Posted by Belle

We bought The Wine Lover’s Cookbook, by Sid Goldstein, more or less on a whim. We’ve been experimenting with different wines - a gorgeous Barolo comes to mind - and found ourselves talking frequently about expanding our wine horizons and seeing exactly how food affects wine and vice versa. So when we saw The Wine Lover’s Cookbook, we thought it would be an interesting read, and fun to cook with (and drink with).

The Wine Lover’s Cookbook has recipes divided into sections according to the type of wine: Champagne/Sparkling Wine, Sauvignon/Fumé Blanc, Pinot Gris/Grigio, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Viognier, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Syrah and Rhône Blends, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and dessert wines. Each section begins with a discussion of the type of wine, followed by the following subheadings:

• Typical aromas & flavors
• Base ingredients
• Bridge ingredients
• Best source regions
• Styles
• Tips

I had first crack at the book, since it’s my task to add to my “oh, I’d really like to try this” list - which has now morphed into an official steno pad categorized according to cookbook title, with page numbers after the recipe titles: no Post-its needed anymore.

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it. Ward’s too busy cooking, so I have to be brave and selfless and step up to bat (am I getting my clichés mixed up here?). At any rate, one very pleasant Sunday afternoon I sat in a comfy chair, mug of hot green tea by my side, steno pad and pen in hand and The Wine Lover’s Cookbook. That day, I pulled my weight, truly. There were so many recipes that sounded incredibly good, and I wrote down every single one that appealed to me, along with page numbers (very important, that).

Lots and lots of writing.

Each recipe is also prefaced with an introductory paragraph which made for very good reading, too. I personally don’t get much out of cookbooks where you get just the recipe and nothing else. I like reading the author’s thoughts on the recipe, memories, personal things like that; these are the things that make me want to try a recipe even more.

So now you’re wondering, “but are the recipes any good? And the wine recommendations?”

We’ve sampled a handful of recipes so far, and every one of them has been good. Some have been excellent. One recipe in particular comes to mind: Grilled Ahi with Ginger-Black Bean Sauce. I had written this down in the “I want to try this” steno pad despite the fact I’m not actually that fond of ginger. Ward made it last week, and it was simply excellent. Goldstein writes in the introduction to the recipe:

“Much like salmon, which also pairs extremely well with Pinot Noir, ahi seems to almost seduce Pinot Noir. The slightly sweet, oily meat and fleshy body of the wine are sublime with one another. This Asian treatment relies on ginger and fermented black beans in a fairly intense reduction sauce that brings out some of the spicy and fruity characteristics of a young California Pinot Noir (preferably one exhibiting less oak).”

What we found was that this ahi dish seemed to transform the Pinot Noir we had with it into something that was slightly thick and sweet, full of body. I don’t know about spicy and fruity, but it definitely went well with the ahi. I couldn’t get over how sweet the wine tasted - not a cloying sweetness, but just pleasantly sweet to the taste. When I had another glass the next day (we only had a glass each with wine, so there was half a bottle left), the sweetness was definitely much less pronounced.

The Wine Lover’s Cookbook doesn’t come with a lot of pictures, but the recipes make up for this. If you’re at all interested in trying different wines with different foods, we definitely recommend you give this a try.

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