Pair Up with La Sommelierre - May 2012
Festival Foods
Festivals are a great way to celebrate the best our country has to offer whether it is produce, seafood or just old-fashioned caramel popcorn.
The California Strawberry Festival is held each year in Oxnard, California on the third weekend in May. Strawberries add a great burst of acid and beautiful color to a salad. Paired with brie cheese and fresh pears, then topped with tangy sour cream dressing, this salad needs a wine with bubbles to cut through the creamy dressing and a bit of sugar to balance the sweetness of the berries. Prosecco or an Asti Spumanti from Italy are both great options.
Closer to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Asparagus Festival takes place in Stockton, California. This year it was held the last weekend in April. As a second course, try Asparagus Ceviche. It is a substantial salad that blends cooked shrimp and crab with raw asparagus. In most ceviche, the citrus juices cook the fish; in this case, the juices cook the asparagus! Asparagus has a tendency to make wines taste vegetal and calls for a wine with intense fruit flavor like Riesling. Furthermore, the salad has jalapeño, garlic and onion, so the spicier you like it, the more sugar your wine needs to balance the heat. German Rieslings offer both dry and off-dry wines with excellent acid to stand up to the citrus juices. If you prefer American wines, look for Riesling from Mendocino County or Washington State. These regions are cooler, from a higher latitude and, therefore, usually produce wines with higher levels of acidity.
Vidalia Onion BBQ’d Ham utilizes the super sweet onions from the state of Georgia’s Vidalia Onion Festival. Simply sauté the onions with garlic and add them to your favorite vinegar-based, store-bought sauce. Gewürztraminer wine has a sweet spiciness that will work well with the ham and Caramel Corn Sweet Potatoes on the side. You can’t go to a festival without finding caramel popcorn, and you won’t even miss dessert if you finish your evening with these two recipes.
Find recipes online at www.lasommelierre.com