This fun and easy recipe is a nice side dish for a meat dish or to accompany a pasta dish. Enjoy!

Meyer Mushrooms

Yield: Serves 10

Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil

5 shallots, thinly sliced

3 large portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup tawny port

sea salt and fresh cracked pepper

Preparation

Sauté shallots in olive oil on high heat in a large skillet, about one minute. Add mushrooms and brown, about 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and port and continue to sauté over medium heat until port and mushroom liquor is reduced to about ½ cup.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Suggestion – Serve with Tenderloin Steak with Port Sauce.

Tasting Party on August 7th!

Port Cookbook Tasting Party on August 7th!

Hello All!

I am happy to tell you about the next Tasting Party which is scheduled for Saturday, August 7th, 2010. The theme for this Tasting Party is Brunch. I must admit that I am even intrigued by the theme, it was a suggestion from a good friend and I think it will be fun! :D Please confirm if you will be joining us. If you enjoy cooking or watching cooking, you are also more than welcome to join us earlier that day for the cooking. We love your help and company!

* REMINDER! We will give two bottles of Meyer Family Port to anyone who brings a new dish made with our port.

Potential Menu for Saturday

• Port Cocktail (either Champagne/Chamboard or Sparkling Lemonade)
• Port & Pancakes, waffles or french toast (I haven't decided which)
• Sliced Strawberries and Port
• Port Seasoned Bacon
• Egg Dish or Frittata
• Sweet Potatoes
• Port Jelly or Jam
• Braised Lamb Shanks
• Ginger Ice Cream with Port Poached Cherries

Best,
Holly

Complimenting vs. Contrasting Port

Here is a fun idea! I had asked my brother Matt, co-owner and co-winemaker of Meyer Family Cellars, for any suggestions on recipes to add to the cookbook. What he had to say totally surprised me! His suggestion, and one of his favorites, was to compliment port with a citrus dish or dessert. The normal tendency is to compliment a sweet port with a sweet and heavy chocolaty dessert; death by chocolate, if you will. Instead, he said, instead of overpowering a subtle port with a heavy dessert, why not contrast it with an acidic flavor that will really set off the port. So, at the tasting party we had Meyer lemon ice cream and a Lemon cake with lavender whip cream; what a success!!! The lemon contrast was a huge hit! Another wonderful suggestion from Matt was grilled peaches, which we added a sweet port sauce to. However, for now, here is the Meyer Lemon Ice Cream recipe. Enjoy it with some with our Tawny Port.

Best,

Holly

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

Yield: Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients

1 teaspoon grated Meyer lemon zest

1/4 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup whipping cream

1 cup whole milk

1 dash salt

Preparation

Combine ingredients in a blender container or food processor and process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to freeze. Pour into the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions for freezing. Place in freezer storage container and place in freezer for 4 hours before serving.

Port Sangria!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Saturday's Tasting Party. It was such a great success. Special Thanks to Sheila and Mike for assisting with cooking and to Sheila and Josh for bringing dishes to share! It was so great to bring everyone together over food and wine and great conversation. And from it, we received so many incredible suggestions and reviews, I am overwhelmed with appreciation and excitement for where this project is going.

One of the excellent results of Saturday was our Sangria Recipe, which I am so happy to share with you all. This recipe was pretty easy for me to formulate. It came from a Sangria recipe that I already had which included Red Zinfandel, Brandy and sugar. I simply switched out those three for the port, which is a sweet Red Zin that is fortified with Brandy. What I love about substituting the port for those three ingredients is that it evened out the Sangria and really cut a little bit of the sweetness from its predecessor. Hope you enjoy it!

Sangria

Yield: Makes about 30 servings

Ingredients

(6) 500 ml bottles of Meyer Family Tawny Port

1/2 cup Cointreau

1 quart orange juice

1 cup lemon juice

2 oranges, thinly sliced and halved

1 lemon, thinly sliced

2 fuji apples, cored and chopped (or 1 apple and 1 pear, cored and chopped)

1 quart chilled club soda

Preparation

Pour the half of the port, Cointreau, orange juice, and lemon juice into a large punch bowl. Add fresh cut fruit to the bowl. Add the remaining port and club soda to the bowl. Place bowl in refrigerator and chill for 3 to 24 hours.

Tasting/Brainstorming Party THIS COMING SATURDAY, July 10th!

Hello All!

I am excited about this upcoming Tasting/Brainstorming Party on Saturday, July 10, from 2-5pm at my home in San Francisco and hope to see you there. I hope you have been trying out the recipes that I have posted and may have more ideas and suggestions of your own. The menu will be a summer/fresh theme. Look forward to seeing you then.

Potential Menu for Saturday

Sangria
Roasted Portobello Crostini
Duck Frisee Salad with Port Balsamic Vinaigrette
Grilled Pears with port/blackberry sauce
Port BBQ Sauce on Pork Spareribs
Cantaloupe with Port
Rhubarb Port Crisp
Port Gelato