Developing a cookbook that incorporates Port into every recipe.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
This fun and easy recipe is a nice side dish for a meat dish or to accompany a pasta dish. Enjoy!
Meyer Mushrooms
Yield: Serves 10
Ingredients
2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil
5 shallots, thinly sliced
3 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup tawny port
sea salt and fresh cracked pepper
Preparation
Sauté shallots in olive oil on high heat in a large skillet, about one minute. Add mushrooms and brown, about 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and port and continue to sauté over medium heat until port and mushroom liquor is reduced to about ½ cup.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Suggestion – Serve with Tenderloin Steak with Port Sauce.
I am happy to tell you about the next Tasting Party which is scheduled for Saturday, August 7th, 2010. The theme for this Tasting Party is Brunch. I must admit that I am even intrigued by the theme, it was a suggestion from a good friend and I think it will be fun! :D Please confirm if you will be joining us. If you enjoy cooking or watching cooking, you are also more than welcome to join us earlier that day for the cooking. We love your help and company!
* REMINDER! We will give two bottles of Meyer Family Port to anyone who brings a new dish made with our port.
Potential Menu for Saturday
Port Cocktail (either Champagne/Chamboard or Sparkling Lemonade)
Port & Pancakes, waffles or french toast (I haven't decided which)
Here is a fun idea! I had asked my brother Matt, co-owner and co-winemaker of Meyer Family Cellars, for any suggestions on recipes to add to the cookbook. What he had to say totally surprised me! His suggestion, and one of his favorites, was to compliment port with a citrus dish or dessert. The normal tendency is to compliment a sweet port with a sweet and heavy chocolaty dessert; death by chocolate, if you will. Instead, he said, instead of overpowering a subtle port with a heavy dessert, why not contrast it with an acidic flavor that will really set off the port. So, at the tasting party we had Meyer lemon ice cream and a Lemon cake with lavender whip cream; what a success!!! The lemon contrast was a huge hit! Another wonderful suggestion from Matt was grilled peaches, which we added a sweet port sauce to. However, for now, here is the Meyer Lemon Ice Cream recipe. Enjoy it with some with our Tawny Port.
Best,
Holly
Meyer Lemon Ice Cream
Yield: Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients
1 teaspoon grated Meyer lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
1 dash salt
Preparation
Combine ingredients in a blender container or food processor and process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to freeze. Pour into the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions for freezing. Place in freezer storage container and place in freezer for 4 hours before serving.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Saturday's Tasting Party. It was such a great success. Special Thanks to Sheila and Mike for assisting with cooking and to Sheila and Josh for bringing dishes to share! It was so great to bring everyone together over food and wine and great conversation. And from it, we received so many incredible suggestions and reviews, I am overwhelmed with appreciation and excitement for where this project is going.
One of the excellent results of Saturday was our Sangria Recipe, which I am so happy to share with you all. This recipe was pretty easy for me to formulate. It came from a Sangria recipe that I already had which included Red Zinfandel, Brandy and sugar. I simply switched out those three for the port, which is a sweet Red Zin that is fortified with Brandy. What I love about substituting the port for those three ingredients is that it evened out the Sangria and really cut a little bit of the sweetness from its predecessor. Hope you enjoy it!
Sangria
Yield: Makes about 30 servings
Ingredients
(6) 500 ml bottles of Meyer Family Tawny Port
1/2 cup Cointreau
1 quart orange juice
1 cup lemon juice
2 oranges, thinly sliced and halved
1 lemon, thinly sliced
2 fuji apples, cored and chopped (or 1 apple and 1 pear, cored and chopped)
1 quart chilled club soda
Preparation
Pour the half of the port, Cointreau, orange juice, and lemon juice into a large punch bowl. Add fresh cut fruit to the bowl. Add the remaining port and club soda to the bowl. Place bowl in refrigerator and chill for 3 to 24 hours.
I am excited about this upcoming Tasting/Brainstorming Party on Saturday, July 10, from 2-5pm at my home in San Francisco and hope to see you there. I hope you have been trying out the recipes that I have posted and may have more ideas and suggestions of your own. The menu will be a summer/fresh theme. Look forward to seeing you then.
Potential Menu for Saturday
Sangria Roasted Portobello Crostini Duck Frisee Salad with Port Balsamic Vinaigrette Grilled Pears with port/blackberry sauce Port BBQ Sauce on Pork Spareribs Cantaloupe with Port Rhubarb Port Crisp Port Gelato
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
This recipe was a huge hit at the Tasting Party on June 12th. We won't need to edit it as it works just the way it is. Please try it and enjoy!
Best, Holly
Pizza with Prosciutto, Poached Pear, Gruyère and Spring Greens
yield: Makes (3) 7” Diameter Pies
Ingredients
Pizza dough
1 1/3 cups warm water (85-110°F)
1 tablespoons active dry yeast (from 1 envelope)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt
4 cups all purpose flour (plus 1 cup for rolling out dough)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Pizza topping
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 teaspoons water
3 cups thinly sliced Port Poached Pears
6 ounces sliced prosciutto, torn into strips
3 cups (packed) grated Gruyère cheese
2 cups Spring Greens
Preparation
Pizza dough: Pour warm water into small bowl; sprinkle yeast over and sugar. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 20 minutes. Put flour and salt in large bowl and add yeast. Stir until dough forms. Knead dough until smooth, adding more flour if very sticky, about 6 minutes.
Coat large bowl with olive oil; add dough to the center of the bowl. Cover bowl with damp kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled, about 1 hour.
Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Transfer to floured surface and roll out each to 7-inch round. Transfer to prepared baking sheets. Brush dough with olive oil. Let stand while preparing topping.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 450°F.
Pizza topping: Poach Pears in Port. (follow recipe)
Divide sliced poached pears, prosciutto, and Gruyère among pizza crusts. Bake until golden and beginning to crisp, about 17 minutes. Divide Spring Greens among pizzas.
Pears Poached in TawnyPort
Yield:Serves 6
Ingredients
Pears
1 750-ml of tawny port
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 whole cloves
4 2x1-inch lemon peel strips
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 firm ripe pears, peeled
Vanilla ice cream
Preparation
Combine first 5 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add pears, reduce heat, cover and simmer until pears are tender when pierced with knife, about 20 minutes. Cool pears completely in syrup. Cover; chill in syrup overnight.
Transfer pears to medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate pears. Boil poaching liquid in heavy large saucepan until reduced to 1 cup, about 35 minutes. Mix in remaining 1 tablespoon anisette. Cover and refrigerate liquid until cold, about 4 hours.
Arrange pears on plates. Place scoop of ice cream on one side of each plate. Drizzle poaching liquid over pears. Garnish with cookies and serve.
Port Ice Cream! This recipe also needs a little something. For me, it keeps on turning out a little icy because its not freezing all the way. I originally had frozen raspberries in the recipe, but substituted them for the raspberry puree. The whole raspberries were a little too much and the recipe asked for a subtle raspberry presence. The dark chocolate chunks are a must! Enjoy!
Port Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks
Yield: Serves 10
Ingredients
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
1 1/8 cups whipping cream
8 T TawnyPort
2 T Raspberry Puree
1 cup chopped dark chocolate chucks
Preparation
Whisk egg yolks and sugar in large bowl until blended. Bring milk and whipping cream to boil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Gradually whisk into yolk mixture. Return mixture to saucepan; stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens, about 15 minutes (do not boil). Strain custard into bowl. Cool. Stir port and Raspberry Puree into custard. Refrigerate until cold.
Remove from refrigerator and add dark chocolate chunks. Transfer custard to ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions. Freeze ice cream in covered container until firm, about 4 hours. (Can be prepared 3 days ahead.)
