Mongolian Mushrooms & Brussels Sprouts with Pacific Rim Dry Riesling
I adore the holidays; I love everything about them from decorating, baking, cooking, entertaining but what I don’t enjoy is the extra calories and the expansion of my waistline. As we get closer to the enormous feasts, I have shifted my diet to keep the midriff from expanding. I recently cut out most dairy and meat from my diet. The entertaining part of this is that I get to create new creative recipes.
One of those recipes is my Mongolian Mushrooms and Brussels sprouts served with a simple cauliflower ‘rice’. This is a simple, straightforward meal and you can easily produce it on any weeknight. The classic flavors of Mongolian Beef work with the meatiness of the mushrooms and the tasty Brussels sprouts.
The cauliflower ‘rice’ works great along with the saucy dish. This is a nice alternative from the typical carb and helps save calories. You can buy frozen riced cauliflower, but it’s simple to prepare on your own. Just clean a head of cauliflower and cut into florets, then pulse them in a food processor until you have the little rice like bits! Just sauté the riced cauliflower in a sauté pan with a little peanut oil over medium high heat, season with salt and pepper!
For a wine to pair with this style of meal I regularly go straight for a Dry Riesling. Recently I received a sample of the Pacific Rim and Companies Dry Riesling and so I popped that bottle open to enjoy alongside this meal. This wine is nice and crisp, and full of flavors of citrus, jasmine and minerals. The flavors and crisp dry quality of this wine worked with the umami flavors in this meal.
Pacific Rim Wines are available pretty much everywhere and at a price point of $12 a bottle they are a good affordable option for an everyday drinker. If you love white wines and wish to change up your routine add Riesling to your cellar. I love to find a great deal on a good Washington Wine. Pacific Rim knows Riesling, 90% of what they produce are varieties of Riesling, from sweet to dry. They source the grapes for these wines in the Columbia Valley.
Riesling is an excellent wine to serve along with many foods. What I love is that food you think will be troublesome to pair always seems to work with Riesling. Most any Asian style dishes will work with a Riesling. Here are some of my older recipes that would work perfectly with this wine. On one of my trial runs for creating this recipe I made a collection of Thai style dishes to try with the Pacific Rim Dry Riesling. I made a simple vegetarian Pad Thai, and a Thai Peanut Sauce Carrot & Cucumber salad. These complimented the wine perfectly. Watch for those recipes soon.
So as we get into the stressful holiday season, grab a bottle of Washington’s own Pacific Rim Dry Riesling and prepare a simple yet delicious meal and just relax.
- 1 stalk of Brussels sprouts, about 2 pounds
- 1/4 cup peanut oil
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 3/4 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced thick
- 1/4 cup honey (you can substitute agave for a vegan option)
- 1/4 mushroom broth or water
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 4 cloves garlic, grated or minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- cilantro leaves
- green onions, diced
- dry roasted peanuts
- Clean, trim and cut each sprout in half. Place all sprouts in a zip lock bag along with the oil and corn starch. Shake about and set aside until ready.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Shake out the sprouts on a baking sheet, bake in oven for 20 minutes, shake and bake another 5-10 minutes.
- Prepare the sauce by mixing all ingredients together, whisk gently but vigorously to incorporate the honey, set aside.
- While sprouts are in the oven, in a large wok over medium high heat, sauté the mushrooms with a tablespoon of peanut oil, sauté until golden. Lower the heat to a simmer and add in the sauce, bring to a simmer.
- Dump the crisp sprouts into the mushroom and sauce mixture and stir gently to incorporate!
- Serve along with cauliflower rice and garnish with peanuts, green onions, and cilantro!
