Flaherty Wines

Refinishing winery floor

This weekend we moved 43 barrels out of the winery and into off-site storage at Viña San Esteban. We had to clear everything out to make way for the construction crew, which is scheduled to refinish our winery floor and press pad. The original floor is made of hand-mixed cement, and it has not held up well to the demands of heavy production. Either the cement was not mixed properly, or the sand was dirty—but either way, it translates into a deteriorating work surface. After seven vintages, it’s time to invest in a new floor.

The main winery work area will be refinished using factory-made cement tiles (called baldosa here). We are also extending the press pad with an additional area of cement (factory mixed) and paving the long driveway. Finally, we are tiling the back terrace, where we receive visitors. The next few weeks will be hectic.

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Pork and eggplant lasagna

Ben and Sean agree with Garfield: Lasagna is the food of the gods. They like a tomato-based lasagna, rather than a meaty Bolognese, and above all no bechamel. Our current favorite includes diced pork, mushrooms, eggplant, and basil. We like a lot of mushrooms, so I use 400 g (nearly a pound). You could cut back if you like, or mix in a few different types of mushrooms for interest. For the eggplant, I salt it first to extract the bitterness (we can’t get Japanese eggplant here). I am very generous with the salt, as I find it improves the extraction, but you do need to rinse the eggplants really well before grilling–rub them really well under running water to make sure they aren’t too salty.

I have come to prefer the precooked lasagna sheets, provided they are Italian. It’s so much easier than the dried pasta that you boil, and the texture actually comes out better. You just need to add a bit more sauce than you would for the traditional kind, as the sheets absorb sauce as they bake. I use a standard rectangular Pyrex pan (9 x 13?) which just fits three sheets across. I then layer four deep, using 12 sheets in total.

Pork and eggplant lasagna

5 cups tomato sauce (preferably homemade)
1 large eggplant
salt
olive oil
500 grams (1 pound) pork loin
400 grams (up to a pound) mushrooms, sliced
several cloves garlic
red wine (about 1/3 cup)
1/2 cup chopped basil
300 grams (10 oz) mozzarella cheese, grated
12 sheets precooked lasagna sheets

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Slice the eggplant lengthwise into quarter inch slabs. Discard the outside slices that are mostly skin. Generously salt the slices on both sides, layer them on a plate, cover them with another plate, and weight it down. Let sit for at least an hour, then rinse well to remove the salt. Pat dry and grill or sauté in a little olive oil. Set aside.

Trim off any fat and silver skin (the tendon) from the pork and then dice it. Heat a bit of olive oil in a large pan. Add the pork and stir fry briefly. Add three or four cloves of garlic (chopped or pressed) and about 1/4 cup of red wine. After a few minutes, add the tomato sauce and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for about 15 minutes (the pork should be fully cooked at this point). Use a slotted spoon to remove the pork from the sauce, then set both aside.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the mushrooms with one or two cloves of garlic (chopped or pressed) and a splash of wine. Once the mushrooms release their liquid, continue to sauté until they are nearly dry. Set aside.

When all the ingredients are ready, assemble the lasagna. Start with a layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan, then lay down three sheets of pasta, covering the pan without overlapping the sheets. Spread more sauce over the pasta, then evenly layer on the pork. Sprinkle with a third of the basil. Second layer: three sheets pasta (not overlapping) and sauce, followed by a layer of eggplant (not overlapping, but fully covering the pasta); sprinkle with half the mozzarella and a third of the basil. Third layer: three sheets pasta (not overlapping) and sauce, then the mushrooms in an even layer; sprinkle with the remaining basil. Final layer: three sheets pasta (not overlapping) and the rest of the sauce; sprinkle with the rest of the mozarella. Cover tightly with a layer of foil. If you “tent” the foil, it won’t stick to the cheese.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, then let sit for about 10 minutes before uncovering and serving.

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Honey quince cake

Quince is an old-fashioned fruit that I rarely saw when I lived in the U.S., but it is very popular here in Chile. It is often eaten raw (I truly cannot imagine why)—to the extent that raw quince was on the orthodontist’s list of prohibited foods when Ben got his braces recently. It is also cooked and pureed into a juice or made into dulce de membrillo, a sweet paste that pairs really well with manchego cheese.

We have a couple of quince trees in our orchard, and they also line the road to our house. So every year about this time I start looking around for quince recipes. This year I found a recipe on Epicureous that turned out to be delicious. I don’t normally reprint recipes, but I love this cake! I’ve made a few adjustments, most notably brushing the poaching syrup over the cake, which accentuates the honey character (though not excessively). (I also cut back the cinnamon in the syrup, added a bit of baking powder, and dropped an egg yolk.) Note that the recipe calls for a pound of quince, or about two medium fruit. Since I used garden quince, I had to cut away the wormy parts (like apples, quince are susceptible to cotton moth, so they aren’t pretty if grown organically). I used the better part of four quince, which gave me about three cups of raw sliced quince and about one and a quarter cups of cooked quince to add to the cake.

Honey quince cake

For the poaching liquid:

2 to 4 quince
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

For the cake:

1  3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
125 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1  1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk

Core, peel, and slice the quince. (Quince are very hard, so it’s easiest to work with if you cut the fruit into eighths, rather than quarters.) In a medium sauce pan, combine the rest of the ingredients for the poaching liquid and bring to a simmer, stirring to combine. Add the quince and simmer until very soft, about 45 minutes to an hour. Drain the quince, reserving the liquid (you should have about a cup or so). Roughly mash the quince with a fork or potato masher and set aside. Note: the quince can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a standard 9-inch cake pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Add the vanilla. Beat in about half the flour until just mixed, followed by all of the milk. (Note: the Epicurious recipe calls for heavy cream, but I used whole milk and the cake was perfect.) Add in the remaining flour. Do not overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about an hour and fifteen minutes, until the cake is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before turning out onto the rack. Poke the bottom of the cake all over with a bamboo skewer, then brush about a third of the poaching liquid over the cake. Turn the cake over onto a second rack. Poke the top all over with the skewer, then brush the remaining liquid over the top and sides of the cake. Let the cake cool completely before serving.

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Finished crushing

We brought in the last of the Cabernet on Saturday. What a relief! (Sorry, Ed, but this harvest has been hard, thanks to my shoulder problem.) It was about three-quarters of a ton, whereas we were expecting a full ton. Our grower says that Cabernet yields are down everywhere, so we wound up with less Cab than we had planned. The low yields reflect not only the cool spring, but also the fact that the vines carried heavier yields last vintage, which often triggers a smaller crop the following year.

Our vineyard consultant was also up for the day, looking for ways to cultivate a more even development of the vines across the vineyard. We have been thinking about switching over to head pruning for aesthetic reasons, as the vineyard is essentially in our front yard. Our consultant thinks this winter is a good time to make the change, as we need to do some drastic pruning and reshaping anyway to promote vineyard health and balance. The vineyard is currently laid out on a curve, with one meter between the rows and a meter and a half between plants along the rows. This arrangement is not working well with the current training system, but it should be optimal for head training. We will also extend the vineyard up over a small rise in the garden and make some adjustments to the irrigation system.

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Stone soup

Our golden retriever is very true to type, in that she always has something in her mouth. If she can’t find her tennis ball, she’ll pick up a rock and carry that around instead. She also likes to collect things. Whenever anything is missing (slippers, in particular), the first place to look is in her bowl. She recently left a rather large rock in her water bowl, which reminded us all of stone soup–a favorite story when the boys were little. This prompted Ben to plan stone soup for dinner. He found a good sized smooth stone in the garden (one not obviously used by Zeus), and started pulling ingredients out of the refrigerator and pantry. Since the idea was to start with a stone in a pot of water, the onions and garlic were added raw, rather than sautéing them first in butter or oil. The result was a light minestrone-style soup that we all enjoyed. The beauty of this recipe is that you can taylor it to what you have on hand, varying the vegetables and adding in, say, shredded cooked chicken or canned white beans.

Ben’s stone soup

1 smooth stone
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, slivered
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
1 bay leaf, preferably fresh
1 sprig fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
100 g (3.5 oz) pasta (shells or penne)
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
cooked frozen corn
cooked frozen peas
broccoli florets
Parmesan cheese

Wash the stone well and place it in a three-quart pot. Add 8 to 9 cups water and bring to a simmer. Add the onions and garlic and simmer for about five minutes or so before adding in the tomatoes, bay leaf, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and continue simmering for another ten minutes. Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is close to done. Add the carrot and cook for a minute or so before adding the corn, peas, and broccoli. Simmer for just a minute to blanch the broccoli. Adjust the salt and pepper, remove the bay leaf and thyme, and serve immediately, with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

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Basics: tomato sauce

Sean really likes pizza. I  make pizza so often I’m tired of it, but still, it isn’t often enough for Sean. So he recently decided that he needs to learn how to make it himself, so he can have it whenever he likes. We started with the sauce.

This sauce is one of the basics in my kitchen. I always have some jars of it in the freezer, as it serves as the base for not only pizza, but also lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, rigatoni with sausage, polenta, and so on. It’s very versatile.

Tomato sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions. chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tablespoon tomato concentrate
1/2 cup red wine
2 k (4 lb) canned tomatoes (net weight), with juice
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the onions and sauté until soft, without browning. Add the garlic and cook briefly before adding in the tomato concentrate and red wine. Simmer the wine briefly to cook off the alcohol, then pour in the tomatoes whole. Use your hands to crush the tomatoes right in the pot (this is much easier and neater than trying to chop them on a cutting board). Add the fresh herbs, and season with salt and pepper. (I use a light hand on the salt, since I use the sauce as a base for other dishes, many of which contain cheese or sausage or other salty ingredients.) Bring to a low boil and simmer for about 45 minutes. Allow the sauce to cool, then purée in a blender.

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Cabernet weekend

Saturday was Labor Day in Chile (May 1st), which limited the amount of work we could accomplish. In particular, we were only able to bring in one and a half tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from Gonzalo’s Encon vineyard. We’ll be getting another ton next Saturday to finish out our harvest. The fruit looks very good, with nice ripe flavors. The cool fall weather is giving us the benefit of a few days of cold maceration before the fermentations really take off. It looks like one lot will get going this afternoon, and the second lot is about a day behind. In addition to receiving fruit, we pressed out two syrah lots and the tempranillo. These wines are now in barrel for the winter.

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