Rosé and the Elimination Diet

I was going to call this post, “Into every meal, a little rosé must fall,” but that would make it sound like I drink wine at breakfast.  I don’t. However, I do exit my house in the morning and think of wine, as I step around the original versions of my wine thermals that now serve as planters lining my walkway.  I digress. Surprise!

A friend of mine who has been exploring the virtues of rosé as well, recently had a rosé moment (or two):

I was planning a dinner for a friend whom I hadn’t seen in a while. When we made our date, she informed me that she had a challenge for me. She was on an elimination diet and had been for almost 2 months.  I thought, “Well, I really haven’t seen you in a while.” 

She couldn’t have dairy, eggs, soy or gluten.  I said, “No problem, this will be fun.”

First thing that came to mind was spring salad from the garden.  The arugula is kickin’ right now, and so are the radishes.  Problem is, it’s still pretty cool outside and while a salad is great in the heat of summer, we all want a little more to generate our own heat when it’s 50 degrees and rainy.

So, I thought, “Gluten-free cornbread to go with it.”  I had just learned that I could substitute flax seed membrane for eggs.  You just soak the flax seed for a while and it releases a membrane akin to egg white.  So cool! 

Okay, what about the protein?

I settled on fresh tilapia. I wanted to marinate it with white wine and fresh squeezed orange juice.  Then, I remembered the bottle of rosé I picked up earlier in the week.  I’ve always got wine around for drinking and cooking–it’s part of my Italian heritage! I had this flash sense of rosé-infused tilapia crossing my tongue and felt truly inspired.  But ,then I looked at the bottle and realized that I didn’t want that wine touching the heat. It held this soothing hue of antique pink and something about it told me there was age in it that wasn’t measured by years. I needed to honor that.  So, I threw some local Gewürztraminer into the marinade with pulverized oranges and a little olive oil.  Then, I made a chutney of sorts—with avocado, oranges, chile, cayenne, garlic, cilantro, lemon balm and a little of this and a little of that.

The outcome? 

Delicate tilapia topped with avocado orange chutney; served with moist cornbread and a fresh, spicy garden salad.  The wine pairing: Sanglier Rose Du Tusque from Sonoma County.  The crispness of the wine balanced the subtle spice of the meal and its softness really brought the toasty warmth we needed on a rainy evening.

Even though I served a meal that eliminated many things, we felt a lack of nothing and went to bed dreaming of pink raindrops.

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