Beso Spritz

A little bright…a touch bitter…a hint savory..that’s our Beso Spritz, a refreshing sparkling wine cocktail with citrus, amaro, and your favorite bubbly red, Beso Ligero.

Mulled Wine

Want a treat that’s about everything cozy? Try our mulled wine recipe for a holiday staple that’s too good for just a special occasion.

Super-easy to make, we like ours with a super-fruity red. While UL Barbera’s our go to, mulled wine will be delicious with your favorite red or even a white wine or a cider. While it comes together quickly and can be made on a stove top, we recommend that you use a slow cooker if available and start it a few hours in advance so the spices bloom and integrate.

Squash Soup

Warm and comforting.
Filling.
Savory.
Better when made ahead.
Easy.
We’re talkin’ soup here.

We’re firm believers in soup and always include one in our wine club party buffet. We keep it frozen in meal-sized portions when we don’t feel like cooking. And, we confess, we use soup to take care of pantry odds and ends or leftovers that are still good food but, maybe, aren’t so interesting any more on their own.

Whether it’s from leftover or fresh, roasted squash makes all the difference in the delicious but easy to make soup. We’ll apologize up front for being vague with quantities: soup, we think, should be made to your taste. As we say in the Urban Legend manifesto, “trust your palate–it’s all about you.”

We think the same about wine pairing. Grenache Blanc works welll with the slight sweetness of the squash, but so, for that matter, does Barbera. Cuvee Lola accents savory notes.

Pecan Paté

What dishes pair best with wine? We vote for ones loaded with meaty, savory, umami. Now one of the official “tastes,” it literally means “essence of deliciousness” in its original Japanese. With their own savory flavors, red wines particularly love pairing with umami-rich foods–like, for example, our rich, creamy, savory Pecan Paté.

Try our utterly delicious Pecan Paté for an easy-to-make vegan appetizer that’s best if prepared in advance. A perennial favorite with the Urban Legend wine club, it’s a perfect complement to virtually any wine. Adapted from a recipe from Outpost Natural Foods (outpost.coop)

Turkey Cassoulet

Cassoulet is an iconic dish of Southern France. It’s peasant comfort food, made from whatever ingredients happened to be around—white beans, pork, sausage, slow cooked fowl (a confit if you’re feeling fancy)—and that’s where the arguing begins. Ingredients vary from town to town, and each is convinced that its particular combination is the best.

Cassoulet has a reputation for being difficult to make because of all the steps you might have to take to prepare its many possible ingredients. It couldn’t be simpler, actually, and lends itself well to having its ingredients made ahead and assembled in advance of cooking. In fact, we think it tastes better a day or two after preparation, so savor those leftovers!

Orange Almond Cake

In the dead of winter (or what passes for it in California), nothing brings the sunshine back more than citrus. As a winter treat, Steve created this delicious cake for oranges or a mix of orange with other citrus. It’s reminiscent of Middle Eastern or northern African recipes. It can be iced (we used a simple cream cheese icing), glazed with either a cooked juice/sugar syrup or marmalade, dollopped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with chopped nuts or powdered sugar—or some combination of all.

Yes, you read the recipe correctly: use WHOLE fruit. After all, some of the most intense aroma is in the rind, and boiling removes the intense bitterness of the white pith, leaving a pleasant “edge”—almost like the flavor of an Italian aperitivo. Depending on your combination of citrus you may want to adjust the amount of sugar you use; tangerines or blood oranges may require more than a typical navel orange. If seeds are present, remember to remove them before processing the fruit after boiling.

This cake pairs beautifully with Urban Legend’s Aglow, an orange dessert wine. There’s a bit of that edge with it, too—it’s not too sweet and has notes of baking spice from fermenting the grapes with the skins and seeds (just like a red) rather than just fermenting juice.

Isabel’s Mango Salsa

Many of you ask about the Urban Legend crew and what they’re up to. All are healthy and making the best of keeping close to home.
Isabel loves to garden and cook. She’s been experimenting in her kitchen and shared a delightful new recipe with us that she’s been enjoying with a refreshing glass of UL’s Grenache Blanc. Now you can enjoy them together, too.

Black-Eyed Pea Soup

Urban legend has it that eating black-eyed peas on New Years Day brings good luck and prosperity in the year to come. In the south, a traditional meal includes the peas, which symbolize prosperity as they swell when they cook; greens, which symbolize money; pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, representing positive motion; and corn bread, which represents gold.
Recipe Notes:
If you eat pork, finely slice 3 strips of bacon, then gently saute to render the fat. Once the bacon is just starting to brown and crisp, start adding your vegetables. Omit any additional oil in the soup.

Home-cooked black-eyed peas are more flavorful than the canned variety.  Use approximately 3/4 cup of dried to start and cook according to package instructions in water or stock, for even more flavor.

Choose your stock carefully.  Many stores’ prepackaged versions aren’t very tasty. We often purchase ours from restaurant commissary stores; many don’t require that you show commercial credentials or have an account to shop. Of course, if you have the time, home-cooked stocks are best. Don’t have veggie? Chicken stock works as well.
Black-eyed pea soup regularly appears on the Urban Legend menu at our February wine club party where we celebrate both traditional and lunar new years. Adapted from the Washington Post’s Voraciously recipes, our version is vegan; if you eat pork, saute some diced bacon to start your mirepoix, the slow-cooked diced vegetables that form the base for many soups. Instead of greens, we add a tangy relish of green olives. Corn bread is, of course, a great side, but we like accenting affluence with Uptown, our luxurious Bordeaux-style red wine blend (that won’t break the piggy bank).

Onion Confit Flatbread

Flatbreads make delicious appetizers or light dinners. One of our favorites is dressed with onion confit–deeply caramelized onions that are slowly cooked to a jam-like consistency. Savory and slightly sweet, it is a delicious foil for salty cured meats, tangy cheese, bitter greens, or sweet-tart fruit slices.
Flatbread crusts can anything from homemade pizza crusts to refrigerated or frozen ones. Thin and crispy are our favorites, but a foccacia-like base would be interesting too. Puff pastry is an option. And, if you’re eating gluten free, there are a number of frozen crusts that are delicious.