WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It's the perfect time for standing over a barbecue grill , so it is high time to throw on the flames that honkin' piece of ... eggplant?
When your carnivore-loving guests exclaim "Who needs meat?" at your vegetarian barbecue, you've probably been pretty successful at cooking up some tasty dishes from the grill.
And if you've successfully paired wine with those dishes (because, of course, these are also fermented grape-loving guests), then you've got admirers for life. They probably won't give up meat for good, but at least you've given them a new appreciation for the herbivore life.
Being the only vegetarian Swirl Girl, I wanted to explore vegetarian-wine pairings and give the ol' filet/cabernet a run for its status as a swoon-inducing marriage.
So we got the party started at the "Earthy" casa recently, splitting heads of lettuce, slurping summery soup and slicing eggplant.
I found so many enticing recipes in my collection of cookbooks, I had a hard time narrowing my list of what to cook. Here are three of the dishes we served.
A heated kickoff
Swirl Girl "Dry" Gwen made our first course — a chilled roasted pepper and mango soup. The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of hot sauce, and although she was light-handed with the "death" hot sauce in her cupboard, this sauce is not for the "one star" preference. The heat was a little too predominant over the sweet, rich flavors of yellow peppers and mango, and guest Tiffini aptly described the soup as bringing you to the "edge of pain." (This, despite the extra dollop of sour cream added.)
However, to soothe that pain was a 2008 Cave de Genouilly Bourgogne Aligote ($14.99), a white wine from Burgundy, France. Many would think that white grape plus Burgundy equals chardonnay, but a lesser known grape, and one usually used for blending, is the aligote.
It was perfect for taming the heat and played well against the sweet and spicy flavors of the soup. It is light in body and fruity, yet dry on the palate, and can definitely be classified as an easy-drinking, refreshing summer wine.
Despite that fiery overtone, we all enjoyed the cool, flavorful soup, and declared this first course a great culinary kick-off.
Grilled lettuce meets perfect vino
Since first tasting the 2007 Zolo Torrontes ($11.99) at an event at ABC Fine Wine, I'd been saving the bottle I bought that night for a special occasion in which I could introduce friends to what I think is a fabulous find.
Grilled romaine hearts meet white grape torrontes! Yes, the second course did indeed involve putting lettuce on the grill. Just the sound of this recipe was too intriguing to pass up putting it on the menu.
After just 20 seconds of flame on each side of a romaine heart that's been cut lengthwise, you've got wilted edges and a warm-on-the-outside, cool-on-the-inside salad. Drizzle a buttermilk, roasted garlic dressing on top, finish with a sprinkle of Manchego cheese, and you've got the means for drifting on a culinary cloud just outside of heaven.
And if you need a silver lining for that cloud, it's in the torrontes. The group found tropical fruit and honey aromas, and a fruitier, fuller body than the aligote. Gwen even detected lychee on the palate.
Mr. Swirl Girl "Bold" (Lynn's husband, Scott) thought it was a delicious wine by itself but that it paired very well with the salad. Tiffini commented on its creamy consistency and rich feel in mouth. Which probably explains why it paired so beautifully with the creamy dressing.
I felt like a beaming matchmaker. For me, this pairing was divine. The grilling brought depth to the romaine with its smoky flavor, and, in turn, the lettuce, with its acidic dressing, brought the wine flavors forward.
Less-than-perfect combo
In my cookbook, there's not much else better than eggplant on the grill. I found quite a few different marinades, but the one that intrigued me the most was the Asian glaze.
Start with half-inch thick slices of eggplant drizzled with olive oil, infuse it with that grilled flavor, baste with a glaze of orange, ginger, mirin, miso, honey and soy sauce, and then send back to the flame for another minute.
The eggplant itself was a hit, as was the Beaujolais that I paired, but this was one match that was not made from above.
We sipped the slightly chilled 2007 Domaine Pignard Beaujolais ($11.99) and once again found an easy-drinking, light wine. Made from the gamay grape, it was full of berries on the nose and palate, dry and finished short.
But we thought the wine did not enrich the dish, as the previous pairings had. To be honest, this recipe was the one that stumped me the most as far as finding a complementary wine. I wasn't sure what would be predominant on the taste buds — the smoky eggplant or the Asian glaze.
Upon a suggestion to pair with the eggplant and smoke, I was encouraged to pick a light red wine and thus came up with the Beaujolais. We thought the underlying discord was the citrus in the glaze not being a match for the wine. While it wasn't a bad combination — one that would make you stop eating or stop drinking — we agreed it wasn't ideal.
Perhaps on the next go-around I'll try the alternative and pair the Asian flavors with a Gewurztraminer or riesling.
The Swirl Girls — Libby Volgyes (Sweet), J. Gwendolynne Berry (Dry), Lynn Kalber (Bold) and Jennifer Podis (Earthy) — write about wine for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: swirlgirls(at)pbpost.com. Sip and swirl more on the Web at pbpulse.com/swirlgirls.