It’s official! The thick blanket of snow and double digit windchill temperatures (I used to date a German chap who was convinced that it was “windshield” reading!!!) means it is time to head off to Main Street in Jordan Village and celebrate the arrival of winter at the Winter WineFest. Since many of us in the Twenty Valley do NOT make icewine, we bill the event as a celebration of icewine, late harvest wine, high end table wine and sparkling wines which we make in spades! Hence the tag line — “sweet, sparkling, sensational”.
Chef Patrick at Winter WineFest
Normally, we are a fixture on the street ladling out some stew or soup to frozen, appreciative visitors. This year we will be there wearing two hats — food hucksters (shucking some of the best fresh oysters our friends at Rodney’s Oyster House could get us and doling out a hearty oyster chowder) and as a winery (we’ll be pouring our yummy, food friendly 2009 Medium Dry Riesling and kick ass 2009 Pinot Noir). To add to the fun, our resident showman and “cheffer” will be on centre stage at 2 pm for a food demo.
Sweeter wines and icewine in particular can be a nightmare to pair but trust Chef Patrick to have a unique and yummy solution — Buffalo Style Chicken with Blue Cheese “Schmeer” (or “dip” for the more refined). Downtown goes uptown; pub grub goes gourmet. This is a match made in heaven and for our “earthlings” this is a PERFECT match for our Medium Dry Riesling.
So in anticipation of the questions and requests for the recipe here it is. Knowing Chef Patrick, he’ll kick it up a notch and demo the same recipe using shrimp in lieu of chicken. Any way you toss it, this is a winning recipe. If you have The Good Book, turn to page 75 and get cooking!
Enjoy!
Buffalo Style Chicken with Blue Cheese Dip
1-2 lbs boneless skinless breast cut into 1 inch cubes
¼ Cup all purpose flour
¼ Cup cornstarch
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
vegetable oil for frying
½ Cup Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or other preferred hot sauce)
½ Cup butter, chilled, cut into ½ inch cubes
½ Cup blue cheese, crumbled
¼ Cup 35% cream
1 shallot, peeled & coarsely chopped
2 Tbsps The Good Wine – Medium Dry Riesling
Method
In a food processor combine cream, shallot, wine, and half of the blue cheese. Blend until smooth. Add remaining blue cheese and stir to incorporate. This leaves you with a ‘controlled’ chunky blue cheese dip.
- Heat 2-3 inches of oil in a deep narrow pot to 360F degrees (a candy / deep fry thermometer makes a great holiday gift). Toss chicken wings (or chunks) in flour, cornstarch, salt, and pepper until lightly coated.
- Fry in small batches until golden and crisp. Repeat allowing the oil to come up to the proper temperature. This will ensure that your chicken is not greasy. Drain on a paper towel or wire rack lined tray.
- Meanwhile, in a double boiler (or microwave) heat the hot pepper sauce. Slowly whisk in the butter and remove from heat. The butter cools some of the heat from the pepper sauce.
- Toss the chicken in hot sauce and serve with the blue cheese dip and lots of napkins.
This recipe is quite an unlikely match, but we’ve found that the spicy buffalo sauce and the cooling blue cheese are fantastic with icewine, late harvest wines, sparkling wines and off dry rieslings.