Cooking
Developing new and enticing recipes that will bring out the best in a variety of wines is a challenge I relish. I have a huge collection of food and wine pairing books, not only because I am fascinated by it but also because for several years I developed recipes for MyWinesDirect, an online wine retailer. Coming up with new recipes to go with yet another Cabernet or Chardonnay required not only creativity but also a deeper understanding of how food and wine interact.
I have only written about a few of the books in my wine pairing collection because frankly, not very many of them are worth telling you about. The bible is of course What To Drink with What You Eat. It's where I go first for inspiration. But I also love the 100 Perfect Pairings books by Jill Silverman Hough. The first was 100 Perfect Pairings Small Plates to Enjoy with Wines You Love and the second out now is 100 Perfect Pairings Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love. She not only provides recipes, but really digs into how to pair and the tricks to making matches that sing.
The format of the two 100 Perfect Pairings books are the same, as is the general overview information about each wine. Each chapter features a different wine, and dishes that pair well with it. There are six white wines and six red wines (ok one is rose). They are the most common wine varieties you're likely to find. While the first book focused on small plates, the second in the series is all about main dishes. Each recipe has a tip, some insight into what makes it a good dish or a good pairing or even suggestions for how to round out the meal. On my list to try: Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken with Garlicky Ranch Sauce with Viognier, Chicken "Cocoa" Vin with Merlot, and Steak and Radicchio Caesar with Cabernet Sauvignon. If you are new at pairing food and wine or do it all the time, these books will be welcome additions to your cookbook collection since they function as reference books too. Jill Silverman Hough makes pairing food and wine easy and fun.
- Wine Folly Book Review
Because I used to develop recipes to pair with wines (for a now defunct online wine retailer) I have quite a collection of wine books. The book I probably use the most these days just to learn about wine is The Wine Bible, by Karen McNeil. I am eagerly...
- Food And Wine Pairing
Wine goes with food. I know this sounds obvious, but not that long ago I got into a disagreement with a wine blogger about this very subject. Her point was that not all wine needs to be paired with food, some people enjoy wine without food. Well not...
- Wine & Food Pairing Tools
Wine and food. You could spend a lifetime trying to understand that relationship! Lately I've been developing some recipes for a wine retailer and it's been a lot of fun. It's also been a challenge since my normal process would be to start...
- Wine And Food Pairing, Redux
At brunch with some other bloggers yesterday, I mentioned that I have just a few rules about pairing wine and food. Upon hearing me rattle them off, Elise suggested I post them. But looking at my old SFist post on the topic, I realize that my rules haven't...
- Do I Love Wine That Loves?
My friend Phil reminded me about the Wine That Loves line of wines. The idea is that you buy a bottle of wine to go with the food you're eating. The labels show you the food that the wine loves, with bottles for pizza, chicken, steak, pasta with tomato...
Cooking
100 Perfect Pairings Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love
Developing new and enticing recipes that will bring out the best in a variety of wines is a challenge I relish. I have a huge collection of food and wine pairing books, not only because I am fascinated by it but also because for several years I developed recipes for MyWinesDirect, an online wine retailer. Coming up with new recipes to go with yet another Cabernet or Chardonnay required not only creativity but also a deeper understanding of how food and wine interact.
I have only written about a few of the books in my wine pairing collection because frankly, not very many of them are worth telling you about. The bible is of course What To Drink with What You Eat. It's where I go first for inspiration. But I also love the 100 Perfect Pairings books by Jill Silverman Hough. The first was 100 Perfect Pairings Small Plates to Enjoy with Wines You Love and the second out now is 100 Perfect Pairings Main Dishes to Enjoy with Wines You Love. She not only provides recipes, but really digs into how to pair and the tricks to making matches that sing.The format of the two 100 Perfect Pairings books are the same, as is the general overview information about each wine. Each chapter features a different wine, and dishes that pair well with it. There are six white wines and six red wines (ok one is rose). They are the most common wine varieties you're likely to find. While the first book focused on small plates, the second in the series is all about main dishes. Each recipe has a tip, some insight into what makes it a good dish or a good pairing or even suggestions for how to round out the meal. On my list to try: Buttermilk Oven-Fried Chicken with Garlicky Ranch Sauce with Viognier, Chicken "Cocoa" Vin with Merlot, and Steak and Radicchio Caesar with Cabernet Sauvignon. If you are new at pairing food and wine or do it all the time, these books will be welcome additions to your cookbook collection since they function as reference books too. Jill Silverman Hough makes pairing food and wine easy and fun.
- Wine Folly Book Review
Because I used to develop recipes to pair with wines (for a now defunct online wine retailer) I have quite a collection of wine books. The book I probably use the most these days just to learn about wine is The Wine Bible, by Karen McNeil. I am eagerly...
- Food And Wine Pairing
Wine goes with food. I know this sounds obvious, but not that long ago I got into a disagreement with a wine blogger about this very subject. Her point was that not all wine needs to be paired with food, some people enjoy wine without food. Well not...
- Wine & Food Pairing Tools
Wine and food. You could spend a lifetime trying to understand that relationship! Lately I've been developing some recipes for a wine retailer and it's been a lot of fun. It's also been a challenge since my normal process would be to start...
- Wine And Food Pairing, Redux
At brunch with some other bloggers yesterday, I mentioned that I have just a few rules about pairing wine and food. Upon hearing me rattle them off, Elise suggested I post them. But looking at my old SFist post on the topic, I realize that my rules haven't...
- Do I Love Wine That Loves?
My friend Phil reminded me about the Wine That Loves line of wines. The idea is that you buy a bottle of wine to go with the food you're eating. The labels show you the food that the wine loves, with bottles for pizza, chicken, steak, pasta with tomato...