A TOAST TO THE SAVORY GRAPE
Wild and native mustang grapes are already ripening on South Texas and Hill Country vines, and the first wave of other cultivated varieties is a few weeks away at regional vineyards.
But there’s no need to go picking. Grapes are a yearround staple in nearly every supermarket across the country,
and they deserve a bigger place in your kitchen than you might realize. It’s hard to resist a sticky-sweet fruit salad or candylike sorbet made from fresh grapes, but the fruit has a savory side worth celebrating as well.
Grapes can bring sweetness, acidity and texture to any number of dishes, and those properties can be capitalized on depending on cooking technique. This should not come as much of a surprise — cooks have been adding the flavor of grapes to their savory dishes via a splash or two of wine for centuries. The fresh fruit delivers many of those same qualities.
We showcase that diversity in three recipes that find fresh and ripe grapes roasted, sautéed and braised. The techniques modify the sweetness, acidity and texture of the fruit for results that range from tart with a slight crunchy pop to syruplike and silken.
Roasting concentrates the sweetness and tempers the acidity of grapes, without
reducing them to a raisinlike dryness. When added to a salad, such as the updated Waldorfesque recipe in Hetty McKinnon’s new cookbook “Family,” roasted grapes provide the familiar dish with a more subtle and refined flavor.
A quick toss in a frying pan to barely blister the grapes has a similar effect, although it keeps much of the grape’s tartness intact. Paired with a side dish of wild rice and pecans, sautéed grapes bring verve and swagger to the otherwise earthy ensemble.
Dried fruit, including grapes in the form of raisins, long has been a staple of braised-meat dishes. When used fresh, however, braised grapes almost dissolve into a silken sauce. There’s an Italian tradition of braising sausages with grapes, a technique that also lends itself well to Mexicaninspired flavors as showcased in a pan of chorizo links braised with onions, jalapeño and grapes.
These recipes are best made with traditional table grapes such as the red and green varieties found in grocery stores. Mustang, muscadine, concord and other thick-skinned grapes are better suited for jellies, jams and other forms of preserves. Our mustang grape jelly recipe will work with any of these varieties of grape.
This week, folks, let’s toast to the flavors fresh grapes can bring to the dinner table and leave the wine in the wine glasses.