Tomorrow kicks off one of my “beef binges”. Yep, I will be heading to Argentina for the next 10 days for business. While I mostly love to eat fish and vegetables as my main diet, all bets are off in the land of grass fed carne where steaks are as common as bread and butter. I want to pay an ode of inspiration to the noble steak and share this fun wine pairing video and recipe with you that highlights seared filet mignon paired with one of my favorite wines, Coyam.

Here, I take a lean but tender cut of steak and pair it with low carb veggies, ramping up the protein and flavor and cutting back on the fat. Particularly now in Chile, at the end of the rainy winter months, wild mushrooms are being harvested from the hillsides surrounding Santiago and in the South, and dried. Known as callampas, they have a meaty, forest-floor taste when rehydrated and have an extraordinary wine affinity. Just a handful of wild mushrooms, like truffles, have the power to transform any dish and they marry beautifully with reds from a delicate Pinot Noir to a musclar, exotic blend like Coyam with its Syrah base. Beef and sauteed Swiss chard are classic flavor combinations with mushrooms. They also support tannins and structure which will hold up for a “big” red like Coyam. Quick, easy, healthy, sophisticated.