Mood Food including some RAW...

So, I said in the last post that I'd blog about the food for our debut Mood Wine Club event...

Phil passing Hors d'oeuvre

I have the good fortune of being friends with Paul Hietter of Love at First Bite Catering... 

Paul Hietter

I had to include this picture because Paul is so DREAMY...

JUMP FOR MORE PICS - INCLUDING THE RAW-VEG STUFF I DID FOR CYD...

Paul and I discussed the wines and the basic pairing components I was looking for, he then used his mastery to design three different bites to work with the three wines...

Three BIG REDS - Three BIG BITES

Let's start with the Zinfandel. Zins are generally packed with fruit, and spice... they love to dance with robust and spicy flavors. This Zinfandel had fruit grown at 2400 feet elevation and therefore NOT as extracted and jammy as a lot of California Zins; this is why I picked it. But it still has the expected qualities of a Zin... especially spice.

Many of our Moodies thought this wine came to life after they tasted the seared Ahi tuna on a Wasabi-spread cucumber topped with Topiko - CLASSIC Asian flavors that work so well with a Zin...

Seared Ahi Tuna on a Wasabi/Cucumber base topped with Topiko

The Yalda which is a Rhone style blend of Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvedre, and Cinsaut is the boldest wine in this club offering. A Shiraz based wine has a smokey/savory component not found in most wines. The sweet rich flavors of a Mejool Date and the savory flavors of the bacon it was wrapped in made this the most popular of the three pairings (that is unless you're Jake and you HATE DATES!), but hey, he just kept popping off the bacon to eat and tossing the date... OVER and OVER and OVER again...

Mejool (not Medjool) Dates wrapped in Bacon

Oh, and these were also stuffed with almonds... Paul is SO GOOD AT HIS CRAFT!!!

The final, and in my opinion, the most interesting pairing was the Pinot Noir with duck confit mixed with mushroom duxelles and cherries with lemon thyme on top of a crostini... 

Duck Confit with Pinot Noir... PERFECTION

What was amazing about this pairing was after you tasted the duck and then sipped the wine again an amazing black pepper flavor popped out in the wine... NOT SURE WHY, but it was SO COOL.. so cool, that I had to add another picture... 

Is there a Pepper Corn hidden in there per chance?

And now about that RAW VEGAN challenge. Cyd Detiege is this amazingly passionate foodie who is 100% committed to living a raw/vegan life, and she loves wine... DUH! So, she joined as a Mood Wine Club Founder and I was inspired to honor her passion with a feeble attempt at Vegan Raw... but hey, at least it looked pretty.

This is what I did...

Four little RAW FOOD bites

I went on an organic hunt. At one point I thought of using Garbonzo beans, but then I remembered... THEY HAVE TO BE COOKED... LOL

First item...

Micro Greens with Cremini Mushrooms tossed in Meyer Lemon juice and Rotture di Oro Extra Virgin Organic Olive Oil

This turned out amazing.

Next I took organic baby bell peppers, hollowed them, drizzled a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil pressed with fresh Rosemary, then I topped it with a chiffonade of organic basil...

Baby Bells with Rosemary Olive Oil and Fresh Basil

The third thing I did, (and my personal favorite) was to take organic heirloom tomatoes, cut them in half, add a touch of chile infused sea salt and then create an opposing stack with a leaf of organic mint in the middle...

Heirloom tomatoes with organic mint and chile infused sea salt

My final item turned out the most artistic. This was a wedge of organic cucumber with sun-dried seasoned almonds (I soaked the almonds in Meyer Lemon juice and seasoned with kosher salt and paprika) and organic (nothing added) sun-dried blueberries...

Almond Blueberry Cucumber Boats

So now hopefully you have a better feel of my passion for wine and food and how I hope to develop Mood Wine Club events to offer you this kind of experience... CIAO!!!