Wine & Food - A Good Pair

The general rule of food and wine pairing is that lighter foods go with lighter wines. The stronger the flavor of food, the stronger the flavor of your wine needs to be in order to balance and enhance the flavor of both the food and the wine.

Of course, you should pair whatever food you like with whatever wine you like if it tastes good to you. So what if you like Merlot with Sole. Sole is a very light and delicate fish, and Merlot is a heavy, rich and strong flavored wine. If you prefer the taste of Merlot with your Sole, it simply means that you prefer to taste Merlot than to taste Sole, because Merlot will be all you taste of the pair.

On the other hand, if you prefer Pinot Grigio with a thick hearty steak, you simply do not care whether you can taste your wine. A hearty beefsteak will completely overpower the flavor of a delicate, crispy and light Pinot Grigio.

However, if you would like to develop a refined palate for pairs of wine and food that enhance the flavor of both the food and the wine, you might wish to start with the general rule of pairing lighter foods with lighter wines. As you drink more wines with different types of food, you will develop your own personal tastes that will probably fall in line with the normal tastes of the human palate.

The key to learning which specific wines you like with which specific foods is to pair a lot of food with a lot of wine. The more often you try different wines with different foods, the more you will develop a refined palate and understand how food and wine can enhance each other.

If you really need to prove to yourself that you like red with fish, go ahead and pair the two together a couple of times. Conversely, be sure to try a crisp white wine with your Sole once or twice as well. Probably, the more often you try any type of wine within the general rule of reds with dark heavy meats and whites with light delicate meats, the more you will discover the nuances of flavor in both the wine and food if you take the time to savor each wine with the food.

When you open your bottle of wine at the dinner table (or when you bring your decanted bottle of wine to the dinner table), you should take the time to savor the taste of a sip of the wine in your glass before you taste your food.

After examining the glass of wine for color and appearance, smell the wine. Take a deep whiff of the wine and ask yourself of what the smell reminds you. Then take a sip of the wine into your mouth and swish it around to saturate your taste buds before you swallow the sip of wine.

After tasting a sample of the wine, take a bite of food and another sip of wine. Does the taste of the wine improve the food's flavor? Does the food improve the wine's flavor? If you answer yes to both questions, you have a good pair.

Ian Love is the managing director of Australian wine - store, Liquor Merchants and has been a leader in the Australian restaurant industry for over 30 years. He writes a blog on wine in Australia and runs a great Australian wine club in Perth.

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How To Pour The Perfect Glass Of Wine

As with any of the finer things in life, good wine deserves to be savored. Enjoying the perfect glass of wine can set a romantic moment, help you wind down after a long day or liven up a dinner party. But just imagine, how unappetizing, unromantic, not relaxing and certainly not lively it would be to drink your favorite wine from a shoe or a dirty glass or a plastic disposable cup with cartoon characters all over it! Make sure you do it right every time you pour a glass of wine.

Stemware

You need to start with a perfectly clean, fine stemmed wineglass, made of glass or crystal - no plastic please. A glass with greasy fingerprints, water spots or, even worse, lipstick remnants, is completely unacceptable. If you make a habit to hand wash all wineglasses and dry them in a lint-free towel before putting them away, they should be in perfect condition the next time you want to enjoy your favorite beverage.

Your glass should also be the correct size, between eight and ten ounces in capacity to allow adequate room for swirling your wine. Stemmed glasses are extremely important, as the stem allows for the wine to be held without the palm of your hand heating it up too much. You should also try to use the correct glass whenever possible for the type of wine you are pouring. Flute type champagne glasses are ideal for sparkling wines because they provide a central point from which bubbles can rise. Tulip shaped glasses are great for red wine. Similar glasses that narrow at the rim are suggested for white wine in order to preserve more of the chill that enhances the wine. Once your glass has been chosen and meets inspection, the next step is opening the bottle.

Opener

It is important to choose a wine opener that you feel comfortable with. There are three main types with many variations on each. The corkscrew pull type ranges from the simple type most bartenders use, to the frustrating wing corkscrew, to the newer lever style corkscrews, which I think are the best thing since sliced bread. There is also the type which involves pumping air into the wine bottle to force out the cork - a good idea, however the needle in most of these devices can sometimes be a bit hazardous, especially to those of us typically not good with tools. The third type is a cork puller, in which there are two thin pieces of metal that slide down into the bottle on either side of the cork and will somehow facilitate in pulling out the cork.

The Pouring

However you manage to open your wine, if possible, decant it or allow it to breathe in the bottle before pouring. Hold the bottle over the middle of the glass and pour directly into the middle not on the sides, unless your wine is a sparkling type. Fill the glass only three-quarters full, to give the wine room for its full aroma to be captured. This will enhance the experience of the perfect glass of wine.

Now that you have successfully managed to get your wine from its prison into the perfectly chosen, perfectly clean stemmed glass in your hand, just sit back and enjoy. You have just mastered how to pour the perfect glass of wine. Cheers!

The Rabbit corkscrew and riedel wine glasses makes for perfect wine gifts and wine accessories for you or a loved one. These wine gifts are awesome!

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Six Simple Rules for Making Every Meal a Pleasure

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. - Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

One of the rewards of achieving success is to live well. But, rich or not, you can live well by the way you enjoy food.

You don't need to spend a lot of time cooking to enjoy delicious, healthy, and even elegant home-cooked meals. If you take a few minutes every week to plan your meals, allowing for a bit of spontaneity, you'll be able to eat like a king without feeling like a short-order cook. When you enjoy each and every meal as if it was cooked for a King, then you add to your success consciousness, which then helps you build a business and not just grow a practice.

You can make all your meals elegant by following six simple rules:

1. Pay a little extra for the principal element. For breakfast, buy great, freshly roasted coffee -- and grind it yourself or great exotic teas or fresh juice direct from the fruit. For lunch, pay a little more for a salmon salad rather than tuna. For dinner, buy free-range poultry or beef.

2. Use your best service. Dine using your best China and silverware. You should not save for special occasions. Make every occasion special by treating it so. Better yet, get a new set that celebrates your success.

3. Listen to good music. Music is as much a part of a meal as water is a part of swimming. The only time you can justify not having beautiful music playing softly in the background while you're eating is when you dining with a business colleague. In my house I have a player piano and Jeeves, who plays "live" piano music while I dine! When dining out, use your iPod!

4. Don't read. There is a time for reading, but it is never while you are eating. And, definitely no television.

5. At some point during the meal, take a moment to think about how lucky you are to be eating so well. Be thankful!

6. Eat slowly. Make each bite a pleasure, each meal memorable.

By the way...never, ever, never, ever, eat at your desk or allow anyone on your T.E.A.M. to eat at their desk. Get away! You need to get outside the walls and lunch is a great time to take that much needed break.

Even when you watching your weight, make it a point to eat well from your gold rimmed plates!

The author may be contacted toll free at 877-935.6371 extension 201 or email at ceo@wellnessone.net. Mr. Howell is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of WellnessOne Corporation, a national alliance of chiropractic and wellness centers.

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Italian Cheeses

Italy is famous for many thing's, pasta, architecture, coffee, pizza and pasta just to name a few. But could you imagine a world without Italian cheese, No Parmesan on your pasta or mozzarella on your pizza.

One thing about Italian food is the regional variances. Pizza and pasta types vary from region to region as do such things as breads. Within these regional variances certain areas of Italy do things better than others, whether it be because of the terrain or the climate different products are associated with different areas, such as Parma ham from Parma, pizza from Napoli, meat dishes from Turin and fish dishes from Sardinia.

Lombardi, the region which includes Milan is renowned throughout Italy for its cheese and sausage. These Italian cheeses are deliciously tasty and make a great accompaniment to any meal.

Small and medium-sized producers of specialist Italian cheeses in the Alpine regions face a difficult struggle to maintain their existence in competition with the varied palette of factory-made dairy products. Unfortunately, European Union regulations often only serve to hasten their demise, by making often contradictory demands, imposing quotas and limits, or fining them for not fulfilling certain norms, despite the fact that theirs are high quality, often imaginative, products. Italian cheese making is going through a difficult time.

Stracchino is one of these threatened products. It is a rectangular Italian cheese made from whole milk. It is a rich cheese, pearly white in colour, with a soft, creamy texture and remarkable, delicate flavour.

Stracchino is sometimes known outside of Lombardi as Crescenza. The name Stracchino cheese comes from the way the milk to make it was originally obtained: it was the milk of vacche stracche, cows exhausted by the journey back down the mountain from the summer meadows. Stracco is local dialect for exhausted - and stracchino is little exhausted one.

Taleggio is a square Italian cheese weighing about four pounds (2 kilograms), it is a typical Lombard country soft Italian cheese. The rind is brownish and tends to form a mold. Directly beneath this rind, the cheese is soft and soft textured, but in the centre, it is whitish and crumbly. The first mention of Taleggio Italian cheese dates from around 1200, and the method of production has changed little since then, apart from the use of selected enzymes to ensure the quality of the end product. The cheese is still only made from cow's milk. The curd takes 18 hours to form, and the cheese must mature for at least one month before being ready to eat. Taleggio is mild with a slight sourness, becoming quite piquant as it ages. It should not he kept for long periods because it spoils easily. A slice of Taleggio rounds off a meal. It also goes well with hot polenta, and tastes delicious eaten with ripe pears. Taleggio is a favourite Italian cheese.

Gorgonzola is a very old Italian cheese specialty, and originates from the town of Gorgonzola in Lombardy. First written records of it are from the 11th and 12th centuries. A blue-veined Italian cheese, it is produced today across a wide area of Piedmont and Lombardy, and is popular both in Italy and abroad. Almost every supermarket in the western world will stock and sell Gorgonzola.

The region produces around three million Gorgonzola cheeses per year, which are exported to the rest of Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, the USA, UK and Canada packed as portions in colourfully printed foil wrappers, which must bear the brand figure of the consortium to be genuine. It has a strong, piquant flavour - with a hint of bitterness, and is a true all-round Italian cheese. Gorgonzola makes a good partner to eat with polenta, tastes good - with egg and with nuts, and can be used for creams and sauces. It is delicious with a robust red wine. It also makes a great sauce to go with steak. Gorgonzola is an extremely versatile Italian cheese hence its popularity.

Provolone Valpadana is a hard Italian cheese with its characteristic shape - round, pear-shaped, or sometimes cylindrical - originally comes from Basilicata in the south, but is also made in northern Italy today, especially in Lombardy. Because of its shape it is also known as pear cheese. Provolone is sold in various sizes, and is made by a similar pasta filata process to mozzarella.The curd is scalded - it is heated until it begins to melt and become stringy (filata), and then wrapped around itself until it assumes its round shape. It is dipped in brine and hung up on a cord to ripen, which takes about a year. The rind is coated in wax to protect it from drying out. Provolone comes in various flavour categories from provolone dolce, which is mild and buttery, to piquant (provolone piccante) .The mild version makes a good end to a meal, and the piquant one is often used grated. A smoked version is available in Lombardy. Provolone is a wonderful Italian cheese to accompany a sandwich, its delicate flavour adds to a sandwich without over powering it.

Probably the most universally famous Italian cheese is Parmesan, avariation on this is Grana Padano which is often compared to Parmigiano Reggiano, despite the differences between them in the method of production and region of origin. Pannigiciiio reggiano comes exclusively from Emilia-Romagna, and grana padano from the Veneto,Trentino, Piedmont, or Lombardy. Parmigiano Reggiano may by law only be made from the milk of cows that have been fed on grass or hay, whereas other types of fodder are permissible for grana padano. This does not mean that it is in anyway inferior. Its manufacture is supervised by a consortium, and only cheeses bearing the official brand mark grana padano are the genuine article. The milk from which it is made comes from two consecutive milkings, and is allowed to stand and partially skimmed to produce an Italian cheese with just 30 percent fat in dry matter. The milk is then heated and micro-organisms added. The cheeses are matured for 1-2 years. Grana padano has a granular texture, and can become dry and crumbly. It forms a thick, smooth rind. The cheese has a harmonious flavour, not too salty and not too mild, with a slight piquancy and a nutty quality. It can be eaten as an appetizer, or used for grating over pasta dishes or green salads.

So next time you want to eat the real Italian way use real Italian cheese, it will make a difference. If you've never tried fresh Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano give it a go, its one Italian cheese that pasta cannot do without.

I try to pass on my musings on life and experiences in a way that people may find interesting to read.

www.cookery-school-italy.com

You may not always agree with my writings but I hope to inform.

Harwood E Woodpecker

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