The Bryant Family Vineyard Cookbook

Recipes from Great Chefs and Friends

by Barbara Bryant, Betsy Fentress

Price: $50.00
ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-6977-1
ISBN-10: 0-7407-6977-4
Format: Hardcover
Size: 8 1/2 X 11 3/4 in.
Page Count: 192 pages

Gourmand Cookbook Award Winner!

Bryant Family Vineyard Cabernet, first produced in 1992, is internationally recognized and well loved by wine connoisseurs. It has been featured in Wine Spectator, Decanter, the Wine Advocate, Food & Wine, and many other publications. Though the winery itself is not open to the public, vinter Barbara Bryant tells the story of the vineyard and National Geographic photographer Robert Holmes captures the beauty of Pritchard Hill in both springtime and harvest season. The Bryant Family Vineyard Cookbook features more than eighty favorite recipes from the nation’s top chefs inspired by their passion for Bryant Family wine.

For the first time, The Bryant Family Vineyard Cookbook will give readers unprecedented access to this exclusive, private vineyard through four-color photography. In this elegant, cloth-covered volume, wine lovers will not only discover the pride and craftsmanship that give the world-famous Bryant Family Vineyard its stellar reputation, but also the delicious dishes inspired by this illustrious wine.

Daniel Boulud

Daniel Boulud’s inspiration to become a chef came from the women in his family—his grandmother and mother—from his native Lyon, France, where the influences of Mediterranean cuisine are strong. I love to serve this tart for lunch, brunch, or a light dinner when summer tomatoes are at their peak with a bowl of seasonal greens seasoned with a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette. Tomatoes, lemons, olives, and garlic are traditional niçoise ingredients.

Tart Shell
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Tomatoes and Lemon Custard
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Leaves from 2 sprigs thyme, chopped
8 plum tomatoes, peeled, halved, and seeded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
¼ cup pitted niçoise olives
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped basil leaves

Make the Tart Shell:
Put the flour, butter, lemon zest, and salt in a food processor and pulse until crumbly. Add the egg and pulse just until moist curds form—don’t overprocess. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it once or twice so it holds together. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Wrapped airtight, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.)

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place an 8-inch tart pan with a removable bottom or a tart ring on the sheet. Lightly dust a work surface and the top of the dough with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a round that is approximately 10 inches in diameter and ⅛ inch thick. As you roll, lift the dough and, if necessary, dust with flour.

Scott Bryant

No other dish goes as well with the heartiest of red wines as braised short ribs. Rich and deeply flavored from a long, slow braise, these ribs are served with gravy on a bed of polenta or whipped potatoes and pan-roasted root vegetables. Scott Bryan created this recipe for the New York restaurant Veritas, where owner Park Smith’s wine list of more than 100,000 bottles guarantees plenty of choices for matching these short ribs.

Serves 4

4 plum tomatoes
4 pounds short ribs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons butter
1 large head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
2 (750-milliliter) bottles light, fruity red wine, such as Dolcetto
6 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs sage
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
½ pound porcini mushrooms, sliced
4 tablespoons sliced chives, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Drop in the tomatoes for 10 to 15 seconds to loosen the skins. Remove the tomatoes with a wire skimmer and rinse under cold running water. Gently slit the skins and peel them off. Halve the tomatoes, squeeze to remove the seeds, and dice the pulp; set aside. Season the short ribs liberally with salt and pepper.

Place a Dutch oven over high heat and allow to sit for 1 minute. Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in the pot and immediately add the ribs, searing them until well browned, 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Transfer the ribs to a plate. Return the Dutch oven to the stovetop, decrease the heat to low, add the garlic and tomatoes, and cook until soft. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the ribs and baste with the wine and vegetables. Add 2 of the rosemary sprigs and the thyme and sage sprigs. Cover, place in the oven, and braise for 2½ hours, or until the ribs are tender.

Charlie Trotter

Only Charlie Trotter could take something as dense as a spice cake and turn it into the marvel that this recipe is. Here are his tasting notes: “This fragrant spice cake is perfect as a light ending to a substantial meal or as an early course in a dessert progression. The cake can even be served as a part of a breakfast menu because it is not very sweet. This is a great make-ahead preparation; the cake does not suffer in any way from being baked the day before.”

Charlie Trotter is known for taking an old favorite—here spice cake—and putting a completely new spin on it. As he wrote to us: “This fragrant spice cake is perfect as a light ending to a substantial meal or as an early course in a dessert progression. The cake can even be served as a part of a breakfast menu because it is not very sweet. This is a great make-ahead preparation; the cake does not suffer in any way from being baked the day before.” If Lady apples are not available, substitute any small cooking apple.

Serves 9

Apple Chips
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups water
18 paper-thin slices Lady apples or other small apples (seeds removed, but not peeled or cored)

Cake
Vegetable oil or nonstick vegetable spray, for greasing pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for flouring pan
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
¼ cup finely chopped fresh ginger
About ½ cup milk, as needed
2 tablespoons brandy
1 ½ teaspoons rice wine vinegar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
¾ cup light molasses
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

Apples and Apple-Ginger Sauce
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup water
3 Lady apples, peeled, halved, cored, and cut into ⅛-inch slices
¼ cup finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

Mascarpone Cream
1 cup mascarpone cheese
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Make the apples and apple-ginger sauce:
Cook the granulated sugar and ½ cup of water in a medium heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium heat until golden brown and caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the apple slices and simmer gently for 3 minutes. Using a wire skimmer or tongs, remove the apples, allowing excess sauce to drip back into the pan; transfer to a bowl and set aside. Add the ginger to the pan. Boil until reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the ginger; set aside.

Make the mascarpone cream:
Using an electric mixer, whisk the mascarpone, cream, and granulated sugar until stiff peaks form. Cover and refrigerate until needed. To serve, cut the cake into 2 ½-inch squares and use a round cutter to cut a 1-inch hole in the center of each piece. Lightly dust each dessert plate with confectioners’ sugar and set a piece of cake in the center. Fill the hole in the cake with the mascarpone mixture and top with some of the warm apples. Spoon some of the mascarpone on top of the apples and stand two Clear Lady Apple Chips in the mascarpone. Drizzle the ginger-apple sauce around the plate.