Day 11- Austria!

I had the afternoon off today, so decided that this would be as a good a time as any to visit Austria. Austrian cuisine tends to be on the heavy side - lots of meat, dumplings and stews. Perhaps best known is the Wiener Schnitzel, often cooked in beer. Austrian cooking is most often associated with Vienna, birthplace of Sigmund Freud. And, while I could definitely include research on food and eroticism from a psychoanalytic perspective, I'll just stick to cooking for this blog. But I digress...The Austrian's are most famous for their pastry and cakes, notably Apfelstrudel, or apple strudel and the Sachertorte. For this reason, I decided to eschew the heavy sausage in beer thing and make a well know desert.

  Austria is a landlocked country situated in southern Central Europe. Slightly smaller than Maine, it occupies a territory of approximately 32,000 square miles, which includes much of the mountainous territory of the eastern Alps and the Danube region.

 I settled on the Sachertorte, or Austrian Chocolate Cake - This rich, chocolate cake, also known as Sacher's Cake was created by Franz Sacher when he baked it for an Austrian prince. Traditionally this is served with fresh whipped cream. It sounds hard to make, its actually quite easy:

 

Egg whites & Chocolate batter

Frost first layer of cake with chocolate, then glaze entire cake with apricot preserves

And here's the best part- the finished product!!

Our assessment is that the cake is very good but didn't wow us. I like a dark chocolate, super rich, but not sweet cake. This one was made with semi-sweet chocolate, and I prefer bittersweet. Still, the apricot preserves added a nice tartness to the chocolate flavor, and with whipped cream, it'd be even better. Lastly, although the recipe didn't call for straining the apricot preserves, I would have, since the chunks of apricots looked a little lumpy under the chocolate glaze.

Recipe

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate baking squares
• 1/2 cup flour

For the filling

• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate baking squares
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves

For the icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F (170°C/Gas mark 3) and grease and line with parchment, or waxed paper, two 8-inch round cake pans.
2. Separate the eggs. Put the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Beat the yolks until smooth.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until creamy. Stir in the egg yolks gradually.
4. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in double boiler over low heat or slowly in microwave (10 seconds, stir, 10 seconds, stir & continue until melted) Stir chocolate into the creamed mixture.
5. Put the egg whites into a large bowl, or mixer fitted with a whip attachment, and whisk until they are firm and form soft peaks when you lift the whisk.
6. Mix the flour into the chocolate mixture. Then one spoonful at a time, fold the egg whites into the cake batter with a metal spoon.
7. Pour the mixture into the cake pans. Smooth the top with the back of your spoon and bake the cakes for 35 minutes.
8. When baked, run a knife around the edge of the cakes to loosen and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
9. For Filling: Melt the chocolate in a bowl. Mix in powdered sugar and the butter. Use a knife to spread the chocolate paste onto one half of the cake. Then, put the other cake on top.
10. Melt the preserves in a pan over a low heat. Spread it over the top and sides of the cake with a blunt knife.
11. For Icing: Sift the cocoa powder and the powdered sugar into a bowl. Add water, a teaspoon at a time, until it reaches a spreading consistency then spread it all over the cake.

Interview with Claudia Roden - part 2

Photo credit: Red Saunders
In part 1 of my interview with Claudia Roden she shared her experiences from years of writing about the food of the Middle East and her thoughts about cooking in the US and Britain. In part two, she tells us about her upcoming Spanish cookbook, recipe testing, and her opinions on culinary innovation.

For years I've read that you're working on a Spanish cookbook, how is that coming along?

For 5 years I worked on it and I've just given it in. I spent years eating, meeting people, having fun, also doing a lot of research and the history of Spain through it's food, the literature and so on. I researched the life of the aristocracy, the peasants, the church, every recipe has meaning. I only include a recipe if it tastes good, usually if it lasts 100 years it is good. The added pleasure is to know how it fits in to the culture. It becomes a way of life and it's been very enriching.

In a year it will be out, we are now doing the food photography, when I get back (to London) we will start again. The photographer is going around in Spain. I've done two editions of the book, one in metric and one in cups, for the American edition, so it's taken rather longer. I always want to test everything myself. I want to make sure of the measures. I am the responsible one so I want to do it.

Your recipes are some of the most reliable and consistent I have ever used. What's your opinion of recipe testers?
You have to give other indications, by that I mean not just timing, cups and measures. Until now I had never used recipe testers, but I also invite people to dinner or invite one person to dinner and feed them, so that is my test. Right now after having tested all the recipes 2-3 times, they are being tested again. My published in the UK, Penguin, has a policy to retest all recipes, so they asked if I wouldn't mind. I was very glad but I'm crossing out a lot that has been put in by the tester. I do add variations in time, but she has put in so much material that I fear will put off anyone from cooking! I want recipes to be short and direct. I assume someone knows a bit how to cook. She puts in every dish how to fry onions, I just think if people are busy with the timing they may not pay attention to the other signs.

You can't tell everyone everything the best is to teach them to gauge for themselves. They'll have to learn to be confident of their taste and their senses. You can't put every single eventuality in a recipe. I believe you must trust people to use their common sense. People should really trust their senses. You must trust your taste. Cooking is an art of the senses. We can explain as writers, that's our job, not to just give measures.

You and Paula Wolfert are both heroines of mine. You both seem to be able to get amazing details from home cooks. What are the keys to getting people to share their recipes, especially people notorious for not sharing recipes, like Italians?

I do a lot of advanced contact. In Italy the very first contact was an ideal one. I was invited to a dinner with regional chefs and cookery teachers from around the country and there was a man who organized things that had connections to other culinary enthusiasts around the country. Cooking teachers were very generous. They were not necessarily teaching Italian food, but I got them to help me make contacts. I found food lovers who go out to eat in different towns, I had personal connections that helped. I didn't waste any time at all since I was under pressure from the Times.

I would ask people on the train for help, I would ask someone in a train compartment, "what is your favorite food?" and several people would join in the conversation. I was told (by the newspaper) to go everywhere, eat everything, take people with me, but I couldn't always fit in so many meals so I just phoned numbers from the phone book calling randomly and asked people what do they eat? But none of the recipes from restaurants or from home cooks worked. You have to try and use your common sense. You can't force people to be absolutely correct.

In Spain I observed people cooking at cooking schools. In cooking and catering schools they teach Spanish and International food, but all that the young people want is to use machines and technology. They are all besotted by Ferran. On the other hand there is almost a backlash in Spain where people are concerned with preserving their culture and region. The threat has galvanized them to not give up on their beloved recipes.

Speaking of Spain, where do you stand on culinary innovation?
I am very impressed by a lot of innovators, I am not only tolerant but I think everyone is free to invent. Of course a lot of chefs think they have to invent everyday to be respected. In the past people had pride in their dishes, even classics. Now people feel driven to do something new. In a way a lot of messing about happens artificially. When there was change it was due to society--like hybrid dishes of different cultures that took 100 years to become part of the culture. There is change in food when culture changes, but to have a culture where you despise tradition and only revere innovation is very sad. Food is part of identity. Countries like France and Italy should not give up there identity, besides, most people are not very good at innovation.

I don't see the point in innovating to surprise or to gain prestige when it doesn't taste all that good. Sometimes the look becomes more important than the taste. Food photography made an impact that way years ago. The visual is important but you want to eat something that has real taste. Knowing what to put together is very important. If you area great creator you are fantastic. If you are just trying to be in fashion chances are it's not worth it.

In Spain chefs have gone through innovation using science and technology and because of the reaction by Spaniards, they have come back a bit. The roots are there, they want to use regional ingredients. I love the cooking of Santi Santamaria (a prominent avant-garde Catalan and Spanish chef). It's exciting, but it's not what home cooking is about. It's good to shake the Spaniards out of bad habits for example frying everything.

The French had the same experience with Nouvelle Cuisine but they have gone back to their original culture. It's important to find the balance between old and new. For restaurant chefs it's one thing, but for home cooks it's another thing altogether. It seems people entertain more in England than they do in the US, but sometimes what they do is too fussy (influenced by the culinary innovators). To entertain you should do one big dish and have everyone serve themselves. People are afraid to entertain because they think it's old-fashioned. That's a shame.

READ MORE Check out the post from yesterday, part 1 of my interview with Claudia Roden

Interview with Claudia Roden - part 1

Photo credit: Red Saunders
Historian Simon Schama once stated, “Claudia Roden is no more a simple cookbook writer than Marcel Proust was a biscuit baker. She is, rather, memorialist, historian, ethnographer, anthropologist, essayist, poet.” It is for all these reasons, that I am such an admirer of Claudia Roden.

By her own admission she has sometimes led a very charmed life, traveling, eating and learning about food and culture. Presenting food in a cultural context is what sets her cookbooks apart and has won her such respect and acclaim. Roden resides in London, but was recently in the US for the James Beard Awards, where her landmark book, The Book of Middle Eastern Food was inducted into the Cookbook Hall of Fame. Today read part 1 of my interview with her, and tomorrow come back for part 2.

Which cookbook of yours is your favorite and why?

The first one, The Book of Middle Eastern Food, is very important to me because it was a labor of love, well, all of them are labors of love, but that one meant a lot to me because I was researching an area I thought I would never go back to ever again. It was a part of a world that was so important to my family. I researched a lot of it from talking to people, a lot of the recipes had never been in print before.

There were so many people from different cultures living in Egypt where I grew up; my family was from Syria and Turkey, married into families from Morocco. When I was researching baklava, everyone said "it's ours" so I realized it was important to research and really learn about these recipes, many of which had never been written in a cookbook before. It was very important in that way, but every book is important too.

The Jewish book (The Book of Jewish Food) was emotional too, food is always emotional for me, always important. Even with the Italian book (The Good Food of Italy) I wanted to visit every region, I was traveling for the Sunday Times (UK) and expanded my work for the book. It was a joy.

I love the stories, poems and jokes that you share in The Book of Middle Eastern Food, whose idea was it to include those and how did you collect them?

It was my idea, the reason was when I was researching the book, when I was just collecting middle eastern recipes, and I would tell people what I was doing and they were horrified! Cooking was considered a low thing in England at the time and recipes even lower. The idea that it was the Middle East was very off-putting--they thought it would be all recipes for testicles and eyeballs. I needed to bring in the culture and what it meant to me so it would be important. Why would anyone eat brown beans unless they understand that they've been eaten for a very long time, that peasants who doesn't eat eat meat eat them, etc. I wanted to endear the readers to the food through the culture.

I went to the British Library and met with the Middle East curator and asked for resources. Everything was from the 13th century--Damascus, Bagdhad, culinary manuals, they were in Arabic, but they had been translated. I became fascinated with the recipes of the past that we were cooking with dishes that were cooking as well. I wasn't particularly interested in Jewish food at the time, I thought we thought we were eating like everyone else and in a way we were. My fascination began with finding those books and finding studies and analysis based on society from food.

I've always marveled that as a Jewish woman, you were able to gain access to so many Middle Eastern cultures. Were most of the recipes gathered in "exile"?

Everyone I talked to was in exile at the time and that's how I found people--Lebanese in Paris, the Iraqis in London. I went to the Persian embassy not to ask for a visa, but if I could meet the diplomats wives.

I've been in Lebanon for the last book I went to meet with people at Hezbollah. I was the most popular person, everyone wanted to talk to me about food! Everyone knew I was Jewish but they were fascinated. Jews were part of that world (the Middle East) for centuries. We improved their lives, their economy and their culture. We share the same humor. I find that all the young journalists want Jewish recipes. In a way I find that there is nothing better than food to bond and open doors. I find the Christian communities can be difficult with the Jews because they have been in competition as minorities with us, though not in Lebanon. There is the old blood libel. There was an animosity. But now they are the ones who are suffering.

I go to the Middle East to give lectures. I go to Turkey a lot--I am friends with Sufis and they come with me to the synagogue. One day a religious woman who I am closest to asked me, was it the Jews who bombed the twin towers? All I could do was laugh. There is a lot of anti-Jewish propaganda but they don't deeply believe it. When they see you as a person, they are fascinated. I went to a literary festival in Dubai there were Israelis attending and everyone wanted to talk to them. In Spain there was a "Taste of Peace" event with chefs from the Middle East.There is need to connect through food. I am never worried when I go to the Middle East. Food is a bond. I have been trying to do a chefs for peace event in the West Bank. The Israelis are keen to do it but the Palestinians say the time is not right.

What do you think will get people back in the kitchen cooking again?

We have the same problem with people not cooking in England as you do in the US. It does seem because people have less money they are coming around to seeing that it is cheaper to cook at home than to eat out. There is a new trend of people growing there own vegetables. TV chefs have helped to popularize this. A lot of people are buying CSA boxes. I think this might get people started again. Jamie Oliver has a new series on 20 minute cooking. I admire him very much. He has done fantastic good. Cooking in 20 minutes might get people back in the kitchen. In my recipes I have some that take a long time but they are just on the stove for a long time, unattended.

Habits have changed. I want to make things lighter and healthier. I want to write the way people cook now. Some dishes I tried that took a long time, that's ok, but it has to be really fantastic. One night 3 of my granddaughters stayed the night and I made a Catalan cannelloni with stuffing that had liver and brains and lots of steps. I told them my rules, it must be really, really delicious to be worth taking a long time and lots of work to prepare, and they were very keen on cannelloni but they told me, the dish is not worth the effort.

With the pressure to cook in less time, do you recommend using a pressure cooker?

In Morocco and Spain it is very commonly used but I'm convinced dishes cooked in the pressure cooker don't have the same flavor. When using it you must finish dishes with the top off and let sauces reduce. Cooking starts with oil which carries the scents and flavors. When I was in Morocco a young man complained to me that he used to walk the streets and could tell what everyone was cooking and now he can't smell anything. Pressure cookers encourage overcooking and pureeing.

READ MORE Check out the concluding post, part 2 of my interview with Claudia Roden

Roasted Asparagus with Green Garlic & Panko Recipe

This past Saturday at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market I found lots of harbingers of Spring, all green--asparagus, green garlic, artichokes and even obscure ones like wild radish rapini. I bought a bit of each. The rapini I will blanch then probably toss with dressing or pasta and the artichokes I will surely roast. But I picked up the asparagus and the green garlic without any specific plans.

Green garlic is milder than regular garlic and tastes and looks a bit like large bulbous scallions. There are lots of recipes that use green garlic as an accent in soup, sauces, risotto and pizza. You can chop and saute them the same way you would any other green onion. Because green garlic is in season at the same time as asparagus it is often paired with it and frankly every asparagus and green garlic recipe sounds great to me. Both are springy and green but one more earthy and grassy, the other sweet and oniony.

A typical way to use green garlic is to make a pesto. You can cook it and then puree it or puree it raw. But if you use it raw, it will have a bite! I made a raw pesto and then coated the asparagus with it and then dipped it into panko and roasted it until the panko was golden brown, the asparagus cooked through and the green garlic mellowed and sweet. I was inspired by a number of other recipes to create this one and I'm pleased with the way it turned out. It's good as a side dish with something simple like roast chicken and rice.

The recipe makes way more pesto than you need for a big bunch of asparagus, but use the rest with hot pasta or use it to coat fish or seafood and then top with crumbs or panko. You could also use on toast or dab it on goat cheese. A bit of the pesto would be good swirled in soup as well, especially asparagus soup!

Roasted Asparagus with Green Garlic & Panko
Serves about 4

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup stalks and bulbs green garlic, trimmed and chopped (about 3) remove dark green bits
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 bunch medium asparagus spears (about 16 stalks), trimmed, the bottom 1/3 peeled with a vegetable peeler

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Oil a large foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. In a blender or food processor, puree green garlic with olive oil, lemon juice and salt until smooth. Place 1/2 cup panko in a 9x13 baking pan. Place the asparagus on a cutting board or clean surface and rub with about 1/4 cup pesto or enough to coat. Place the asparagus in the baking dish and cover with the remaining panko. Carefully transfer asparagus to prepared baking sheet in a single layer. Roast until browned, about 15 minutes. Serve right away.

Enjoy!

Day 10 - Australia!

Australia - Such an interesting country, with an equally a rich history. I set out to make what I hoped would be traditional Australian food. Most of my research led me to a country whose cuisine is rather similar to ours, and as up-scale as any food served in New York's best restaurants. Within the more rural areas, stews are very popular, but I wanted to try something different. My friend Barbara who lived in Sydney and Melbourne recalls the food being excellent (except for the burgers that were too lean for her liking),  and the country beautiful.

Australia was an English penal colony, so much of their food is heavily influenced by the British. Many of their dishes are made with lamb and mouton, which I wasn't really in the mood for. But it's also located in the Great Barrier Reef, so seafood is plentiful. I decided to make a traditional fish and chips meal, since my family loves fried food, but I rarely make it due to it's obvious health hazards.

My mother used to make homemade fries when we lived in France. She had this really cool fry pot and basket  (I think my sister Anna has it now) -  I remember it as being yellow and capable of producing kick ass French fries  - NOT Freedom Fries. I used the soak, fry for 3 minutes, cool and re-fry method. This yields beautiful, golden, crispy fries that only need salt - although catsup was liberally applied by the dudes in my house.

 Soak the Potatoes

&

Fry them twice

I settled on Haddock for the fish. A big shout out to the Bellingham Whole Food Fish Dept. guy who advised me on the best fish to use and skinned the fish while I waited.  I made a beer batter with Sam Adams Logger (kind of close to Foster's), that was fantastic - It coated the fish perfectly and didn't flake off in the hot oil.

But what would an Aussie meal be without Vegemite? Again, a big thank you and shout out the Bellingham Whole Foods staff who directed me to Marmite, a close cousin, and very popular in Australia. We broke into a moderately good rendition of the Men at Work song, that goes sumfin' like..." She just smiled and made me a Vegemite sandwich..." right there in the isle. I like pretty much everything, and I did not like like Marmite AT ALL. I guess it's an acquired taste, and like anything, if you grow up with it, it grows on you!

For desert, kiwi and mangoes - nothing else needed.

Even though I didn't like the Marmite, I loved cooking Australian food and learning more about this beautiful country.

Recipe for Batter:

• 2 cups self rising flour (or 2 cups flour and 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder)
• 1 1/2 cups beer
• Corn meal for dusting

Dust fish with corn meal

Sift flour and baking powder, whisk in beer till good batter consistency.
Coat fish and fry

Fries

• 4 Russet potatoes, scrubbed  and sliced into French fry length and with
• Soak for 15 min. in cold water
• Fry for 3 minutes at 330 degrees
• Remove and drain on paper towels for 5 mintues
• Return to fry at 360 degrees till golden brown
• Salt and serve immediately

Day 9 - Armenia!

Okay, so I have to admit to taking a few "short cuts" for Armenia. This was an extraordinarily busy week, and I had very little time to plan and prepare an authentic Armenian meal. So, I did the next best thing.... I went to my favorite Middle Eastern grocery store in Watertown, Arax 585 Mt. Auburn Street:

Growing up in Cambridge, one of my best memories was when my Mother would go up Mount Auburn Street into Watertown to the Eastern Lahmajoun Bakery. My sister Anna, brother Clay and I always looked forward to these trips. She'd come home with a big white box (tied with bakery string), filled with warm Lahmajouns - you could smell the garlic first - always a good sign. Lahmajoun comes in many types. Unlike traditional pizza, it is meat based and contains other spices and herbs. There is also a vegetarian style to Lahmajoun that uses a spicy tomato base. Lahmajoun is mostly found in Cilicia, in those areas close to Syria and Lebanon.

Now, before I get into what I bought, you know I need to tell you a little about Armenia, starting with the location, location, location:

Regional influences include the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and to a certain extent also influences from the Balkans.^[1] Armenian cuisine and traditions in turn have influenced the culinary traditions of nearby countries and cities such as Aleppo.^[2] The preparation of meat, fish, and vegetable dishes in an Armenian kitchen requires stuffing, frothing, and pureeing.^[3] Lamb, eggplant, yoghurt, and bread (lavash) are basic features of Armenian cuisine. Armenians use cracked wheat (burghul) in preference to the maize and rice popular among its Caucasian neighbors (Georgia and Azerbaijan).

So here's what we had: Spicy roasted vegetable Lamajouns and traditional ground beef (not hamburger) and garlic Lamajouns. We also had a blackeye pea salad, seasoned with lemon juice, lots of parsley, red, yellow and green peppers and olive oil. I tried another salad that I'd never had called Metch - bulghur wheat, tomato, scallion and scallion salad  (sort of like tabbouleh) that was very, very good. Lastly, we had Armenian String Cheese, spiced with Nigella seeds - really fun to pull apart to eat and much less salty than many of the other string cheeses I've had:

Lahmajouns













Lahmajouns, Metch and Black Eyed Pea Salad and String Cheese.





Although I regret that I didn't have time to make all these traditional dishes from scratch, I have to admit that I probably enjoyed the meal as much, if not more because every thing I ate was made in the store by the family who own and operate Arax - so I got to support a local business and totally chow on the real deal.

Next up - Australia!

Wine Pairing Guides

Because I routinely develop recipes to go with specific wines for my client, MyWinesDirect, I'm always on the lookout for books that delve into the subject of wine pairing. I have about ten books or so on the subject. I've already written about my absolute bible, What to Drink with What You Eat, but there are a couple of other books I turn to frequently and wholeheartedly recommend, specifically Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier's Practical Advice for Partnering Wine with Food by Evan Goldstein and Everyday Dining with Wine by Andrea Immer Robinson. They both do an excellent job of explaining why certain pairings work and share typically main course recipes that go with a variety of commonly available wines and varietals. Robinson mentions specific labels, but also manages to be descriptive enough about styles, so that you can understand how to swap out wines she suggests for others you might prefer. They are both educational books, but not geeky.

Three new books have made their way into my collection that I am really excited about. The first is a follow up to Evan Goldstein's book, called Daring Pairings. As he did in Perfect Pairings, Goldstein digs into the characteristics of each wine. The book features "Pairing Pointers" basically bullet-point lists of explanations of what a varietal pairs well with and what it doesn't. There are also cheese pairing suggestions for each wine and recipes from a variety of mostly well-known American chefs. This is a really fantastic book for learning about up and coming varietals that often get overlooked in other food and wine pairing books, varietals such as Muscat, Verdejo, Malbec and one of my favorites, Touriga Nacional. This book is like picking the brain of your favorite friendly sommelier. The recipes come from chefs including Fergus Henderson, Cindy Pawlcyn, Charlie Trotter, Floyd Cardoz and Dan Barber. The recipes themselves are mostly Mediterranean and French with some notable exceptions. But even without the recipes the text would suffice to steer you in the right direction.





Sometimes good things come in small packages and that is certainly the case with 100 Perfect Pairings by Jill Siverman Hough. Hough has worked with wineries for years, creating recipes. She approaches recipes like I do, from a food rather than a wine perspective. But she certainly knows her wine. What I love about this book is the recipes. They are not the tedious "steak and Cabernet" variety, but small plates. While she acknowledges that steak and Cab is a classic pairing, her recipes to go with Cab include things like Rosemary Walnuts, Charred Eggplant Spread with Whole Wheat Pita Toasts and Sharp Cheddar and Bresaola Melt. Even her steak and Cab recipe has a twist--it's Steak, Porcini and Parmesan Risotto. The wines she chooses are the most common ones you are likely to drink, but her recipes are all fresh and exciting. It's a skinny little volume, but the short and to-the-point tips and recipe headnotes do the explaining as to why the pairings work. Truthfully small plates can be appetizers but also light main dishes and sometimes salads or side dishes so the recipes are very flexible. Read an excerpt online.







Seasons in Wine Country is a beautiful book with enticing modern photography. The simple and straight-forward (rarely fussy) recipes come from Culinary Institute of America (CIA) chefs and instructors as well as local Napa Valley chefs, and are divided by "wine seasons" and they don't shy away from those notoriously hard-to-pair ingredients such as asparagus and artichokes. This book also includes many dessert recipes and pairings. I can't wait to try the Spring Pea and Ricotta Gnocchi with Pancetta and Mint to pair with Chardonnay or the Macerated Cherries on Goat Cheese Crostini with Pinot Noir. Because the book comes from the CIA, there are also little lessons on wine and technique tips. This is primarily a cookbook, so not every single recipe comes with a wine pairing, but the vast majority do. This is hands-down my favorite book ever from the CIA.







Note: I purchased two books (Perfect Pairings and Everyday Dining with Wine), and the rest were review copies.