Taste Chardonnay, compose a meal

Here’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time: open a bottle of wine from my storage in the morning, take a healthy sip, and create a dinner around my notes and perceptions of the wine. I’d recently bought several wines from the Foley Food and Wine Society offerings and decided to open the Foley Bar Lazy S Ranch, Sta. Rita Hills, 2020. As I write, I notice that this vineyard’s wines are no longer available from Foley so, if you are cooking along at home you can try one of the other Foley single vineyard Chardonnays from Sta. Rita Hills.

I tried the wine before a shopping trip at 10am, an early time for me to drink wine.  I noted the following characteristics:

Flavors/Aromas

• Orange Blossom

• Key Lime

• White Guava

• White Peach

Weight: Medium

Oak: Light

Acidity on the palate: Strong

I did have some avocados to use on the counter; they are usually lovely with a Chardonnay that is not strongly oaked. The wine fact sheet said this was aged 18 months in American and French oak, 50% new, although the overall oak effect was light and appropriate for avocado. Rather than a traditional guacamole (avoid chile heat with Chardonnay) I opted for an avocado mash with calamondin juice to point up the citrus aromas and basil which is strong enough to pierce tropical flavors of the wine.

Avocado Mash with Citrus, Basil Oil, and Sweet Onion

Serves 2

·      2 medium-small avocados

·      3 tablespoons diced sweet onion

·      2 tablespoons lime (or Calamondin) juice

·      2 tablespoons basil-infused olive oil

·      Salt to taste

Peel and core the avocados. Chop coarsely and add to a bowl with all other ingredients. Mash lightly with a large fork, to leave small chunks of avocado. Correct the seasoning as needed.

Serve with blue or white corn tortilla chips for an informal opener.

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Even light, stainless-steel fermented Chardonnay has a certain richness due to the varietal characteristics, the often-present tropical flavors, and the alcohol level (14.2% here). The Foley wine has a delicate core that is eventually wrapped in the mouth by the richness of the oak aging. For an entrée, I decided on the lighter flavors of scallops and corn wrapped with rich bacon, cream, and bourbon. Mushrooms are a beautiful thing with Chardonnay and I felt oyster mushrooms would enhance the slight brininess of the scallops. Please use dry-packed sea scallops as smaller bay scallops will fall apart in the dish.

Sautéed Scallops with a Corn, Oyster Mushroom, and Bacon Salad topped with Bourbon-Orange Cream Sauce

Serves 2

Corn, Bacon, Mushroom Salad

·      2 strips thick-sliced bacon, chopped

·      1 tablespoon butter

·      1 tablespoon olive oil

·      3-4 ounces oyster mushrooms, cut into two-inch pieces

·      Kernels stripped from 2 ears of corn

1.    Fry bacon in a dry skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and reserve. Pour out most of the bacon fat. R

2.    Add butter and olive oil to skillet over medium-high heat and add oyster mushrooms. When they begin to exude moisture, reduce heat to medium low and add corn kernels. Cook until mushrooms are softer, about 2 minutes. Stir in reserved bacon. Keep warm over very low heat.

Bourbon-Orange Cream Sauce

·      2 tablespoons butter

·      1/4 cup finely diced sweet onion

·      2 tablespoons whiskey

·      1/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock

·      1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root

·      Zest of 1/2 small orange

·      1/4 cup heavy cream

·      Salt to taste

1.    Heat butter over medium-low heat and sauté onion. Raise heat, add whiskey, and cook to burn it off a little.

2.    Add chicken stock, ginger root, and orange zest and reduce by ½.

3.    Add cream and reduce by ½. Salt to taste and keep warm over very low burner.

Scallops

·      1 tablespoon butter

·      1 tablespoon olive oil

·      2/3-pound wild sea scallops

·      Salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter and olive oil in small heavy bottomed skillet over medium-heat. Add sea scallops in single layer and salt and pepper to taste. Sauté on one side until browned and then the other for about 2 minutes each side.

Assemble some Corn, Bacon, Mushroom salad on two heated plates. Arrange scallops on top and drizzle with the Bourbon-Orange Cream Sauce.

Was it a success?

The avocado mash went down easy but felt like it lacked affiliation with the Foley Chardonnay. Perhaps it would have worked better as a topping for a grilled bread bruschetta with some garlic rubbed into the bread after grilling.

I was very pleased with the sea scallop dish. Yes, it was lush and quite filling with the bacon and cream, but the bright acidity of the Chardonnay made everything sing and conversely the barrel aging finish of the wine came out of hiding with these ingredients. My last-minute gambit of adding a bit of bourbon sitting on the prep counter paid off!

I hope that you will at least try the second dish. Riffing on one sip of wine was fun and appealed to the chef challenge and the detective lurking in me.