Dinner: Home Cooked

We decided to make dinner at home this time to try and save a little bit of money. One of our friends is an amazing cook and basically asked us what we liked to come up with a plan for a meal. The original meal plan was pan-seared salmon with an Asian sauce, mushrooms, bock Choy, and mashed potatoes. We went to the store and picked up the ingredients that we needed. We ended up getting some chicken breast for the people that did not eat fish. We were so hungry at the store that we ended up getting a few appetizers as well, and thank goodness we did because dinner took way longer to prepare then we originally anticipated. We started off with the appetizers. We had grapes, Gruyere cheese, and a dip made with Greek yogurt. 

Wine with Appetizers

The wine that we opened with this appetizer was a Spanish Vines Sauvignon Blanc. It was a very mild wine that didn’t have much of a smell or a very powerful taste. Upon trying to bring air into the mouth to bring out the flavor of the wine, the flavor completely changed. It was almost overpowering citrus flavor with some hints of floral. It brought out the complexity of the wines body. But, because we decided to just drink the wine with the appetizer, it did not have much flavor to add. I helped the most with preparation and cooking because I enjoy cooking. My friend started off by making the sauce for the meat. It was mostly soy sauce, a bit of the Chinese hot sauce, some fresh garlic and fresh ginger. It was amazing just by itself. It had a kick to it, but not enough to make your nose run. We then cut the potatoes and placed them in a pot to boil. 

Uncooked bock Choy

While he was cooking the chicken, I washed prepared the bock Choy for cooking. He pan seared the chicken then placed it in the oven to finish the cooking process. After that he cooked the salmon and placed it to the side. He cooked the mushrooms next in the sauce for the meat. Basically sautéing them to soak up the flavor and make a glaze eventually. Next the bock Choy went into the wok with water and a vegetable seasoning similar to vegetable stock. We had a vegetarian eating with us, so we needed to consider her in the cooking process. The bock Choy was wilted so that it was softer and soaked up some of the vegetable flavor. While this was happening, the salmon was placed in the oven and the potatoes were mashed. My friend added milk, salt, pepper, and eggs to the potatoes to make them amazing. While the dinner prep was going on, we had a few more guests show up and we threw on a pot of pasta and marinara for them. We added some cooked chicken at the end so they would feel included. As people came into the kitchen to fill their plates, we placed the fish or chicken in the wok with some of the mushroom sauce to make sure it was hot and the flavors were married when they ate it. 

Wine with Dinner

We opened a new bottle of wine with dinner. It was a San Elias Sauvignon Blanc from the central valley in Chile. The smell was very flowery, and it tasted semi-sweet with citrus and fruity flavors as well. It felt slightly sparkling to the tongue. Because there were more people than expected for dinner, I was supposed to have salmon, but ended up with chicken. 

My Dinner!

I had a taste of my roommate’s salmon with the wine. It made the wine less flavorful because the flavor of the fish itself took over the soft wine. With the chicken and mushrooms, the wine was spicy, had no fruit flavor, and was rather acidic. I really enjoyed the chicken more by itself because the flavor was amazing. With the mashed potatoes, the wine was sweet, mild, less fruity and slightly acidic. The mashed potatoes were very good, and creamy. The bock Choy had a flavor of its own, which was interesting by the time I got to it. It was a bit cold, so I think it may have changed the flavor a bit. With the bock Choy, the wine was more fruity, citrusy, smooth and overall had a very good taste. Overall, this dinner was a great wine experience. I would recommend the second wine more than the first because of the complexity of the flavors. But, if you are looking for a wine that is easy to drink, the first is a superb choice. They can both be found at the vintage cellar.