Wines of the Giro

So it is that time again. We have survived the winter and the Spring Classics and it is time for the first Grand Tour of 2011, the Giro. Once again, I'll be drinking wines for each stage, or, day of the race, for those not familiar with stage racing. Unlike last year when I spent a panicked last few days shopping, this year I've done prep work with the help of 67 Wine, Biondivino and Solano Cellars. Below, my list. Note that if anyone can come up with a wine from the Austrian Alps I'd love to hear about it. Note also that the final wine is a champagne, a toast to the end of the race and according to Jason at Solano Cellars, the most popular champagne in Piedmont.

I'd love thoughts on other wines as well as food pairings if you have then. Be sure to check back in May as I'll be blogging each stage with a few words about both the day's race and the wine.

Stage	Date	Cities	Region	Wine
1	7	Venaria to Torino	Piedmont	La Torrazza Erbaluce
2	8	Alba to Parma	Emilia Romagna	Camillo Donati Malvasia
3	9	Reggio Emilia to Rapallo	Liguria	Claudio Vio Pigato 08
4	10	Quarto to Livorno	Tuscany	Talenti Brunello 05
5	11	Piombino to Orvieto	Umbria	09 Milziade Antano Grechetto dei Colli Martani
6	12	Orvieto to Fiuggi Terme	Lazio	Capolemole Carpinetti 06
7	13	Maddaloni to Montevergine	Campania	de Conciliis Selim NV
8	14	Scapri to Tropea	Calabria	Tenuta del Conte "Ciró" Rosso 08
9	15	Messina to Etna	Sicily	Cos Frappato
Rest	16
10	17	Termoli to Teramo	Abruzzo	Nicodemi Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 08
11	18	Tortoleto Lido to Castelfidardo	Marche	Conte Leopardi Sauvignon Blanc Calcare 08
12	19	Castelfidardo to Ravenna	Emilia Romagna	Lini 910 Lambrusco Rose
13	20	Splinbergo to Grossglokner	Austrian Alps
14	21	Lienz to Zoncolan	Friuli    Venezia	Edi Kante Vitovska 06
15	22	Conegliano to Gardeccia	Trento-Alto Adige	Tiefenbrunner Feldmar 2009
16	24	Belluno to Nevegal	Veneto	Soave (3 bottles)
17	25	Feltre to Sondrio	Lombardy	Castellazzo Gugiarolo PN Bianco 10
18	26	Morbegno to San Pellegrino	Lombardy	09 Vercesi Del Castellazzo Oltrepò Pavese Pezzalunga
19	27	Bergamo to Macugnaga	Piedmont	Valli Unite 09
20	28	Verbania to Sestriere	Turin	09 Ettore Germano Langhe Nebbiolo
21	29	Milano	Lombardy	N.V Doyard Champagne Cuvée Vendémiaire Brut

Smoking

For the April #charcutepalooza, the challenge was smoking. Much to my relief, and really not to my surprise given her remarkably well equipped kitchen, it turned out that Lisa owned both a smoker and a "big orange egg." So rather macgyering up something in my kitchen, we simply had to wait for a nice day. It took us two tries to get our "Day of Smoking." But, on a positive note, the drought warnings have been lifted in California.
As has been our wont on canning projects, we decided to try a few projects. I bought a piece of pork loin from Marin Sun Farms at the Ferry Building and coated it with a spice rubbed based on that in Charcuterie. Pork was rubbed, covered in plastic wrap and then refrigerated for 2 days before smoking in the "Sultan".  Lisa bought three kinds of fish and mussels at Monterey Fish in Berkeley: salmon, black cod and sturgeon. She brined overnight and then air dried in the fridge for 24 hours before smoking. We supplemented our charcoal with alder chips. Of course, we also did a taste test of our fish versus some Lisa had purchased. Our conclusion: our fish was a bit salty and also less smokey, but a few additional wood chips helped with that. Both of us agreed that the black cod was our favorite.

And what to do with the fish? Lisa's answer:
What to do with overly salty smoked fish, the result of too long brining of thin, skinless fish:  use as seasoning in fish stew.

I used the pound of un-smoked mussels left over from our day of smoking; a 16 oz. jar of tomato juice (technically tomato water) from last summer's tomato canning extravaganza; some green garlic, leeks and cilantro from my CSA box; some previously-roasted celery root; and some potatoes that I steamed last weekend.  I added a little marash chili and dried thyme; the smoked fish (about a handful of salmon and sturgeon) added all the salt and some nice texture.  After tasting, the tomato was too dominant so I added about 1/2 cup of Sauvingon Blanc.  This was a great way to use a bunch of stuff from my CSA box and the smoked fish didn't overwhelm the stew with saltiness.

-Saute 3 stalks of green garlic and 3 smallish leeks in olive oil along with the spices until the leeks and garlic are translucent
-Add tomato juice and bring to light boil
-Add all the other ingredients except cilantro and cook until the mussels are open, about 5 minutes.
-garnish with chopped cilantro

Taste and adjust seasonings.

The stew just before adding cilantro:

Birthday Cakes

Hard to believe, but K is turning 9 on Wednesday. As I have said many times, there are some very long hours, but the years fly by. In her honor, I present a year by year look at her birthday cakes. What I find interesting is that despite all the baking we do, I purchase birthday cakes. 

Only twice have we made cakes and one of those year's, it was a large cookie for her cookie party. 

The other key thing is to know that almost all of her cakes came from Miette. Katie first met Caitlin Williams (now Freeman) when she rode in her Bjorn as I shopped at the Berkeley market. We followed them from Berkeley back to the Ferry Building where many tourists enjoyed photographing K covered in frosting from her Miette cupcake of the week. As you will see below, the cakes they made for her were simply amazing.

Year 1: Strawberry layer cake is confusing

Year 2: Elmo before

Elmo after

Year 3: Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. Wish I had a better picture of this one. Based on Elmer

Year 4 Princess cake before

Princess cake after

Year 5 Kind of 70s rainbow

Six! Purry, possibly my all-time favorite. Based on a favorite toy: Purry

 

 

Year 7, homemade and K decorated.

Year 8, the cookie party

And for the 9th birthday from Mr and Mrs Miscellaneous

Candied violet ice cream cake!