My Man's Belly » Delicious Recipes and Food Ideas – My Man’s Belly

Learn About Port Wine: A Quick Tutorial

Pamela — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:09:54 +0000

Today is National port day. Woo Hoo!!! I’m talking about the stuff you drink…not the place where ships come in and load and unload. What? you’ve never had a glass of port wine? You’ve heard the terms tawny port and ruby port but have no idea what they are or what that means? Well, that’s why I’m doing this post.

I was fortunate to have traveled to Portugal twice last year and get quite the lesson in port wine, as well as being able to eat the fantastic food and soak in some gorgeous weather at the same time.

Port wine is a fortified wine. What is it fortified with – brandy. In a nutshell, this fortification process occurred when the British discovered that they couldn’t bring the wines of Portugal back to Britain without them going bad. It was discovered that adding brandy to the wine stopped the fermentation process, left some residual sugar, and made a pretty tasty wine. By the way…the brandy referred to here is not what you think of when you hear the term brandy. It’s a neutral grape spirit called aguardente.

Ruby ports are young port wines. The rubies have a more pronounced fruit flavor and sweetness. Ruby ports are commonly served chilled as an aperitif, or mixed into cocktails. Ruby port is often found in dessert recipes, because of its sweetness. This is a fantastic wine for poaching fruit. Ruby ports, like tawnies, are ready to drink as soon as they are bottled. They are also very stable once opened, meaning you have a while to drink them once they are opened.

Tawny Ports are older, lighter in body and color, and drier than Ruby Ports. The name “Tawny” comes from their darker (brownish) color (just like the “Ruby” terminology comes from the ruby color of the port wine). Tawny ports are produced by combining several older port wines together. These blends mix young wine with older wines. There are different kinds of tawny ports, but there are two major types of tawnies. Those with no age specified and those with a specified age. The only age statements that are legally permitted to grace the bottles are: 10, 20, 30 and 40-year old tawny ports. In what would seem a bit counter intuitive, the older the port, the more pale the color. These older tawny ports have a more complex aroma, delicate flavor, a drier style and bigger price tag. Tawny ports, like rubies, do not improve with more bottle age and are very stable once opened. Tawny ports are generally served at room temperature and not mixed into cocktails. Although I did use some for this grainy mustard recipe.

Of course port wine isn’t just as easy as tawny or ruby. Well, ruby is pretty straight forward…it is what it is. But tawny ports include such bottlings as vintage, late bottle vintage (LBV) and colheita. Here’s a little breakdown of these types.

A vintage port is the most expensive port wine. It’s made from the best grapes in a particular year. It’s aging potential and prestige go into determining its price. A vintage port only comes from years that are deemed “vintage worthy” which happens only a few times each decade. Vintage ports are only barrel aged two years when they are released, but they are not ready to drink. These wines continue to mature in their bottles. Vintage port wines are to be cellared for years or decades. Once opened, a vintage port should be consumed within 3-4 days.

A late bottle vintage port spends 4-6 years in barrels before being bottled. An LBV is typically ready to drink once it is available on store shelves. These bottles are less expensive than their vintage port counterparts and allow you to get a taste of the vintage experience without the hefty price tag. Because they have been aged much longer in barrels, you have more time to consume them. Once opened, a bottle of LBV should be consumed within 1-2 months.

A colheita port is another type of tawny port. These bottles also have a specific year on them, but don’t confuse them with a vintage port. Yes, the grapes are all from one particular vintage, but they have been spent a minimum of 20 years in barrels. Once opened, a colheita should be consumed within 1-2 weeks. There is a bit of chatter on this though. Some will last longer than this time and still taste fantastic.

In case you were wondering where the name Port came from…In the 17th century, it was named for the area of Portugal where the wine was shipped from, Oporto (or Porto). The port wine is grown and pressed in the Duoro area of Portugal, then transported down the river to Porto where it was fermented then shipped. Porto isn’t some industrial port area either. below is a picture of Porto and the boats that were used to transport the valuable cargo.

So celebrate National Port Day and pour yourself a nice glass of port wine. Oh, and it pairs wonderfully with chocolate.

Relationship Advice

Sometimes you just need to test your love.

Recipe: Salted Chocolate Espresso Squares with Caramel

Ingredients

For Salted Chocolate Cake

1 Pound (54% – 60%) Dark Chocolate (chopped)
1 Cup Unsalted Butter – 2 Cups (cut into pieces)
7 Large Eggs
1 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed)
1/4 Cup Espresso (instant espresso powder works great)
1 Teaspoon Coarse Kosher Salt
Coarse Sea Salt (for sprinkling)

For Caramel

1 Tablespoon Water
1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter
1/2 Cup Cream

Instructions

Place rack in center of the oven. Place a half sheet pan (with sides) on rack and fill half way with water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Line an 8″x8″ baking pan with parchment paper. You will need to either cut or fold the paper so that it fits width wise. Let the ends hang over the sides of the pan (you will use those later to lift the cake out of the pan for cutting and serving.) Layer the pan with 2 pieces of the parchment paper so that they criss-cross and you have ends folded over all 4 sides of the 8″x8″ pan. Sprinkle some of the coarse sea salt onto the parchment paper. If using the coarse sea salt – sprinkle sparingly (a little goes a long way). If using a less coarse sea salt, you can use a bit more.
Combine chopped chocolate and pieces of butter into a medium size glass or metal bowl. Set bowl on top of saucepan that contains simmering water (do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). Using a spatula, stir until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from over the water.
In a large bowl whisk brown sugar, eggs, and espresso until thoroughly combined. Add in chocolate and butter mixture and whisk until smooth. Whisk in kosher salt.
Pour half of the batter into the parchment paper lined baking pan. Place the baking pan into the water filled sheet pan that is in the oven. Cook for 20 – 25 minutes. The mixture will not be cooked, but it will be firmer than when you put it into the oven.

For Caramel

Add water and sugar to heavy saucepan and put it over medium high heat. Leave the pan alone, but watch for the edges of the sugar to begin to brown and possibly some browning in the middle. Using a high heat resistant spatula (silicon works well), fold the sugar from the edges into the middle and even out the layer of sugar. Do this somewhat slowly while the sugar melts. You will see it change from white, to gold, to amber and finally a deep amber/brown. When the sugar just begins to smoke, remove it from the heat and add the stick of butter. (It will bubble) Stir the butter and sugar until the butter melts. Add the cream. (This will cause the mixture to bubble even more violently than the butter.) Stir to combine the cream. To firm the caramel sauce up, place the pot into ice cubes and stir gently from the bottom of the pan. You don’t want the caramel to harden, just firm up into a thick sauce. Remove from the ice when it has thickened.
Pour 1/2 cup of sauce into a container and set aside. Gently pour the remaining caramel over the top of the semi-cooked chocolate cake. The caramel will sit on top of the layer. Smooth caramel over the cake.
Whisk the remaining batter to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed. Pour this batter over the top of the caramel.
Return the pan to the water filled half sheet pan, tent with foil, and bake for 75 minutes. Bake cake until cake is set in the center and the top is dry to the touch. The top of this cake will remain shiny, even when done baking.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with more coarse sea salt.

Quick notes

To make the sugar decorations for the top of the cake, follow the caramel directions but omit the butter and cream. Drizzle melted sugar onto a silicon mat (Silpat) or foil. Let cool and peel off carefully when needed. To plate the salted chocolate cake drizzle extra caramel on to the plate, add a small slice of cake (trust me…this stuff is really rich), drizzle with more caramel and top with sugar decoration.

Preparation time: 25 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 35 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

Culinary tradition: USA (General)

My Man's Belly

Cookies and Cream Meet Ice Cream in Cookie

Pamela — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:14:54 +0000

You’ve heard of cookies and cream, how about cream in cookies – an ice cream cookie, as in ice cream in the cookie itself. These cookies are made with chocolate ice cream and have a cinnamon swirl for a little extra kick.

Yep, that’s right, ice cream is the surprise ingredient to this chocolate cookie recipe. Not only does the chocolate ice cream give the cookie its rich base flavor (of chocolate – natch) but it’s also a big part of the moisture in the cookie as well. You could use almost any flavor of ice cream in this cookie recipe since the other ingredients are so neutral. And the cinnamon swirl would pair really nicely with vanilla or dulce de leche ice cream, for example (probably not as well with mint chocolate chip though).

The first batch of these got inhaled by our in house cookie monster aka Craig. I was shocked that he actually stopped eating them when I told him to. For the record…that’s probably the only time he’s listened to anything I’ve said in the past 6 months. I think he really stopped eating the cookies only because he had eaten so much at dinner there wasn’t room in his belly for any more food. I didn’t search his pockets as he left the room though.

Relationship Advice

The guys are off the hook today. I think I’ve done enough damage to their fragile egos for one week. No, today’s advice is strictly for and about the ladies (and I use that term very loosely here) – of course, the guys can hang out for the sheer entertainment if they’d like.

I have recently noticed that some of you ladies have decided to use your bras like cargo pants and your cleavage like the back pocket of your jeans. This morning, I learned that one of you thought that wedging a strikingly orange phone between your boobies was a better accessory than a necklace. Newsflash – it’s not! If you think that’s the best way to get a guy to notice your breasts, you’ve got a lot of learning to do. E-mail me and we can set up an appointment for you.

I was at the store, over the weekend, and saw a woman pull money out of her bra to pay for some groceries. I suppose that was better than pulling it out of her sweaty sock but, she was also carrying a purse. I wanted to pull her aside to 1 – tell her that she looked like a prostitute piggy bank pulling her money out of her bra and then returning her change to the same place and 2 – I wanted to conduct a strip search on her just to see what else she had hiding in there. Would I find a melty piece of gum, a wayward penny, a safety pin (in case her hem came loose – who am I kidding, if there was a safety pin in there she’d probably use it to pierce her ears after downing some shots of Jagermeister), a fruit roll up and maybe a couple of crumpled up receipts?

Here’s the deal ladies…the boobs, or the girls, are there for a few different reasons non of which include holding onto objects that could be held by your hands, pockets or purse. Boobs are a gift. You can nourish another human being with them, seduce men (because men think that they either talk or dance – that’s why they stare so intently at them), use them as a FREE drink coupon (c’mon, you know what I’m talking about), pay your rent/mortgage, announce to the world that you’re cold – without saying a word and they can up your IQ by at least 10 points – instantly.

So treat your boobs nicely and pamper them like the princesses that they are. After all, if you take care of them, they’ll take care of you.

Makes approximately 4 dozen

Ingredients

3 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
3/4 Cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
14 Ounces Melted Ice Cream or Sorbet (I used low fat Chocolate Häagen Dazs sorbet)
2 Eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
1 Cup Toasted and Chopped Walnuts

Directions

In a large bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a fork to mix the dry ingredients thoroughly (this should take at least 1 minute).

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer for this) add the butter and sugar and beat until well creamed.

Beat in the melted ice cream or sorbet and the eggs. (If you’re using your hand mixer this is going to be a bit messy.)

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients in thirds and make sure all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed before adding the next batch. You’ll need to scrape down the bowl frequently while doing this step.

Add in the vanilla and beat to combine.

Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. (This dough is really sticky, so the more chilled it is the easier it is to work with.)

In a small bowl combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon and toasted and chopped walnuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Cut refrigerated dough into quarters.

On a well floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle 3/16″ thick.

Sprinkle 1/4 of the cinnamon sugar mixture onto the dough.

Starting with the long edge, roll the dough. Keep the roll as tight as you can (this makes cutting easier and the cookies stay together better).

Using a knife with a long blade, slice the dough into 1/2″ – 3/4″ thick and place onto a baking sheet (I recommend using a silicone Silpat on your baking sheet, but you could use parchment paper or a well greased pan. These cookies don’t really spread when you bake them so you only need to leave about 1″ between them.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes. Cookies are done when they have a “dry-ish” look to them and the extra sugar has caramelized around the base of each cookie.

Continue this process for with the rest of the dough.

My Man's Belly