Dreamy Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake paired with Fort Berens Estate Winery 2021 Cabernet Franc Reserve

Red wine with dessert? Heck ya! Chocolate and red wine make for a beautiful pairing and my latest project with Fort Berens Estate Winery provided me the delicious task to create a dessert pairing for their elegant Fort Berens Estate Winery 2021 Cabernet Franc Reserve. The result? My decadent Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake was the winner. This cheesecake is dreamy creamy, chocolate-y and not too sweet, and with a sip of this Cabernet Franc, it sings. Enjoy!

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups chocolate cookie crumbs

1/3 cup melted butter

450g of cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup cold espresso or strong good coffee

8 ounces melted good dark chocolate (I like Callebaut), cooled

1/2 cup of sour cream

Glaze:

½ cup whipping cream

4 ounces dark chocolate (Callebaut), chopped into small pieces

Blackberries to serve

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F degrees.

Crust: In a large bowl, mix together the chocolate cookie crumbs and the melted butter. Press into the bottom and sides of a lightly greased 9-inch springform pan, then refrigerate.

Filling: In a stand mixer, beat together the cream cheese (room temperature is crucial to avoid lumps) and sugar until smooth, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Add the cold espresso and the melted chocolate (chop into small pieces and melt in the microwave) and mix well. Fold in the sour cream until combined. Pour the filling into the crumb-lined pan and smooth top with a spatula. Place in preheated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the centre is just set but wobbly. Remove from oven and cool completely before running a knife around the edges and then spring it from the form pan on to a serving dish.

Note: You can keep the cheesecake in the fridge for a couple of days before finishing it with the glaze.

Glaze: Add the whipping cream to pan and simmer on low heat, then add chocolate and stir to melt. Spoon over cake and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. 

Serve with fresh blackberries and a glass of beautiful Fort Berens Estate Winery 2021 Cabernet Franc Reserve.

Cheers!

Note: I have pressed extra cookie crumbs on the sides of the cheesecake and decorated the top with chocolate whipped cream and edible purple asters from my garden to make it even prettier.

DELICIOUS LIFE TRAVEL DIARY: Just back from our South American Adventures!

We had an amazing time in Argentina and Uruguay. Here is the first part of my travel diary shared in my weekly newspaper column: Delicious Life with Jennifer Schell Lirag.

https://www.pentictonherald.ca/life/article_5adfe18a-dda4-11ee-8016-0f9c2cf9badc.html

We are back from our three-week South American adventure in Argentina and Uruguay! February in South America offers beautiful late summer weather and it is in full bloom. For me of course, food and wine destinations are high priority making this time of year ideal to visit Argentina’s stunning Mendoza wine region. It is near their harvest time so the vineyards are heavy with grapes and wineries buzzing with activity.

The current economic state of Argentina is in flux causing their currency to change almost daily. Although good for the traveller, we are so compassionate to the people as they try to stabilize their economy. With our dollar value being so high, the exchange rate made it possible for us to dine out in excellent restaurants, eating and drinking beautiful wines like we used to before our cost of going out here (or even cooking at home) skyrocketed. It was a treat. 

Argentinian culture is beautiful. In a nutshell, they are warm, welcoming, proud, family oriented, food loving, tango dancing, futbol obsessed, yerba mate drinking, Malbec consuming carnivores with a stunning country that they love to share. Argentina offers all that you could want for ranging from a bustling cosmopolitan city and urban life to a world class wine country and a thriving agriculture industry featuring (as I alluded to earlier) a massive grass-fed cattle industry, to the storied outdoor wonderland of Patagonia. We realized that a return trip is necessary to fully experience this country.

Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America due to its stunning European architecture, rich cultural life, and fashionable vibe. It also offers a dazzling food and wine scene with a stellar line up of Michelin starred restaurants. It is no exaggeration that these people love their beef. We seriously indulged in rib eye steaks every day. The meat is cooked on a wood fire grill called a parilla and you can smell the mouth-watering waft of wood fire smoke throughout the cities starting in the morning to prep for lunch. Almost every menu will have a steak option if not many, served with the traditional chimichurri condiment (recipe below) and/or their own version of chorizo sausage (not the typical spicy version we know here). Steakhouses feature huge parillas loaded with every cut of beef there is – and they consume the whole beast. The food is delicious. The beef all grass fed in their country, the vegetables all local (I should mention that for those of you that are vegetarian and vegan, there is absolutely a delicious place for you in the Argentine culinary world).  Meal times are sacred and sitting down to eat with family and friends is of great importance here making the restaurant scene very lively and something we needed to adjust to as an early dinner here is at 8:30 pm with 10:30 – 11 being the more usual time to dine.

So what pairs perfectly with steak? Red wine of course, and in Argentina, Malbec is king. The first portion of our trip, we submerged ourselves in Mendoza.  It is a 1 1/2-hour flight from Buenos Aires coast to the city of Mendoza which is the capital of the Mendoza province that runs alongside the dramatic Andes mountain range on the border of Chile. We fell in love with this area immediately.  My friend Ann Sperling, winemaker and former owner of Sperling Vineyards in Kelowna and her husband Peter Gamble own a vineyard and gorgeous villa in the town of Chacras de Coria.  The couple lives here part time and make their own wine label called Versado from their vineyard located within some of the best grape growing soil in the world – ideal for Malbec production. The villa is available to rent when the couple is out of country, and lucky for us, we secured almost a week of wine lover’s paradise there.

Villa Viamonte, is their gated property that features a beautifully restored heritage villa complete with flowering gardens, a pool, a separate dance hall building (seriously) for events and much to my husband’s glee, a wood fire parilla.  On site also lives the lovely caretakers Marcella and Enrique who are there if you need them and keep the yard and pool (also the villa- with its five bedrooms is spotless).  Google for booking info.

For the full Argentinian experience, this chimichurri should be served atop grass fed beef steaks that have been cooked on a wood fire – but a bbq with good Costco rib eyes will do.

Chimichurri

2 cups fresh Italian parsley leaves packed

2 large garlic cloves, peeled

2-3 tsp dried oregano

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/3 cup high quality extra virgin olive oil

Optional for heat: ½ tsp red pepper flakes

Mince the garlic and parsley very finely and put in a medium bowl. Stir in the the oregano and the red pepper flakes (if using). Whisk in the red wine vinegar, then the olive oi and stir to emulsify. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Transfer into a covered bowl or jar with a tight-fitting lid and let sit for at least 1 hour to allow the flavors to blend.  Serve in a bowl alongside steak.

Or, if you want to use a food processor.

Combine parsley, vinegar, garlic, oregano, and crushed red pepper (if using) in a food processor. Process until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Transfer sauce to a bowl and pour olive oil over mixture and stir well. Let stand for at least an hour before serving.

Chimichurri sauce can be kept refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.  It is also delicious on other meats or fish. Warning: very addictive.

Christmas Thumbprint Cookies

This delicious holiday cookie recipe was passed down from my Granny, Kate Weisbeck. She, and then my own mom, made them every year and I have continued the tradition. Super easy, adorable looking and so delicious. You may want to double the recipe. :)

Makes approximately 3 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

• ½ cup sugar

• 2 eggs (separated – yolks and whites in 2 different bowls)

• 2 tsp vanilla

• 2 cups flour

• 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

• 1/2 cup strawberry jam (or your favourite)

• 1 thimble

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two cookie sheets or one extra large with parchment.

In a Kitchen Aid mixer add butter then on low add sugar, egg yolks then vanilla and blend. Once combined, add flour on low speed so that you don’t have a cloud. Turn up the speed and mix to combine well.

Roll dough into the size of a large marble, dip in egg white then in coconut and place on a cookie sheet leaving enough space between to expand.  Bake for 5 minutes and remove from oven. Usually, the thimble make imprint in each cookie – deep enough to hold jam but not all the way down to the bottom. Immediately return to oven for another 15 minutes and remove from oven. With a small spoon, fill each well with jam. Repeat with next batch.

Try not to eat them all. These freeze well.

Best Ever Ginger Cookies

It’s the holiday season which means it’s the holiday cookie season hooray! This means I will probably bake as much as eat but that is ok! It is, after all, it is the holiday season and one must be festive right?

Two necessary cookies to make on the holiday cookie roster are mom’s sugar cookies and my fave thimble cookies. Every year we decorate the sugar cookies, cut into different festive shapes. I love the snowflake cookie cutters we did last year. We used powder blue and white icing and it was so pretty! If you make a little hole in the top of the cookie you can string them up as an edible ornament for the tree or use them as a decoation on your gifts.  If you have little ones or pets, maybe reconsider this idea or make sure to hang the cookies high enough on your tree. I had a wiener dog with a stomach-ache one year after I realized too late that I hung the ornaments too low.

The thimble cookies are little shortbreads rolled in coconut that have a well in the top (made with an actual trusty thimble) to fill with jam. Homemade strawberry or raspberry freezer jam are the best choices because they are delicious and they also retain their bright red colour making the cookies even more festive looking. Our neighbour Gary thankfully sacrificed his last jar with me but will be rewarded with the results. Thanks Gare!

 I ran into one of the lovely owners of our local fave coffee shop, Bean Scene the other day and it reminded me of the recipe they shared in one of my cookbooks, The Butcher, The Baker, The Wine & Cheese Maker – In the Okanagan.  The recipe is for their famous Ginger Cookies that are absolutely the best ginger cookies ever (hence the name) and perfect for the holiday season.

Bean Scene’s Best Ever Ginger Cookie

Makes 20 cookies.

 Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups (560 mL) all-purpose flour

1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda

1 ½ tsp (7.5 mL) good quality cinnamon

1 ½ tsp (7.5 mL) ground ginger

½ tsp (2.5 mL) nutmeg

¼ tsp (1 mL) allspice

½ tsp (2.5 mL) cloves

¼ tsp (1 mL) black pepper

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) melted butter

1/3 cup (75 mL) brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup (75 mL) white sugar + ½ cup (125 mL) for rolling cookies

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp (5 mL) real vanilla extract

½ cup (125 mL) fancy molasses

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt (if using), and spices in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, beat butter, brown sugar, and 1⁄3 cup (75 mL) of white sugar together on high speed, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue mixing on a lower speed until blended. Add molasses and mix again, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the dry mixture, mixing on low speed until all the flour is incorporated. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.

Roll dough into 1 tablespoon-sized balls and drop onto a plate containing 1⁄2 cup (125 mL) of white sugar. Roll cookies in sugar and press lightly to form a disk, making sure to coat both sides. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced 1 inch apart. Bake 1 cookie sheet at a time on the middle rack for 11 minutes. The cookies should come out of the oven with their trademark crackle appearance and looking slightly under baked.

Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

The perfect pairing for these cookies is a cup of coffee from The Bean Scene.

Purchase a bag of Bean Scene Coffee beans. I would suggest Espresso Graf – it makes the darkest most delicious home brew (not just for an espresso machine!). These are also my favourite beans because they are named for my mom’s cousin (my second cousin) a lovely, lovely man named Patrick Graf who was one of our provinces OG coffee roasters and trained Deb and John at Bean Scene how to roast coffee beans. 

Have the beans ground to your specific coffee machine at home if you don’t own a grinder and make a pot. Place yourself within viewing distance of your Christmas tree, light it up and then pour yourself a cup with cream and indulge in these cookies, still warm from the oven. Bliss.

Oysters Rockefeller Soup

This amazing soup is fancy enough for a dinner party starter or just perfect for a cozy, belly warming meal at home. The best part is that no shucking is required and the entire soup making process takes no time at all. Enjoy and pair with a glass of delicious bubbly!

This dish was inspired by one of the most famous New Orleans chefs, Emeril Lagasse.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 strips bacon, diced

½ cup sweet onion, minced

1 ½ tsp fresh garlic, minced

1 pint shucked Pacific oysters with liquor

3 ½ cups whipping cream

1 large bin (approximately 8 cups) fresh spinach, washed

½ cup parsley leaves, washed 

1/3 cup Pernod or Sambucca

In a large soup pot, cook the bacon stirring, until browned – approximately 4 minutes. Remove enough to use as garnish and set aside on a paper towel to drain. Add the onion and sauté another 3 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and stir for one minute.

Pour in oysters with their liquor and the cream, stir and bring to the boil, stir in spinach and parsley, and stir for 30 seconds and then turn off heat. 

Stir in Pernod or Sambuca.

Scoop out a couple of oysters to reserve for serving. Puree soup with a handheld blender, or after it cools, in batches in a standard blender and then reheat gently before serving.

When ready to serve, ladle into bowls, dividing chopped large pieces of oyster between the bowls and top with the reserved chopped bacon. YUM!!!

Chinese Style Roasted Duck

Serves 4

Ingredients

Rub:

3 garlic cloves, crushed

3 Tbsp Kosher salt

½ Tbsp pepper

1 Tbsp Chinese five spice

1-5 ½ pound whole duck

1 whole naval orange, cut into quarters

2 medallions ginger

1 stalk green onion

4 pods star anise

Orange Glaze/Sauce:

2 cups orange juice, freshly squeezed

2 Tbsp Demerara sugar

3 medallions ginger

2 tablespoon soy sauce

2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine

3 pods star anise

Remove the duck from the package and pat dry with paper towels. If there are innards, remove. Place the duck in a large roasting pan with a rack (important to have a rack to allow air!).

Mix rub ingredients in a small bowl and then rub the mixture all over the duck – inside and out.

Stuff the duck with the orange pieces, ginger, green onion, and star anise pods. Place in the roasting pan in the fridge, uncovered with the breast side up overnight to dry out the skin and help with crisping.

Before cooking, allow the duck to come to room temperature for one hour. Preheat the oven to 425° degrees. With a sharp knife, prick the skin in a few places around the tail and back to help release the fat. Cover loosely with foil and place in the oven on the middle rack.

Roast the duck for 40 minutes and then baste with the rendered fat drippings on the bottom of the pan and recover with foil. Roast another 10 minutes - remove foil. Back into the oven for 25 minutes and then remove from oven and carefully spoon pour out or spoon the fat into a bowl to save for future use. Using a basting brush, paint the duck heavily with the glaze. Place back in the oven for 10 minutes and then baste with glaze again. Return for a final 10 minutes of roasting. The duck will be a very dark mahogany colour as it should be. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes.

*The internal temperature of the duck should reach 165 degrees- its ok if it is pin.

Combine all the glaze ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until sauce has thickened into a light syrupy texture. If it is too thick, just add more wine or water and whisk in.

 Carve the duck and drizzle with orange sauce. Serve with steamed rice.

Wild Mushroom Tarte paired with Fort Berens Small Lot Merlot

I created this delicious Wild Mushroom Tarte recipe to pair perfectly with the Fort Berens Small Lot Merlot 2021. Merlot’s fruit-forward notes and smooth texture pair well with lovely, earthy wild mushrooms. The savoury notes of the wine are highlighted by the salty, nuttiness of the Gruyere cheese and the rich puff pastry tie it all together as a happy match.

Frozen puff pastry is a cook’s dream. Something so complicated to make from scratch is at the ready anytime in your freezer to create all kinds of delicious appies, meals, and sweet treats. This is the perfect dish to whip up and impress your friends with at wine o’clock. And for dessert, check out the Dutch Hangop recipe that Fort Berens’ owners Rolf and Heleen contributed for my BC Wine Lover’s Cookbook on page 237. Cheers!

Serve with Fort Berens Estate Winery Small Lot Merlot 2021

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

• 1 Tbsp butter

• 1/2 medium sweet onion, sliced into halfmoons

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 Tbsp olive oil

• 2 1⁄2 cups wild mushrooms

• 1 1⁄2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded • Salt and pepper

• 2 tsp fresh thyme, minced

• Applewood Smoked Sea Salt to serve

1. Thaw the frozen puff pastry sheet according to box instructions and keep cold until you are ready to bake.

2. Heat a large frying pan on medium-low heat and then add butter. Once melted, add the onions and garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Remove from heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl.

3. Wipe the pan and return to burner and increase heat to high. Add the oil and then the mushrooms in a single layer. Do not not stir for 1-2 minutes to allow the mushrooms to sear and brown (this makes all the difference). Then stir and cook for 2-3 more minutes or until softened and golden. Remove from heat and add to the bowl with onions and garlic and set aside to cool. Stir in thyme and season with salt and pepper.

4. Heat oven to 375° F. Unroll the puff pastry onto a parchment lined baking sheet and then, using a sharp knife, lightly score a border around the entire edge with a paring knife (do not cut all the way through the dough). Then using a fork, prick the surface all over (within the border) to help the pastry release steam and not puff up.

5. Distribute the shredded Gruyere cheese evenly over the pastry (within the border) and then top with the cooled mushroom/onion mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, top with a sprinkle of Applewood Smoked Sea Salt, cool, cut into pieces and serve.

WATCH THE DEMO HERE: