There is a theme to this week’s winesday, but it was a purely unintentional one. Normally, when winesday rolls around, I pick out a special wine and then try to plan the perfect meal to serve with it. That didn’t happen this week. This was probably the most impromptu (read: poorly planned) winesday of all. When my CSA box arrived this week, the items contained within it practically required me to make squash soup, and squash dishes aren’t that easy to pair with wine because they have a tendency to be on the sweet side. I know this because I just served squash soup a couple of winesdays ago. I was originally planning to serve a Sauvignon Blanc that I had on hand but, when I was at the store picking up some last minute ingredients before dinner, I bought a completely different wine on impulse. No, this was certainly not the most well thought out winesday.

The theme that brings it all together (and keeps this winesday from being a complete disaster) is that all of the major elements featured this week come from sources located within 100 miles of my apartment. If you spend a lot of time reading food blogs like I do, you have probably heard about the 100-mile diet. This is a movement that challenges people to eat only foods that are grown within 100 miles of their home, the idea being that eating more locally is better for you, the local economy and the global environment. While, there is some debate about whether consumption of local goods really is better for the environment (e.g. it may actually take more energy to grow beef in Britain than it does to grow beef in New Zealand and then ship it to Britain,) it can never be a bad thing to support your local economy. Even better, since local produce doesn’t have to be bred for shipping, it usually tastes better. Fellow Seattleites can read up on the local chapter of the 100-mile diet at Sustainable Ballard.

My CSA box comes from Boistfort Valley Farm which, according to Google Maps, is located 99.5 miles southeast of my apartment. This week, my box came stocked with spicy chilies, cilantro, one huge orange kabocha squash and a link to a recipe for Butternut Squash Soup with Green Chili-Coriander Chutney. Even though it isn’t a great wine pairing, how could I not make that soup when all of the required ingredients were sitting right in front of me? The recipe calls for butternut squash, but I figured the kabocha would be a fine substitute. Orange kabocha is a very strange squash it turns out. When cooked, it has a dry, chalky texture, almost like a roasted chestnut. I’m not sure I would like it roasted or steamed as is, but it made a beautiful, velvety soup. And, what a brilliant orange color! Most squash soups are a golden yellow hue, but this was bright, bright orange. I’m curious to see how it compares to the green kabochas we are supposed to be getting soon.

This week’s wine comes from Lopez Island Vineyards. Lopez Island is part of the San Juan Island group and is located about 100 miles northwest of Seattle (the winery itself is actually 99.8 miles from my apartment.) Since the island is on the cool side of the Cascades, Lopez Island Vineyards focuses on growing cool weather grapes including some unusual varieties such as Siegerrebe and Madeleine Angevine. Like most of the island wineries, they also have a nice selection of fruit wines. I decided to try the 2006 Madeleine Angevine. This is a white wine grape from the Loire Valley in northern France, one of my favorite wine producing regions. The Lopez Island Vineyards 2006 Madeleine Angevine won the gold medal at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition. It is also organically grown!

Rounding out the meal was a loaf of bread from Tall Grass Bakery (7.4 miles away) and a salad of escarole and Cameo apples (also from the box.) I topped the salad with Cranberry-Orange Chevre from River Valley Ranch in Fall City, WA (27 miles away.) Everything was delicious but, as I fully expected, the soup wasn’t a perfect match with the wine. This is too bad because this wine was really, really good. It was crisp with flavors of grapefruit and tropical fruit. It deserved to be paired with something perfect like steamed mussels.

While I can’t claim to know where Tall Grass gets their flour from, and I seriously doubt the coconut I used in the chutney was local, I think this meal comes pretty darn close to qualifying as a 100-mile diet meal. From an ethical standpoint, I felt really good about this meal. The fact that it was all delicious only made it better!

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment