Wine Pairing Story (9)

An Evening in ProvenceIs there something more emblematic of Provence in summer than an evening party with tapenade and rosé ?
Comes the evening and as the heat drops, people gather in the gardens or the courtyards and set up the table with these essentials of a succesful mediteranean aperitif. Rosé is rosé, and tapenade is a creamy appetizer spread on bread circles which was probably invented with torture in mind : you eat one and can't wait for the next...
Now, if you can buy tapenade everywhere in Provence, on the street markets [picture on left], in the épiceries, and even on the internet, its retail price may justify that some call it the caviar of provence: the tapenade is outrageously expensive (often more than 40 Euro a kg) and with the quantity needed for a party I don't know how people can cope with the cost of what has become a new basic commodity of life in Provence. That's why it's worth_and gratifying_ to do it yourself...

Do-It-Yourself Tapenade, Kitchen sideThe Tapenade is a very old provencal dish and its name comes from the word "tapeno" which means caper in provencal (in french : câpre), capers being an essential ingredient in this cream. The recipe has even older roots as a similar recipe was found in Cato's writings (2nd century B.C.), but without capers :
"Epityrum album, nigrum, uariumque sic facito: ex oleis albis, nigris, uariisque nuculeos eicito; sic condito: concidito ipsas, addito oleum, acetum, coriandrum, cuminum, feniculum, rutam, mentam; in orculam condito: oleum supra siet. Ita utitor." which means (Latin Homework....) :
"Make green, black, or varicolored epityrum in this way. Pit the green, black, or varicolored olives. Season them thus: Chop them, and add oil, vinegar, coriander, cumin, fennel, rue, and mint. Put them in a small jar, with oil on top and they are ready to use." ( from "A Taste of Ancient Rome")
The ingredients needed to make your own tapenade are easy to find, in France at least : olives, capers, anchovies, lemon and garlic. Once you will have made your first tapenade, you will wonder how you didn't try it before. The recipe has many variants and you may try to change the share of the ingredients or add new ones, but capers are very important as this traditional condiment plays the role of a taste enhancer and brings acidity to the mix. As strange as it may seem, the capers are actually flower buds which have been picked on a small mediterranean bush right before they blossom. They have been then put into a salty water solution to remove a natural bitterness. Like for the really important ingredients, you won't distinctly feel their taste in the final dish, but their acidity and delicate aroma make them irreplaceable. They are a favourite ingredient in the cuisine of the Mediterranean countries. This page about capers (in french) gives several recipes where they play a role.Crushing Garlic with CapersThe olives here are salted black olives, but you can do it with green olives as well. In france, olives are cheaper in big packagings [see pic above left] like the ones that you can find in some supermarkets (for example in the big-packaging section of Carrefour). There, 2,5 kg of pitted olives cost about 6 Euro. Otherwise, prices in other stores can vary from the astronomic 2,5 Euro for 250gr of whole olives (Casino) to a mere 0,75 Euro for 250gr (Leader Price). 120 gr of drained capers cost 2 Euro at Casino. You can rinse the olives a few seconds under the tap if you think they might be too salty. If you depit the olives yourself, make sure that you dont forget a pit before puting them in the food processor.
Don't be intimidated by the traditional mortar and pestle, this makes more picturesque pictures, and you can do it easily with a kitchen food processor. What I do usually is crush first a soup spoon of capers (after having rinsed it too) with the garlic, then I will add some olives, then the anchovies, then a couple more spoons of capers and the rest of olives, and at the end, the lemon juice. You'll probably use a food processor, and everything you have to do is finely chop the mix, several pulses usually do the job. Stir the mixture a few times in between.Pouring Lemon Juice. Tinned Anchovies (in olive oil) on leftThe lemon juice gives a bit more acidity to the cream and help you get the desired texture. The tapenade must be easy to spread on the bread and not too liquid of course. Here we used a bottle of lemon concentrate, sorry, but a real lemon is better, and one is usually enough for this size of recipe. This is now ready to serve. Once you've put the tapenade on the bread circles, a tiny lemon peel strip on top of each will add the final touch in the taste. Some recipes have you add some olive oil at the end, but I condider that the tapenade has already enough oil at this stage. The Romans added oil on top of their olive cream, but it was for conservation, they didn't have fridges like we do...
Now, you guess that we have a wine to go with this dish, and I can hardly think of any other wine than a rosé. But be careful, the tapenade is a little greasy and even though you can forgive everything by a beautiful evening in Provence, it pairs best with a strong-character rosé, a gastronomic rosé. Several Bandol Rosés would have made a good match I think, but I chose a more affordable option : a rosé 2006 from Chateau Lafoux, I tasted it at the Maison des Vins des Coteaux Varois in La Celle (Var), where you can taste for free 25 to 30 different wines of the Coteaux Varois Appellation. This rosé is a Cinsault-Grenache-Syrah blend with a price tag of 6,6 Euro. Its mouth is ample and well-structured, which is what you need to balance the tapenade.Recipe for a Tapenade (with sizes) :230gr of pitted olives3 big spoons of capers2 garlic cloves6 anchovies1 lemonHorizontal Sunbeams : The Best Hour

Comments

[hikalu]

It looks a nice pairing wine with tapenade. I'm gonna make it too.