There are any number of ways to celebrate this special romantic day with food and wine. While chocolate, Champagne and roses may first come to mind, certainly great choices, my wife and I are planning to join forces this year and prepare a fun, creative brunch. While we have yet to choose the theme, we’ll let you know when we do. Meanwhile, there are many of you who will take advantage of dining at one of our local restaurants listed in our Wine News section and trust me, they all have great menus planned. But since I touched upon brunch, let me address some food and wine ideas, whether you choose to cook at home or dine out.

Brunch allows me to be outlandishly creative if I wish and it’s quite easy to accomplish, especially if keep a couple of themes in mind. For me, it’s easiest to think about the foundation for the dish such as eggs, meats, pancakes/French toast, doughnuts or fruit. Then, I can think about how I want to accent or kick up the dish. Once there, I can hone in on the wine or alternative beverage. A slightly different take is to decide which country or region you wish to “visit” culinary wise and build your dish accordingly.

Cuisine: Seafood based Omelet

Eggs, regardless of style of preparation, are a common and relatively easy food group to accent. If you want to try something a little different to celebrate, how about a lobster, shrimp or Alaskan King Crab(meat) omelet. But don’t stop at boiling. Try kicking up the seafood in a Cajun or Thai style or perhaps using a cream sauce (e.g., Lobster Newberg) and then folding the shellfish into the omelet? How about mussels steamed in a white wine and onion broth folded into the omelet? If you love salmon, as I do, there are endless preparation styles to add to an omelet. A traditional dill, lemon and butter preparation is soft and rich while an Indian curry style will add more zing, flavor and spice. A tomato-olive sauce or a ginger, soy and hot sesame oil is still another direction to go. Or how about an omelet with pressed caviar and sour cream for something a bit different?

Wines: The Whites Have It

Not surprisingly, seafood based omelets most often do best with a white wine. Lobster omelets beg for a white Burgundy (remember, this is a French Chardonnay) or an unoaked Chardonnay as the lobster is one of the richer shellfish. You really can’t go wrong with a bubbly whether it be a Champagne or Sparkling wine. Many of the retailers (AJ’s, Feast, East Broadway Beverage House, Pastiche, Elle, Total Wines) have a nice selection of both. Schramsberg (California) and Gruet (New Mexico) offer delightful Sparkling wines and a selection of well known Champagnes such as Nicolas Feuillatte, Moet-Chandon, Roederer, Mumm, Tattinger and Krug at the higher end. A Pinot Gris or Blanc would work nicely, as well.

Cuisine: Meat based omelets

These usually include bacon, sausage or ham intermingled with veggies and some cheese. A popular choice is the traditional Denver Omelet with bacon, ham, red and green bell peppers, salt, pepper and butter. Want to add some cheese? A smoked cheddar works wonders! If you’re searching for a kick me up spiced egg dish, think about a Cajun Omelet with Andouille sausage, mushrooms, peppers, onions both yellow and green and jalapeno peppers. Or how about a bacon and blue cheese omelet?

Wines:   Adding meat(s) to an omelet usually adds that tasty element of fat and depth that can handle a lighter red such a light Pinot Noir or Cotes du Rhone. But an Alsatian Riesling or Pinot Gris would probably still be my first choice.

Cuisine: Veggie Omelets

Lighter in style, but no less tasty when prepared with accents and cheeses are veggie omelets. When I go with this style, I prefer a softer cheese such a Gruyere. A wild mushroom and goat cheese omelet complement one another, integrating the earthiness of the mushrooms with the fresh herbal and grassy nature of the goat’s cheese. If the goat cheese happens to be aged, it will take on more of an earthy character, working perfectly into the dish, as well.

Wines:   A Sauvignon Blanc, a bubbly or a Rose plays perfectly off of the fresh veggie flavors and if cheese is added, try a Pinot Blanc or even a Beaujolais. By the way, if red is a must have, a Rose or Beaujolais will never offend.

An alternative method to preparing your brunch is to start with a cuisine style from a region and then build from there. The advantage of this approach is that you can search for a regional wine, a strategy that I encourage in the Wine and Food Pairing Strategies Part I and Part II. If you start with your basic unaltered omelet, decide what region you would like to “visit” and go with ingredients and preparation style that reflects the country. For example, if you would like to go “French,” think about the roll of butter, provincial herb spice mixtures and cheeses such as swiss, goat cheese and blue cheese. Wild mushrooms or truffles are a wonderful addition as well as diced sautéed potatoes. From there, go for a French white, which just happens to be one of the varietals as mentioned above, either a white Burgundy or a Champagne.  

If you’re going southwest in theme, consider an omelet with ham, diced tomato, pepper and onion, cheddar cheese, tomato salsa and jalapeno, green chili or smoked New Mexico Hatch Chilis or perhaps Huevos Rancheros. With the spice character here, you could go with a New Mexico Gruet Sparkling Wine to maintain the regional approach. Off the regional theme, I would think about a Champagne, Spatlese German Riesling or a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

If a Spanish theme strikes your fancy, then try adding onions, diced potatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. Want to add some cheese to this, try some Spanish Manchego to maintain the theme. For a beverage, go outside the box and try a glass of Sherry. This works especially well if ham and manchego cheese are part of the equation.

Before I leave the “dairy” department, I couldn’t omit a few traditional eggs dishes such as eggs benedict (English muffin, ham or bacon, poached egg and Hollandaise sauce), eggs with steak in a traditional Hollandaise or red wine Hollandaise sauce as well as poached eggs (try it with baked Feta and olives). Eggs Benedict work well with a Champagne, Sparkling Wine, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc or an Alsatian Pinot Gris. Adding steak to eggs pushes the dish over to the “red” side and allows you to go with Red Burgundy.

Pancakes, French Toast and Crepes:

For pancakes alone, I would think about warm apple cider or a sparkling cider or pear juice. With crepes, if filled with fruits or sweets, there are several options from Champagne and Sparkling wine to Asti, Muscat, a sweet, late harvest Riesling, Sauternes and sparkling Vouvray. Remember that crepes are far more delicate than pancakes and deserve some elegance in the wine. If the filling is tends toward an earthy character, such as mushrooms and ham, you could drift over to a light Pinot Noir.

Fruits, Fruit Based Desserts:

With fruit, Champagne or Sparkling Wine is always a winner but it’s not the only way to go. A late harvest wine such as Riesling or Gewurztraminer are wonderful matches, as well. With a fruit based dessert, you can have some fun with the very sweet Ice Wine, a late harvest German Auslese Riesling and a Sauternes. Let us know what your plans this Valentine’s Day….we’d love to hear from you.

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Tags: AJ's Fine Foods, Beaujolais, Champagne, East Broadway Beverage House, Elle, Feast, Gewurztraminer, Iced Wine, Pastiche, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Rose, Sauvignon Blanc, Schramsberg Sparkling Wine, Total Wines, Valentine's Day