I`ve learned through experience that I do myself a favor by serving wine with meals. The very fact that wine, or a succession of wines, is being poured announces to my guests that this will not be an ordinary meal. Wine glasses on the table trigger pleasant expectations-to the point, I freely admit that when dining away from home I anticipate the worst when I look at a dining table and see only water glasses. Like a superb conversationalist, wine possesses the charm to bring a group gathered around a table to life. It erases tension and stimulates the mind.
Too much has been made of the difficulties of serving food suitable to wine. What is being sought is harmony, a pairing in which the food and the wine respect and enhance each other, a marriage.
Don`t confuse a dinner at which wine is served with a wine-tasting dinner. At the latter, the point of the gathering is to taste the wines. They are chosen before the food, and the food is subordinated to them.
Here the purpose is more sensual and more pragmatic: the enjoyment of wine and food in combination. Don`t struggle too hard to determine the perfect blend of flavors in a recipe to support a great wine. If the wine in question is old, famous and expensive enough to warrant special attention, don`t detract from it by trying to create a complicated dish. Strive, rather, for simplicity, and put the wine on a pedestal; serve it with a sure-fire companion, a single cheese, perhaps, and let it be the one wine of such caliber during the meal. If the food is so complex and highly flavored that you feel the wine will be overshadowed, don`t put an expensive bottle in the ring and risk its being unappreciated. Select a chilled (light) red or white and treat it like any other beverage.
INFORMAL DINNER FOR 8
Impressive dinners can be made from simple, inexpensive foods. Start with a delightful, warming chicken soup. Follow with a classic bistro combination, lamb and flageolets, the dried beans so popular in France. The apricot whip is pure, old-fashioned American, but it works.
CHICKEN-MUSHROOM SOUP
Braised lamb shanks
Flageolets with onion and tomato
Mixed green salad
Baked apricot whip with ice cream
Wines: White Zinfandel, Red Rhone such as Chateauneuf-du-Pape, late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc.
Wine notes: This menu is both hearty and elegant, an invitation to present wines with the same characteristics. First, the ”blush” version of California`s popular Zinfandel; then Chateauneuf-du-Pape, one of the few great wines produced in the south of France. It is a country gentleman, well bred but forthright. This pairs as well with the flavorful lamb and beans as red Bordeaux does with an aristocratic saddle of lamb. Apricots have been called the perfect fruit to complement wine; therefore, your choice of a dessert wine can be fairly delicate and subtly sweet. If you can`t find a late-harvest Sauvignon, a German Auslese is an appropriate alternative.
CHICKEN-MUSHROOM SOUP
2 quarts chicken broth
1 small chicken, cut into 8 pieces, and giblets
1 pound mushrooms, stems separated and caps sliced thin
1 bunch parsley sprigs
1 small onion, peeled
6 black peppercorns
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 cup dry sherry
Pour the chicken broth into a large pot and add the chicken, the giblets
(discarding the livers), mushroom stems, parsley, onion and peppercorns. Partially cover the pot and simmer until the chicken begins to come off the bones, about 40 minutes.
Remove the chicken. Cut the breast meat into julienne strips and reserve. (Save the rest of the chicken meat for a salad.) Strain the soup, pressing down hard on the solids, and return the liquid to the pot.
Simmer the sliced mushroom caps in the butter and sherry. Add the reserved chicken and mushrooms and their pan juices to the pot. Taste for seasoning.
Note: Boiling the livers in the stock can make it bitter.
BRAISED LAMB SHANKS
8 lamb shanks ( 1/4 pound each), outside fat trimmed
6 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup red wine
3/4 cup beef or chicken broth
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
8 to 10 parsley sprigs
6 black peppercorns
In a heavy skillet, brown the lamb shanks on all sides in the oil. Remove the lamb and pour off the oil. Add the remaining ingredients and bring the liquid to a boil, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Return the lamb shanks and cook, covered, over low heat, turning occasionally, for about 1 1/4 hours, or until the meat is tender.
When done, transfer the lamb to a deep serving platter and keep warm. Strain the cooking liquid into a saucepan. Reduce over high heat until syrupy, 12 to 15 minutes. Pour over the lamb shanks.
FLAGEOLETS WITH ONION AND TOMATOES
2 cups dried flageolets (green kidney beans), soaked in water overnight
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine
1 medium-size onion, cut into chunks
2 teaspoons salt
1 can (35 ounces) plum tomatoes, drained
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Coarsely ground black pepper to taste
Drain the flageolets and put them in a large pot along with the chicken broth, white wine and 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and add the remaining ingredients, except the pepper. Simmer, partially covered, until the beans are soft and the juices absorbed, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
Serve from the cooking pot after adding a generous grinding of pepper.
BAKED APRICOT WHIP WITH ICE CREAM
2 cups dried apricots
1 cup sweet white dessert wine
1 large strip lemon peel
5 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
1 quart rich vanilla ice cream
Combine the apricots, wine and lemon peel in a saucepan and cook, partially covered, until the apricots are mushy, about 30 minutes. Puree in a blender or processor. Fold in the grated lemon rind and set aside until cool. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whip together the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff. Fold in the apricot puree. Pour the mixture into a buttered and sugared 9-inch souffle dish. Put the dish in a roasting pan and pour in hot water to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Bake until firm, about 1 hour.
Spoon into dessert dishes and add a scoop of slightly softened ice cream to each portion.
