Para mi Madre Y Abuela

Lucia Perez y Olimpia Rodriguez

I thought I would finally release a Cuban recipe from my heart out to my fellow bloggers and wine Lovers. The photo above is of my grandmother and mother back in 1992. The photo was shot by my big brother. Of course, they were the most influential women in my life and both of them taught me to be a man and have a love for cooking. Both my grandmother and mother have passed. My grandmother of bone cancer in 1994 and my mother of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2002. I still remember the days when my grandmother lived in my parents guest house when I was very young and she would be cooking all of those Cuban staples like picadillo, papas rellenas, tamales, empanadas, croquetas and of course black beans and a lot of rice. My mother on the other hand never attempted to out-cook my grandmother. I think it might of been a sign of respect, but my mother always had home cooked meals on the table for me growing up. I can still taste her pinto beans, mariquitas and of course every morning coming to visit her where she would have a cup of Cuban coffee waiting for me. These are the fondest memories of my childhood.

So being that my grandmother's birthday and my mother and father's wedding anniversary are celebrated this month, I pass onto you the one Cuban recipe that I didn't mention above. "Ropa Vieja" aka Old Clothes. I actually made this recipe this pass week for a birthday party we attended that had an "Old Clothes" theme. I believe that my dish was well received by all of the guests. This recipe is not passed on from my grandmother recipe. I believe that this is the way that I honor her, but I cannot help myself in attempting to make Cuban food. When both of your parents are Cuban, you better learn. So here is my recipe, with the cooking instructions.

Oh!! and my wine of choice with this meal would be any Tempranillo or this one. http://vosselections.com/Domains/1188.html

Which is bad ass!!

Enjoy

"Ropa Vieja"

1 (2 1/2 pound) Flank steak cut in half.

2 bay leaves

2 carrots

2 onions

1 tablespoon of dry Oregano

1 Tablespoon of Cumin and extra for rub

1 Red Bell Pepper julienne

2 green bell Peppers (one julienne and the other rough chopped)

2 heads of Garlic. (one smashed and one finely chopped)

2 Cups of Whole tomatoes, Canned then hand crushed.

1 1/2 Cups of Tempranillo Wine (A good one OK!!!)

1 can of Beef Stock

1/4 cup Mojo Criollo marinade (Store bought is OK - Goya)

1/4 cup of Good Sherry

Olive Oil

salt and pepper to taste

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Dust the flank steak with a little cumin, salt and pepper and sear off in stock-pot. Add 1 of the onions, 1 head of garlic crushed, the 2 carrots rough chopped, 1 green bell pepper, the bay leaves, 1 cup of the wine and the can of beef stock. Make sure the liquid is high enough to cover the meat completely. If the liquid in the pot isn't high enough add water to cover. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for approximately 2 1/2 hours. Pull the meat out and let cool. Dump the contents of the pot (or save for a good stock some other time). Cut the meat against the grain into 2 inch cubes. Then shred the meat with 2 forks with the grain.

Bring the pot back up heat with olive oil and add the julienned, onion, finally chopped 2nd head of garlic, 1 red and green bell peppers. Saute for a few minutes and deglaze with the 1/2 cup of wine, 1/4 cup of mojo sauce and 1/4 cup of sherry. Add tomatoes and hand crush in the pot, 1 tablespoon of Cumin and 1 tablespoon of oregano. Cook for about 15 minutes. Add the shredded meat and mix well. Cook for half and hour. Salt and pepper to taste. If dish appears to dry. You can add a bit more wine or tomato sauce.

Serve over white rice or on top of a Cuban cracker with a dab of Avocado.

Enjoy!

Cheers!

The Glass Makes a Difference!

Myself - Tammy(aka Riedel Stemware Representative) - My big Brother

http://www.riedel.com/


I have been wanting to write about this subject for the longest time. Now that I have a blog this might interest some of my fellow wino's. I have lots and lots of wine glasses in my home. Glasses from wineries that you get after a tasting. Glasses that were given to me as gifts. I use them all the time. When friends come over that love wine or don't love wine. I keep those glasses in a cabinet in my dining room.

But in another "SPECIAL" cabinet I keep my good stemware. This is the only stemware that I bought and paid for myself. What is that stemware! Riedel! I own 6 Bordeaux, 6 pinot, and 6 Chardonnay glasses. Now you might think why own all of these different stemware when you usually taste wines at events from one type and only one type of glass. Well! that all changed after a great seminar that my brother and I got invited too last year.

George Riedel the 10Th generation glass maker from Austria and owner of Riedel put on an event showcasing his Stemware. The catch was tasting 3 wines, a chardonnay, a Cabernet and a Pinot from 5 different vessels. 4 of the glasses were all different sizes with the last glass not being a glass at all but a plastic cup. The 4 glasses represented his signature series for different wines. The first glass made for young White wines, 2ND glass was his standard series that you probably see in every restaurant or wine bar, the 3rd Glass for Burgundy Wines, and his last for Bordeaux style wines.

Mr Riedel walked us threw the tasting starting with the Chardonnay, the Cabernet, and then the Pinot. We were asked not to move ahead and not to dump the wine. Until told!. At first you are wanting to question if this is even true, but as Mr. Riedel began explaining the wines structure in each glass, you really wanted to pay attention. All of the aroma notes and flavor profiles came off exactly like he explained in each glass. The Chardonnay was beautiful in the young white wine stem while there was to much citrus coming off of the wine in the Bordeaux and standard Stems. The Pinot and Cabernet seemed closed up with hardly any aroma notes from the white wine stem. While all of those beautiful flower, earth, chocolate or wood notes come threw in the Pinot and Bordeaux stems. In some cases the wines flavor profiles completely change as the wine will tend to roll into your mouth at different speeds from the different shapes of the glasses. His explanations make you say that without a brilliant Glass there can really be no understanding of the different structures in a wine.

George Riedel made me a believer to the point where I had to own at least a half dozen proper glasses for 3 different grape varietals. I spent some bucks, but it was well worth it.

Oh and what about that plastic cup that he made us drink out of. Well! Lets just say that all wino's should try this sometime. Taste a wine from a proper stem and taste it from a plastic cup.

Where did the wine go?????? I don't Taste anything!!!!!!

Give that I try someday!!!!

Cheers!!!

For My Love of Wine!

I decided to take a little drive this weekend to visit some old and new friends of mine in Santa Barbara Wine country. My best friend who is as big a wine collector and lover as me tagged along. Our first stop was at the very famous Sea Smoke Cellars. http://www.seasmokecellars.com/

My love of Pinot Noir started 6 years ago. My favorite varietal has always been Cabernet. In the beginning I learned so much about wines from both France and California. I started purchasing Cabernet's and Bordeaux back as far as 1997. Yeah my collection is out of control. Thank god for Wine Storage. When it came to Pinot Noir though I am a little under educated with Burgundy. Not to mention I don't have the wallet right now in tough economic times to purchase a lot of wines period. So my favoritism is a bit lopsided toward California. The first Pinot I ever started to purchase came from Sea Smoke Cellars. My vintages go back to 2003. The only bottle I have left from the 03 is the "TEN". I am holding onto that wine a few more years. Every other vintage I still have a few bottles of.

Sea Smoke is in the process of moving to a bigger facility out of the Lompoc "Wine Ghetto". The new facility will house all of there equipment and store all of there wines. I still don't believe that they are gonna open a formal tasting room, but who knows. We were not able to see the new facility on this trip but I am already planning a new trip back in late August to check it out. For now I drove by the old facility to see if the Vice President of sales Victor Gallegos was around. There was no one around so I guess we will have to meet in a few months.

We decided to take our chances in the Lompoc "Wine Ghetto". Several wineries make there home there with almost a half dozen having tasting rooms. Our first stop was the famous fiddlehead Cellars

I have always always loved Kathy Josephs Sauvignon Blanc. It is one of my favorites. Her wines were tasting really great that day. In particular her Willamette Valley Pinot. This wine showed all of those traditional cherry, cola, aromas. I was very impressed. We asked the lady working here if anybody new had moved into the Ghetto. She pointed us to our next stop which was Nicolaysen Family Vineyards. http://www.nfvwine.com/

Bob Nicolaysen is the owner and operator and was happy to assist us this day. He gave us this great poem above, that I believe truly shows the potential of real wine making. He allowed us to taste 5 wines. 2 pinots, 2 sirahs and a late harvest dessert wine. Both of his pinots were well aged. Bob prefers them this way. The first was 2001 vintage. Which still had good tannins and berry fruit. The other Pinot I did not care for. The wine had to heavy of a fungal / Truffle nose which kinda turned me off. the Sirah's were nice wines but a bit heavy on price at $38.00 per and the late harvest has never been my thing. Although I did pick up a bottle at Fiddlehead earlier for my wife. The things we do for our spouses. Anyways! The only reason I did not buy any wines from Nicolaysen was that tough economic times thing. Which made me have a strict budget. Overall a fun stop, which I do suggest you check out someday.

Our third stop was at Samsara. http://www.samsarawine.com/ Which is a new project by Chad Melville. Chad's father owns Melville Vineyards, http://www.melvillewinery.com/ Melville Pinot Noir's are some of the best in Central coast. Samsara shows alot of potential as well. We tasted 3 Pinots, 2 sirahs and 1 rose. All the wines showed a lot of the same characteristics from Melville wines. My only complaint would have to be that pricing should be a bit lower for a new upstart project. I was very satisfied though with all of the wines, but again no purchases were made.

Our next stop was at Ampelos Cellars. http://www.ampeloscellars.com/ They practice and promote bio dynamic farming here. The owner Peter and his wife Rebecca were pouring that day. I met Peter back in what I believe was 2004. I tasted there very first produced wines then. I believed they were pretty good with a lot of potential to come. Peter didn't remember me this day as I mentioned that story to him, but it really doesn't matter. Peter is one very fun host! He makes you very welcomed and he plays the part of the dirt farmer very good as you see in the photo below. Oh! and his stepson happens to be winemaker at Sea Smoke. Another great person to hang out with.

Our last stop was one of reasons I wanted to come up this weekend. Besides Sea Smoke which falls at the top of my Pinot Noir list of favorites. A very small producer named Paul Lato Wines http://www.paullatowines.com/ invited me up for a barrel sample of his upcoming wines. Now I know that I have mentioned the "tough economic times" thingy already but last year I had the chance to taste Paul Lato's "Suerte" Pinot at my 40th birthday bash. The wine blew me away. So I made sure to get on Paul's waiting list the very next day. To my surprise I was allowed to buy some of his wines a few weeks ago. Yeah I dropped a boat load of money, but I believe it is gonna be well worth it. All of Paul's wines score very high on both Spectator and Parker's websites. All of his wines are under 100 cases of each. I am not usually a "score whore" kinda guy, but I do make exceptions and when a great tiny producer comes around, it is a real great treat. As I thought Paul is an exceptional guy. He is a trained wine sommelier. He really is on his way to making a Big name for himself. I was very very impressed with every wine that he poured for us. He even allowed us a taste of a new Pinot he will release next year from a plot of land in the Pisoni Vineyard estate. Talk about a big name in the game. Try getting wine from there. Mailing list only I believe. We had a great time hanging out with Paul. We talked about wine and the upcoming harvest. I might get my hands dirty and help him out with the harvest! I can't wait to get back there.

Overall we had a great great time. I am so very fortunate to live just 3 hours away from this beautiful area of California. So making a day trip is so much fun.

Cheers