Ensalada de Nopales and Donkey & Goat Sluicebox

2011 Sluicebox copyThe Dish

Ensalada
Grilled Nopales
Cumin Dressing

The Wine

2011 Donkey and Goat Sluicebox
Sierra Foothills, CA
Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Vermentino & Picpoul

 

 

The Chef

Gabbi Patrick Head ShotChef Gabbi Patrick

Give me a simple dish. I know we just made one.  Yes, Ensalada de Nopales, and you noticed it had many layers of flavors, like grilled panela cheese, great tomatoes, nopales. Nobody really eats [nopales] unless you’re in your Latin home and I think this is something people need to try.

When did you know that food had power?  Food always had power. Being from the Yucatán, my family always had Yucatán cuisine, so I already new the power of food when it came to the passion and the family. So I knew the power of it, but didn’t understand it, so that is when I decided to go to culinary school.

*See all of Gabbi Patricks’s photos, interview, and recipe at  Chef’s Insight.

 

The Wine Expert

Alice Feiring

I’d like to see a white wine with some heft and personality to carry the cumin in this dish. That’s why I chose the 2011 Donkey & Goat Sluicebox White Blend.  It could go a variety of reds.

Alice has been published in most of the glossies in this country as well as the New York Times.   Alice is the author of two books The Battle for Wine and Love (Harcourt).  Naked Wine (Perseus Books) came out on September 2011.  When not on the road learning about wine, Alice working on her personal writing, rereading Letting Go orHudson River Bracketed, and dreaming about a cellar full of Domaine Romanée Conti.  You can find Alice on twitter at @alicefeiring, or her blog The Feiring Line.

 

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Chef’s Insight is a raw, behind-the-scenes look at the culinary process and the people behind it. Photographer Bob Hodson shadows the chef—in his or her restaurant, home kitchen, backyard, favorite farmers market, wherever—shooting editorial style and capturing the details and the process… action on the line, scribbled recipes and plating notes, flashes of knife work, the flip of a pan, the beautiful symmetry of the finished mise en place