The Silk Road of Wine

What's for Dinner: Wild Boar Borscht

Perfect for a chilly autumn evening, this stew from "American Game Cooking" calls for wild boar but you could easily substitute stew meat from buffalo, venison, elk, etc.

There are too many ingredients to list, but the beets, fennel seed, and balsamic vinegar added right at the end really stand out (the taste of the boar completely fades to the background). And don't forget to put a dollop of sour cream in each bowl, it completely changes the complexion of the dish!

A lighter fruity wine like a Pinot noir works well; Sid Goldstein recommends a lightly chilled Gamay Beaujolais to contrast with the heartiness of the soup and provide an interesting textural counterpoint.

What's for Dinner: Beet Green Soup

Beet greens are tasty and nutritious but quite fragile, so you should try to cook them within a day or two of purchasing your bunched beets. This recipe is a rustic one from "Molto Italiano" by Mario Batali. Warning - make double the quantities, this soup is quite addictive!

Soften 2 cloves of diced garlic and a slivered onion in 1/2 cup olive oil. Add 2 medium potatoes cut into 1/2 inch dice, salt and hot red pepper flakes, then add 4 cups beet greens sliced into 1/2 inch wide ribbons and 3 cups water and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil and them simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Mario says to serve with toasted Italian peasant bread and grated pecorino romano; feel free to forsake if you are keeping strict paleo, or substitute with gluten-free bread options if you have some leeway.

What's for Dinner: Goat Loin Chops Pan-Roasted in White Wine

Looking for something quick and tasty, I based this on a recipe for lamb chops, Marches style, from Marcella Hazan's seminal cookbook "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking".

Brown a very thinly-sliced onion with pancetta and olive oil (or bacon grease, if you've been keeping it) in a skillet, then brown the chops in the same pan. Grate a tiny amount of nutmeg over the top and add 1/2 - 1 cup white wine, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan and cover while it simmers for 20+ minutes.

Where I differ from the Marches-style recipe is that it adds a 'sauce' of an egg yolk and 2 tbs lemon juice that thickens on contact with the hot meat - I didn't have either, so I just added some olive oil to thicken the sauce.

Pair this with an earthy red wine like the 2007 Tenuta Santedame Chianti Classico that I used and you have yourself a perfect rustic meal from the heart of Italy!

What's for Dinner: Saucisse de Sanglier (Wild Boar Sausage) and Peppers

Here's a dinner that is on the table in 15 minutes when you come home famished from the gym. Heat up a skillet, dice a couple sweet red peppers and one yellow onion, and brown them together with a bit of beef stock (or bacon fat if you have some on hand - you are saving it, right?).

When that is ready in 8-10 minutes, push the mixture to the side of the pan and add 1-2 sausages - I had wild boar with apples from Fabrique Delices on hand, but most any kind will do. Brown the sausages in the pan while some of the fat oozes into the pepper mixture - trust me, this is the best part.

Sausages should be ready in 5-7 minutes, and simply dump the whole thing on your plate after that. Pop open a gutsy red - I picked a 2008 Feudi di Viti Nero d'Avola from Sicily - and enjoy!

What's for Dinner: Madras Coconut Cream Beef Curry

A simple yet very tasty recipe from "Good Meat" by Deborah Krasner. Though she calls for stew beef, I had a big grassfed chuck roast on hand so I cut it up into cubes for this dish.

Brown a chopped onion in a medium Dutch oven while you mix lots of curry powder (make your own or use a top-quality blend; I used Morton & Bassett to good effect) with 1-1.5 cans coconut milk. Add this mixture, the cubed meat and 3-5 cloves of chopped garlic to the browned onion in the pan and bring to a boil. Then cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours until the meat is fork-tender, adding salt as needed and garnishing with chopped cilantro.

I served it with a 2009 Rodney Strong Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley; the intensely-flavored bouquet, oakiness and cherry flavors worked well with the layered nuance of flavors that permeate the curry - definitely recommended.

What's for Dinner: Wagyu Burgers and Chateau Latour

You'd think we were living the high life with this meal. Using the awesomeness that is Gilt Taste, we feasted on Flannery Beef wagyu custom blend burgers - equal parts chuck, cross rib, flatiron and shortloin tail - with all the trimmings (now is a good time for a reminder on how to properly cook a burger).

I have lots of great first-growth Bordeaux that I've been laying down for years since I bought when they first came out, and now seemed like as good a time as any to break one out. The 2002 Chateau Latour was the first at hand, and really impressed - wonderful mouthfeel, almost silky, a whiff of the barn on the nose and tannins that had mellowed to the point where it needed no decanting time whatsoever. CellarTracker lists it as selling for $500 at retail these days; I paid $75 for it when it first came out in 2005 and while it was difficult to look past it in my wine fridge all these years, it was well worth the wait (and makes me think about opening the other old Bordeaux I have laying down as well ...).

Wagyu + Chateau Latour = luxury!

What's for Dinner: Garlic-rubbed Buffalo Tri-tip

Easiest. Recipe. Ever.

Chop a whole head of garlic, mash it in a mortar and pestle with a lot of kosher salt to form a thick paste and then rub it all over a tri-tip roast (beef or buffalo). Wrap in plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.

Blot the meat to remove moisture and then sear it for 5 minutes per side in a super-hot skillet. Finish for 5 minutes by letting it rest in a 170 oven.

I served with boiled corn on the cob. And grass-fed butter, of course ...!

What's for Dinner: Grilled Lamb Skewers with Yogurt-mint Dipping Sauce

This recipe comes straight from the excellent Mark's Daily Apple site (written by Mark Sisson of Primal Blueprint fame).  It is easy and delicious - before you go to work in the morning, marinate cubed lamb for 8 hours in a mix of cumin, onion, garlic, olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and allspice.  (I added a few pinches of red pepper flakes to liven things up).  Then fire up a charcoal grill in the evening, skewer the lamb (don't forget to pre-soak if you use wood skewers) and cook for 6 minutes per side.

While it is cooking, you can whip up the yogurt-mint dipping sauce, which is a real treat in itself.  In a food processor, toss in full-fat organic Greek yogurt (you want the thick stuff in this case), lots of fresh mint leaves, some parsley, cumin and lime juice - add fresh garlic and cucumber if you want your sauce to resemble tzatziki.

What to drink with it?  Keep it simple.  There are some bold flavors at work here between the charcoal-grilled lamb and the marinade, so your best bet would be a beefier red wine with a bit of spice and not overly tannic like a Cabernet.  A Rhone-style wine or a lighter, less fruit-driven syrah would be my first choices.

What's for Dinner: Roasted Rabbit with White Wine and Olives

Another batch of game meat from D'Artagnan, and a recipe from the excellent cookbook and educational tome, "Good Meat" by Deborah Krasner. She sums up the homey nature of this dish in her description:

"An example of Italian home cooking at its simplest, this easy recipe yields a dish with lots of oomph for little labor. You just give the meat a brief toss with herbs, white wine and olive oil, and pop it into a hot oven with a bit of bacon atop each piece."

That's really all there was to it - a 15 minute marinade on the countertop, then ~45 minutes in a 450 degree oven. Don't omit the bacon - because rabbit is so lean, it needs additional fat while roasting. Bacon is the most traditional, but goose or duck fat works very well.

As for what to drink, whenever I think rabbit I think of France or Italy. I drank a Merlot from Umbria (the 2009 Falesco), and its dark fruit and soft palate paired very nicely with the herbs and the bit of tang from the olives.

What's for Dinner: Grilled Wild Boar Tenderloin

Another game meat classic from my favorite source, D'Artagnan. Marinated simply in olive oil and herbs, grilled in a very hot skillet for 2 minutes per side, and then finished for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Pair it with a super-Tuscan red wine and you'd swear you are dining in Florence ...!