(lively acoustic folk music) >>On today's show, it's Beliveau Farm Winery in Blacksburg, where I have the chance to sit down with Ivan and chat about his wines.

Back in the kitchen, we're going to make some shrimp-stuffed salmon, a blueberry peach pie, and some couscous peppers.

So go grab your glass.

It's time to "Un-Wine'd."

>>Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by: >>The Virginia Wine Board, promoting the interests of vineyards and wineries in the Commonwealth through research, education, and marketing.

There's a movement growing in Virginia's vineyards.

Discover more at Virginiawine.org.

(light groovy music) >>And by: >>I love salmon, I love shrimp, I love spinach.

I love all the flavors in this dish.

So I thought why not throw them together a little bit, see what we could make?

We're going to be serving this with a Vidal blanc.

So we've got this great shrimp.

I have about a pound of shrimp here, and what I wanna do is just cut those just a little bit.

I'm not looking at a thin cut; I'm not looking at making sure I have three pieces from each piece of shrimp.

I just want to give it a rough cut because it's going to be part of the stuffing.

So we don't want huge pieces, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

As I get those chopped, I'm moving them over to a little bowl, which is where I'll make that filling.

So let's pull this together.

Now, move all that to the bowl.

(light jazz music) All right, now I've got all of that cleared away, I'm going to start adding some great filling ingredients.

First of all, six ounces of frozen spinach that I've just thawed and squeezed relatively dry.

You don't want a lot of water in this.

Salmon and shrimp will already release the water, as will the other vegetables.

So let's make sure that's as dry as it can be.

And in my bowl here, I have about a 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of red onion that I put in the microwave with two tablespoons of butter, and I just heated it up for 45 seconds.

Now, I wanted to do that so that the onion was starting to cook already, and the butter adds a lot of flavor to this filling.

About six sun-dried tomato halves that I've just chopped.

And then I have a 1/4 cup of relatively finely diced red pepper.

I love the red pepper in this.

It gives that bright color and texture.

It's just fantastic.

And then I'm going to add a little Parmesan cheese.

This is about a 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.

And then let's start getting our real flavor ingredients.

So first of all, 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

And I'm just gonna sprinkle that around, kind of sprinkle that right out of the bowl.

And I have an 1/8 to a 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

And then I want to take about a tablespoon of honey.

Now, this is gonna give just a nice, sweet little balance to this filling.

All right, now let's give this a little stir.

So you just want to make sure ingredients together.

Make sure that you have all of your spinach unclumped.

All right, now, let's take some salmon.

You want a nice center-cut piece that will give you four really good servings.

So about four pounds.

Now I'm gonna turn it so it's the head toward me, or the tail toward me, to just cut through because we're going to butterfly a little bit.

Now what I wanna do is take a very thin cut, super thin, right here, from the top of the salmon, and you wanna make sure that it is bone free.

If you start to cut through bones, you feel bones, or you see bones, make sure you pull those.

Now we're gonna go back to the side here, and I want to filet this so it's just nice and thin.

You don't have to be perfect with this, but I'm looking at about a 1/2 an inch to take off the top because I just want to lay it out.

Just don't go all the way through the side if you can prevent it.

And if you have one of the pieces of salmon where the belly part is really thin, you can actually just use that as an overlap, and then your filet will be fine.

There you go!

Now let's take our filling and just put all down through that center.

This is a wonderful dish.

It's great for company.

You can make it ahead of time and just stick it in your refrigerator.

I've even been known to freeze these and then take it out, let it thaw, and then finish it all up in the oven.

All right, now, what I wanna do is take that skinny little piece and just flop it over like that.

And then I'm gonna take this bigger piece, and you can see that it overlaps just like that.

So what I'm looking for is four really nice-sized servings.

So they would be about eight-ounce servings of salmon.

So the first thing I'm gonna do is just cut down the center sideways, and then let's just divide each of those into two portions, just like that.

Now, salmon is such a great dish to serve for guests because it's a beautiful fish, it will stay nice and moist for you, and you can do so much with it.

So here we're just gonna take that beautiful piece of filled salmon and let's just start putting it on our baking sheet.

I always like to cover my baking sheet for this with a little aluminum foil.

I think it gives it a nice browning effect, and it keeps your pan so clean.

Now I have a little olive oil.

I want to just take that.

It's about a tablespoon of olive oil.

And I'm going to just brush the top of the salmon just ever so lightly with the olive oil that will give it nice color, it keeps it from getting dried out on the top, and it's just right for this dish.

Now, a little salt and pepper.

Let's just give it a little bit (pepper mill whirring) of a coarse ground pepper.

You don't need a lot, but I like that little crunch on the top and that little extra flavor.

(salt mill whirring) Now, let's pop this in the oven, 400 degrees, for about 20 minutes, and then I'll be back to show you a beautifully plated piece of salmon.

What a beautiful plate.

Now you have a lot of vegetables already in this.

You don't have to serve aside a vegetable, but I love the green peas to pop the plate.

And I particularly love this with rice and with Vidal blanc.

It's just an incredible recipe, and I know you and your guests will love it.

(light jazz music) (light groovy music) Well, Ivan, thank you so much for having me here at Beliveau Farm Winery.

This is an incredible space.

Tell me how you got here.

>>We got here from coming to Virginia Tech primarily.

I had traveled through Blacksburg in the early '70s and just fell in love with the mountains and the beauty of the place.

>>Yeah.

>>And then, over time, we've started thinking about the idea that maybe we could do grapes.

And we thought about it for a long time.

We traveled the world.

We visited wineries in fundamentally all the continents.

Except Antarctica, they don't have any.

(Tassie laughing) So we were able to taste wines and taste terroir of those wines.

And people don't understand that you may not like it the first day, but you may love it the third day.

>>Oh, yeah.

>>Because it's really about the wine and the people, and the food.

>>Yes.

>>And so we fell in love with that and we decided to create this on this high mountain vineyard.

>>So, Ivan, how many acres do you have here, and what do you have planted?

>>Oh, so we have 165 acres.

We have about 13 acres of vines.

>>Wow.

>>We now have settled in on the grapes that seem to do well here.

>>Yeah.

>>Did you want to hear those?

>>Oh, I'd love to hear about those!

>>So the reds are Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, Chambourcin, and a small patch of Pinot noir.

>>Oh.

>>My favorite wine.

Favorite grape.

But it's been hard to grow.

>>Yeah.

>>And then the whites, we do Pinot gris, Cabernet, Vidal blanc, and Chardonel.

So that's what we do here.

They have done quite well.

>>That's great.

>>In this high mountain vineyard.

>>I always wondered about this area and if you had problems with any kind of mold or mildew, but I guess with the breezes, that probably helps.

>>Yeah, the breezes help, but we have mold like every vineyard in Virginia.

>>Sure.

>>We have some mold that everyone has, but we do not have mold that others in warmer climates have.

>>Right.

>>So we really have only one primary mold.

Well, we have more than that.

We have something called black rot.

And we have something called powdery mildew.

>>Oh, sure.

>>And those are truly the most critical.

>>Yeah.

And they're pretty common, right?

>>They're very common.

>>Yes.

Yes.

Wow.

Well, it's a beautiful property, and I am loving my time here.

>>Ah, fantastic.

(Tassie chuckles) Yeah, we love being here.

We're pretty shocked that we could actually acquire this kind of property.

>>Oh, yeah.

>>Close to Blacksburg, so I could do the dream of making wine- >>Yes.

>>And not have to move somewhere else.

(light groovy music) >>I love peach pie.

Peach and blueberries are my two favorite fruits.

So I decided to pair up this wine with a peach and blueberry pie.

So in my bowl, four cups of peaches, one cup of ripe blueberries.

And then I want to add about a cup of sugar.

(light jazz music) And then we're gonna add a 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour.

Now make sure that as you do this, you just kind of sift it out all over.

You don't want huge clumps of flour anywhere.

And even though you're stirring, if you put all the flour in one clump, that's where it's going to stay.

One of my very favorite flavors is cinnamon.

So let's take a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and just sprinkle that all over the top.

Now I'm gonna take the juice of half a lemon.

Now it doesn't matter what size lemon; just the juice of half a lemon; it can be a large lemon, it can be a small lemon.

Always be sure to catch those seeds.

You don't want anyone biting into one of those seeds in your beautiful blueberry peach pie.

So let's stir all these ingredients through.

And you really wanna make sure that that sugar and flour is mixed up.

It's melding through all of this beautiful fruit.

All right, now we've got it nicely mixed.

All right, now let's pull this over.

I have the bottom of my pie pan just layered here with my single crust.

You want to make sure that you go on the edges right here in these corners.

Press out really well so you don't end up with little bubbles under there.

So just kind of take your finger, make sure that it's all down in the corners.

There we go.

Now let's take our peaches, blueberries, sugar, flour, and cinnamon, and just pour into that crust.

Oh, I could taste it already.

It's just my favorite flavors.

Love them.

Love them.

Now you can also do this with apples.

Any kind of fruit really works well as long as it's a good pie fruit.

Not all fruits are good pie fruits.

Pineapple, for example, is not great in a pie like this.

All right.

Let's scatter it out well.

If you see that there are blueberries missing in a section, just pull a few over.

And you want to make sure that your pie filling is not on the edge, just like that.

Now let's take this top crust and we'll just lay it over the top like that.

So you want the top crust to kind of lay over that edge right there and just kind of lay it over and tuck it all the way around.

Just like this.

Just lay and tuck, lay and tuck until you get all the way around the pie.

Now even though you're sealing this, you'll still get a little bit of runoff in your oven.

So you want to make sure you have a cookie sheet under your pie plate because you don't want all of this sugar and fruit burning in the bottom of your oven.

Now you can take a fork at this point and just press all the way down, but I like to give it a pretty little edge.

So I just pinch with my thumb and forefinger all the way around, just like that.

Now the last thing we wanna do poke a couple of holes in it just like this; that will allow the steam to escape and not break the crust on top.

I'll be back in a minute with a beautiful piece of blueberry peach pie to serve with this Vidal blanc.

I baked my pie at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Then I reduced the heat to 375 and baked for an additional 40 to 50 minutes.

Mine came out at 47 minutes to this beautiful color of golden brown.

Served with this Vidal blanc it is incredible.

(light jazz music) (light groovy music) So, Ivan, I've been dying to try these wines, and I know your signature wine is your Cab Franc.

So do you mind if I try?

>>Please!

(Tassie laughs) And I'll talk a little bit about why we think it's such a good wine.

>>Okay, great.

(sniffing) Oh, the aroma's amazing.

>>It's got a fruity aroma.

>>It does.

>>And it's got a lot of complexity.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>And that's really from the soil.

We realized when we did an overlay of the soil types that they had done back in the '40s, that we would have a variety of different soils.

We have heavy red clay over there.

We had gravel up there.

We have silt over here, we have sand over here, and we have heavy red clay over there.

And so we could put the specific grapes into the soil that are supposedly the best.

>>Well, this is beautiful.

Now, does the elevation also change- >>Tremendously.

>>Yes!

>>The elevation, because of the high elevation, what you don't get is you don't get the burnt-out acid.

You still have a nice acid complexity.

>>Yes.

>>Which is quite intriguing.

>>Right.

>>And then you also still get that little subtle, interesting taste that come from that soil.

>>Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, and for a cooler climate, I'm not getting a lot of that green pepper that a lot of times you get from a Cabernet Franc.

>>That's so interesting.

>>Yeah.

>>That's a trimming technique.

>>Yes.

(laughing) I love it.

>>So you have to do some pretty interesting trimming to get the herbaceous taste out of the Cabernet Franc.

>>Yes.

Get that canopy so that you're- >>So it's open.

>>Yeah.

>>And you get the leaves away from the grapes themselves.

And we spend a lot of time doing that because it is one of our signature wines.

>>Sure, sure.

And then we have this white.

>>Yes.

So this is called Vidal blanc.

It is still dry, it has a touch of sweet.

And that was to balance the acids.

>>Okay.

>>It is grown in silty sand.

>>Ha.

>>Which is what gives it its interesting taste and profile.

>>Oh, right, right.

>>And what we do is we grow all of our primary white grapes in this silty sand and silty clay.

>>Okay.

>>That's because that develops kind of the minerality of the wine.

>>Yes, yes.

>>And that's what we're gonna get here.

>>I love it.

(both supping) (light jazz music) Mm, mm!

(gulps) I do get that minerality.

>>Yep.

And that's- >>It's beautiful.

>>Basically from the sand, and the silty sand.

>>So this Vidal blanc is nice and dry.

I love that it has that great, strong minerality.

And what I also love is that it still is really fruit-forward.

>>It's fruit-forward, and it's refreshening.

>>Yes.

>>Yeah.

>>Very refreshing.

>>And that's because of the acid.

>>Oh, yeah.

>>Because we're a cool region, a high mountain vineyard.

Makes all the difference in what this is gonna come out to be.

>>Oh, absolutely.

Well, this is absolutely incredible.

I love your wines.

>>Thank you.

>>And I'm really glad that I found you.

>>Ah.

(both laughing) I'm glad you found us.

>>So to you, to Joyce, to Beliveau Farm Winery, (glasses clinking) thank you so much for having me.

>>Oh, thanks for having us.

(light groovy music) >>I'm going to make a filling for you today that I'm going to use in peppers, but you can also use it in zucchini.

You can just use it in a dish, and you can use it to stuff eggplant.

It's a versatile filling called couscous.

So what I'm gonna do is pop my cooktop on to about medium heat, and I'm going to start adding my mirepoix vegetables.

Now you remember what those are: carrot, celery, onions.

These are the combination in almost all French cooking.

But today we're gonna make a simple, almost Italian flavor.

So I've got a nice hot cooktop here with two tablespoons of oil in my pan.

First I'm going to add one carrot that's been completely diced, and I like to dice this small.

All right.

Here we've got our carrots.

(pan sizzling) (light jazz music) We'll add our onion.

Now this is about a half of an onion.

Again, a nice small cut.

And then I have three ribs of celery.

(pan sizzling) Let's just put those in.

Now the next thing I'm gonna add is one red bell pepper that I've kind of minced.

This is a fine chop to a mince.

It adds great color, really, really good vitamins in there.

Remember, peppers have wonderful vitamin C. We're going to put in one jalapeno that's also been minced.

(pan sizzling) Now a clove of garlic.

And last but not least, one medium zucchini that's chopped.

Now you don't have to put all of these vegetables in, but I really love them.

Now let's add some flavor to our pot.

So let's go with a 1/2 teaspoon of basil.

And this is dried basil.

If you want to use fresh, great, triple that amount.

And a teaspoon of oregano.

Now for this, I'm actually using garlic salt and onion salt.

If you find that your stock that you're using has a lot of salt in it, then by all means just use the powder but reduce it by half.

So I have a 1/2 teaspoon onion salt and a 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt.

Now our vegetables are all ready for our next step.

We're gonna add one cup of couscous.

This is a wheat product, same as semolina.

It's delicious.

It's a fine-grain-looking kind of thing.

A lot of people think that couscous is its own grain.

It's not.

It actually comes from wheat.

And before we get too far, let's add a teaspoon of salt.

Now I want to add a cup and a half of vegetable stock to this.

(pan sizzling) Mm!

Now I am going to cover my pot only for a minute or two while that couscous cooks.

It takes no time at all.

Couscous is really super fast.

Now when your recipe calls for couscous and it just says couscous, a lot of times it's going to be this fine semolina couscous.

A lot of times, though, you'll see Israeli couscous or pearl couscous, that's a little bit bigger.

It's almost the size of the end of my little pinky fingernail, and they're little pearl beads.

Those you cook just like any other pasta.

But this is super fast.

(mixture bubbling) Yep.

You can see how quickly it absorbs that liquid.

This is about halfway through.

There we go.

Let me just put the lid on for another minute and it will be completely done.

Now while that happens, I'm going to get my peppers ready.

So I have a couple of bell peppers here.

This actually makes enough to stuff about six bell peppers.

It's a lot.

So what I wanna do is just cut that pepper in two, (knife tapping) and then we're gonna pull out all of the insides.

So I'm just gonna give a little cut, just very gently around the stem.

(knife scraping) One side, then the other.

And then let's just pull that stem, the ribs, and the seeds all out just like that.

Super, super easy.

Now the last thing we're gonna do with this particular dish is to add a little bit of chickpea and some tomato.

Now you can see our couscous has absorbed all of that water.

It's beautiful.

And now we want to add a little texture for the end.

And we're going to add the tomatoes with their juice.

Because what will happen is that juice will immediately blend into that filling and be absorbed.

Now, like I said, this is really good for zucchini; it's great for peppers.

It's good plain.

Sometimes I'll just put it in a little dish and just bake it as a casserole.

It also makes a great covered dish for when you're going to a church picnic or something.

And you can make it, put the cheese on top, bake it, and it's all done, and it's so wonderful, either cold or hot.

Now let's fill those pepper halves and just kind of pack it in.

This really has a lot of great nutrition in it, and it is a fabulous dish for vegetarians.

So we're gonna fill those just like that.

And then we wanna take a little bit of mozzarella cheese.

And we're just gonna top it with some mozzarella cheese and a little Parmesan like that.

Then we pop these in the oven at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, and then I'll be back to plate them up and show you some delicious peppers with couscous.

Now, doesn't that look fantastic?

Served on a bed of creamed spinach.

It's so amazing.

With this Cab Franc, it just makes a perfect meal.

So, Cab Franc has a little bit of that gravelly flavor.

Some berry, often that capsicum, that pepper flavor.

But I'll tell you, wrapped up with a stuffed pepper like this, it's absolutely amazing.

And I hope you'll enjoy a glass of Cab Franc and this couscous pepper.

(light jazz music) (light groovy music) Well, I hope you had as much fun as I did today.

Many special thanks to my guest, Ivan, from Beliveau Farm Winery.

If you enjoyed the recipes I paired up with their wines, you can get them and a whole lot more at VPM.org/Unwined.

And until next time, I'm Tassie Pippert saying go grab that glass.

It's always time to "Unwine'd."

>>Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by: >>The Virginia Wine Board, promoting the interests of vineyards and wineries in the Commonwealth through research, education, and marketing.

There's a movement growing in Virginia's vineyards.

Discover more at Virginiawine.org.

(light groovy music) >>And by: (bright chiming music)