden brown roux is formed, about 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside.

In a sauté pan, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter, add the olive oil and vinegar and heat.  Add the okra and, while stirring often, fry the okra for 10 to 15 minutes, until no longer slimy. Remove the okra with a slotted spoon and set aside.

In a large pot, render the fat from the andouille and linguica sausages. Add the chicken and brown over medium-high heat. Stir in the onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic and cook over medium-low heat until tender.

Thoroughly blend the roux into the sausage, chicken and vegetable mixture. Stir in the chicken stock, tomatoes, parsley, salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Dissolve the file powder in cold water and add to the gumbo. Stir in the steamed blackeyed peas and fried okra and heat through.

Remove the bay leaves and serve in soup bowls with a splash of Tabasco, if desired. Serve over white rice.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Don't Miss This Chilean Cabernet Blend

I can get a Chilean Cabernet for $3.99 at my corner market. So why should I pay $50 for another Cabernet from Chile?

Because it's stunning. I'm talking about the 2010 Neyen Espiritu de Apalta--Apalta is an area within the Colchagua Valley, a major wine region in Chile. The wine (at right) is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (55%) and Carmenere (45%).

"This Cabernet tends to be very restrained because it is from old vines," said Rodrigo Soto, chief winemaker for Huneeus Vintners, who presided over a Chilean wine lunch at A.O.C. In this case, old vines means up to 120 years old.

"Carmenere tends to be a little more fleshy and fills out the gaps in the Cabernet," he continued. It adds "a touch of spice character."

Lunch guests who had attended a Bordeaux wine presentation previously liked the rich and fruity Chilean Cabernet blend better than what they tasted there. "Tasting this wine blind, I would never guess it is Chilean," Soto said.

When asked the price, he said $50, but you can find it for less online.

Soto (above) was in Los Angeles to present wines from the Huneeus Chilean portfolio, founded by vintner Agustin Huneeus.The focus was on the company's Ritual wines, from vineyards in Chile's Casablanca Valley. This is "unique country for growing grapes," Soto said. It is a cool region, between the coast and the Andes mountains.

"Ritual was created to show the best we could do out of that area," Soto said, noting that the wines "have a little bit of granite character" from the decomposed granite soils.

The three Ritual wines poured were a Sauvignon Blanc (above), Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, all from 2015. The Sauvignon Blanc, which really shone, is $17.99. The others are $19.99. Pinot is a "challenging variety," said Soto, a Pinot enthusiast whose aim is to make one that is "bright, fresh and has structure."

Born in Chile, Soto has worked in California at Fetzer and was head winemaker at Benziger Winery in Sonoma until returning to Chile in 2012. In winemaking, "California is 25 years ahead of Chile," he said.

He is a proponent of organically farmed vineyards. "All of the properties are certified," he said, speaking of the Huneeus holdings in Chile. And he is anticipating the day when they will be biodynamic as well.

Encountering the Food of Azerbaijan

Breaking bread with a friend is always pleasant. But if the friend is Feride Buyuran, you know that the bread is going to be fantastic, and that it will accompany an extraordinary meal.

 

Feride is from Azerbaijan and has written "Pomegranates & Saffron," a rare book on the cuisine of this small country in the Caucasus region. In the photo above, she's at a book signing at the Turkish consular residence in Los Angeles.

The photographs, which Feride worked on herself, are beautiful, and the presentation and writing are thoroughly professional, although the book is self-published.

No wonder that it is winning awards and has gone into a second edition. Last year, "Pomegranates & Saffron" came in first at the Best in the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards, held in Yantai, China.

This made it even more exciting to go to Feride's home in Long Beach and taste dishes from the book.

The bread we broke at the start of dinner was a golden, flat loaf of tandoor style bread, sprinkled with nigella seeds.

The recipe is simple, and Feride bakes it in a home oven, not a tandoor. How nice it would be to present such an interesting bread, just out of the oven, when you have company.

Then followed a head-spinning array of dishes that she had cooked in a single day.

A warm yogurt soup with garbanzo beans, rice and fresh herbs, including dill, spinach, mint and parsley (above), would have made a complete meal for me, accompanied by the bread.

But I would not have wanted to miss this ornate pilaf of saffron-sprinkled rice covered with dried apricots and golden raisins. "Pilaf is the crown jewel of the Azerbaijani table," Feride writes in the book.

It is so important that a chicken dish with chestnuts, dried sour plums and caramelized onions that she placed alongside the pilaf (above) was not a main dish, as we would call it, but a "topping" for the pilaf.

Azerbaijani stuffed grape leaves (above) are not like the long slender versions common here. They're short and fat. These were filled with ground beef, rice and herbs. The grape leaves came from vines growing in her yard. 

Flat breads lined with herbs reminded me of Indian naan, although prepared differently and not baked in a tandoor (above). They're called gutab. Feride instructed us to add yogurt to the breads and roll them up.

For a vegetable, she served a simple preparation of eggplant and tomatoes. We could also help ourselves to pickled garlic, cabbage and peppers.

A beet salad, made with yogurt and walnuts, was irresistible, and as bright as it looks in this photo.

The desserts were unlike anything I have seen. These tiny preserved paradise apples were prepared by her mother in Azerbaijan. Feride brought them home from visit there along with dried sour plums, apricots and chestnuts.

I was enchanted by this dessert, a delicately flavored saffron jelly with walnuts-- so different from the gooey sweets that we eat in America. Saffron grows in Azerbaijan and is a major seasoning.  That's why it's in the title of the book along with pomegranates, the national fruit.

We finished with tea and apple pastries that, she said, are more Turkish than Azerbaijani.

Azerbaijan is bordered by Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Turkey and the Caspian Sea and so has been influenced by many cultures. It was part of the Soviet Union from 1920 to 1991.

Feride, who is from Baku, the capital, describes the cuisine as Eastern European/Middle Eastern. I would describe it as delicious.

Tuk Tuk Thai--Still Going Strong

Pico Boulevard's kosher Jewish strip is not the most likely place to open a Thai restaurant.

But that didn't stop Katy Noochlaor, and the risk paid off. After 15 years, her restaurant, Tuk Tuk Thai, is still going strong.

Perhaps this is because Noochlaor (at right)  has the restaurant business in her genes. As she grew up, the place to hang out was her mother's restaurant, Chao Krung on Fairfax Ave.

Noochlaor tries to make her Thai food a little different from that at Chao Krung. Still, this is a family business. The chef at Tuk Tuk is her aunt, Taraporn Ratanamanee.

Old favorites such as pad Thai, green and red curries and papaya salad are on the menu.  But instead of pad Thai, why not try stir-fried rice noodles with crab, egg, chiles and bean sprouts (at the top)?

Green curry (above) is classic, made with genuine Thai eggplants, not with ordinary eggplant, a substitution made by some less than authentic restaurants.

Instead of papaya salad, choose a grilled shrimp salad with grape tomatoes and greens and enjoy the subtle char taste of the grill (above), which makes this already complex salad even more interesting.

You've eaten plenty of egg rolls, but probably not like these. They're filled with crab, chicken, carrot, cabbage and shiitake mushrooms.

The seafood focus continues with scallop and shrimp dumplings with green curry sauce (above).

A crispy whole fish comes in spicy curry sauce, topped with crisp fried Thai basil (above). The fish is pomfret.

Ped means spicy-hot in Thai; talay means seafood, and pad indicates stir-fried, so pad ped talay (above) is a collection of spicy sauteed seafood. 

With your meal, you can have the usual Thai iced coffee or tea. The small restaurant also has a bar (above) that provides beer, wine and soju cocktails.

Desserts are mangoes and sticky rice and coconut ice cream (above) that is dolled up with red beans and peanuts.

In the future, the ice cream is going to become much fancier. The presentation that Noochlaor and her team are working on is a soft sweet Hawaiian bun topped with sticky rice, then with ice cream, toasted nuts and, finally, condensed milk. Wow! I'll be back for that.

Tuk Tuk Thai, 8875 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: (310) 860-1872. (Look for the replica of a tuk tuk (a Thai auto rickshaw) over the door.