The Food of Spring

 

ramps

 

 

I love New England for the four seasons among other things.  Each season helps you appreciate the next even more.  After a long cold frozen winter, the treats of spring are a gift.  The scent and flavor ofspring ramps are wild, ever so slightly earthy and perhaps a favorite allium among food lovers around here.  The spring mushrooms are beginning to pop up for seasoned foragers to find and bring to the table.  Asparagus and artichokes don their deep green coats and burst with the taste of spring.  Fiddleheads make their début and chanterelles are earthy and soft and if we are lucky abundant this season.  The pink stalks of delicious rhubarb melt in your mouth taking on any sweetness you pair with them.

 

Photo by Dieter Wiechmann

Chef Tim Wiechmann of T.W. Food has created a six course menu to celebrate and share the bounty of spring as only he can highlight it.  This special spring menu is available Wednesday, April 29th 2009.

The menu includes:

• Wild morels and ramps with seared atlantic sea scallops and smoked oysters
• White asparagus with local egg Grenobloise, cured ham and fines herbs
• Artichoke salad with beet sprouts, Pecorino cheese custard and crispy spring onions
• Vermont pheasant roasted breast and citrus confit thigh, wild fiddleheads, chanterelle mushrooms and sauce foie gras 
  or Tagliatelle hand-made with fiddleheads, chanterelles and Parmigiano Reggiano 
• Cheese and salad
• Rhubarb ice cream with French lemon dacquoise pastry and ginger creme Anglaise

For the wine pairings please visit the T.W. Food website and for reservations, please call (617) 864-4745

A marriage of wine and cheese

To go with our theme of pairings, I will post a couple events happening at respected restaurants and stores in and around New England.

 

T.W. Food

 

 

T.W. Food a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts that is tucked away outside of Harvard Square in a residential neighborhood, is worth a visit.    The chef knows his food and farmers and he keeps the sources as local as possible.  The restaurant is fine dining at a fair price.  For this special pairing meal the cheeses are French, the wines are Italian and French, and many of the rest of the ingredients are local. (Note that the links to each cheese may not be the exact cheese that Chef Wiechmann will be serving, but it will tell you a little bit about the style and flavors of each cheese.)

A Marriage of Wine & Cheese
Four Course with Wine $49

On Tuesday April 7, T.W. Food Restaurant will do a special four-course Wine &
Cheese dinner, called a Marriage of Wine & Cheese. The menu will feature
hand selected cheeses with wines from Italy and France. According to Chef
Wiechmann, “A good cheese and wine pairing can be magic.”
❣
Amuse Bouche

Gratin of tuscan kale
with bleu cheese Fourme d’Ambert
or
Oeufs au Fromage
with a Normandie Livarot

American lamb leg
shaved with local potato salad, Pyrénées cheese
Ossau-Iraty and black cherry compote
or
Gnocchi Parisienne
gratin with fennel, celery and carrot, cave-aged
French Comté
or
Farm Beef
Painted Hills Farm, roulade with potato gratin,
sauce with Burgundy cheese Epoisses

Cheese
first spring vermont greens, Loire Valley goat
cheese Bucheron

Tiramisu
Vermont Mascarpone, espresso, ladyfingers

T.W. Food is located at  377 Walden Street, Cambridge.

 For reservations call
617 864-4745

Wine and cheese pairings

 

 

How can one conceive of a one party system in a country that has over 200 varieties of cheese. Charles DeGaulle

 

 

When I think about pairings, the first thing that comes to mind are wine and cheese pairings.  I know cheeses quite well.  Having lived in France, Canada, England, and now the US, I have tasted a great variety of both mass produced and artisanal cheeses (even before they had such a fancy title).  

Characteristics of cheese come from so many aspects of the cheese:  the animal’s environment and diet, the type of milk, the process of cheese making and of course the aging or lack thereof of the cheese.  If you don’t know cheeses very well begin by going to a local cheese shop or a larger grocery chain such as Whole Foods which has a large cheese selection and well-informed staff.  Ask to sample cheeses made with different milks.  As you taste let the person behind the counter know what you like and they will guide you.

As for wines, their characteristics are regional among many other things.  To learn about wine casually, visit some local liquor or wine stores or boutique foodie shops and participate in their wine tastings.  Many stores offer free wine tastings.  You can go online or stop in to your local shop and ask about their upcoming tasting events. 

Cheers.  Let’s eat.