Chirac with Cheese

Sometimes we just want wine and cheese. These are the results of our tastings of a few beautiful cheeses of the world and the impressive local Second Mouse "Frieda".

Serve with our mature and generous 2010 Chirac

The following cheeses were bought from Orange Essential Ingredient and Agrestic Grocer. I prefer harder cheeses thinly sliced with our chilled Chirac. Quality unsweetened bread works better than biscuits which are often sweetened.

No 1 BEST MATCH

Cashel Cheddar

Cashel is a lovely Irish cheese, balanced all round. Not too salty, relatively firm and moist with that cheesy lactic and slightly acidic finish that harmonises easily with the freshness of the Chirac. This cheese allows the bubbles to shine by gently supporting the wine's flavours.

No 2

Comte

French cheese from the alpine areas bordering Switzerland. Similar in texture to Gruyere but a touch richer with an interplay between sweet and salt. Another lovely alpine cheese that also just underplays the complexity of this recently disgorged 150 month aged complex Chirac.

No 3

Grana Padano

(grating Parmesan- Italian cheese)

Any older e.g. at 3 years of age, a mature Parmigiana is too strong for our Chirac. But this Grana Padano, if you break it with a fork along its salt lines, those bursts of salt echo the bubbles in the Chirac. (Buon Ricordo ex chef Armando Percuoco taught me not to cut Parmesan with a knife.) The two flavours are strong and confront each other head on. They oscillate from one to the other and back again.

No 4

2nd Mouse cheese "Frieda" washed rind (Orange local)

A riper "Freida" works well with the Chirac because the acidity and bubbles in the wine helped cut through the thick complex ooze of the Frieda and together they created a fabulously rich combination and mouthfeel.

Seaweed Crisps with Kewpie Mayonnaise Smoked Trout and Caviar

Seaweed crisps with Kewpie mayonnaise smoked trout & caviar

Cheese Gougeres

Josie made these incredible Choux pastry cheese gougeres. (Chou x pastry is not one of my strengths. )Fabulous with the bubbles.

Serve with 2010 Chirac

Shortcuts

You can buy any pate chicken liver, duck liver etc even vegetarian mushroom pate with the Chirac and you will be well rewarded. You can even top the liver pate with cornichons and the Chirac is rich enough to handle the acidity.

Also duck and pork rillettes are fantastic with the Chirac and can be sourced at Essential Ingredient stores. But you can make your own ahead of time. Theoretically you should be able to store them in their own fat in the fridge but I would keep them in a freezer just to be safe. Rillettes freeze and defrost well.

Goats Cheese and Caramelised Onion Tarts

Makes 12 (approx)

I saw in passing that Mary Berry makes these and I thought they might go well with our Pinot Noir and they do. I’ve adjusted the recipe to delete the sugar. Sugar is the biggest disruptor in food and makes red wine taste tart and tannic.

Serve with 2019 Riesling, 2022 Big Men In Tights, 2016, 2018 Pinot Noir and 2017 Merlot Noir

Ingredients

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/goats_cheese_and_shallot_60881

Instead of 100% goat's curd, I used 150g of Meredith Goat’s curd mixed with 150g of Meredith Fetta. (This combination goes much better with all 3 Pinots compared to just the individual curd or fetta. There is no need to salt the mixture as it is perfectly balanced. A bit of pepper won’t hurt though.)

As there were no shallots in the house,  I cut a couple of large Spanish onions into fine slivers sprinkled and mixed thoroughly with olive oil and salt & pepper to taste. Roast them on a large baking tray at 150 degrees Centigrade until the slices at the edges start to brown. Draw these browned edges into the centre and spread the unde- cooked slices closer to the edges. Splash with some Pinot Noir, mix thoroughly and reduce that to caramelise the onions. Set aside to cool when done. If you don’t have any leftover red wine just use some red wine vinegar instead. (PLEASE do not add sugar to hasten caramelisation of the onions.)

Method

See Mary Berry’s directions.

Shortcuts

For the pastry cases, I used a bought Careme sour cream pastry. These tarts are cute and moreish.

Turkey and Bacon Sausage Rolls

Makes 32+

Roast turkey has always tasted like cardboard to me, but I like the flavour and it is a good meat for us to eat (google it.) So this is my way of including some turkey into our Christmas fare. Past recommendations included turkey sang choy bau.

Serve with 2019 Riesling, 2022 Big Men In Tights, 2021 Chardonnay, 2019 Schubert, 2016, 2018 Pinot Noir and 2017 Merlot Noir, 2017 Shiraz

Ingredients

• 2 -3 sheets of puff pastry

• 500g turkey mince

• 250g fatty bacon, sliced finely

• 2 eggs (one for the meat mixture and the other for brushing onto the pastry)

• 1T heaped of Dijon mustard

• salt and pepper

• 4T greens, finely chopped. (parsley, spring onions, spinach /silver beet etc)

• Cranberry sauce. Your choice

Method

Mix all ingredients ( meats, greens, cracked egg, mustard, and salt and pepper) well to develop adhesiveness Chill until you have your puff pastry defrosted and prepared. Make smaller bite-sized sausage rolls so that they stretch further if you have a larger crowd. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and bake in 200degrees C until the mince is cooked and the pastry is sufficiently browned.

Shortcuts

Larger sausage rolls could be used for a light lunch with salad for 4-6 people.

Confit Potato with Smoked Trout

Serves 6

Clare Smyth’s Oncore Restaurant’s signature dish inspired this summery adaption for Stephen and his love of potatoes- It also has an umami tweak but is easier than serving the potato with Clare’s Kombu beurre blanc.

Serve with 2019 Riesling, 2019 Schubert, of the 3 Pinots 2016 or 2018 first, next 2017 Pinot Noir

Ingredients

• 3 large waxy potatoes (I used desiree potatoes)

• 500g, butter (melted) the butter must cover the potatoes in the pot.

• 1 Smoked trout, skinned, boned and flaked

• 1 large leek, cleaned of grit and sliced.

• 6 t organic white miso

• 1 sheet of seaweed cut into slivers or confetti for garnish(scissors make it easy)

• small jar of salmon caviar (optional)

• Ginger*

• (*An optional tweak -use 2t slivered ginger soaked in white vinegar to best showcase the 2017 Pinot,)

• Cabbage ¼ small cabbage finely shredded

• 3T peanut oil

• 1t sesame oil

• splash of water

Method

Trim the top and bottom of the large oval potatoes so they retain a flat bottom and top. Place potatoes in a pot and cover with melted butter and simmer for 20-30 mins until they are cooked through. Check with a skewer after 20 mins; if the potato is soft all the way through the thickest part, it is cooked. .

(You can reuse the butter again and again for confit if the liquid is drained into a clean jar with a lid and kept in the fridge.Remove the cooked potatoes to a plate covered with baking paper and place them in the fridge. Once cold, slice the potato lengthways so you have 6 portions.)

Slice all of the white & pale green inner heart of the whole leek to reduce wastage and saute those slices in 1 T peanut and 1 t sesame oil until softened. Splash with some water to hasten cooking time if needed.

When ready to serve, smear a thin covering of miso paste onto the top of the potato and saute the bottom side in the remaining peanut and sesame oil. When the potato is warmed through, place it on a bed of finely shredded raw cabbage to plate. Microwave the leeks for a minute to reheat and place on top of the miso. Top with flaked, smoked trout and sprinkles of dessicated seaweed.

Poached Chicken and Mushrooms

Serves 6 

This is great when your digestive system needs a reset. It is something light and gentle to counter the overly rich and abundant food at Christmas. The Umami flavours will do you a lot of good. I also find brown rice useful but what wine would you serve with it?

NOTE: (You could easily substitute poached duck breast for the chicken to be a bit more exotic. Strip the fatty skin from the breast and sautee it until the fat is rendered and easily poured off - keep it for later roast potatoes. The remaining crispy skin is a good garnish for the dish.)

Serve with 2021 Chardonnay and any of our Pinot Noirs

Ingredients

(will serve 6 as entree)

• 3 Chicken fillets

• 2 cups chicken stock (home made is best for its restorative effect)

• Ginger (1 large thumb sized piece finely sliced)

• 1 clove garlic (finely chopped)

• 2 T Tamari & 1 T mushroom soy to taste

• 3T peanut oil

• 2t sesame oil

• splash of plum vinegar

• salt & pepper to taste

• 4 spring onions (sliced)

• Mushrooms (a variety, sliced for sauteing)

• (a few larger mushrooms as well as 250 g button mushrooms,

• 200g Shiitake, 150g King oyster and 100g Enoki.)
  

Method

Halve the chicken fillets by slicing across and poach the 6 pieces in the gently simmering chicken stock until they are cooked through which should only take a few minutes. Reserve or keep in the fridge and gently reheat in the stock later.

In a separate fry pan, heat the pan and add enough peanut oil to quickly saute the mushrooms. Season with a small amount of sesame oil, ginger and garlic, chopped spring onions, then touches of soy and mushroom soy and quickly deglaze the pan with the chicken stock. Add the Enoki last. Add ground pepper and some salt or more soy if needed. (If you can’t buy fresh shiitake mushrooms, I always have some dried, so just reconstitute in boiling water and use that mushroom water towards the stock.)

Decorate with some spiced seaweed, or the enoki mushrooms or chopped spring onions.

Shortcuts

Buy bone broth chicken stock and boil down to concentrate the flavours

Pork Belly with Miso Mayo Celeriac Slaw

Serves 6

Tony Worland at Tonic Restaurant Millthorpe inspired this combination but I decided to give it an Asian touch as I only had Kewpie Mayonnaise. Could be a small main course as well.

Serve with 2019 Schubert and Pinot Noirs 2016, 2018 then 2017 and 2017 Shiraz

Ingredients

• 6 pieces of 200g each of pork belly,

• skin scored, thoroughly dried, oiled and seasoned simply with salt & pepper.

• 1 large celeriac, well peeled and grated

• 1 medium sized carrot, peeled and grated

• 1 small Granny Smith apple,

• cored, keep the peel on and julienne apple slices

• 4 spring onions, cut finely

• ¼ bunch Italian parsley, washed, dried and finely chopped

• ½ bunch watercress -washed thoroughly and reduced to the tender leaves with only a little bit of stem attached to form the base of the dish.

Dressing

Ratio of 1/3 White miso to 1 Kewpie Mayonnaise

(No Kewpie? Make your own or buy a good whole egg mayo.,) lightened with

1 t apple cider vinegar and mix thoroughly.

Method

Cook the pork belly at 150 degrees C for almost 3 hours taking care not to burn the bottom by adding a small cup of water before that happens. Keep pouring off the fat that is rendered. This is an easy way to cook the pork beforehand but it dries out the skin rather than blisters the crackling. Reheat with the skin side down on the pan to create crackling or place skin quickly under a hot griller.

Combine grated vegetables, slivers of apple and herbs in a bowl and add salt and pepper. Mix in just enough dressing to moisten the celeriac slaw without it swimming in it.

NOTE

Kewpie mayonnaise has sugar in it. The 2017 Pinot Noir will be better served by using homemade mayonnaise with no sugar in it at all.

Roast Lamb Rack with herb & anchovy sauce

Serves 6 

Good old fashioned rack of lamb, crusty on the outside and pink in the middle.

Serve with 2016, 2017, 2018 Pinots, 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2019 Schubert

Ingredients

• 6 racks of lamb each with 3 chops

• 1 bunch parsley, ½ cup of fresh oregano, ½ cup of garlic chives, 3T rosemary and 6 fresh bay leaves (all finely chopped or crushed in mortar and pestle)

• 6 anchovies mashed with some of its oil

• olive oil, you may need extra

• 2T red wine vinegar

• salt and pepper

• Your choice of veg

Method

Get the meat out of the fridge to warm to room temperature first and smother the racks of lamb with olive oil. Heat your pan, salt your racks, then sear them in that dry hot pan to crisp the fat on top and to render some of it. Get that lovely browning on all sides. (Not too hot though as burnt flavours aren’t enjoyable.) Place racks in an oiled pan in the preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 30 mins, take out then rest the meat before serving. Spoon the herb and anchovy sauce over the rack of lamb on the plate.

Make your green herb sauce either by chopping, pulverising or blending, including oil and vinegar. Taste. It may need more salt or pepper or vinegar. This keeps in the fridge for a number of days especially if you cover the top in the jar with olive oil to stop the herbs from oxidising.

Roasted Strawberry tart with Mascarpone Custard

by Daniel Alvarez on Adam Liaw’s SBS TV Cooking show.

https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/roasted-strawberry-tart.

This has just been posted and sounds so luscious, I can’t wait to try it with our dessert wine which is developing nicely with a bit of bottle age. I would guess that I’d need to add some lemon rind and juice into the creme pat or substitute some goat’s curd in the mix to give it a bit more acidity to help our current sweet Riesling cope with the rich mouthfeel of the tart.

Serve with 2018 Silk Purse

Please let me know what you think if you get to try this with our wine before I do.

Wattleseed Ice Cream with Rhubarb Sorbet

Something Australian for Christmas, this was inspired by Mark Olive on Adam Liaw’s cooking programme recently. He made a pavlova with wattleseed cream and red native fruits. Those riberries etc. are very hard to find and expensive to source.

Simonn at Lolli Redini’s Restaurant makes a wonderful rhubarb sorbet and as we have abundant rhubarb at our front door. I bought a jar of rosellas in syrup from our Orange Essential Ingredient, as well as the wattle seed. (I’ll spare you the details of baking a wattle seed lamington cake almost 30 years ago now when we lived here in the shed-ahem winery. Obviously we survived my attacking our wattle trees at Christmas time and roasting the harvested seeds.)

To think that I used to help Mum make rosella jam many decades ago in North Queensland. That jam was my favourite, a gorgeous intense red colour with some tartness amongst that sugar.

Sorbets and ice cream together work well. Philip Searle, now retired chef formerly of Vulcan’s at Blackheath, made a fabulous combination of pineapple sorbet and licorice ice cream inspired by the splices of his childhood.

Serve with 2008 Silk Purse. Sadly our 2018 Silk Purse is still too youthful and acidic for this dessert. The coffee flavour of the wattlessed is also too srong and the wrong kind to work with sweet Riesling. This sweet might even need a fortified like a liquer tokay from Rutherglen.

Ingredients

WATTLESEED ICE CREAM

• 30g wattle seed plumped with 120mls of boiling water (your choice to filter seeds out or not)

• 1 tin condensed milk

• 3 eggs

• 600g of thick Greek yoghurt

• 600 mls runny cream

• 1t vanilla paste

• RHUBARB SORBET

• 900g prepared red rhubarb (washed and cut red stalk only)

• 1 orange, juice and grated rind

• syrup drained from a jar of Rosella flowers (optional)

• 2 T glucose

• 380g caster sugar

• juice of 1 lime

Method

WATTLESEED ICE CREAM

This is my ice cream shortcut instead of a cooked egg yolk custard because I have an ice cream maker. Blend all ingredients and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, blend all ingredients except the egg whites and runny cream. Whip the cream to soft peaks and also whip the egg whites to stiff peaks with a little fine sugar to help stabilise the mixture. Fold each through the condensed milk and yoghurt mix trying not to lose much air. Freeze in a sizeable lined mould. A 26cm diameter cake tin will hold 3 litres.

Shortcuts

Easier still, buy 1.5 litre of good vanilla ice cream. Soften it enough so you can fold the liquid and soaked wattle seeds through, then refreeze in your desired lined container.

RHUBARB SORBET

Place the prepared and cut rhubarb in a pot and add the orange juice and extra rosella syrup including the water that clings to the rhubarb. Cover and sweat on low to medium heat until the rhubarb is cooked, then cool it. Puree that mixture well including the sugar and glucose and added lime juice. Sieve for a finer texture. Discard the stringy bits. Freeze the sorbet according to instructions of your ice cream maker.

If you are doing this without an ice cream machine, after each hour in the freezer take the mixture out and stir it around to break the larger ice crystals down to smaller sizes. You could even blend the mixture again whilst it is semi-frozen then finalise and pour on to the top of your preferred lined cake mould and the already frozen wattle seed ice cream.

Unmould by upturning your frozen dessert on a small piece of board which will fit into your freezer. (A place mat sufficed with mine and I then covered the dessert entirely in baking paper.)

Just before serving, remove the paper and place the dessert on a suitably chilled serving plate. Decorate with those drained rosella hibiscus flowers, fresh fruit and small lavender flowers. If you have time make some small meringue kisses as well. Using a long hot knife, Serve a slice with some fresh fruit.

A cherry sorbet would also be beautiful but this year with the problematic rains and coolness, the cherry crop looks like it could be late.

Tea and Coffee

HEDGEHOG 

Mum used to make this chocolate treat with raw egg chocolate mixture cementing broken biscuits and walnuts. My sister Janelle wrote out the recipe for me and I added some halva bits folded through instead of using as much sugar and biscuit. This updates this classic.

Serve with 1994 Bloodwood Ice Riesling if you still have some lurking in your cellar. The colour would be quite dark brown, almost black.

Ingredients

200g plain sweet biscuits (broken but not pulverised)

200g walnuts (chopped)

100g halva

1T cocoa

3/4 cup caster sugar

1t vanilla paste

115g butter

1 egg

Method

Melt butter and sugar; add well beaten egg, cocoa and vanilla paste. Pour this over broken biscuits chopped walnuts and small pieces of halva. Pour the mixture in a tin lined with baking paper, then ice with chocolate icing or in my case I used chocolate ganache.

(Microwave a handful of dark chocolate & 1T of heavy cream until half melted. Use 30 sec bursts on your microwave, then stir to avoid the chocolate burning. When the ganache is runny enough pour on top of the chocolate bisciut mix.) Keep well covered in baking paper in the freezer till needed. Cut slices and enjoy.