This week’s featured wine, Sawtooth 2004 Viognier, comes from the state of Idaho. Idaho! I think that’s kind of exciting. Even though it is located right next door to Washington State, you don’t see too many wines from Idaho around here. In fact, virtually all of the domestic wines sold in wine shops here come from the big three states: California, Oregon and Washington. But, did you know that wine is made in all 50 states? How much fun would it be to host a tasting of wines from Montana, Alabama or Hawaii? Okay, maybe I’m the only one who thinks that’s a good idea.

Viognier is thought to have originated in Dalmatia and subsequently been brought to France’s Rhone Valley by the Romans. Although it thrived in France for around 2000 years, by the mid to late 1960’s, Viognier was nearly extinct! This was due, in large part, to the disastrous phylloxera epidemic of the 1800’s that wiped out most of the wine crops throughout Europe. These days, Viognier is experiencing a bit of a resurgence. It is now grown in France, Australia, South America and many other parts of the world. It does well in several U. S. states including Washington, Texas, Colorado and Virginia. Still, it is not a hugely popular grape (like everything else, though, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before it is “discovered.”) Part of the reason that Viognier is not more prevalent in the wine market may be due to the fact that it is a notoriously difficult grape to grow. It is prone to mildew and must be picked at just the right time in order to display its unique aroma and flavor characteristics. Those finicky Viognier grapes!

Viognier is probably best known for its concentrated aromas and lush, tropical fruit flavors. These wines typically display a deep, golden color and a rich, creamy mouthfeel. Honeysuckle, orange blossom, apricot and tropical fruit aromas are all characteristic of Viognier. Although the bouquet commonly suggests sweetness, the wines are normally dry on the palate. Viognier is often compared to Gewurtztraminer and Chardonnay. These wines have a low acidity and frequently have sky-high alcohol contents. Shellfish and spicy foods, especially Thai and Vietnamese dishes, are great matches for Viognier.

For dinner, I made shrimp tikka but, instead of making the mango salsa from that recipe, I accompanied it with this sweet and sour mint chutney. I served the shrimp with sautéed pea shoots and steamed black rice. The brilliant orange shrimp combined with the black rice made this quite a stunning meal to look at. The shrimp was very flavorful, and the chutney provided an appealing sweet, spicy and refreshing note to the meal.

The wine was definitely intense. Its aroma reminded me of something that I couldn’t quite place – flowers mixed with some sort of sweet and strongly-flavored fruit. Robert and I both thought it tasted like apricot nectar. It was almost oily in texture; really thick and full. Definitely not a gulper, this wine. To be honest, this is not my favorite style of wine. I generally prefer whites that are crisp, light and minerally or herbaceous. But, it was good, and I did enjoy drinking it. And, it was a very nice match with the shrimp tikka and mint chutney: an exotic wine for an equally exotic meal!

For the past few months, I’ve been trying to devote a portion of every Sunday to one or more cooking projects. Yogurt, ravioli, fresh fruit popsicles, Thai curry pastes…these are all things that I enjoy making on a Sunday afternoon. But, my favorite Sunday project is homemade bread. I really think Sundays were meant for baking bread. I’ve gotten pretty good at making freshloaf.com’s Daily Bread so, this Sunday, I decided it was time to branch out and try something new: Multigrain Struan. I don’t know what a struan is, but the photos of this bread looked so good that I couldn’t resist trying it. Plus, I liked the fact that it was chock full of whole grains. If you go overboard snacking on this bread, you don’t have to feel bad about it!

There isn’t anything too complicated about this recipe; you just need to plan ahead a little bit. The day before you plan to bake the bread, you mix up a batch of sturdy whole wheat dough and place it in the refrigerator to rest overnight. You also make a sort of porridge out of milk, flour and mixed whole grains (both cooked and uncooked.) The porridge is left out at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours (I made mine right after I made the dough and let both sit overnight.) The next day, you combine the dough and the porridge together with a few other ingredients and, from that point on, the process is no different than it is for regular bread (knead, rise, shape, rise again and bake.)

I’m always a little leery about bread recipes that call for only whole wheat flour because they have a tendency to turn out rather dense. In this recipe, I used whole wheat flour whenever it was called for except in the step where you combine the dough and porridge and are told to add extra flour to achieve the right consistency. At that point, I switched to all-purpose flour. In the end, I probably used about 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour. For the whole grains, I cooked up some wild rice along with the remnants of a bag of Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Medley which contains brown rice, black barley and daikon radish seeds. For the uncooked grains, I used coarse polenta and red quinoa. The colorful seeds and grains sprinkled throughout made this a very pretty dough. For added texture, I topped my loaf off with a smattering of poppyseeds.

The bread turned out delicious! It smelled and tasted just like a really good, whole-grain bread should. It was slightly sweet with a crisp crust and a soft, moist interior. My only complaint is that the overall texture wasn’t as uniform as I would have liked. The bread was a bit denser toward the bottom of the loaf. I’m thinking that, since is shaped and baked in a pan, maybe the bottom didn’t have enough room to expand. Next time, I will try making it into a couple of small free-form loaves instead. This recipe would also make excellent dinner rolls. This is the perfect bread for two of my favorite indulgences: havarti cheese, sweet onion and avocado sandwiches and toast slathered with good, crunchy peanut butter.

Last year, I joined Boistfort Valley Farm’s CSA program, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to get a CSA share again this year. With much hesitation, however, I opted to sign up with a different farm this time around. This decision had absolutely nothing to do with the quality of produce and service at Boistfort Valley Farm. They were wonderful, and I highly recommend them. Their produce was all beautiful, there was lots of variety in each box and the farmers were sweet as pie. They really opened my eyes to how great a CSA can be. The problem was that there was simply too much produce in each box for me to keep up with. Their boxes are designed to feed a family of four. Since I was cooking for just the two of us, I found it impossible to use everything up each week, and I would inevitably end up throwing some of it out (and feeling completely guilty about doing so.) Plus, there was always so much produce in the house that I was never able to justify visiting our farmer’s market, something that I really love to do.

This year, because they offer a half-size share in addition to their regular shares, I decided to join Whistling Train Farm’s CSA program. Whistling Train Farm is located near Kent, Washington, a mere 20 miles or so outside of Seattle. On top of having a CSA program and a produce stand at several Seattle area farmer’s markets, Whistling Train Farm also supplies fresh produce to some a Seattle’s most popular restaurants including Flying Fish and Brasa. They even gained some notoriety a few years back as a result of famous Seattle chef Tamara Murphy’s “Life of a Pig” dinner. Feeling the need to have a deeper understanding of where the food she was cooking actually comes from, Ms. Murphy spent eight weeks closely following a litter of piglets at Whistling Train Farm, from birth through maturity and, ultimately, to the slaughterhouse and into her kitchen at Brasa where she featured them in a multi-course feast. She chronicled the entire journey here on her blog.

Whistling Train Farm operates their CSA slightly differently than Boistfort Valley Farm. As I mentioned, they offer both half-size shares and full-size shares. Whereas Boistfort Valley Farm’s shares consisted of a mix of fruits, vegetables and flowers, Whistling Train Farm offers separate shares for vegetables and fruits. That way, you can pick and choose what you want. I opted to do a half share of vegetables only. I like fruit, but I think I’d rather choose my own at the farmer’s market each week. In addition to the weekly produce shares, you have the option of buying one of Whistling Train Farm’s “egg punch cards” which are good for 10-dozen eggs. I think they sometimes have some meats available for purchase as well, but I’m not sure exactly how that works. The CSA application form also mentioned something about U-pick vegetables for members, which is something I might need to ask about later in the season.

Yesterday, I picked up my first box of the new season! As you can see from the photo, I got lots and lots of green stuff. Thanks to the persistently cold weather we’ve been having this year, the spring greens are really hanging around. I have a feeling it will be a while before we see any green beans or zucchini (and who knows when tomatoes will show up?) This first box of the season contained two big & beautiful bunches of spinach, a small bundle of pea shoots, baby bok choy, scallions and a bag of mixed spring greens. A nice, reasonable amount of vegetables for two people (and it was so much easier to carry home than the full shares I was getting last year – I practically carried it home with one hand!) As I expected, everything in the box was very fresh and very pretty. I quickly whipped up a meal of farfalle pasta with green lentils and spinach with a side salad of Whistling Train Farm’s spring mix before heading off to my knitting group meet-up last night. Tonight, I made a delicious stir-fry of pea shoots, bok choy and scallions and served it alongside salmon burgers. Yum! The 2008 CSA season is off to a great start!

So, for as long as I can remember, I have had these recurring dreams where I discover a whole new world of shops hidden away in mysterious tunnels around Seattle. In these dreams, the tunnels are almost always located somewhere down at Pike Place Market, although sometimes they connect up with other tunnels in Pioneer Square. Sometimes they are underground and are actually very cool and cave-like and other times they are more like simple alleyways that I just never noticed before. Frequently, these shops are full of really awesome clothing (all of which fits me perfectly of course) but, more often, they are filled with unusual and delicious foods or yummy, whimsical candies. What kind of person dreams of hidden candy shops? Was I born in Whoville or something?

Whenever I have one of these dreams, I wake up really excited. I know it’s only a dream but, there are so many hidden nooks and crannies down at the Market already, it makes me think that, if I just looked hard enough, I might actually discover something new and wonderful that I hadn’t come across before. And, Seattle does have a whole underground level. Perhaps there really are special caves down there with mysterious underground dwellers selling all manner of wondrous candies! Okay, maybe not, but that sure would be exciting!

I bring all of this up because, several months ago, I stumbled upon a photo from Procopio Gelateria, located on the Pike Street Hill Climb between the Market and the Waterfront, and I was immediately hit with a sense of déjà vu. I can’t remember having ever gone to Procopio before, but, in this photo, it looked so familiar. In fact, it really looked a lot like one of the specific shops I had imagined in my dreams. Was it just a strange coincidence? Did I have some sort of psychic connection to this place? Or, did I go there once as a kid and have images of it stored away in my subconscious only to be brought forth in a dream later in life? Procopio has been in business since 1980 so it’s not completely outside the realm of possibilities that I went there as a child.

I became kind of obsessed with Procopio for a while after that. I really felt that I knew this place from somewhere. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore so I had to go check it out and see if I could resolve this mystery. Since today was my birthday, I decided a birthday gelato was in order. My friend and I took a break from work and headed down to Procopio. Well, I am sad to report that no major revelations took place. The shop from my dreams was several stories high with walls of glass and mirrors on all sides and a tall staircase winding down from the entrance. Procopio has some windows and mirrors and there is a long staircase outside the building but the similarities end there. I was more immediately struck with how similar Procopio’s layout is to that of Zig Zag, a bar a few shops down from Procopio, than I was by anything from my dreams or childhood memories. I don’t know where that initial feeling of déjà vu came from, but I was definitely not feeling it today.

That’s not a very thrilling end to my story, I know. But, do you know what is thrilling? Delicious gelato from Procopio! They only had about 10 or so flavors available today, but they all looked really good. I was tempted by the prickly pear, kiwi, blackberry and lavender. In the end, however, I couldn’t resist my two favorites – coconut and pistachio – so I got a scoop of each. The gelato was so creamy and the flavors were subtle but amazing. It was the perfect treat for this first day in June that actually feels like summer (the sun actually came out on my birthday for once!)

Sunday is normally Robert’s night to cook. Frequently he gets the night off due to family events or those times when I feel like making a meal with lots of prep work that just isn’t suited for the weeknights when I normally cook. So, for a long time now he has gotten by on a pretty small repertoire of tried and true dishes including tuna fajitas, green (or red) chili stew and his famous “bastard ramen” (noodle stir-fry.) Recently, he decided it was time to branch out a little. I suggested that he try making a chowder (yes, in case you’re wondering, it is still chowder weather here in Seattle.) Last night, Robert took my suggestion and made chowder but not your average, everyday chowder. Instead, he made a very special Salmon & Sunchoke Chowder!

They have been selling sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes) at our farmers market for a couple of weeks. Sunchokes are knobby, brown tubers similar in appearance to ginger. They can be eaten raw, in which case they taste sort of like a nutty water chestnut, or they may be cooked just as you would cook potatoes or any other root vegetable. I don’t know if this is always true with sunchokes, but the ones at our farmer’s market have been amazingly cheap ($1.00 per pound) making it nearly impossible to resist buying them. Last week, I used them to make a delicious sunchoke and potato puree. When he decided to try his hand at chowder this week, Robert thought it would be fun to add in a few sunchokes.

To make Robert’s Salmon & Sunchoke Chowder, do the following: Open a beer and turn on some sort of punk rock or 1980′s music. Relax for a moment, then begin cooking. Cook about a cup of diced onions in bacon fat (or oil) until soft. Then, add a couple pinches of dried thyme and a spoonful of flour and cook for another minute. Add a couple handfuls of cubed sunchokes and/or potatoes and then slowly stir in a few cups of chicken stock (enough to just cover the vegetables.) Simmer until the vegetables are just cooked through. If you like, add a small handful of frozen corn. Gently, lower a fillet of skinned and deboned salmon into the soup and cook through. Once cooked, break the salmon apart into bite-sized pieces using a large spoon. Add cream, half and half or whole milk until it looks like chowder and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve with crusty bread and a salad on the side.

Robert rarely follows recipes when he cooks so this is my approximation based on what I observed. This is obviously a very rough recipe but that makes it very adaptable too. You can add or subtract vegetables as you wish. You can also easily substitute any seafood for the salmon. Salmon does make it a very colorful chowder, however. I buy the frozen skinned and deboned salmon at Trader Joe’s. It’s not the most premium fish out there, but it is wild (very important) and cheap and incredibly easy to use in this recipe. Sunchokes need only to be scrubbed before eating, but I prefer them peeled for this dish. They are firmer than potatoes, even after lengthy cooking, so this soup has a nice texture to it (or, as Robert says, it gives you some breathing room – if you accidentally cook the soup for too long, you don’t have to worry about everything turning to mush.) We enjoyed this chowder very much. It was tasty and unique and the perfect remedy for a cold, rainy June evening. Yippee, Robert has a new recipe to add to his list!

I was browsing through past winesday posts, and I realized that, in all this time, I have never featured a wine from Australia. That’s just crazy! How could I have neglected Australia, one of the major players in the world of wine? I guess I just love those New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs so much that I forgot to pay any attention to New Zealand’s big next-door neighbor. To remedy this oversight, I picked up a bottle of Australia’s most popular wine to highlight this week: Shiraz!

Originally from the Rhône region of Southeastern France, where it is known as Syrah, Shiraz has been planted in Australia since the early 1800’s. It is a dark-skinned grape that produces very powerful wines with intense flavors and deep, rich colors. Shiraz wines have highly variable aroma and flavor profiles, but common descriptions include dark berries, spice, chocolate, coffee and black pepper. They are generally able to be paired with a wide range of foods. Meats and cheeses are always a good choice with red wines, but Shiraz can also sometimes be paired with less obvious choices such as grilled ahi tuna, roasted vegetables and spicy Mexican, Indian or Cajun dishes.

Not surprisingly, Shiraz wines from Australia are very different than Syrah wines from France. Because of Australia’s warmer climate, grapes ripen more quickly and to a greater degree producing sweeter, more fruit-forward wines. They tend to be less tannic, higher in alcohol and drinkable at a younger age. These wines are the very definition of New World wine (also commonly referred to as “fruit bombs.”) In Australia, there are several styles of Shiraz. South Australian regions, such as Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, produce some of the most highly-regarded Shiraz. Wines from this area are typically lush, dense and full-bodied with high alcohol contents. Western Australia and Central and Southern Victoria produce wines somewhat closer in style to those of the Rhône Valley in France. Shiraz wines from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia oldest wine-growing region, usually have complex, earthy qualities.

My wine of choice for this week, Layer Cake 2006 Shiraz, comes from the Barossa Valley. As mentioned above, wines from this area tend to have very concentrated flavors and high alcohol contents. The Layer Cake Shiraz was no exception coming in at a whopping 14.9% alcohol! Although the idea of pairing my Shiraz with spicy Mexican or Cajun food was enticing, high alcohol content and spicy foods are not a good match (too much burn!) Therefore, I chose to take the more pedestrian route by serving this with a cheese-based dish. Shiraz can be served with many different cheeses, young and old, soft and hard, but one that I saw recommended fairly frequently is Taleggio. You can never go wrong with Taleggio in my book so I decided to make Truffled Taleggio and Mushroom Pizza. I served this with a salad of spicy lettuces and radishes from our farmer’s market. It was a very simple but very indulgent dinner.

As expected, the Shiraz was very rich and flavorful. It had a deep purple color, soft tannins and a strong blueberry/blackberry flavor. It was a bit sweet: think blackberry jam rather than fresh blackberries. Robert thought it also had a subtle savory quality. It was very drinkable and, although it was an intense wine, it didn’t overpower the Taleggio cheese in any way.

This wine is highly controversial as it turns out. After reading the reviews on the internet, I get the sense that people either completely love it or completely hate it. Some people think it has a great, pure Shiraz flavor and extraordinary, silky mouth feel whereas others find it to be overly jammy and artificial tasting. I fall somewhere in the middle actually. It wasn’t my favorite wine of all time, but I thought it was easy to drink and tasty (then again, I have yet to discover a wine that I didn’t enjoy drinking!)