Vouvray Poached Pineapple with Rosemary Whipped Cream aka #CIC meets #Frenchwinophiles.

I joined a new group....yes, another one...but this one is another wine group that is concentrating on French wines.  We drink wine with dinner nearly every night so this group's blog posts should be a piece of cake for me.  I also have been wanting to get more familiar with the wines of France since we received a lovely wine box containing French wines  from Bordeaux for Christmas from our daughter and son in law.

Our new group, created by Christy of  Confessions of a Culinary Diva, will feature a different wine region of France each month.  This month we are looking a Loire Valley.  Loire Valley is located in Central France and borders the Loire River. It is sometimes called the Garden of France because of the abundance or vineyards, fruit orchards, and asparagus and artichoke fields (source:Wikepedia).

The region specializes in white wines but does have some Cabernet Franc blends available.  Among the white wines available in the region are the wines from Vouvray featuring the Chenin Blanc grape. This is the wine I chose to feature.  With that out of the way I just needed to figure out what food I would feature with the Vouvray.

As luck would have it, another one of my groups, Crazy Ingredient Challenge was due to be posted the same day as French Winophiles.  Crazy Ingredient Challenge is the brainchild of Dawn from Spatulas on Parade.  This group votes on ingredients that you would not necessarily think would pair well together and then we are challenged to create a recipe using the ingredients.  This month's ingredients (as you can see from Dawn's cool graphic above) are Pineapple and Rosemary.

While browsing the web for ideas for this months CIC I came across a recipe by Chef Matt Selby, for a Riesling Poached Pineapple with Rosemary Whipped Cream and Pink Peppercorns.  I was very happy.  I knew with just a few adaptations this would be the perfect recipe for both posts that were due today.

I opened the wine and took a taste.  I had expected the wine to be sweeter but to my delight is was bright and quite acidic.  I am not a big sweet wine lover so I was very pleased but a little concerned about how it would pair with the Pineapple and Rosemary.

So without further ado...Let me introduce Vouvray Poached Pineapple with Rosemary Whipped Cream.  Other than the obvious adaptation of changing the wine used, I halved the recipe and spiced the poaching syrup with chili peppers instead of the pink peppercorns.

This is it.

The only other ingredients in this dish are sugar and vanilla.

I made this dish one evening after dinner. I steeped the rosemary in the cream and vanilla and then placed it, together in the refrigerator.  I poached the pineapple in the wine with sugar and chili paste. Allowed it to cool and into the refrigerator it went as well.

The following morning, when I got done with my farm chores and straightening the house, I remembered about my pineapple and wine in the fridge. I pulled out the cream and it was very thick. When I pulled out the stems of rosemary they kind of disintegrated.  I removed what I could and left the rest.  I placed this into my stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and began whipping. Almost immediately it became buttery in consistency.  I tasted it and was half tempted to leave it as a herb butter....it was tasty!!  But that would not have helped me with this recipe so I added another cup of heavy cream and whipped it up with the others.  Perfection.  I tasted it and loved it.  It was light and creamy with a very subtle but distinctive rosemary flavor.  I decided not to add any sugar to the cream.

I scooped the pineapple into a serving dish along with some of the vouvray syrup.  It was beautiful. Shimmering with the syrup and flecked with red pepper flakes.  I put on a dollop of cream, garnished with a sprig of rosemary and poured a glass of wine.  I was ready for my photo shoot.  I took several photos and was pleased with them so I was really hoping that the dish was going to be tasty and the pairing was going to work.

I took a bite.  The pineapple was almost cloying in it's sweetness but then I got a bit of a bite from the chilies and the soft, creamy rosemary goodness of the whipped cream and it knocked my socks off!! I could not stop taking bite after bite after bite.  I took a sip of the wine..OH EM GEE...I am so glad that it was not a sweet wine.  It immediately cut through the sweetness of the pineapple and made my mouth tingle with joy.  

So here I was at 10:30 in the morning having Vouvray Poached Pineapple and a glass of wine for breakfast.  I tried to tell myself that this was not a proper breakfast for a woman in her 50's who was home alone and skipping her Zumba class.  You know what myself said back to me??  "Zip it Lady...this is the best breakfast ever!!!"

I couldn't wait for Frank to get home.  I met him at the door with this creation and he was as crazy about it as I.  I cannot wait for my next dinner party.  I already have dessert all planned.  I am printing the recipe to make 4 servings.

Vouvray Poached Pineapple with Rosemary Whipped Cream

adapted from a recipe by Matt Selby shared with jamesbeard.org

2 c. heavy cream, divided

2 sprigs rosemary

1 pineapple, peeled,cored and cut into 1" pieces

1 bottle Vouvray wine

2 c. sugar

pinch of salt

1 t. vanilla paste

1/2 t. chili paste

Place 1 c. of the cream into a saucepan with the rosemary.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes.  Pour into a container and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Place the pineapple into another saucepan and add the wine, sugar, salt, vanilla and chili paste. Whisk to dissolve the sugar and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to low and allow pineapple to poach for 15 minutes.  Pour into a container and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Remove the rosemary steeped cream from the refrigerator and remove all stems and large pieces of rosemary.  Place the cream mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add the second cup of cold heavy cream and whip until soft and creamy.

Divide the pineapple between 4 serving bowls.  Drizzle with the syrup and top with a dollop of the whipped cream,  Garnish with additional rosemary sprigs if desired. Print Recipe

Pop open a second bottle of Vouvray, sit back and enjoy.  Then please comment and let me know if you loved this as much as we did.  I cannot get it out of my head!! 

Let's take a look at what the others created today using Pineapple and Rosemary.

An InLinkz Link-up

And here are some more great wine and food pairings featuring wines from the Loire Valley.

•  Martin from Enofylz Wine Blog shares "Tale Of A Crémant de Loire Brut Rose At The Table" 
• Jeff from from foodwineclick indulges in "Saint-Jacques Poêlées & Sancerre"
•  Sarah from Curious Cuisiniere brings us "Grilled Salmon with Beurre Blanc and Loire Valley Muscadet" 
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on a Farm tempts us with "Vouvray Poached Pineapple with Rosemary Whipped Cream featuring Bardon and Guestier aka CIC meets French Winophiles" 
• David from Cooking Chat shares "Grilled Shrimp with Pouilly-Fumé 
• Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla brings us "Gravlax, Goat Cheese, & French Sorrel Stuffed Squash Blossoms + Patient Cottat Sancerre 2013"
•  Anna from Anna Dishes is still whipping up her culinary creation Strawberry Lavender Compote with Loire Valley Brute Rose
•  Tammy from Telling Stories from Chez Nous is sharing Lemon Garlic Chicken with Pan Sauce paired with Oisly & Thesse Sauvignon”
•  Christy at Confessions of a Culinary Diva is sharing "Chard Roasted Salmon with 2013 Pouilly Fume and 2014 Sancerre Rosé"