It’s so nice to be back in our Monday night dinner and wine routine with Dave. This week we celebrated with one of our favorite recipes from “Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen” cookbook. We love Paul Prudhomme’s recipes, but they are very spicy in general. Most recipes call for a complex mixture of spices which are sometimes roasted in a dry pan to bring the flavors alive. After our first experience cooking his food, Fennel and Split Pea Soup from his “Fiery Foods That I Love” cookbook, we generally reduce the amount of cayenne by one-half. I will never forget Pete, myself and my parents sitting at the dining room table eating the split pea soup and perspiring from the extreme spiciness of the soup. It was a cool February evening, but we had to open the sliding glass door because we were all perspiring to much!
I have prepared the Roasted Pork recipe many times and it is excellent with several cuts of pork. The original recipe calls for a boneless pork loin roast. On Monday I used pork tenderloins, just to make the cooking process quicker. The recipe calls for the preparation of a seasoning mix (containing no less than 7 ingredients!), sauteed with onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic. The mixture is then rubbed over the pork and baked. I also prepared smashed red potatoes and peas with sauteed shallots and mushrooms.
Dave brought a 2007 Pasos Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Lodi Appellation. It paired very well with the dinner. Dave is a wine club member at Pasos Vineyards and a real fan of Antonio Pasos’ wines. This cabernet was very pleasant. The color was a medium garnet. The nose was floral with slight vanilla and dark fruit. The flavors tasted of dark fruit, black pepper with a little oak in the background. The flavors continued to evolve in the glass which made this a very interesting wine. The tannins are smooth and well integrated with a moderate amount of acid. The finish was long with pepper predominating.
Dave also brought Pete a bottle of the 2009 Pasos Grenache Dry Rose signed by Antonio Pasos as a gift. We will be trying this blend of Grenache, Tannat, Counoise and Viognier as soon as it is warm enough to sit in the backyard.
These wines are a reminder that we need to go out to Pasos Vineyards to taste his wines. As the weather improves, we will be venturing out to do a little more wine tasting on the weekends. Look for a post on Pasos Vineyard wines in the future. In the mean time, we will have yummy pork sandwiches to look forward to in the next few days. The left overs from the pork roast always make great sandwiches!
