French Turbulence: Spicy basil beef and a red from the Vallee d'Aoste

Here is another recipe full of Asian flavors. It's rather easy to execute, tasty and easy to pair with a good wine. This beef dish has quite a spicy kick, so it would work well with a light to medium-bodied red wine with good acidity to refresh the palate. The wine I picked for the occasion is almost French (!) since it comes from the Vallee d'Aoste, this tiny region in north west Italy, bordering France, and where French and Italian are the official languages. When I was 8 or 10 years old, I even thought the region and its people were French! So there - here is an almost French wine for my blog.

Here is what I found about "La Kiuva" on the importer's website: "La Kiuva is a tiny co-op in the Vallée d'Aoste consisting of 60 growers comprising 25 hectares of vines and producing 8000 cases of 3 different wines. The DOC of Arnad-Montjovet is named for two small villages in the Vallee d'Aoste where the main grape grown is Picatendro, the local clone of Nebbiolo, which yields small bunches of tiny, ripe grapes that mature well in these northern climes and give intense fruit and depth to the local wines.

This wine is 75% Nebbiolo plus a range of the local grapes including some Pinot Noir."

Ok. Nice meeting you. I also found out that this wine received a long maceration on the skins and one third is raised in barrel, the rest in steel.

My tasting note: The Kiuva 2007 is a medium ruby color with hints of garnet on the rim. Its nose is still youthful with medium intensity aromas of blackcurrants and blackberries, earth, moss, white pepper, brambles, violet, dried herbs and a bit of licorice. On the palate, the wine is fully dry with medium plus acidity, medium alcohol and medium body. It has medium green tannins, medium intensity of flavors and medium length with a green brambly finish. Cassis, blackberries, redcurrants, green wood, white and green pepper, violet flowers, earth and moss mingle together. It overall had too much green-ness to my taste but this was fortunately working well with my dish's flavors. The retail price is about $18.

Here is to a simple and quick weeknight dinner!

Spicy Basil Beef: (Boeuf Saute au Basilic)

1/2 pound round steak (or a beef part fit for grilling), cut into thin slices

6 tbsp olive oil

Bunch of fresh basil

4 tbsp fish sauce

2 tsp brown sugar

2 red pimentos, cut into thin slices

6 garlic cloves

2 tsp freshly grated ginger

juice of a lemon

salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a wok. When hot, throw in half of the basil leaves and let them fry until golden and crisp. Turn the heat off. Drain the leaves on pieces of paper towel and reserve.

In a big ziplock bag, mix together the fish sauce and sugar. Add in the beef slices and marinate about 30 minutes.

Heat up the wok and throw in the pimentos, ginger and garlic. After a minute, add in the beef slices, and the rest of the basil leaves (chopped). Cook about 5 minutes and season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Serve with the fried basil leaves on top.