Top 10 BBQ and Wine Pairings

I think one of my main faults in the past is that I often just stuck with what I liked, opting never to try new things for fear of it not being as good as what I’m used to. Sure, I’d always be willing to try anything new, but only when someone else offered it to me…I never sought new dishes or drinks on my own. I mean, I could get attacked by a rabid ferret tomorrow and this could be my last meal?!?!? Well…that has a flip side too. If I missed trying some amazing new food or wine because I was killed by a rabid ferret, that would suck too! Also, it should be said that I’m pretty sure I could defend myself, or at the very least escape the clutches of a random rabid marmot. My wife can attest to this, my mind does actually work this way and I do find odd things to worry about.

“I better enjoy this pretzel and beer in case of attack from a rabid ferret!”

So, as I progress along my culinary journey, grilling has become more and more the main outlet for my experimentation.  Aside from standard meals like dinner and summer lunches on the deck, I’ve started exploring breakfasts, desserts and using the grill to infuse smoking flavor on other components of the meals such as smoking the tomatoes for use in a pasta sauce.  To be fair, in that case, my work was done when I handed the smoked tomatoes over to Kelly, but we’d have never tried or even thought of doing that before.  When it comes to meat, I’m leaving the comforts of my standards like the boring boneless, skinless chicken breast and the infamous “gourmet steak” from The Butchery that I’ve purchased for years because gosh darn it, it’s a good steak for a great price. I ignored the rib eye and other cuts like that as they were double or triple the price.  I recently threw caution to the wind and dropped the extra $5 to learn what I was missing.  Imagine having 2 BBQs, but scrimping on my meat, that’d be like buying a Ferrari and using the cheapest gas to save a bit of coin when filling up.  My logic is strange at times.  Anyway, even just grilling your veggies on the BBQ instead of cooking them up in the frying pan, and using wood chips in the grill can add a whole new element of flavor both in taste and scent.

Fresh cut veggies on the charcoal grill with some mesquite chips for extra flavor

When it came to my accompanying beverages with my tasty BBQ meals, I often stuck with a simple beer, or possibly a rum and coke (that was more rum than coke).  In fact, a few years ago, I rarely drank wine at all.  I think this has a lot to do with the wines I’d sampled growing up.  The first wine I ever purchased (or actually had an older friend purchase for me) was a bottle of Entre Lacs, based on this commercial, and the fact that I could get a 1.5L bottle for just over $6.

Incidentally, I “paired this” with a frozen Lean Cuisine meal for my girlfriend and I, as I believed the meal was for an entire family.  Hmmm, a liter and a half of wine with about 300 calories split between two sixteen year olds who have absolutely no experience with alcohol - what could possibly go wrong?  It’s no wonder I didn’t really explore wine again until I was much older.  

A few years ago when my wife Kelly and I went to California, we went to a few wineries and then again to Niagara-on-the-Lake area in Ontario.  When I started to learn more about wine and taste different varietals (ie. not the grapes used in Entre-Lacs), I quickly fell in love with wine.  For me, the accompaniment of enjoying a Cab Sauv or bold Zinfandel with a steak, enhances the enjoyment of both. 

This led me to wondering what are the best types of wines to have with my favorite BBQ meals?  Luckily, many people have posed this question long before I did and one of those people is Sommelier and award-winning author Natalie MacLean. Natalie and I communicated via email and she graciously sent me her Top 10 Well-Done Wine and BBQ Pairings:

1. Juicy Steak and Shiraz
2. Grilled Salmon and Pinot Noir
3. Seared Tuna and Gamay
4. Flame-Broiled Hamburgers and Zinfandel
5. Grilled Portabello Mushroom and Rosé
6. Herbed Chicken and Syrah
7. Lobster in Butter and Sparkling Wine
8. Grilled Veggies and Sauvignon Blanc
9. BBQ Pork Chops and Chardonnay
10. Roasted Marshmallows and Tawny Port

What’s that you say, “but Jamie, what if my favourite meal is not on your list, like rabid ferret for example?!!?”  Well not to worry as ‘there’s an app for that!’  Yes, Natalie has created a free app that you can snap a picture of a bottle bar code with your smart phone and instantly access tasting notes, scores, prices, recipes and food pairings for 150,000 wines available in liquor stores across the country.  You can even click to see how many bottles are in stock in nearby stores!  That’s one of those awesome apps that you hope the inventors of the Blackberry had in mind, and not simply to ensure that our boss can reach us out of the office.

Anyway, the point is to explore and try new things!  If it ends up sucking, stop eating or drinking it and move on. The benefits of exploring new foods and wines completely outweigh the “risks”. Enjoy!

P.S. Special thanks to Natalie for the help on this!!!

71 Wines in Three Days - Day Three!

Alright, so when we last left off, we’d just waddled back to our hotel room after finishing the dinner of day 2 of our weekend of wine madness.  If you haven’t been following along, here’s the links to:

Day 1

Day 2 

Ok so day 3…well there was much more wine and food, the end.  Kidding!  Best settle in, as we’re going to get a bit crazy for breakfast.  The agenda said “Bouillabaisse Breakfast” which I was a wee bit concerned about to be honest.  But hey, these guys had treated me well (VERY well) thus far including the tequila in the hot chocolate yesterday morning (which I thought would never work) so I trusted in their abilities and figured all would work out.  Kelly had the idea that perhaps they could do a “French Toasts of the World” as we waited staring at the giant raw fish that made up the bouillabaisse with trepidation.  But then the wine came…ahhh Riesling for breakfast!  

A great way to start the day!

So as they poured the seven glasses of Riesling (3 from France, 2 from Germany, 1 from Austria and 1 from the USA), Master Sommeliers Christophe Tassan and William Sherer went through the ingredients of bouillabaisse with Willie comically lifting up each ingredient, which at times did not cooperate with him!

As Christophe explained the ingredients, Willie tried to gracefully pick them up

The wines were great and I was surprised by the fact that I did not mind eating bouillabaisse for breakfast as it was delicious. 

We had a bit of a break after breakfast, which sadly, we used to check out of our hotel since our weekend culinary carousal was coming to an end with just “lunch” left (I only put it in quotes as the word lunch does not begin to describe it – think of a typical lunch as a sparkler and this meal was on par with someone talking a flamethrower to a fireworks factory).

Weekend wine count thus far: 63

What we learned was that lunch was in fact the service that they give to Executive Pastry Chef Megan Romano to ensure everyone develops diabetes before leaving.  The Swiss fondue with the raclette was amazing (who doesn’t love melted cheese?!?!?!) but when they switched out the cheese for the chocolate fondue, my blood pressure elevated to dangerous levels.  No seriously, people around me can attest to this, at one point I couldn’t even talk and my eyeballs started sweating.  Sadly it devolved to the point where I was dipping chocolates in the chocolate.  I’m not going to try and save face, I really lost complete control and Kelly was actually trying to calm me down.  I should mention that the irony is that at the same time we were there, the American Association of Diabetes Educators was having their annual meeting and exhibition in the same resort.  Anyway, at one point Megan Romano came by to check on us and in my chocolate/sugar zenith, I pounced on her telling her how much I loved her and scared her half to death.  I asked if I could get my picture taken with her and she responded by saying: “sure I guess…my creepy chocolate friend.”  She’d only met me about 10 seconds earlier.

You can easily see the crazed look in my eyes

Oh, I almost forgot, we had some outstanding Swiss wines over the course of this meal while wine educator Sebastien Gavillet explained each of the six wines we tried.  Because I was in a wine/sugar haze at this point, I took a picture of my two favourite wines from this meal, knowing I’d not remember their names later.

Christmas is coming, hint hint!

Wine count thus far: 69

After eating all of the chocolate, I had a lot of energy and we had lots of time to kill before our late evening flight.  We did a bit of shopping at a local mall and then headed back to the hotel sadly anticipating our impending flight home.  We decided to have one last snack and glass of wine each at Aureole before heading to the airport.  Once people knew I was a grill freak, we’d been told a few times over the weekend that before I left, I absolutely needed to try Chef Pouessel’s ribs.  We sat at the bar, ordered a nice glass of wine each, Kelly opting for a Pinot Noir, and I a hearty Zinfandel and ordered the ribs.  I don’t know how he cooks them, but the bark and spicy flavor of them was really powerful and people were right to talk them up so much.  

We sampled each other’s wines, finished the ribs and a dessert or two may have snuck in there before we headed off to the airport. 

FINAL wine count with those last two: 71 Wines in Three Days

This was without a doubt the most outstanding culinary experience of my life and one that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to top.

P.S. We have already booked a return trip to Las Vegas later this year to try and recapture some of the magic we experienced on this special weekend. 

71 Wines in Three Days - Day Two!

This is the second installment of my 71 Wines in Three Days post…if you haven’t read Part One yet, check it out here.

The day began bright and early for breakfast. I think it’s fair to say that after trying 28 wines the day before, many of us were hurting a bit.  And what better way to get over the pain than a nice, big Mexican Ranchero breakfast that I will never forget.  We were all invited into the kitchen where we were given Mexican hot chocolate which included a shot of tequila mixed in (sounds insane but it worked and tasted amazing). 

Nothing says ‘hangover cure’ like a bit of tequila at 9am!  

Chef Charlie Palmer invited everyone to make themselves at home, grab a plate and basically go station to station filling up our plates with what was the best breakfast I have ever had.  One of the kitchen staff even had their Mom hand making tortillas and stuffing them with a spicy shredded chicken.  Add to that Huevos Rancheros (with Executive Sous Chef Lupe Avila’s own ranchero sauce), Chilaquiles (my fav of the morning), churros and so much more – I was in heaven.  Of course, we were also given glasses of Pol Roger Brut Champagne.  It was an awesome experience to get a behind the scenes look at the kitchen of a Michelin Star restaurant.

Fresh tamales anyone?

Wine count so far: 29

After a nap, we headed down to lunch which was Spanish Tapas.  The cool part about this session was that we were taught how to blend the wines of Priorat from Michael Mondavi.  Aside from the wine blending and sampling, one of my favorite parts of this meal was the Serrano ham that they shaved off the ham hock right in the dining room.  It was simply outstanding.  

Best Serrano ham I've ever had!

We tried another six wines during this meal, five being 100% unblended wines that we used to make our own blends.  I quite liked the Carignan and I’m afraid I used a fair bit of that for sampling instead of blending.   What I thought was very cool about this afternoon aside from the food and the wine, is the fact that Michael Mondavi took the time to come around to every table and talk with each of us about wine, share family anecdotes and he was just a friendly and amazing story teller. 

Takes me back to high school chemistry, minus the alcohol of course!

Wine count so far: 35

After another rest after lunch, we got ready for dinner.  There was much buzz leading up to that night's meal and it was not unwarranted.  The theme this evening was a Spanish Alta Cocina Dinner and included seven courses paired with a total of 21 wines! 

Click on the image to enlarge and see the menu

All of the courses were amazing, but I particularly enjoyed the paella and not just because it tasted so good, but because they cooked it outside over an open flame.  I snuck out during dinner and spent some time with Executive Chef Vincent Pouessel and talked charcoal and wood fire cooking.  Chef Pouessel likes to use mesquite wood because he likes the smell and also because it burns evenly with very little of the popping and crackling you get from some other woods.  Kudos to Executive Chef Pouessel and Executive Sous Chef Lupe Avila who worked the fire and cooked the paella outside, in Las Vegas, in the summer… suffice to say I think it was hotter outside than it was in the kitchen!  And you could really taste the smokiness in the result, something that would have been lacking had they cooked it in the kitchen without the open wood fire.

Paella cooked over a mesquite fire

Wine count so far: 56

Stay tuned for Part 3 which involves a bouillabaisse breakfast (!?!?), a Swiss fondue, grilled ribs and of course – more wine!

71 Wines in Three Days!

I don’t even know where to begin in writing this post, partly because I did indeed sample 71 wines in three days and that tends to have an effect on my memory, but mostly because this weekend of wine and outstanding food was simply out of this world. Before I begin, a bit of a warning for those who are die hard BBQ lovers, this post is a bit of a different style but rest assured there is some grilling action in here, and hey if you like BBQ, chances are you also like to hear about oodles of drool-inducing wine and food…

Kelly and I were supremely lucky enough to get on the list of an invite only wine and food event in Las Vegas.  So with that said, here’s how the weekend went down… The welcome reception started with us sitting at Michelin Star awarded restaurant, Aureole in Las Vegas, sipping some fine wine and accepting canapés offered to us directly from James Beard award-winning Chef and restaurant owner Charlie Palmer himself.  We started with two wines and six canapés, my favorite being the spicy ahi tuna cannoli with avocado.  

Spicy Ahi Tuna Cannoli with Avocado

We figured the reception was just about done when the General Manager came over and invited us into the restaurant.  The next few hours were spent blind tasting 8 wines from around the world with instruction and commentary from wine maker Michael Mondavi, Master Sommelier William Sherer (aka Willie) as well as Master Sommelier and ‘MOF’ (a designation given only to France’s finest artisans) Christophe Tassan.  I must admit, I quickly developed a man crush on Christophe for his colourful descriptions on wine and his great sense of humor (or more likely the fact that he liked my sense of humor).

Me and Christophe (notice he didn’t put his arm around me, I think he picked up on my man crush)

Now, full disclosure here: I like wine, but by no means do I consider myself a wine specialist or anything like that.  I like it a lot and I probably drink too much of it, those are my credentials.  I particularly love big bold red wines, but up until now, I always stuck to a few favorites from California, Australia and South America and never really much explored old world (European) wines with the exception of some fruity whites from Germany.  There’s less than 200 Master Sommeliers in the world and I had two of them standing next to me, not to mention Michael Mondavi, who has been making award-winning wines since 1966. So, if I was going to learn and expand my palate, I was certainly learning from the best.

Since there were only about 40 of us at the event, it was quite interactive and Willie picked our table first to help identify one of the initial wines.  My extremely intellectual response was, “Well, it’s definitely a white wine.”  Yup, it sure was and after being given a hint that it was an old world wine, I added; “Yes, I’d say this is definitely from…Europe, and I really like it.”  For a split second I felt like I was about to become the honourary Rodney Dangerfield of the weekend, but everyone laughed and I quickly learned that it doesn’t matter how much a wine costs, where it’s from, or what label is on the bottle.  All that matters: do you like it? In fact, Michael Mondavi said the three most important things about being at a dinner table are the following (in order of importance):

•          Being with family and friends
•       Having some good food
•       Having some good wine

Please note that he worded it much more eloquently but I’d had a couple glasses of wine by the time I wrote that down so my chicken scratch note says “fams eat food + wine.”  Clearly I’m not a journalist.

I won’t bore you with the details of each wine in this post, but in this one afternoon, I learned a TON about what to look for, what to smell, and what to taste in each glass of wine that I sample/enjoy.

Eight wines for the blind tasting (the second one up on the left is the ‘white wine from Europe’)

We ended around 5pm and I felt like we just floated back to our room (I was kinda numb) for a quick rest in preparation for dinner later. 

If you’ve been keeping count – we’re at 10 wines so far today.

Dinner started at 7:30 sharp and was prepared by Charlie Palmer and Executive Chef Vincent Pouessel made up of seven courses including 18 wines to sample (3 – 4 with each course).  The theme was “Cote d’Or” referencing the region in France as it was a classic white Burgundy dinner with dishes such as oysters, frog legs, sea bass, rabbit, capon breast, veal with sweetbreads and capped off with a dessert from Executive Pastry Chef Megan Romano that I just remember as being frickin’ amazing! I for one tried all 18 wines, but sadly, Kelly threw in the towel mid meal and stuck with a varietal from Fiji. ;)

I’m pretty sure this was the capon breast, but honestly, this was 11 - 13 wines into the dinner so I could be wrong.  Either way it was damn tasty!

We stumbled to our rooms at around midnight and were asleep by about 12:01am.  I dreamt of wine and weight loss.

Weekend Wine Count so far: 28

Stay tuned for parts two and three of this amazing weekend which will include a Mexican Ranchero breakfast, a wine blending event taught by Michael Mondavi, a giant paella that was cooked outside over a fire, grilled ribs, and of course...

43 more wines!

Click here for Part Two.

Sausage Stress - The Scourge of Summer

The standard Jamie method of BBQ’ing sausages has always been to fire up the grill on medium or highish heat, drop off the sausages on the grill, rotate them every few minutes until they inevitably split open and spray scalding hot juice out on my hands and arms resulting in swearing and sausage resentment.  I’m pretty sure many people overcook their sausages, likely for the same reasons I did:

1.             Lack of sausage cookery knowledge
2.       Fear of eating under cooked meats, developing dysentery, getting stomach worms and dying a horribly painful death.

It’s unfortunate that until now, I never investigated the true methods to successfully cook a proper sausage.  Reason was, I never really liked them that much, probably due to the fact that they’ve always been overcooked (oh the vicious cycle).  By overcooking them at a heat that is much too high, the internal juices boil prematurely, forcing the casing to split open under the pressure and then all that amazing flavor and moisture escapes leaving you with a shriveled up piece of somewhat edible meat.

Special Note: Though the sausage on the right may look like something else,
that actually is an overcooked sausage.

So the question is, how do you cook a good sausage without boiling the inner juices to the point where you split the casing, spray your arms with scalding hot sausage juice and completely ruin the meal?  The answer is slowly and using some indirect heat. 

Let’s start with some good sausages, and I’m not talking some pre-packaged UPC code specials from the grocery store frozen food section.  When thinking of good sausage, think of your local butcher.  Many good local butchers have a lot of skills and a great deal of passion about meat.  A good butcher will often have a great personal stock of some custom sausages.  Kelly and I were in the town of Cobourg, Ontario (about an hour east of Toronto) this past weekend visiting her family and visited a great local butcher – Leclerc’s Butcher. We met with the owner, Kelly Leclerc, who makes his own sausages including some pretty flavorful varieties like maple and cranberry for example.  We picked up a selection of his sausages to take home with us when we drove back to Ottawa today.

Jamie’s Meat Tip of the Day: Always travel with a cooler for times when you come across some awesome meat at a butcher, a friend’s house or on the side of the road (I hear smoked road kill is making a big comeback these days with all this recession talk). 

Jamie's Second Meat Tip of the Day: Another great place to find some outstanding sausage is your local farmer's markets.  Here’s a link for all the Farmer’s Markets in Ontario.

OK – so now that we’ve got some good sausage, you want to set up your grill for some indirect cooking.  On the Big Green Egg, I used the place setter, but if you were on a Weber kettle grill for example, you could just set the fire on one side of the grill and a small baking stone over that side.  You can also MacGyver something so that the coals are kept on one side (ie. use an old coffee pot).  If you have a gas grill, just use one burner and keep the other off.

Heat the grill to medium and then place your sausages down on the grill in the ‘safe’ location where they get indirect heat.  I cooked mine for a total of 14 minutes, turning once and the 7 minute mark.  The key is to only cook until you get an internal meat temperature of 160 – 170 degrees Fahrenheit.
  

Remember, if you are used to cooking sausages until they explode and split, spewing all that tasty flavor, this will seem weird and you’ll be worried they won’t be cooked enough, BUT as long as you use the meat thermometer, you’ll be fine. When you are done, you should end up with sausages that look something like these.

If you have cooked them too long, they will start to split, like this one. 

 I gave this one to Kelly (my wife - not the butcher)

So, bottom line, if you are like me, you’ve most likely been overcooking your sausages and completely ruining your summers, clearly taking years off your life due to sausage stress.  Rest easy, you can reverse this trend. Do them with indirect heat, take your time, use the meat thermometer and really...just enjoy your sausage (that’s what she said)!  Sorry, couldn’t resist.