Friday, July 30, 2010

Summertime means burgers!

I am very late on writing this blog post, which I really shouldn’t do because then I forget all the juicy details and flavors, but I wanted to get this done before August starts and it’s back to back classes again! Next week is Angela Ortmann’s (aka STLWineGirl) second cheese class at The Wine & Cheese Place (http://www.wineandcheeseplace.com/) in Clayton and then Provisions is hosting a “sushi and wine” class...another one of my favorite foods!

In honor of summertime, this Provisions' class theme was “Burgers” and for variety, each “burger” was a different kind of “meat”. I use that term loosely because we started off the class with a portabella mushroom and it was paried with a sparkling Vouvray from France. The best part was the cheese that was melted on top of the mushroom and it really helped to mellow out the wine, which had a mineral flavor to it.

The salmon burger was a large salmon patty but was actually a little bland. I expected something striking to be mixed in with the patty, but instead came with a creamy tarter-like sauce added on top. Maybe if I had a little more sauce? It was paired with an equally creamy Chardonnay. Angela then had us pour our wine into a plastic cup so we could taste the difference! There was really NO smell whatsoever and your hand warmed the plastic much quicker without a stem to hold on to. Not to mention that it’s way too easy to spill your wine! Alcohol abuse! Let’s just say, I learned my lesson and we all quickly dumped our wine back into our regular Riedel (http://www.riedel.com/) glasses. (Guess what I'll be asking for Hanukkah this year!)

I also think I had my first ever course that I didn’t like at a Provisions class…a pork sandwich. To make matters worse, there was bacon on top of it too! It just oozed with grease which is such a turnoff for me when it comes to food. The cheddar cheese melted on top of the bread was clever, but it couldn’t save the sandwich. I did try two bites so as to give it a proper chance but the pork meat had that piggy flavor that I cannot stand. What was really sad is that I had none of my piggy-loving friends to help me finish it off. Not that they would have had room in their tummies at this point anyway! The pork sandwich was paired with a Burgundy from France.

The old-fashioned “beef burger” came in “Big Scott” style since he used a similar style of sauce like in a Big Mac. It was definitely my favorite burger of the night by far and it was covered with havarti cheese on top. This was paired with a Tempranillo, which I still need practice saying. For this wine, Angela let us try a very young 2009 and compare it with a 2006 version. You could easily tell that the 2009 was “quaffable” by itself since it was a lot lighter than the older version, but the 2006 held up to the beef flavor much better.

For dessert, calling it a “burger” was a bit of a stretch but it consisted of a chocolate mousse “patty” surrounded by pound cake “bread” with a strawberry. So delicious! Of course this was paired with a Muscat dessert wine which was way too strong and sweet.

This class probably served the biggest proportions out of all the classes I had been to and I didn’t even eat too much of the pork burger. Although, it was easy to fill up due to needing a couple of slices of some type of bread which helped make the burgers even more filling. Still, Chef Scott is most generous!

Angela has a chock full of classes coming up in the fall so be sure to check out her events page on her web site. http://www.stlwinegirl.com/UpcomingEvents.html

Be sure to pick up a copy of Feast (http://www.feaststl.com/) as well, in which Angela is a featured writer!

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