Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on August 17, 2012 0 Comments
We had these at a social get together, they are fabulous.
1-1/2 lbs cucumber (about 3 medium), peeled, halved
lengthwise & thinly sliced
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 c rice vinegar, seasoned or regular
1/2 c water
3 Tbs sugar* (can use Splenda)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbs minced red onion
Place cucumber slices in a colander sitting over a bowl,
sprinkle with salt and toss well, don’t skip this step! Salting cucumbers draws out the
moisture. If you don’t do this step,
then all of this moisture will come out in the final dish and water it down.
Let sit for 1 hour refrigerated. Toss
the cukes a few times while they drain as well.
While cucumber slices are draining, prepare marinade below.
Combine vinegar, water, sugar and red pepper in a small
saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cook until reduced to a 1/3 cup (about
10 minutes). If for some reason you boil
for too long, just add a little water until you have 1/3 C. Remove reduction
from heat and add onion. Let mixture
cool to room temp.
When cucumbers are done resting, pat them dry with a few
paper towels and then combine with the vinegar reduction. This can be served immediately, but for best
results refrigerate until well chilled.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on August 17, 2012 0 Comments
Cabbage
is the better half of the famous Irish duo, "corned beef and
cabbage." This is a flavorful recipe for just the cabbage that you can
make easily in a large, nonstick frying pan.
3
slices bacon
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 head of cabbage, cut into 4 wedges
1 cup low-sodium beef or chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon sugar or Splenda
Pepper to taste
1 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar or cider vinegar
- Add bacon strips to a large
nonstick frying pan and cook over medium heat until crisp. Remove strips
to a paper towel to cool. Crumble the bacon and set aside.
- Add the onions to the pan
with any bacon drippings (there won't be much), and cook over
medium heat until lightly browned (4 minutes).
- Add cabbage, broth, and sugar
to the frying pan with onions. Cover pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring
occasionally. Remove cover and cook until cabbage wilts and broth is
almost evaporated (about 5 minutes more), stirring occasionally.
- Stir in bacon pieces
and vinegar. Serve immediately.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on May 02, 2012 0 Comments
Ingredients
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped plus 1/4 cup adobo sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced•
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 pounds uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
CILANTRO CREAM SAUCE:
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup minced fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon minced fresh mint
Directions
In a small saucepan, bring brown sugar, chipotle, adobo sauce, garlic, water, lime juice, oil and salt to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat; cool completely. Transfer mixture to a large resealable plastic bag. Add the shrimp; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for up to 2 hours.
Meanwhile, combine the sauce ingredients; chill until serving.
•
Drain and discard marinade. Thread shrimp onto metal or soaked wooden skewers. Using long-handled tongs, moisten a paper towel with cooking oil and lightly coat the grill rack.
Grill shrimp, covered, over medium heat or broil 4 inches from the heat for 6-8 minutes or until shrimp turn pink, turning once.
Serve with your favorite Texas Legato wine. We enjoy the Sweet Peggy Sue
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on May 02, 2012 0 Comments
We made these for Cinco De Mayo. Serve warm.
INGREDIENTS
8 oz Monterey Jak cheese, cut into 2inch x 1/2 inch x 1/4 inch strips
15 jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise and seeded
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup real bacon bits
DIRECTIONS
1 place a cheese strip in each pepper half, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bacon
2 grill peppers, covered,over medium hot heat for 4-6 minutes or until peppers are tender and cheese is melted.
Serve with Texas Legato Sweet Peggy Sue or Texas Legato Sangria (see recipe below)
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on May 02, 2012 0 Comments
This is a very simple recipe that can be used as an appetizer or a main dish. It serves 8 as an appetizer or 4 as a main dish
INGREDIENTS
2 large handfuls green beans
1lb 2oz Troffie pasta (or 3-4 inch long and slightly twisted pasta
1 cup good quality pesto
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
kosher salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
DIRECTIONS
1. Boil the beans for about 7 to 10 minutes or until cooked. Refresh under cold water to preserve the color, drain and cut into thirds.
2. Cook pasta in salted water until al dente.
3. In a warm serving bowl, nix the pesto with the olive oil and lemon juice.
4. Toss in the drained pasta and green beans.
5. Season with salt to taste.
6 Serve in warmed bowls with a sprinkling of Parmigiano Reggiano
Serve with Texas Legato Malbec.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on February 14, 2012 0 Comments
10 ounces of Washington Dungeness crab meat (2 cups)
1cup of "panko" bread crumbs
1/4 cup of green onion, sliced thin on a bias
1/4 cup of celery, minced
3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 egg, beaten
a dash Tabasco (or to taste)
Juice of half a lemon
1 dash salt
1/2 dash white pepper
Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly but gently so as not to break up the crab too much. Chill. I let the mixture chill over night.
Shape into four cakes, about 3/4 inch thick.
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/4 cup of Texas Legato Chardonnay
Saute crab cakes in oil over medium high heat about 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Deglaze with Chardonnay, allow to evaporate. Serve over cakes immediately.
This recipe pairs extremely well with the Texas Legato Chardonnay and Texas Legato Malbec.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on December 07, 2011 0 Comments
2011 Holiday Road trip recipe.
This is a wonderful and festive cheese spread best served after refrigerating overnight.
1 1/2 cup white cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 to 3/4 cup whipped cream cheese
1/4 cup Dijon style mustard (I prefer less)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup craisins or dried cranberries
Place shredded cheese, softened butter, whipped cream cheese and mustard in small mixing bowl. Mix by hand until blended. If too stiff add more cream cheese. Fold in pecans and craisins/cranberries. Refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator and let soften for 10 minutes before serving. Use a hearty cracker.
This paired well with Texas Legato 2010 Malbec.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on November 01, 2011 0 Comments
This recipe is from Jamie Oliver and tastes like
Christmas in a glass. It’s a lovely celebration of traditional festive spices: cloves,
cinnamon and nutmeg. Feel free to any other favorite spices to those in the pot
Ingredients
• 2 clementines
• peel of 1 lemon
• peel of 1 lime
• 250g caster sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 1 whole nutmeg
• 1 whole vanilla pod, halved
• 2 star anise
• 2 bottles of Texas Legato Sweet Surrender
Peel
large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed
peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of
peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay
leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod
and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar. Let this simmer until the
sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil.
Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a
beautiful thick syrup. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful
flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well
with the wine. It’s important to do make a syrup base first because it needs to
be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn
off the alcohol. When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add
your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around
5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.
Let everything cook away and warm up gently
so the flavours have time to mingle with the wine. Leave mulled wine ticking
over on a really low heat and just ladle some into glasses when guests pop in.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on September 04, 2011 0 Comments
6 cups of Texas Legato Chardonnay
1/4 cup super fine sugar
1 cup of white grape juice
1 ripe nectarine, pitted and cut into thin wedges
1 tangerine, thinly sliced
1 cup seedless white grapes, halved
1 cup of club soda
In a large pitcher combine the wine and sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the remaining ingredients, excluding the club soda, mix well. Place the pitcher in the refrigerator and let the sangria sit for at least one hour (and up to 4 hours). The sangria will sweeten with time, so the longer it sits, the better. Just before serving, stir in the club soda and ice cubes. Beware, this Chardonnay is 15% alcohol. Make s 6 servings.
Posted by Sulynn Bledsoe on September 04, 2011 1 Comment
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon butter
2 (14.5 ounce) cans of chicken broth
1 (8 ounce) package of cheese tortellini
1 (14 ounce) can of stewed Italian tomatoes
1 (10 ounce) package of frozen chopped spinach
salt and pepper to taste
In a large pot over medium heat, cook garlic in butter for 2 - 3 minutes, add chicken broth. Heat to boiling, reduce heat to low, stir in tortellini and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until tortellini is cooked to desired tenderness. Add spinach and tomatoes (do not drain) and simmer 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Top with fresh grated parmesan cheese. Serve with hard crusted bread.
Makes 6 services, goes excellent with Texas Legato Chardonnay.
