Cooking Across 4 Generations

Our wine dinner at work way back in June was St Hallett from the Barossa Valley.

Our canapes were corn fritters with aioli, potato and leek soup and pork, veal and mushroom terrine with chutney. These were accompanied by 2014 St Hallett Eden Valley Riesling .

Our first course was a dish that I used to help make at Astral restaurant, a ravioli of lobster and salmon served with a ginger and treacle beurre blanc. This was very popular with our attendees. Served with 2014 St Hallett Poachers Semillon Sauvignon Blanc.

Our main course was a Sous vide pork loin in cider, Czech bread dumpling, braised red cabbage and cider gravy. After removing the skin and setting it aside, I rubbed the pork loin with a spice mix of juniper berries, ground dried orange, salt and rosemary then marinated it over night in cider. Then we bagged the loins with some of the cider marinade, vacuum sealed them and slow cooked 4 hours. The pork was nice and tender with a hint of the spice rub which really had our diners asking where the orange was. As Mr. CA4G’s heritage is Czech I really wanted to pair the pork with the bread dumpling that his mother used to make. A great alternative to potato, the dumpling really soaks up the sauce. The main was served with St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz from two vintages, 2008 and 2013.

As our last wine for the night was to be another red, 2012 St Hallett Old Block Shiraz. I decided to serve a cheese plate with house made breads. The cheeses were Trinity Cellars Jersey Brie, L’Artisan Fermier and Trinity cellars blue. The L’Artisan Fermier is like an Australian version of Morbier. The breads we made were walnut bread, lavosh and oat crackers. The walnut bread is a staple on our cheese plates in the restaurant, the lavosh I have made before and makes a nice crisp addition to the plate. I have been wanting to make the oat crackers for some time and this dinner was the perfect opportunity. Who knew they were so easy to make?? We also added some honey to go with the blue cheese, grapes, walnuts and Maggie Beer quince paste.

I will be posting recipes for the breads in the future so keep an eye out for them!

Thanks for dropping by!

Our final wine dinner for 2013 was also our first international  one. Well, if you don’t count New Zealand as international that is.

Our first job was to narrow down a selection of wines for the evening. We managed to cover five French regions, Bordeaux, Rhone, Provence, Loire and Burgundy.

To get the night started the first drink of the night was a Louis Bouillot cremant de Bourgogne, Perle d’ivoire blanc de blanc, from Burgundy.

Canapes consisted of garlic snails, chilled vichyssoise soup and gougeres(cheese choux puffs).

Entree was a shared plate of pressed chicken and mushroom terrine, Duck liver pate, and salmon rillettes served with slices of batard loaf, pickled grapes and pickled cherries. The pickled cherries went really well with the pate and terrine and the pickled grapes were a great match with the rillette. The entree was served with a rose wine, Domain de Triennes 2012, from Provence.

Main was a decontructed beouf Bourguignon. We slow roasted beef eye fillet at 80C to medium rare. We cooked the sauce again at 70C for about 3 hours,  which left us with a fabulously rich sauce. This was served with a garlic mash, chunks of carrot and some fresh peas. The wine here was a great Perrin et Fils Cotes du Rhone Rouge Reserve 2012, from the Rhone Valley.

Our mystery wine for the evenin was a Marc Bredif Vouvray 2011, from the Loire region. Usually we have a red for the mystery wine but this time we changed it up a bit and gave our diners something a little different.

Dessert was also a mixed plate of delicious French fare. We baked and decorated Buche De Noel, Raspberry and Champagne macarons, Madeleines and petite coffee brulee tarts. A lot of work but well worth it. I was very happy with my first ever Buche De Noel as I have been wanting to make one since Mum bought the Women’s Weekly French cookbook back in the 1980’s. On the night, ours was filled with a chocolate and raspberry butter cream. I also managed to get some traditional sugar mushrooms to decorate the cake with. Dessert was Chateau du Pavillon 2008, which was a nice little Sauternes from Bordeaux.

In all a lively night as we had some entertainment this time, a singer and cancan dancers entertained our diners.

Thanks for dropping by!!

For our French wine dinner at work the other week we had Duck liver Pate, chicken and mushroom terrine and salmon rillettes for the entree. When we did the tasting for the dinner a week before, I realised that we needed some kind of pickled items to go with all that rich, fatty goodness that we were serving. A few years ago I pickled some white grapes to go with a chicken liver parfait, which set my mind in motion and noticing some red grapes in the coolroom I decided to pickle those. I also remember seeing somewhere pickled cherries, conveniently we had cherries in the coolroom so I decided to pickle them as well.

I only used a basic pickle mix of sugar, vinegar, water, cinnamon, whole cloves, coriander seeds, bay leaves, salt. I was only able to let them sit for around a week so could imagine they would taste better with a bit more time to sit and pickle. I used the same mix for both the grapes and the cherries.

The pickled grapes went really well with the salmon rillettes, while the cherries were a hit with the pate.

Pickle Mix

625ml White Vinegar(use one with 5% acidity)

500g white sugar(or for some variety raw caster sugar)

2 Tablespoons Maldon Sea Salt

15 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

6 whole cloves

1/2 cinnamon stick

10 coriander seeds

Place all in pot and bring to boil. This is enough for around 1.3kg of fruit.

Deseed and destem your cherries by cutting them in half (warning you will stain your fingers, use disposable gloves if  you can) or cut seedless grapes in half place in to pickle jars.Pour the hot brine over cherries or grapes, leaving 1.5cm of headspace. Wipe the rims, apply lids and rings (mason jar) process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.Using tongs, take them out of the water and leave to rest on a towel  for 24 hours.

Store in cool, dark place until ready to use.

The pickling leaches some of the colour from the red grapes and cherries, giving an attractive colour to the pickling liquid in the jar. Drain when ready to use. I could also picture using  the pickled cherries with a nice roasted duck or goose and the grapes warmed through with a piece of panfried salmon.

Unfortunately no photo as I only got the entree before the cherries and grapes went on.

May 1st was our second wine dinner for the year at the Club. This time we chose Penfold’s and show cased some of the Bin Range. Considering the crazy Autumn weather we have been having here in Sydney I planned the menu with a cold starter before moving on to some heartier dishes that are a bit more filling and appropriate for the season..

Penfold’s Bin Range was established by Max Schubert in the image of his legendary Grange. From the Penfold’s website…:

‘Max Schubert believed that Penfolds needed wines crafted in the image of his legendary Grange. “Not the same,” said Max, “but similar.” Penfolds had long maintained a system of numbered ‘bins’ in the cellar where the finest wines, often for the exclusive enjoyment of the company’s directors, were stored. Max happily used this system to give clear and well defined identities to the new wines he was planning, starting with the famous Bin 28 of 1959.’ 

‘The range has grown and evolved since those early days and now includes some of Australia’s most highly sought after wines and their annual release has become one of the most eagerly anticipated in the wine collectors calendar. While there will only ever be one Grange, Max’s conviction that the Penfolds approach of sourcing the best fruit from the finest vineyards to marry regional and varietal character to the distinctive Penfolds style, maintaining an unwaveringly high level of quality, lives on in the impressive range of Bin wines. Many of these wines have long and proud histories, while others are newer adherents to that same ideal, but all of them share one thing in common. They are all classically Penfolds.’

In March Penfold’s released the 2013 Bin Range, whites from 2012, reds from 2010, 2011 and 2012. For our event we had the following wines Bin 51 Riesling 2012, Eden Valley, Bin311 Chardonnay 2012, Tumbarumba, Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Mystery wine was Bin 150 Shiraz 2010, Marananga(Barossa Valley sub region). For dessert we had a great port Penfold’s Bluestone Grand Tawny.

Entree was a seafood terrine inspired by one of my favourite recipe books and one of our favourite, although sadly closed, restaurants Banc. Layers of prawn, scallop, balmain bugs, tomato, roasted capsicum and leafy herbs, set in a crystal clear stock, with a fine leek exterior. Went superbly well with the 311 Chardonnay.

Main course was a slow cooked Wagyu beef cheek, roasted garlic and parmesan puree, with the vegetables from the braising. Sauce was a reduction of red wine and the cooking juices from the braise. Well matched to the Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Dessert was a seriously rich, yet light as air, steamed chocolate pudding with maple syrup anglaise, toffee strawberry, and toffee walnuts. Amazing with the Bluestone Grand Tawny.

Great reaction from our diners. I was a bit worried about what they would think of the terrine but it was well received with many positive comments. Over all a wonderful night.

Our next dinner is in June, alas I will be in New York, but I have left a menu that has two items from myself and the dessert by our Sous Chef Vince which is being used in the upcoming Clubs NSW Chefs Table competition that he and our apprentice Richard entered and got through to the finals.

Thanks for dropping by!