Russian River Consecration

This past weekend, while adventuring around the Mission in San Francisco, we made our obligatory stop by Monk's Kettle.  Monk's Kettle is a small hole-in-the-wall gastropub (aka awesome beer-bar).  The food here is also great, but having eaten there several times before, we tend to just go for drinks.  The drink menu is very extensive, containing just about anything and everything in bottles that you can get in this area (and therefore the menu is actually encased in an old Brittanica Encylopedia cover).  However, most of the time we go here we find ourselves ordering off of the rotating draft list.  There is always something different and exciting to try.  Another added bonus is their usual featuring of Russian River Brewery's Pliny the Elder on tap.  There are very few places that you can get this beer on tap outside of the brewery itself in Sonoma.

In our visit last weekend, Erica and I tried the Russian River Consecration horizontal flight on draft.  This consisted of two versions of the same beer, Consecration, from different years.  One was from the 2nd batch ever made in 2009, and the other was the current 2012 batch.

The beer is one of a few of Rusisan River's American Wild Ales that are aged in wine barrels after their primary fermentation.  Consecration in particular is aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from local Sonoma wineries for around six months.  The initial taste if you haven't had many Wild Ales, is a strong sour taste.  It is not the type of beer that you would want to have several of in a night, but more of a beer meant for sipping.  The beer takes on some wine characteristics as well, as it contains added fruit (black currants).

I was very excited to see the difference in the 3 year old batch vs the 2012 batch. Not surprisingly, the aged 2009 batch was slightly better than the less-aged version.  The flavors of the beer just seemed to have melded together over time and created a more defined taste.  Although, there have probably been several slight tweaks between batches of Consecration over the years, so it is tough to tell what differences are from age verses recipe refining.

Monk's Kettle, we will be back!

Pizza Pizza Pizza

I've been mildly obsessed with pizza for the past couple of months.  I was a goner after the discovery of Trader Joe's pizza dough and have been trying to top it with the best combo of cheeses and veggies.

Our first pizza experiment was sort of like eating a salad on top of pizza dough.  I've since lost the recipe, but it went something like this...  First saute mushrooms until they've lost all their juice (this takes awhile, but it's worth it, since they'll get pretty soggy in the oven later), and top the dough with them and fresh mozzarella.  Throw that sucker in the oven.  Meanwhile, toss together a salad (we used arugula and cherry tomatoes) and throw that on top of the pizza when it comes out of the oven.  Easy!

We paired this salad-y pizza with a Pinot Gris from Joseph Swan in Sonoma.

Next on the list of pizza adventures was Beretta, in the Mission district of San Francisco.  Despite the classy interior, we were seated (in Mission style) at the end of a long communal bar table in the middle of the restaurant.  The cocktails were fantastic, as were all of the pizzas.  My pizza had grilled veggies, mozzarella, and pesto.  Tyler's had potato, rosemary, and Gorgonzola..we liked his better.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.


Then I ran across this recipe.  Fruit and balsamic and basil on a pizza?  Okay!  We mixed it up a little by using fontina cheese and adding some chopped walnuts.  Somehow all of the unique flavors on this pizza didn't overwhelm me.  In fact, it was pretty perfect, especially when paired with a Gary Farrell Chardonnay (from the same Sonoma trip as the Joseph Swan).  The extra balsamic reduction was even great over a salad with baby heirloom tomatoes.

Finally, we hit up Starbelly in the Castro/Mission area of San Francisco.  I loved their back patio and the basil aoli that came with the house cut fries.  Mmmm...  We sprung for a pizza with bleu cheese, pear, onion, arugula, and prosciutto.  It was very much worth it.  The bleu cheese was extremely strong, but that's just how I like it.

After this much pizza, I thought about taking a break.  Then I started wondering what other fruits could go well on pies.  There might be more pizza-related posts coming up!

First Post, Finally! (aka Vegan Pad Thai Attempt)

Hello, world.  Welcome to our humble blog, in which we will be chronicling our culinary adventures.  Wine Tuesdays originally started as a way to experiment with cooking and to learn a little bit about wine.  We try to use fresh, local ingredients and like trying new California wines.  I try to stick to a vegetarian diet (and Tyler usually obliges) but I often make exceptions for seafood...and a burger every now and then!  We've been meaning to start this blog for awhile, so we have a bit of a backlog of restaurants, recipes, and wines to share.

And so, on to the first meal...which ironically does not involve wine and was not made on a Tuesday.  Oops.

Menu:
Vegan Pad Thai (based on Chloe's recipe)
Sierra Nevada Hefeweizen

We really liked this Pad Thai recipe - it was a quick and easy meal for a busy evening.  We used half the amount of broccoli called for and instead added some fresh zucchini to the mix for a different texture.  Pretty sure I forgot the cilantro garnish, oh well.  The sauce was a little runny and bland (might try using thick soy sauce next time), but all in all pretty decent and I would definitely make it again!