igourmet.com joins Orvis & St. Francis to Present: A Toast to the Bounty of our Land

An evening of big, bold wine and gourmet wild game

Join us as we toast the distinctive Orvis country lifestyle with St. Francis Winery & Vineyards and igourmet.com’s wild game meats to indulge in the fruits of our vineyards, mountains and valleys.

Orvis celebrates a long history of commitment to product quality, outdoor lifestyle and the natural environment. To exemplify this traditional approach to fine living, we have invited St. Francis Winery & Vineyards to educate our loyal customers on the art of pairing the big, bold flavors of St. Francis wines with wild game dishes. After all, being outdoors is only half the fun… this event is about what happens once you return home for the feast.

How Specialty Foods can make our lives easier

We all appreciate ideas and shortcuts that save us time when entertaining. Here is a variation on the classic Italian arugula salad, topped with slices of Prosciutto di Parma and shaved Parmigian Reggiano Cheese. By giving the ingredients, seasoning, spices etc in a recipe a slight twist, you have a new dish that seems at once “classic” in it’s feel, but new in flavor.

In this case, standing in for the Prosciutto is Alpen Schinken, a dry cured and smoked ham of German origins. Unlike it’s Italian counterpart, it is smoked over hardwoods, the husky smokiness pairing nicely with the rich texture.

Like prosciutto is is also sliced thin to allow the flavors to open up more fully on the palate.

The Gruyere cheese further reinforces the alpine theme and flavors of the dish.

This is also an example of how a few well chosen specialty food items can make our lives easier when entertaining, giving us something new and tasty with very little work or prep time. 

I served this dish at an all red-wine dinner at Russian Hill Estate Winery in Sonoma County. Pairing red wine(or many wines  with salad) is truly a challenge, but the smoky richness of the ham, along with the dense creamy Gruyere tames the effect of tannins. The drizzle of the aged (and therefore not overly acidic) balsamic actually helped to tie the dish to the wine.

But a crisp white or even beer will match nicely with this fall season fist course.

Salad Of Bitter Greens with Alpen Schinken and Gruyere

A New Take on an Italian Classic

Serves 4

6 cups washed salad greens ( Arugula,  or a mix of arugula and endive, chicory, raddichio and escarole hearts)

8 slices Alpen Schinken

1/2 lb Gruyere ( other hard mountain types such as Abondance, Beaufort, Hoch Ybrig, Jura Montagne will work nicely also)

1/4 cup of Dijon Vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Salt and Fresh ground black pepper

Best Quality Balsamic Vinegar (the most aged you can afford) optional

In a large bowl toss salad greens with vinaigrette. Divide salad on to 4 plates. Drape two slices of ham over each serving, and using a cheese plane, shave thin slices of the Gruyere over the salad, letting them fall where they may.
Drizzle with aged balsamic, if using.

What’s easier than that!!

Dijon Vinaigrette

6 Tbsp. red wine or champagne vinegar

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup Olive or Canola Oil

In a small bowl with a whisk, combine first 3 ingredients well. Drizzle in oil while whisking to emulisy dressing.

This post was written by our newest addition Patrick Ambrosio

Patrick Ambrosio served as the cheesemonger for Dean and Deluca in Napa Valley CA. Returning to his home town of Long Island NY worked for many years as the cheese department manger for Bernard’s Market and Cafe, twice featured in the New York Times. Prior to working in cheese, Patrick was a professional chef for many years, including Executive Chef at both Tyler Hill Farm Country Inn, as well as Russian Hill Estate Winery in Sonoma County, CA.Welcome Patrick!

Crossing Pairs With igourmet.com at Mohegan Sun Casino in Pocono Downs
 
Crossing Vineyards Wine and Cheese Shop is one of only six retail outlets selected for “Project Sunrise,” a $208 million, 300,000 square-foot gaming and entertainment complex at Pocono Downs. Among the shop’s offerings will be multi-level flights of wine and cheese, paired to complement the flavors of each. Customers can build their own pairings, based on their cheese preferences, with wine suggested by a staff knowledgeable about both products.”Crossing Vineyards and igourmet.com are the perfect pairing, two Pennsylvania based companies that value quality and service,” says Christine Carroll, one of the owners of Crossing Vineyards.

Crossing will feature a wide range of its award-winning wines - they’ve earned nearly 70 prizes in national and international competitions - including limited quantities of its Library Wine Series, which has been held in reserve. Quality wine accessories, Reidel glassware, wine gifts such as decanters and wine bags, wine books, games, wine-related dishes and giftware, and seasonal gift items such as wine-themed Santas also will be available.

The wine and cheese shop will also offer igourmet.com’s line of gourmet food products exclusively. Headquartered in West Pittston, Pa., igourmet.com is the nation’s leading online gourmet food and gift retailer. Lauded by Forbes magazine as the best gourmet food Web site for the past seven years, its product line includes more than 850 imported and domestic specialty cheeses along with an award-winning line of exquisite gifts baskets.

  Vento d’Estate Vaccino - pairs well with Pinto Grigio

 Cypress Grove Purple Haze - pairs well with Sauvignon Blanc

 Malagon with Rosemary - pairs well with Rioja

Starter courses such as soup create a lot of worry for people when it comes to wine pairings. Some people even suggest forgoing wine entirely, reserving it for the main course only.  With soup, the difficulty cited most-often is texture: how to match a liquid with a liquid.

Below are some classic soup recipes with wine pairings.

Gazpacho          Sauvignon Blanc

Chowders         Pinot Grigio

Minestrone      Red Zinfandel

Beef Stew         Cabernet 

Chardonnay - Muravera

A fresh sheep’s milk product from Sardinia, Muravera is Sardoformaggi’s signature cheese. Soft in texture with a slightly tangy, lemony flavor, this cheese is best served with the meal, either before as an hors d’oeuvre, or after as part of a dessert course. It comes from mountainous northern Sardinia, which is an important fact because the southern part of the island gets very little rainfall, resulting in dry grasses for grazing and thus, less flavorful cheeses. The name Muravera comes from Mura - the name of Sardoformaggi’s founding family, and Vera - which means true.

Pinot Grigio - Vermont Classic Chevre

The Vermont Butter and Cheese Company story begins with this mild goat’s milk cheese. It was on a farm in Brittany where young Allison Hooper, working for room and board, learned the time-honored traditions of European artisanal cheesemaking. Working as a dairy lab technician in Vermont a few years later, she produced a chèvre for a banquet organized by Bob Reese, then marketing director of the state agriculture department. Chèvre was still largely unavailable in Vermont at the time – but not for much longer. Inspired by the response to her chèvre, Allison teamed up with Bob to found Vermont Butter & Cheese Company.Since then, Vermont Chèvre has earned an honored place among chefs and consumers alike. Distinguished by a simple, mild, fresh goat’s milk flavor, the cheese is highly versatile – an excellent ingredient in many dishes as well as on its own. While chèvre continues to grow in popularity, Vermont Chèvre maintains its reputation for quality through superlative taste, freshness, and lower salt. 

Sauvignon Blanc - Marygold

Once again, Anna Van Dijk has created a startlingly different goat’s milk cheese. The base of this new cheese is a younger version of one of our favorites, Van Dijk; a tangy aged goat cheese. Made from the milk from her herd of 500 goats in Eindhoven, Holland, Anna has added a unique ingredient – marigold to this great cheese. Like Cornelia, Anna has achieved the perfect balance of flavors in her new concoction, Marygold. Marigold, also known as calendula or pot marigold, was a popular ingredient throughout medieval and renaissance Europe. In Holland, according to Gerard’s “Herbal”, “no broths are made well without dried marigolds.” Marigold gives color and a piquant touch to cheese, soups and stews. In fact, the petals were used to color cheese until annatto was introduced from America. The presence of marigold not only gives a slightly floral hint that complements the flavor of the cheese, but also creates a distinctive presentation with the creamy white color of the cheese sprinkled with orange and yellow flecks of petals. A must try for any lover of Dorothea or Van Dijk.

Riesling - Grafton Maple Smoked Cheddar Maple Smoked Cheddar is just one of the Grafton Village Cheese Company’s excellent cheeses. It is bathed in the cool smoke from smoldering hard maple wood for four to six hours at the end of the aging period. What taste could be more typical of Vermont? The smoke is used to season, not to preserve. It adds a delicious nuance reminiscent of bacon, and is an excellent part of any breakfast menu (try it in an omelet!) and on cocktail trays. We were so impressed by its quality that we honored Maple Smoked Cheddar from Grafton Village as our July 2002 Cheese-of-the-Month.

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Has flavors of honey and grapefruit with a long citrus finish.

And Works Well With These Cheeses: