A Lesson in Thai Cooking and Pairing with a Flight of Tablas Creek Wines
March 02, 2017
By Suphada Rom
The Tablas Creek team, as you might suspect, includes a large number of foodies, each with a different background. Around the lunch hour, people congregate in the kitchen to cook or just reheat lunch and socialize. John Morris, our Tasting Room Manager, always creates a buzz with his authentic Thai dishes brought from home. And these aren't leftovers from a local restaurant, either. His wife Christina is a very accomplished and well versed Thai cook. For years, we've all felt pangs of jealousy when he opens one of his Tupperware containers, revealing yellow-gold curries with floating shrimp and bamboo.
So, when Christina invited a group of us over for a lesson in Thai cooking, we brought willing and able hands to help, and a passel of Tablas Creek wines to enjoy with our feast.
The happy (and hospitable) couple!
Walking into John and Christina's kitchen, the smell of the different spices was heady in the best possible way. I was hungry for food, but we were all eager to learn. Christina was incredibly warm and lovely and her years of restaurant experience show with her calm demeanor, warm hospitality, and a happy willingness to answer any and all of our questions. I'm sure she would have been able to balance a stack of books on her head the whole time, while maneuvering about the kitchen. I adore her and can't thank her enough for hosting all of us because, as I'm sure most of us know and have experienced, entertaining ravenous folks with a line-up of several bottles of wine is most assuredly always a handful!
Christina starting the curry with some paste and coconut milk in the pan
We -- OK, I use "we" lightly when it comes to us cooking -- made a rich chicken and vegetable curry, fish cakes, tapioca dumplings, and papaya salad, all accompanied by a warm bowl of Jasmine rice. The chicken curry glimmered, a beautiful golden yellow color with vegetables poking through the surface. Fish cakes, seasoned with pungent curry paste and fried to perfection, quite literally rose to the occasion as they inflated in the pan while cooking. Tapioca coated dumplings were stuffed with a combination of fermented radish and ground pork, with dry roasted peanuts for texture. The papaya salad was done classically, with slivers of green papaya, mixed in with fresh cherry tomatoes and lime, tossed in crab paste and fish sauce. Christina taught us how to make it all, and like many good chefs, without a recipe. Tasting all these dishes was both familiar, yet intriguing. I tasted a lot of familiar flavors, but they appeared in different form. It's sort of like when you really start to smell all the different nuances in wine. It's surprising and intoxicating- I just couldn't stop smelling and tasting everything, and neither could anybody else. And in the spirit of togetherness, I really wanted to know what everyone else thought about our meal and what they thought the best pairing was:
The line-up of wines we tried (not pictured was a jug of Bristol's Cider, made of course by our Neil Collins!)
Lauren Phelps, Marketing Coordinator:
My favorite pairing was the Patelin rosé with the papaya salad! The crisp refreshing qualities of the rosé balanced the spicy tangy flavors of the papaya salad. With the lingering spice of the salad, taking a sip of the rosé was like enjoying a refreshing sip of cool water, but better. I also enjoyed how the savory berry flavors of the rosé sustained through the bite of salad leaving me with a tart raspberry flavor lingering before the next bite (which wasn’t very long).
John Morris, Tasting Room Manager:
Vermentino worked with everything for me, especially the 2015. It’s counterintuitive to the old saw of sweet wines with spicy food, but I think the aromatic sweetness works here. Also, the acidity helps mitigate the heat. The cider (Bristol's Cider, locally made by Tablas Creek's winemaker, Neil Collins) was great too! I didn’t taste the Grenache Blanc, but I’m sure it would have worked as well. I wanted the Petit Manseng to work, but for me it was just too sweet to balance everything.
Amanda Weaver, Tasting Room Lead:
In my humble opinion, the Vermentino was the perfect pairing with all the beautiful dishes. The only close rival was the Patelin rosé. Both had refreshing acidity which complimented and challenged the notes of kaffir lime and Thai chilies that made their presence in most of the dishes. For a novice in spicy foods, the cool crisp Vermentino kept me from running for the fire extinguisher and kept me at the table enjoying our delicious meal! I'll be honest, when I heard that the first course was going to be fish cakes, I was ready to just stick to a nice full glass of Vermentino. However, once I caught a whiff of the tangy yet earthy Kaffir lime I knew I had to give it a try with the cool liquid in my glass! From there I was hooked. From fish cakes, to the translucent tapioca balls, to papaya salad and curry, I could not have asked for a more complete meal to pair with our 2015 Vermentino!
Leslie Castillo, Tasting Room Lead:
Out of all the TCV wines there were I only tasted 2014, and 2015 Vermentino and the 2014 Patelin Rosé; from those 3 wines, to me 2015 Vermentino had the most vibrant acidity and citrus notes which paired great with the fish patties, it contrasted the fatty content in them and complemented the fragrant lime leaves; that was my favorite pairing with the curry too!
Me:
This was a tricky one for me, as I truly enjoyed most of the wines at different parts of the meal. I loved the Patelin Rosé's liveliness with the curry, and how it sort of brought out more the curry's aromatics. Vermentino was incredibly versatile, bringing out the heady fresh herbs in the papaya salad, making my mouth water for more. Petit Manseng served as a rich and textured conclusion to our meal.
Curry with chicken and vegetables
Leslie, assembling fish cakes
Papaya salad
Life gets so busy sometimes, with kids, schedules, appointments, and outings, that it's often difficult to coordinate get-togethers. However, I've come to realize we need to continue to make the time and the efforts to do the the things we love with the people we care about. In my experience, time spent often has either food or wine weaved in. While both food and wine are great, without the right company, the experience isn't quite as sweet. How lucky are we that we get to call each other both coworkers and friends.
Cheers from the Tablas Creek team!