In this post, the Pinot Noir edition of 30 Days of Ontario Wine recipes, I think I've met my own challenge of preparing a dish with a reasonable amount of wine quite well. It's hard to write about two recipes for red wine (Cabernet Franc came earlier in the month) without considering the stew or meat-braise in one of its forms.
Helpfully, a rustic terrine is very much like a stew except that it pulls the flavour from the wine more slowly while marinating and then is tightly packed in the eponymous container so doesn't need as much liquid to cook in.
The 2009 Alive Pinot Noir from Malivoire is a delicious example (among many) from an excellent vintage for Niagara Pinots. The aroma and flavour are a raucous combination of tart and sweet cherry backed by ripe raspberry and a faint hint of something more floral. In this case the tannins do just what they should: provide an interesting edge that keeps the palate on its toes without (at all) dominating.
When I've been hunting for a terrine with meaty backbone I've had good luck with the wild boar one from Stephane Reynaud's Terrine. In this case I adapted the recipe to replace the blackcurrants with dried cherries–another Niagara product–to match the wine.
So, I've had my fair share of wild boar. By that I mean: The meat from animals more closely related (genetically speaking) to the ones who used to range wild in European forests than to the commodity pigs raised on modern farms. They're usually given more of a free run and fed a diet that's partly whole fruits and nuts, but I don't think they taste the same as an animal shot in a misty grove while he eats his last meal of wild mushrooms. They're not really wild at all.
That's relevant here because "wild boar terrine" are nice words to announce at a dinner party but "heritage pork terrine" will, really, do just as well. Farms like Perth Pork Products raise both and they can be found at Toronto butchers like Sanagan's Meat Locker.
Wild Boar and Cherry Terrine with Malivoire 2009 Alive Pinot Noir
- 3 onions, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large glass Pinot Noir
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
- 400 g wild boar shoulder, cut into small, 1-cm cubes
- 200 g bacon
- 200 g pork shoulder
- salt and freshly-ground black pepper
2009 Malivoire Alive Pinot Noir
Price: 29.95
Availability: At the winery
