It was Thursday and our night for pairings, so I pulled out Sid Goldstein’s book “The Wine Lover’s Cookbook” and pulled together a menu that will pair a little with Chardonnay and a little with Viognier.

We are having Chilled Corn and Sundried Tomato Chowder, Crab Jicama and Mango Salad with Lemon-Curry dressing and Chicken Paprika with dried apricot and almond relish.  The Chowder will pair with a 2007 Miramonte Chardonnay, the Crab salad will pair with both the Chardonnay and a 2010 Zaca Mesa Viognier (Happy 40^th Zaca Mesa!), and the Chicken Paprika will pair exclusively with the Viognier.

Farmer’s Market vegetables

So this morning I got up early, hit the gym and headed to the Molto Vegas Farmers Market at the Springs Preserve to pick up the produce!

As you can see I scored fresh desert corn, butter lettuce, garlic, onion, a Meyer lemon, a mango, and two regular lemons.  I raided my pantry and freezer for chicken stock (we had some frozen that I Michael made), cumin, coriander, paprika, olive oil, honey, turmeric, chili powder and tarragon.  Hit the garden for chives and green onions and made a trip to Whole Foods for the rest.  I figured Whole Foods would be a one-stop shop for the varied items that I needed.  We picked up organic chicken breasts, blue crab meat, sour crème, dried apricots, sweet paprika, caraway seeds, sliced mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and pasta.  I picked up slivered almonds from the bulk area since I just needed 3 tablespoons, season croutons for the soup and jicama.  So I have seen sliced jicama in the produce section but they didn’t have any so I had to have someone come and help me find it!  It is a bulbous root that runs around $1.49 lb. and the one I picked ran me $2.79.  I only used about 1/3 of it.

So I started with the soup since it needed to chill for 3 to 4 hours.  Olive oil, onions, tarragon, cumin, turmeric and lemon zest get going in the soup pot then you add the corn, corn cobs, chicken stock and white wine.  I used a Viognier that I had already opened.  This boils, and then simmers a bit then you pull out the cobs and add the roasted garlic, lemon juice and sour crème and then process it in the blender or food processor.  Add the rough chopped sundried tomatoes and toss it in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours.

While that is chilling I jump onto the crab salad.  Crab meat, diced mango, diced jicama and then a dressing with Meyer lemon juice and zest, champagne vinegar, mayo and a homemade curry powder with cumin, turmeric, chili powder and coriander.  Mix it all up and pop it in the fridge for 2 hours.  (there is a chillin’ theme here!)

On to the relish for the chicken.  Dice the dried apricots; add champagne vinegar (it called for raspberry, but I wasn’t buying a whole bottle for ¾ teaspoon!), honey, green onions, caraway seed, lemon zest and toasted almonds.  Then chill this for an hour!

Finally the chicken.  I pound out the breasts season with salt, paprika, sage and lemon zest and brown them in butter and oil then drain them on paper towels.  Then cook the onions add the mushrooms, marjoram, sweet paprika, caraway seed and roasted garlic (I had this left over from the previous recipe and it gave a sweeter flavor to the dish).  Once this is cooked up I added the chicken stock and sour cream and then put the breasts back in.  I cooked up some buttered noodles to serve this on.

Now for the pairings.  The Chardonnay was beautiful with the Chowder.  And this chilled soup just develops more flavors the longer it chills.  (I enjoyed it for lunch for several more days!).  The salad was fine with the Chard, but the jicama really came to life with the Viognier.  The Chicken and the Viognier were spectacular on several levels.  The earthiness of the mushrooms and the sauce were really lovely creating a new depth when paired with the wine and then the apricots and the relish really popped.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with myself. Thanks Sid for the help!  I look forward to cooking my way through this book!