The Food and Wine Diarist

Move to Wordpress

2010-06-06T19:49:00.001+01:00

Just a short message to let you know that I have moved my blog to Wordpress. The new address is: www.foodwinediarist.wordpress.com

An abundance of asparagus (English, of course)

2010-05-08T13:45:00.000+01:00

I've been having a great time indulging in English asparagus over the last week and I shall continue to do so, at the risk of overdoing it, for the duration of the short, eight-week season. As I write, asparagus soup is bubbling on the hob, a simple blend of asparagus ends (the snapped-off bits), a few new potatoes, a handful of chopped basil and a dollop of crème fraiche.

This week, I enjoyed visiting an asparagus farm in South Somerset – New Cross Fruit Farm near South Petherton. The asparagus is sold in bunches according to size – fine, medium or large for £2.50 each and, if you’re lucky, you might come across bags of odd bits which are great for making soup. We could see the pickers in the fields, with the boards that they use to measure the asparagus to see if it is the right length to pick, and it was good to know that my purchases had been harvested that very morning.

In our house, the 2010 asparagus season has already seen griddled asparagus with poached eggs, roasted asparagus with shavings of parmesan and steamed asparagus dipped in a chive aioli but my favourite so far is baked frittata with asparagus, feta and mint. We paired the frittata with a crisp, Verdejo from Rueda in Spain. Indeed, fresh, high-acid, whites are best with most asparagus dishes so think Loire Chenin Blanc, crisp Sauvignon Blanc (Old or New World) and cool climate, unoaked Chardonnay. Here is the recipe for the frittata:

Baked Frittata with Asparagus, Feta and Mint

6 free-range eggs
A large bunch of chunky asparagus, chopped into 2-inch pieces

500g medium sized new potatoes, chopped in half
125g feta cheese, roughly chopped
A good handful of chopped mint
50g hard cheese – I used gruyère
You will also need a 6-inch loose-bottomed cake tin and some foil

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (Gas Mark 3). Grease the cake tin and wrap a double layer of strong foil around the cake tin. Boil the potatoes until soft and steam the asparagus until tender. Crack the eggs into a bowl, beat with a fork and add the feta cheese and mint. When cooked, add the new potatoes and asparagus. Season well with salt and pepper and mix again. Pour the whole lot into the cake tin and top with the grated hard cheese.

Place the tin on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the top is springy to the touch and a skewer, dipped into the middle of the frittata, comes out clean. Leave the frittata to stand for five minutes and then gently push it out of the tin. Serve with a simple green salad and some crusty bread.

A lazy Sunday lunch & some Burgundy goat's cheese

2010-04-29T13:36:00.000+01:00

I recently came back from a fortnight in Burgundy with a coolbox full of delicious goat’s cheeses from the region and, a day or two after my return, we took advantage of a gorgeous, sunny afternoon for an alfresco tasting. The children were rushing round the garden, a bottle of rosé was being enjoyed and we were feeling distinctly mellow.

My stash included two goat’s cheeses from Alain Hess’ amazing Fromagerie on Place Carnot in Beaune (see photo of a selection of his cheeses below) and a just-made, fresh goat’s cheese, bought at a fraction of the cost of the other two, from a local fermier, La Chèvrerie des Sources. I stumbled across the latter on the road between Couches and Le Creusot in the Saône-et-Loire whilst whisking my 10-year-old daughter to casualty with a broken finger and couldn’t resist calling in the following day to see what was on offer.

Our wines to match the cheeses were the aforementioned rosé – Vida Nova 2008 - a fruity blend of Syrah and Aragonez, from Cliff Richard’s vineyards in the Algarve. I found it in Waitrose, intending to serve it with barbecue fayre. I hadn’t expected it to be good with the goat’s cheeses but the bottle was already open and I was pleasantly surprised. In addition to cheese, another commodity I’d stocked up on in Burgundy was wine and we now have plenty of Bouzeron to get through (see previous blog post on the Fête du Bouzeron) so we opened a bottle of André Delorme’s 2008. Being a crisp, acidic white wine, I had expected the Bouzeron would work well with the goat’s cheese, just as Loire Sauvignon does.

We started our tasting with the round, fermier cheese which was only five days old. Lemony, light and acidic, it was an unusual, refreshing cheeseboard option and would be a great addition to a salad of spring vegetables – broad beans, asparagus and freshly-podded peas. It worked tolerably with the Bouzeron but was far better with the rosé, the fruitiness being a wonderful contrast to the young cheese. Next up was a Vézelay, from the town of the same name in the Yonne. This was obviously older than the first cheese and denser. Smooth and creamy, there was not a hint of citrus yet it, too, preferred the rosé wine. Finally , we tried a lusciously creamy cheese called Le Cosne which disappeared fairly quickly, being my husband’s favourite. It went extremely well with the Bouzeron but the flavour of the rosé was completely lost on it.

One thing this rather pleasant tasting has taught me is that I should definitely try rosé wine and goat's cheese again and I imagine, giving our findings, that other mild, creamy cheeses would work too. Next time I’m in Burgundy, I plan to investigate the cow’s milk cheeses of the area: Ami du Chambertin, Epoisses, Soumaintrain and Saint Felicien to name just a few. Don't be surprised to hear that I'm already thinking about the wine matches.

La Fête du Bouzeron et du Persillé de Bourgogne

2010-04-21T10:47:00.001+01:00

Finding myself in Burgundy on a sunny, Sunday April morning with two children aged seven and ten in tow, the obvious event to attend was a wine festival. Not in their minds perhaps but I had done my fair share of kiddy activities by that stage in the week and a wine festival it was to be despite the chants of “Oh no, Mummy, not more wine”.

Bouzeron is located at the northerly edge of the Côte Chalonnaise and is something of an oddity being an AOC solely for white wines from the Aligoté grape, the rest of the region focusing on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Acknowledged as the best area in Burgundy for Aligoté wines, Bouzeron Aligoté has its own AOC – Aligoté from other areas must be labelled Bourgogne Aligoté. Bouzeron Aligoté, as translated from the Fête programme, is ‘a wine of Spring which is fruity, aromatic and minerally on the nose. The palate displays further the roundness and suppleness of the Golden Aligoté’, the last point referring to the name of the vines here – Aligoté Dorée. Clearly the poor relation to Chardonnay in this part of the world, I find Bouzeron Aligoté a great, refreshing (if rather racy at times) wine for summer and it pairs superbly with seafood and soft cheeses (more on that in my next blog post on Burgundy goat’s cheese).

Sunday, April 11th was the occasion of the 11th annual Fête du Bouzeron et du Persillé de Bourgogne (a ham terrine in a white wine jelly made with Bouzeron wine). We turned up at midday, after a visit to the very lively market in nearby Chagny, and the festival was well underway. The attractive programme advertised a ticket for €7 which included six tasting samples (of Jambon Persillé or wine, the choice being from white and red Bourgogne, Bouzeron Aligoté and the sparkling Crémant de Bourgogne). Eschewing the chance to taste more Crémant (I had stocked up on Jean-Claude Breliere’s Crémant earlier in the week in Rully), I plumped for a sample of Jambon Persillé (delicious and stunning with the Aligoté), four Bouzerons (from Domaines de Villaine, Jacquesson, Chanzy, and Delorme) and a white Bourgogne (Clos de la Fortune) also from Domaine Chanzy which I had read about in a recently purchased book: Food-Wine-Burgundy by David Downie (The Terroir Guides). The book also recommends the Bouzeron from my local cave in Mazenay – Marinot-Vernay. I was less taken with their example of Bouzeron although their white Bourgogne is delightful.

All the wines open for tasting at the festival were on sale back at the car park for €7 a bottle but, perhaps unsurprisingly, when I returned to place my order, my top three Bouzerons were already sold out – Domaines Chanzy, de Villaine (co-owners of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) and Jacquesson. I did, however, stumble across a Chanzy Bouzeron in the Leclerc supermarket in Beaune but next year I shall be sure to be at the festival early so as to secure the best wines. As for the Persillé de Bourgogne, I found a recipe in Elizabeth David’s ‘A book of Mediterranean Food’ (oddly) but as it involves calf’s feet and much soaking of hams, I am researching other recipes and I shall soon be giving it a try.

To buy Bouzeron Aligoté in the UK, try Lay & Wheeler and Winedirect.

Memories of Nice and Pissaladière

2010-03-14T21:09:00.001Z

In 1993, the now husband and I (then in our early to mid twenties) dared one another to give up full-time, professional jobs for a spell in Provence. The first of Peter Mayle’s books on Provence had just been aired on TV, starring John Thaw who later was to have huge success as Inspector Morse, and we fancied a piece of the action. Needless to say, our search for the romantic lifestyle in the French countryside somehow directed us to the fifth largest city in France – the bustling, cosmopolitan metropolis of Nice, Côte-d’Azur.

Clearly this was not quite the idyllic provençal setting we had envisioned but, nevertheless, this vibrant city with its strong Italian and North African gastronomic influences, was to be our home for six months over that summer. And, boy, did we make the most of it.

Our wanderings frequently took us for a mooch around the old town whose narrow alleyways shielded us from the searing heat by day and, by night, came alive with loud and happy revelers, spilling out onto the tiny streets from an astonishing selection of buzzing restaurants. It was here that we first sampled, and came to love, the pizza-like onion and olive snack, Pissaladière, that is sold throughout Nice’s ‘Vieille Ville’ and is thought to have come to the area with the Romans during the Avignon Papacy. Known as Pissaladiera in Provençal, and Piscialandrea in Ligurian, it is a form of white pizza (no tomatoes used) which is common along the Provence coast from Nice to Marseilles and also in the Italian region of Liguria.

The dough is usually a bread dough, a little thicker than Italian pizza dough, although a pâte brisée is sometimes used instead and this is what I used in the recipe below with the traditional topping of onions, olives, garlic and anchovies. You can spread the luscious topping on crusty, French bread for an easier option. No cheese is used in France but over the border in the Italian town of San Remo, mozzarella is added although, according to Elizabeth David, writing in ‘A Book of Mediterranean Food’ the main difference between a Niçois Pissaladière and the San Remo version is the use of sardines in place of anchovies in Italy.

Indeed, Elizabeth David’s book, first published in 1950, talks at length about this gorgeous Mediterranean ‘pizza’: “This dish is one of the delights of Marseille, Toulon and the Var country, where it is sold in the market places and the bakeries in the early morning and can be bought, piping hot, by the slice, off big iron trays.”

Over the 17 years since I first came across Pissaladière, I have given much thought to the perfect wine match as you will no doubt imagine. The best choices seem to be fino or manzanilla sherry (they love the olives and anchovies), dry provençal rosé (when in Nice…), dry northern Italian whites, or fresh, New World Sauvignons. If you want to go up-market with your wine pairing and are keen to try something more adventurous, opt for an Alsace or Oregon Pinot Gris or an Australian Semillon.

Serve Pissaladière as a snack or chop it into bite-size pieces for a great canapé on a warm summer’s evening. I love to eat Pissaladière all year round served with a rocket salad or with sliced, juicy red tomatoes topped with a splash of olive oil, lemon juice and generous grindings of fresh black pepper.

Pissaladière

For the pâte brisée base:

125g unsalted butter, beaten until creamy
250g plain flour
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt

For the filling:

Olive oil
1kg onions, thinly sliced
a few leaves of fresh sage, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
12 anchovy fillets
a good handful of black olives

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the salt, sugar and 3 tbsp of water. Mix together and then add the butter and egg yolk. Mix the ingredients with your hands to form a soft dough. Knead it lightly for a couple of minutes. Form into a ball and leave to sit , wrapped in a cloth, for 2 hours. You can store it in the fridge for a couple of days.

To use, bring the dough to room temperature. Butter a loose-bottomed tart tin. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and lift it into the tin. Prick it all over with a fork and put in the fridge and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes. Turn the over on to 200 degrees centigrade (Gas Mark 6).

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions over a low-medium heat for about 40 minutes, stirring every now and then to ensure that they do not burn.

Line the pastry case with baking beans and bake for 15 minutes in the oven. Remove the beans and leave to one side until the onions are ready. Meanwhile, add the chopped garlic and sage to the onions and continue to cook on a low heat. When the onion mixture is soft and sweet, spread it across the pastry case and decorate with criss-cross patterns of anchovies and the black olives. Drizzle the dish with olive oil and bake for 15 minutes.

Pissaladière is delicious straight from the oven but it is also excellent when served cold and I like to take it in a lunchbox to work!

Winter vines, delicious wines and the pizza van

2010-02-28T18:52:00.002Z

We were back in Burgundy during half-term week and drove down the autoroute wondering if, after the first eventful weekend in the house in January, more nightmare scenarios would greet us on our arrival. Would we have another burst pipe? Would the heating work? There was snow on the ground and below zero temperatures as we pulled up at the house and it was just getting dark. The house was uninvitingly cold. A very dodgy half-hour was spent trying to get the boiler going for the heating and the oven but, thankfully and after many a cross word, it all worked. That meant time for a glass of wine and we celebrated with a delicious Marsannay Blanc 2006 from Domaine Trappet. The house was soon snugly warm and the SMEG oven did us proud when it was time for dinner.

During that week, we went backwards and forward to Beaune about a million times, or so it seemed. There are two possible routes from our house and we found ourselves timing each one to see which was the better track to take. One way, via names such as Santenay, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault involves going through four villages with indescribably horrible road humps so we hoped that the other, more picturesque and bump-free route, via Saint Romain, Monthélie, Pommard and Volnay would be the quickest. Our hopes were dashed but the preferred route has glorious views over the vines and I just loved driving through them every day and look forward to going back a few times, before this year’s vintage, to see the vines in different stages of development. Now, in February, the vines are being pruned and a familiar site across the landscape is the rising smoke from burning vine clippings.

Whilst we didn’t eat out at all during the week (too much unpacking of furniture and trekking around for white goods), we ate and drank well at home. The best wines included a red Rully les Montpalais 2007 from Jean-Claude & Anna Brelière with goat’s cheese wrapped in bacon, and a Bouzeron Aligoté 2008 from Domaine Chanzy (silver medal at Mâcon 2009) with linguine, homemade pesto and shavings of parmesan.

The gastronomic highlight of the week was some mouth-wateringly good Charolais steak, the white Charolais beef being from Charolles in southern Burgundy. We went non-Burgundy for the wine on this occasion as I had brought a bottle of Emily Laughton’s Occam’s Razor Shiraz 2006 from the much-respected Jasper Hill estate in Heathcote, Victoria. It was a superb match for the steak and a welcome break from the local wines - as much as I adore Burgundy, it’s good to ring the changes.

A final point to mention: we made a terribly important discovery on this trip – the pizza van is in our village every Friday night and, for every 12 pizzas purchased, we get one free! Friday night in France will definitely be pizza night.

Burgundy (71), here we come.

2010-02-07T16:54:00.001Z

Having just bought a house in Burgundy (no, not the magnificent pile pictured although it's not far away, being the local château), here's my write-up of our recent trip where the deal was sealed. There will be a little Burgundy food and wine matching coming your way if you read this blog, so putting things into context seems like a good idea. We have spent longer than is usually necessary to finalise a sale, mostly because we sought a ‘Permit de Demolir’ for a large, concrete outbuilding in the garden of the house. The local Mairie passed our application onto the powers that be in Mâcon as, it transpired, the house is within 500 metres of a listed building. Needless to say, the application was finally passed and we look forward to nearly doubling the size of the garden as soon as we can get the builders in to knock this monstrosity down.

We set off on Thursday 21^st January at crack of dawn, with the signing meeting at the notaire’s office planned for the following day. The vendor had already left the area so it would just be us and the agent at the meeting, the notaire having been given power of attorney. We arrived in Beaune around 6pm that evening, checked into a cheapie hotel and set off into the beautiful centre of the town to find pizza (we had the 7-year-old and 10-year-old with us).

The next day, we had another pleasant amble around Beaune before setting off down the N74 to the house where we had agreed to meet the agent who would then show us the way to the notaire’s office. When we arrived, the agent informed us that the notaire had postponed the signing meeting until 10am the next morning. Aargh! The first thought that sprung to mind was, ‘So, where are we going to sleep tonight?’. The ever-helpful agent, Nigel, had already thought of that and had contacted the vendor, who had agreed that it was no problem for us to stay in the house that night anyway. Our relief was shortlived when we got into the house and realized that the water and the gas had been turned off. We had enquired about this and it hadn’t been mentioned so it was something of a surprise but, after much begging and pleading with the Mairie and the water company, a charming chap came to turn the water on at 5pm, only to discover a burst pipe! It was impossible to get that fixed on the Friday afternoon so we faced the prospect of another night in a hotel - fine if it were just the two of us but more of a challenge with the children.

Anyway, we arrived back at the house the following morning to let in the very helpful man who had agreed to fix the burst pipe and then drove down to the notaire’s office for the signing. The children were left in an ante-room to amuse themselves, which concerned me rather, but they did us proud and sat quietly reading their books for 45 minutes. Everything was straightforward, the monies had arrived from our bank account on time, our insurance on the property was in place so the deal was swiftly agreed and off we went to the restaurant nextdoor, with Nigel and his colleague from their Beaune office, for a coffee (it was before 11am so too soon for proper drinks) and to bask in our new status as property magnates, as my husband jokingly described us. I can’t speak highly enough of our agents – this is where we came across Nigel www.proprietes-en-bourgogne.com

So, back we went to the house and drank a bottle of Dom Perignon (at midday) in the freezing cold and hoped that the gas company would arrive, as agreed, to turn the gas on. They never did and we spent a freezing cold night, sleeping in our clothes on blow-up beds, before getting up at 5am to return to the UK. We go out again during the February Half-Term, by which time we should have heating (the gas is now connected) and the furniture will arrive mid-week. We had wondered if we might think we’d made the wrong decision about buying the house when we returned – it was nine months since we had last seen it – mais je ne regrette rien and neither does the husband!

Gooey Marmalade Cake

2010-02-04T22:00:00.000Z

Whilst surfing the internet last Friday, I came across a recipe for Marmalade Cake which took me straight back to my childhood when my Mother used to make the most gooey version that would disappear from the cake tin in no time. So, having recently made Seville orange marmalade at home, I decided to bake a marmalade cake on Sunday. As they always did when Mum made them, my cake sank in the middle….. Oh no, I hear you cry – but, please, don’t be worried about my caking-making skills. This is a cake that is so much the better for a bit of sinking. The middle is succulently sticky and moist yet its rich texture is offset beautifully by the sharp, citrus tang.

The husband has been taking a piece of the cake to work every day this week and has decided I should make a different cake every Sunday (I rarely make cakes at all except for Christmas / Easter, rum or brandy soaked, dark fruit cakes). Good of him to decide, I thought, but, actually, it’s not a bad idea. I think once a fortnight might be more realistic though.

If you’re game for a pudding wine with this cake, try Brown Brother’s Orange Muscat (widely available in supermarkets) or a southern French sweetie such as Jurançon Mœlleux or Monbazillac but, I have to say, I find the cake is quite enough on its own. If I drank English tea, which I don't, I would probably go for that.

Marmalade Cake
(inspired by Jam & Clotted cream’s recipe - http://tinyurl.com/yb9a396)

175g butter
175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tbsp marmalade (Seville orange, preferably)
2-3 tbsps orange juice – add as required to make a gooey, not too stiff, mixture.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350f or Gas Mark 4) and grease an 8inch/20cm cake tin.

Mix the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and eggs and beat until smooth. Then put in the marmalade and orange juice. Finally, fold in the baking powder with a metal spoon. You can put the whole lot in an electric mixer if you prefer, but I hate washing those things up!

Pour the mixture into the pre-prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Once cooked, the cake should be springy on the top. Leave in the tin to cool for 15 minutes or so, then turn out onto a metal rack.

For the orange butter icing
(this is a light icing – I don’t like it with too much butter and the cake doesn’t need it)

250g icing sugar
3-5 tbsps of orange juice, as required
zest of an orange
50g butter, softened

Sieve the icing sugar, add the butter and orange juice and mix to give a smooth icing. It shouldn’t be runny but thick enough to coat the sides of the cake without slipping off. Wait until the cake is completely cool before icing.

Quick PX Pud

2010-01-31T19:11:00.003Z

Pedro Ximinez sherry is something I came across when studying for the Diploma in Wines and Spirits (WSET). The exams involve blind tastings so, in an attempt to get to grips with a drink I knew precious little about, extensive tasting evenings were arranged chez nous with two sherry-loving friends.

I don’t have an amazingly sweet tooth and favour cheese at the end of a meal, which is partly why you won’t find many sweet recipes on this blog - something I should address, perhaps? Anyway, a pleasant outcome from all those hard evenings of fortified wine research, if you can call them that, was a new fondness for the sweet, treacle-like sherry, Pedro Ximinez (pronounced himinez), commonly referred to as PX.

This dark, warming, lusciously sweet sherry is great at the end of a meal, poured over vanilla ice cream, but I like to go a step further and steep dried fruits in the sherry. Earlier this week, I chopped dried figs and dates, popped them in a jam jar and covered them with PX. Today, I poured this mixture over rich, Cornish dairy ice cream which we enjoyed for Sunday lunch pudding, with a small glass of chilled PX on the side, naturally. You can use any dried fruits – sultanas, raisins, dried cherries or cranberries and the jar will keep for months, making it an easy last-minute pudding, providing you have ice cream in the freezer. I regularly make some of this nectar for my father-in-law who, rather extravagantly, likes to pour it over his breakfast cereal – a great morning pick-me-up, I imagine!

Other tried and tested food pairings for PX are: strong, salty cheeses, fruit cake, chocolate puddings and pecan pie.

Crab, chorizo & black olive pilaf

2010-01-09T20:03:00.006Z

I adore chorizo and I’d had one of the picante versions sitting around in the cupboard since before Christmas, waiting to be used. I often bake it in red wine and then serve it in chunks, as a canapé on cocktail sticks, something that always goes down well and is so simple to prepare. The red wine and paprika oozing out of the chorizo are so moreish and most people find they can't resist. This year, however, the chorizo remained untouched over the festive season.

So, what to do with it? Below is the recipe for the supper we enjoyed on Friday night with a glass of 2007 Collioure rosé from Les Clos de Paulilles, bought at Nicolas. It’s a full-bodied rosé from 50% Grenache and 50% Syrah and it sat perfectly alongside the dish – don’t believe that rosé is only for the summer. The full-bodied examples are great partners for food and I am a keen fan of them all year round. If rosé’s not your bag, a soft, medium-bodied Spanish red from Tempranillo and/or Garnacha is a great accompaniment for this pilaf.

Ingredients

Serves 4 or 2 VERY hungry people (aka the husband and me)

Half a large piccante chorizo, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
100g white crabmeat
Handful black olives (I used couchillo)
250g basmati rice
20 saffron strands
100ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp chives, chopped
Lemon juice to taste plus more for garnishing
Small vine tomatoes for roasting and garnishing

Cook the rice according to packet instructions. Soak the saffron strands in the warmed vegetable stock and leave to one side.

Roast the tomatoes in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes. At the same time, heat the olive oil, in a frying pan, until sizzling and add the chorizo. Fry for a minute, then add the garlic, paprika and thyme and cook for a further minute, stirring all the time.

Add the cooked rice to the chorizo mixture and stir it in. Pour in the saffron with the vegetable stock and then the crab and olives. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Finally, add the chopped chives and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Serve with the roasted tomatoes, chives to garnish and slices of lemon.

An Alpine supper for Alpine conditions

2010-01-06T21:47:00.012Z

Tonight’s cold weather supper was just delicious and perfect for the alpine weather we’ve experienced today. Tartiflette is a dish I always associate with skiing as it's popular on the slopes of the French Alps from where it originates and the key ingredients are potatoes, bacon, cream and Reblochon cheese (here's a link to find out more on Reblochon), a combination requiring brisk exercise before or after. Today, the husband and I marched up to the local pub at lunchtime in the snow expending a good bit of energy and making room for some serious comfort food. The pub really did feel like a mountain restaurant with snowy puddles in the porch from wet boots, sledges propped up against the front door and several people sitting around in salopettes. The landlord must have been over the moon at the amount of custom for a Wednesday lunchtime in January.

So, my tartiflette recipe is below but, first, a word on what to drink with it. The traditional, and perhaps obvious accompaniment, is a crisp, alpine white wine and we looked no further than that this evening, choosing a 2006 Jacquère, one of several Savoie grape varieties. Others to look out for are Roussette and Altesse. From Burgundy, the lesser know white grape, Aligoté, produces clean, fresh white wines that I would also recommend as a match. If red wine is required, try the light Savoie reds from the Mondeuse grape or even a New World Pinot Noir. An Aussie Pinot from the Yarra Valley went down particularly well on a previous occasion. Otherwise go for, and I have done this on a ski slope, a cold, refreshing lager.

Tartiflette - serves four hungry people who have done lots of exercise or who are sure that they will do shortly afterwards.

750g potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
1 onion, sliced
25g butter
8 rashers of smoked, streaky bacon, chopped
300g Reblochon cheese
A 142ml pot of double cream

Pre-heat the oven to 220C, 425F or gas mark 7. Place the sliced potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for a further ten minutes and then drain.

At the same time, fry the sliced onion in butter until soft. Then remove and add the bacon bits and fry until crisp.

Cover the bottom of a baking dish with potato slices and scatter half the onion and bacon over the top. Season with salt and then lay strips of the Reblochon cheese over this mixture. Add a further layer of potatoes, the rest of the bacon and onion and a final layer of cheese. Pour the cream over the dish.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes by which time the top of the dish should be crispy and browned.

Lurking in the freezer......

2010-01-03T16:36:00.003Z

This last week, with its glut of leftovers, has forced me to rummage through and make an inventory of the contents of our freezer and my husband has tasked me with using the meat and fish contained therein before going out to buy any more. I’m afraid he doesn’t escape that lightly from this exercise as I have tasked him with concocting something from the not inconsiderable number of packets of soft fruit he bagged up in the late summer – raspberry and blackberry jam should soon be on the agenda with any luck.

This coming week will see me devising dishes from venison mince, veal steaks and tiger prawns amongst other things although Operation ‘freezer’ commenced on New Year’s Eve, with a pheasant tagine, using pheasant thighs from the secret stash. Last night’s supper, of (defrosted) pan-fried seabass accompanied by a bean stew, was just right for the time of year so I’ve decided to share the recipe. The fennel seeds flavour the dish superbly and complement the seabass, giving the dish a lovely freshness.

We drank a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from Saint Bris (by Simonnet-Febvre), a little-know French appellation not far from Chablis. It’s a light, crisp wine with typical gooseberry Sauvignon flavours and was ideal with the fish and the tomato-based stew.

I also enjoy preparing a similar sauce, using rosemary and thyme rather than fennel and cumin and a light, red wine in place of white, to go with a heavier fish such as tuna or swordfish.

Pan-fried seabass with a bean and fennel seed stew

(Serves 2)

2 sea bass fillets
400g tin of mixed beans (e.g. cannellini, black, kidney)
1 red onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tsps fennel seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp dried oregano
4 bay leaves (optional – we have a bay tree in the garden which is very convenient)
400g tin cherry tomatoes
100ml dry white wine
100ml vegetable stock

Fry the onion and garlic gently in olive oil until soft. Bruise the fennel seeds and cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar and add to the onion and garlic, together with the oregano, and fry for a further two minutes to release their flavours. Add the white wine and let the sauce bubble for a minute or so before adding the tomatoes, stock and bay leaves. Let the sauce simmer for 10 minutes and then add the mixed beans.

Pan-fry the sea bass fillets for two-three minutes on each side (start with the skin side). The skin should be crispy. Remove the bay leaves from the bean stew and serve in large pasta bowls, topped by the fish. Garnish with chopped parsley and slices of lemon.

Cider and soup

2009-12-30T13:19:00.012Z

Having eaten way too much blue cheese this Christmas (Partridge Blue, Dorset Blue Vinney and Cropwell Bishop Stilton), I decided to put the remainder into a soup yesterday. So into the pot went chopped leeks, onion, garlic, fresh sage and parsley, vegetable stock and the aforementioned blue). Soup, it seems to me, always tastes better the day after it is made so we had it for lunch today, served with Dorset Blue Vinney croutons and a glass of my father-in-law’s 2008 farmhouse cider . The cider was a great pairing but winelovers may prefer a crisp, inexpensive, dry white. Go French if I were you, with something light and fresh from Savoie or try a personal favourite of mine - white Saint Pourçain.

At this time of year father-in-law’s cider is often used for mulled cider, a refreshing and (I find) lighter alternative to the ever-popular mulled wine. I use a similar mix of ingredients as I would for the wine-based version – a few cloves, cinnamon sticks, orange zest, sugar and a hearty glug of either rum or brandy. Ladled into glass cups, it is a warming accompaniment for my husband’s delicious sausage rolls or mixed nuts roasted in a paste of sunflower oil and spices.

If you have a favourite food match for cider - do leave a comment on the blog and let me know.

Father-in-law’s cider is made in West Somerset on his isolated farm which nestles in a valley in the shadow of the Quantock Hills. In 2006, he resurrected the family tradition of cider-making which had ground to a halt in the mid-1990s when my husband’s grandfather became too frail to continue with his annual production, made from the cider apples growing in his orchards. There was much local interest when the family cider-making started up again as it seemed to be a tradition that was fast disappearing and this interest, to some extent, spurred my father-in-law on.

Today’s cider is ‘cleaner’ than that of yesteryear, a little weaker and not as dry. Grandfather made his cider in the old-fashioned way, by assembling the ‘cheese’ with straw. The pressed cheese was a treat for his dairy cows who would chase across the fields to chew at it once the pressing was finished. Nowadays, hessian sacks are used allowing a more powerful pressing.

Years ago, the cider was given to the farm labourers after a hard day’s work in the fields, sometimes in lieu of wages, and it was always enough to leave them ‘sozzled’ but happy. My husband remembers many a dubious character turning up at grandad’s farm to buy what was, in those days, relatively cheap alcohol and Grandfather never disappointed, a flagon or two always being available for purchase and very palatable it was too. Indeed, I still feel a little guilty for introducing an Australian cousin, visiting Somerset for the first time, to the art of cider-drinking shortly before Grandfather stopped making it. She eagerly rose to the challenge, so much so that she hasn’t touched the stuff since.

Cider-making day comes round in late September or early October when the apples are ripe to overripe. It is quite an event to behold, attracting a good crowd of locals who cheerfully join in with the labour in return for a decent lunch and the odd pint of last year’s cider along the way. With much laughter and merriment, the apples are picked, pressed and put into barrels, with the finished product being ready to drink by the Spring of the following year.

Flaky Smoked Salmon from the Isle of South Uist

2009-12-17T23:16:00.002Z

I was excited to receive my parcel of flaky smoked salmon from the Salar Smokehouse today. It's my third year of ordering from www.salar.co.uk and each year it's been a seamless process with a delicious, yet slightly different, salmon product to enjoy over the holidays. The smokehouse is on the shore of Loch Carnan in the Hebridean island of South Uist.

We are not talking thin, smoked salmon here. No, not the sort you put on a blini with crème fraîche and caviar - more like a poached salmon fillet but with smoky flavours. To me, this makes a lovely and refreshing change from the usual Christmas fayre and I like to serve it with a salad of chunkily chopped cucumber with a dressing of dill, lemon juice and good-quality extra virgin olive oil. Add some freshly made lemon mayonnaise and a hunk of crusty bread and I am in heaven!

As for wine matches, I would highly recommend any of the following whites: Pouilly-Fumé and Reuilly (both are Sauvignons from the Central Vineyards of the Loire Valley) a dry Chenin Blanc from Savennières or a Viognier from either the Ardèche or, if you're up for taking the boat out, from the acclaimed vineyards of Condrieu.

Check out Salar's website - www.salar.co.uk. They state that their last postage date for Christmas deliveries is 20th December so you may still have time. Do try them throughout the year though. They have some great recipe suggestions on the website - I am sorely tempted by flaky smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for a Christmas morning breakfast or New Year's Day brunch.

Easy no-suet mincemeat

2009-12-05T17:25:00.004Z

As I'm still suffering, following a bout of winter ailments that have hit our household, I have just barked the instructions for my mincemeat recipe at my husband and he has done it for me. He is the mince pie king after all, being a dab hand with many types of pastry. Christmas Eve is always a flurry of pastry-making in this house when he does flaky pastry for sausage rolls and shortcrust for the mince pies.

This recipe can be used straight away, once cooled, although I prefer to store it in sterilised jars in the fridge for a few days at least to be used between now and Christmas Eve. It will freeze well too - just remove from the freezer the day before you need it and allow it to defrost overnight.

Ingredients

75 ml ruby port
75 g soft dark brown sugar
300 g raisins & sultanas (I like the vine fruits mix from Waitrose)
1 1/2 tsps mixed spice
40 g dried cranberries
1 satsuma, zest finely grated & juice squeezed
30 ml brandy
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 dessert spoon of golden syrup

Pour the port and sugar into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Then add the dried fruits, spices and the zest and juice of the satsuma. Simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the port is soaked up by the fruit. Remove from the heat and add the brandy, vanilla extract and golden syrup. Give it all a good stir and pour into sterilised jars. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks.

And to drink with mince pies? Mulled wine is probably best but, on Christmas Eve, when friends call in during the early evening, it'll probably be a glass of Champagne - not a great match but sometimes it just doesn't matter!

Here we go.....

2009-12-01T13:06:00.003Z

So, here we are in December. The Christmas cake is made and is being fed with rum regularly before its ritual icing on Christmas Eve. The children have excitedly opened the first door of their advent calendars (no chocolate ones in this house though) and I am in a flat spin not having done a stroke of Christmas shopping.

I've been rather neglectful of my blog recently - a succession of seasonal ailments have left us all rather jaded - but that should change this month as there is nothing I love more than talking about Christmas - the food, wines and traditions, so here we go into December. Watch this space.........

Spicy Pumpkin Soup for Bonfire Night

2009-11-08T12:45:00.006Z

With children in the house, celebrating Bonfire Night is essential and, contrary to the views of some, I think it's fun to join in with the spirit of the occasion whether you have children or not. So, last night, we donned coats and scarves just after dark, lit the barbecue and set off the pre-prepped pack of fireworks. The kids loved it and were in awe of their sparklers too.

On the food front, we went for a simple barbecue supper of Gloucester Old Spot sausages, baked jacket potatoes (with celeriac remoulade) and corn on the cob, but to start things off, we enjoyed bowls of steaming, spicy pumpkin soup - very seasonal indeed. Here's the recipe:

Spicy Pumpkin Soup (serves 4)

You will need:

1 medium sized pumpkin
Up to 2 pints fresh vegetable stock
1 red chilli
1 onion
5 large cloves unpeeled garlic (or fewer if you are not a big garlic fan)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsps olive oil
4 tbsps chopped coriander
4 tsps dukka (optional)

And this is how you do it:

Pre-heat the oven to 2oo degrees C (400F or Gas Mark 6). Chop the pumpkin (no need to peel the skin). Add 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a baking tray and warm in the oven for one minute then add the unpeeled pumpkin chunks and unpeeled garlic cloves and roast for 20 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft and browned on the edges.

Meanwhile, chop the onion and fry on a medium heat in the remaining olive oil until soft. Add the chopped chilli and spices for the last couple of minutes. Remove the pumpkin and garlic from the oven and peel the skin from the garlic cloves - I love the roasted flavours in the soup. Place the garlic, pumpkin and onion/chilli mixture into a saucepan. Warm 1 pint of the vegetable stock, add to the vegetables and season with salt and pepper as desired. Simmer for 10 minutes. Then, using a hand blender, whizz the mixture until smooth. Add more vegetable stock, if necessary, to thin the soup.

The soup is ready to serve but I do find the flavours develop further if you leave it in the fridge overnight and reheat it the following day. To serve, add a tablespoon of chopped coriander and I like to add a teaspoon of dukka, a Moroccan spice mix which includes sesame seeds, coriander, cumin and chopped almonds.

To drink, I would normally go for a white wine that can cope with the spices - Aussie Riesling, New Zealand Pinot Gris or an Albariño from Rias Baixas in Spain - but, on this occasion we wanted something that would pair well with the sausages too. Our choice was a red Southern Rhône blend from Costières de Nîmes, an earthy, inexpensive and versatile wine that is a favourite in our house. A red Côtes du Rhône (same blend of grapes - Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre etc) would also work well in this instance.

Apple Day at Stourhead Farm Shop

2009-10-25T09:08:00.006Z

Yesterday afternoon, during a break from the rain, we popped up to our local farm shop where they were celebrating the English apple harvest with some 26 varieties of apple to try. The apple theme was expaned with tastings of chutneys, jams, pork and apple sausages not to mention cider and, of course, apple juice. The latter were laid on by The Orchard Pig, a local award-winning producer of apple based drinks who had their own apple harvest day in September where the invitation was to "come pick your own dessert & cooking apples or bring a picnic and enjoy it in the orchards. Hot food and drink will be available as well as tractor and trailer rides. Of course the famous Orchard Pigs will be in attendance too." I shall be looking out for a similar invitation next year. We enjoyed talking to them yesterday while propping up their 'Cider Bar' and downing a cup of warming mulled cider.

We came home from 'Apple Day' with a huge bag of Spartan apples - the dark red variety in the top row of the photo above. Obviously, I couldn't resist buying a hunk of cheese from the wonderful counter of local cheeses inside the shop - this time Fosseway Fleece, a hard, ewes milk cheese from Somerset that was delicious on the cheeseboard last night. It's fairly mild and pale in colour but with a concentrated nutty and slightly sweet flavour that suggests it would go well with an aged grenache-based red wine. I shall be experimenting with this match again - last night's red Lirac (2006) was just a bit too heavy for it.

The afternoon's final purchase was some locally reared pork (diced) with which I am planning to casserole this week with mushrooms, shallots and a good glug of 2008 cider from my inlaws' farm in West Somerset.

The Stur Cheese Festival

2009-09-21T18:13:00.009+01:00

We awoke to a gorgeous September Saturday last weekend and were all up and out of the house to get to the cheese festival before the majority of the crowd. We've made this annual pilgrimage to Sturminster Newton (locally known as Stur) with some very good, equally cheese-mad friends for a few years now although, sadly, last year's festival was cancelled because the ground was too wet to pitch tents. None of that this year thankfully and what a day we had in store.

The festival focuses on UK cheeses, predominantly from Southern England and a smattering of other stalls are thrown in with it - Dorset Coffee Co, Peppers by Post (who had some gorgeous, really colourful chilli plants on their stall), Hogs Bottom Garden Delights (chutney), Bridport Gourmet Pies (husband salivating at this one), Olives et al and the Somerset Cider Brandy Co to name just a few.

We arrived as the festival was opening and soon implemented our usual plan of attack - the morning was spent tasting cheese and some of the wares from the other food stalls, all the while eyeing up a bit of cheese, bread, chutney and pie (gin and rabbit this year) for lunch on a hay bail in front of the band. It has become traditional to wash lunch down with a pint of the local beer or cider and this year was no exception. In the afternoon we browsed the craft stalls and other goings-on which, this year, included fire-throwing and Punch and Judy which the children lapped up.

So, to my favourite cheese of which there were many: I particularly liked the unpasteurised cow's milk cheeses from Cranborne Chase Cheese (www.cranbornechasecheese.co.uk) - Eldren, a fresh lactic cheese which is incredibly lemony, was my absolute favourite. When I returned to their stand, mid-afternoon to collect my purchases, they were 'fresh' out of cheese so I was glad I'd had the forethought to buy as I tasted.

Another fresh, unpasteurised cow's milk cheese which very much appealed to me was from the Windswept Cow Cheese Company, based in Worth Matravers near Swanage (no website) - really fresh and creamy. Both this and the Eldren would be perfect for a light cheeseboard after a heavy dinner party.

Two old favourites were there at the festival - Westcombe Cheddar, with a very attractive-looking stall with huge truckles of cheese on display and the Exmoor Blue Cheese Company, with their fabulous blues and showing a new recipe, goat's cheese marinated in oil with herbs and garlic (there's some in my fridge waiting for an appropriate moment for it to be devoured on crusty bread or toast).

Two other cheese stands that I really enjoyed visiting were Wootton Organic Dairy - their soft, unpasteurised sheep's milk cheese, Little Ryding, is to die for and was definitely my husband's favourite, judging by the rate he's been getting through it this last week. And we came back to the first cheese we tasted as our choice for a lunch cheese - Old Winchester Extra Mature from Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers near Romsey. A bit like a matured Gouda, it is made from the milk of the farm's herd of 180 Holstein Fresians.

Once again, a fantastic day out which was greatly helped by the sunshine. We went home, very happy with our cheese selections, and made the most of the day with a barbecue followed by, perhaps unsurprisingly, a rather large cheeseboard accompanied by the inevitable wine matching!

A simple aubergine lunch

2009-09-11T14:21:00.009+01:00

For the first time this summer, I've grown aubergine plants (the baby variety) and have looked after them like a woman possessed, hoping for a great crop of one of my favourite vegetables. They've spent five months sitting on either the kitchen windowsill or in front of our French windows, both of which face due south, benefitting from what little sun we've seen in this part of the world. Imagine my excitement when an aubergine actually started to form and was then followed by not one, but two more. I thought I'd got this aubergine-growing thing cracked but three aubergines was where it stopped and today I picked my huge yield and devoured the lot for lunch.

First I sliced them in half and baked them in the oven with olive oil which left them juicy, soft and plump. In a small pan, I sautéed some finely sliced garlic with a little chopped green chilli and spring onions. This mixture was then sprinkled over the aubergine halves with some freshly squeezed lime juice and a small handful of oregano, freshly picked from the garden. The resulting dish was absolutely delicious as the aubergines were so full of flavour. I didn't have a glass of wine with lunch today as I was on my own and nothing was open. If I had partaken of a glass, however, I would have gone for an Italian Fiano (white) or perhaps an Albariño from Spain. If you wanted to add a bit more depth to the dish, some crumbled feta would be great with it and then I would go for something really cleansing to offset the saltiness of the cheese - a dry Riesling from South Australia or a Sauvignon Blanc would work well.

Pork Belly, Pommes Dauphinoise & a note about the Morteau Sausage

2009-09-06T12:59:00.009+01:00

It's hard to believe that it's the end of the seven-week summer holidays. The children are back to school tomorrow and I'm back to work, although I haven't had anything like the whole seven weeks off that they've enjoyed, sadly. Getting back into the routine tomorrow morning could be something of a shock. Anyway, we made the most of our last day and cooked a great Sunday lunch of roast belly pork (the pork was bought at our local farmshop), cabbage and runner beans which I picked up at a country fair yesterday and pommes dauphinoise. To go with it, and very well it drank too, a 2001 Pinot Noir from Pommard, just south of Beaune in Burgundy. The lunch was a fitting and filling end to the holidays (great crackling!) and the next activity on our agenda was a very long walk.

If you remember the Morteau smoked sausage I picked up in Poligny on the way home from the Jura, just a short note about what I did with it: I cooked it a couple of weeks ago in white wine, garlic, carrots and herbs and served it on a bed of puy lentils. It was pretty tasty - I liked the smokiness of the sausage - but the earth didn't move. We drank another red Burgundy with it, an Hautes Côtes de Beaune 2006, which coped admirably.

A sizzling Sunday barbecue

2009-08-24T17:36:00.006+01:00

I was up with the lark yesterday at the prospect of one of those hot, lazy, summer Sundays that we love here in our house. So few have been the opportunities to barbecue recently that I had my marinating hat on before breakfast to prepare a veggie starter, pictured above, and a pork main course, pictured below.

Barbecued Halloumi slices with olives and a dressing of chilli and mint

Halloumi is a fairly solid cheese with a high melting point, making it one of the few cheeses that you can cook on a barbecue without the whole lot falling into the coals. Traditionally from Cyprus, it is popular throughout Greece and the Middle East. A fairly salty cheese, it is produced mainly using goat's milk and ewe's milk although the ingredients list on the cheese I cooked with stated cow's milk as well.

I quickly rustled up the dressing by mixing together three tablespoons of Extra Virgin olive oil, the juice of a lemon, a red chilli (roughly chopped) and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic. I then left the dressing for five hours to let the flavours integrate (two hours should be plenty), before adding a handful of chopped mint when ready to serve. I sliced a 250g pack of Halloumi into thick slices, brushed it with olive oil and grilled it on the barbecue until the slices were browned a little on both sides. The dressing is simply poured on top of the cooked cheese. Don't worry if it seems a bit squeaky when you eat it - Halloumi is the ultimate squeaky cheese. After a hot morning's gardening (so much for the aforementioned lazy Sunday), we had built up a thirst so we enjoyed a simple, cold beer with the dish.

Pork steaks in a spicy marinade

For the marinade, I poured in a glug of olive oil (probably about four tablespoons), the juice of a lemon, three cloves of crushed garlic and a teaspoon each of cumin, turmeric and paprika. This made enough marinade to cover four large pork steaks. The pork was left in the fridge for five hours until ready to cook on the barbecue. Check that the meat is properly cooked through (no pink bits) before you take it off the barbecue. It's a little bit spicy but not too hot so my 6-year-old and 9-year-old devoured theirs with gusto. We served it with some Mediterranean vegetables but couscous with pine nuts, a finely chopped and sautéed red onion and a little paprika and cinammon would also go well. To drink, the husband and I found a lightly chilled St Nicolas de Bourgueil (Cabernet Franc) from the Loire to be an ideal match.

Back from the Jura.....

2009-08-16T16:44:00.005+01:00

Our camping holiday in the Jura got off to a less than auspicious start as thunder and lightning danced around the campsite on our arrival and the thought of putting the tent up, in the torrential rain we had driven through, became almost more than we could bear. This sad scene faced us, on top of a 12-hour drive from Dorset, and with two very tired children buried in the back of the car amidst much camping paraphenalia.

I am happy to report, however, that things got much better as the week progressed. The weather was mostly glorious, the local markets and cheeses (notably Comté, shown in the photo above, Morbier and some great goat's cheeses) were divine and the mountain/lake air relaxed us immeasurably.

Whilst the simple wines of the region that we tried weren't particularly memorable, we did stumble across some good Pinot Noir (which is grown along with Chardonnay much in the same way as in Burgundy as the soils and climate are similar) and some excellent Vin de Paille (literally straw wine - a long-lived sweet wine made from dried grapes). Many of the local white wines, predominantly from the local grape, Savagnin, are of an oxidative style and, perhaps, the best known Jura wine made in this style is Vin Jaune, a wine capable of considerable ageing and made in a similar fashion to Sherry. Reds made from the local grapes, Plousseau and Troussard, tend to be quite light in style. A Crémant de Jura is also produced and rosé wines are fairly common.

We've come home with a local smoked sausage, Morteau, which should be cooked in boiling water or wine and served with potatoes or a lentil stew. The sausage smells divine in the fridge and I shall be experimenting with it this week. Watch this space................

Squid with chilli and lime on toasted bread

2009-08-03T17:38:00.005+01:00

A great Saturday night starter - easy to prepare and something a bit different. Do check with your dinner guests that they like squid before you present it to them, though. It's surprising how many people aren't keen - I think it's the texture that baffles them.

To prepare the squid (I used 20 pouches to serve four people), slit the body pouches down the middle and score across and down the skin to give a 'criss-cross' effect. Cut each pouch in half and fry, scored side up, for 30 seconds or so. The pieces of squid should roll up as you do this. You can also add the tentacles from inside the body pouch but, at this point, I should admit to being slightly put off by these wobbly bits. I usually leave them out.

Remove the squid from the pan and throw in two finely chopped red chillis (I removed the seeds to avoid overpowering the dish with chilli heat) and four chopped spring onions. Fry for a minute then return the squid to the pan with a couple of cloves of crushed garlic. Toss the mixture for a further minute to brown. Season with a little salt and pepper and add some chopped flatleaf parsley. Serve on toasted, rustic bread which you have first drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Top the lot with a squeeze of lime juice.

Our wine choice, and it was an excellent accompaniment, was a young Australian Riesling from the Mount Lofty Ranges Zone of South Australia which encompasses Adelaide Hills and the Clare Valley. The Eden Valley, also in South Australia, is renowned for its Riesling too.

Friday Frittata

2009-08-01T12:17:00.003+01:00

Yesterday was a very long day and I got home to find nothing much in the fridge, no thought having been given to supper. Going out again in search of suitable ingredients was not to be contemplated so I pulled together the best of what we had and made a baked bacon, sage and squash frittata.

The beauty of baking a frittata (I use a round fruit cake tin) is that it can be left to cook in the oven for 30 minutes, thus avoiding all that prodding and fussing that tends to be involved when making frittata in a pan.

In preparation for baking, I mixed the following ingredients in a bowl:

small chunks of roasted squash (I used spaghetti squash but butternut would be better)
lightly fried pieces of bacon
a little crushed garlic
some grated grana padano, a cheaper yet tasty alternative to parmesan
8 free range eggs
a handful of chopped chives and the same amount of sage

I then poured the lot into the cake tin, which I had greased with butter, and cooked it in a medium oven for about half an hour.

The frittata was served warm with a tomato and chive salad and some crusty bread. As an accompaniment, we enjoyed a glass of Barbera d'Asti 2006, a mid-weight red from Piedmont in northern Italy which coped ably with the different flavours in the dish and proved to be a great match. So much so that, for lunch, we are going to have the rest of the frittata (cold) with another glass of the Barbera.

Gooseberry Chutney

2009-07-22T18:31:00.004+01:00

I'm not the world's biggest fan of gooseberries but, determined to make use of the fruit from our rather large gooseberry bush this year, I picked a pound and a half of them on Sunday and made chutney. I'm going to leave it for a few months to mature and I reckon it will then be wonderful with hard cheeses and maybe pâtés or terrines in the late Autumn (preferably in front of a roaring woodburner).

Anyway, here's the recipe (makes 5 small-medium jars):

1.5lbs / 700g gooseberries, topped, tailed and chopped in half
1/2lb /225g sugar
1/2lb / 225g shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 pint / 275ml vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
1/2 pint / 275ml water
pinch of salt
tiny pinch of chilli powder
2 tsps ground ginger

Place the chopped gooseberries and shallots in a saucepan with the water and simmer until they are softened. Add the rest of the ingredients and leave to bubble gently on a very low heat until you achieve a sticky, thick consistency - this will take about an hour. The mixture will be a dark pinky/brown colour. When the chutney is ready, pour it into sterilised jars (fresh out of the dishwasher is the best way).

Cucumber Glut

2009-07-19T15:53:00.005+01:00

We're much divided in our house about the merits of cucumber. The six-year-old and I can't get enough of it whilst the husband and the nine-year-old would rather drink vinegar than go anywhere near the stuff. So the fact that, in my first year of growing cucumbers, we have a glut of the things has met with mixed reactions.

The variety I have grown is Marketmore, a short, slighty bumpy cucumber which has done very well in tubs. The two of us have been enjoying it in salads and with smoked salmon but I wanted to try something a bit more adventurous so I've been on the hunt for recipes. This week I shall be doing sweet cucumber pickle and, if I can get some fresh mackerel (none to be found locally yesterday afternoon - all sold out in the morning), I'm going to try this from Valentine Warner:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/mackerelontoastwiths_90005.shtm l

Mackerel and gooseberry sauce is perfect at this time of year - both are in season - and, as I have just picked 1.5lbs of gooseberries from the garden, I might go for that instead. An aromatic white might match well, perhaps an Alsace Pinot Gris or Riesling.

Borrowed Broad Beans........

2009-07-06T17:04:00.015+01:00

The broad beans in the veg patch have been attacked by a mass of green insects and, consequently, we have only managed four pods so far from about 20 plants - very disappointing as I had such high hopes. Never fear, the mother-in-law has been to the rescue, sending up supplies from her (always prolific) plants in West Somerset, which is a relief as I always think that supermarket broad beans taste as if they've been sitting around for ages.

Broad beans with chorizo is one of my favourite combinations and tonight I blanched the beans, fried some chorizo and chopped spring onions for a minute or two in some olive oil and put the whole lot in a salad bowl with some fresh thyme and a little lemon juice.

With it, grilled garlic and lemon-marinated chicken breasts and a few new potatoes (also provided by the mother-in-law) tossed in extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice and paprika.

Our wine this evening was a red Saumur 2007 from Cabernet Franc - a light-bodied wine from the Loire that benefits from a light chilling on a hot day and worked wonderfully with the paprika/chorizo flavours which were prominent in the dish. A heavier style of rosé would work too - Grenache-based from Southern France or Spain (Lirac, Tavel, Navarra spring to mind).

By the way, it's not all doom and gloom in the garden. Yesterday I made courgette fritters using our very own courgettes - delicious. The cucumbers are going crazy as are the tomatoes, sweetcorn and aubergines.

In the veg patch - Part 2

2009-06-26T15:06:00.011+01:00

It's all happening in the veg patch and the greenhouse this week as things suddenly start to flower and fruit. This weekend, I think we'll be ready for homegrown potatoes and I ought to do something with the gooseberries but I've been putting it off as I'm really not a fan. The gooseberry bush is prolific, despite a very shady spot, and is something we inherited from the previous owner of our house. Every year I gaze at those plump little green fruits and usually end up giving them away to one gooseberry fan or another. This year it will be different - to mask all that gooseberriness, I have an idea to boil them, to within an inch of their lives, with the aim of making some kind of chutney to accompany hard cheese. I'm still working on the recipe and will report back when it's finally perfected. Apologies to all you gooseberry lovers out there - please let me know if you have any great recipes that might encourage a gooseberry sceptic.

Another inherited plant (or tree, judging by the size of it hanging over our garden) is the elderflower. It wasn't there when we moved in seven years ago and now it's a beast! Last weekend, my husband was adamant that he was going to go round and remonstrate with the neighbour about it and have it chopped down. "Not before I've made elderflower cordial", I barked, and so I did, for the first time ever. So successful was the experiment that it is likely to become a regular annual feature chez nous - it's deliciously fresh and just shouts 'Summer' at me.

This week has been a long one so I think I might try the cordial with a slug of gin tonight and, thanks to the weather, make the most of being saved from the most herculean of tasks - watering the garden.

Somerset Cheese Tasting

2009-06-21T10:21:00.004+01:00

Last night we tried the Somerset cheeses that I bought from the local farmshop on Friday and tried to match them with some different wines. Here's what we tried:

Pennard Ridge Goat's Cheese - a very salty, hard, white cheese
Green's Cheddar from Pennard - a pretty strong cheddar
Smoke Acre from Galhampton - a very tasty, smoked cheddar

We tried them all with a 2007 white Hautes Côtes de Beaune, a 2007 red Côtes du Rhône Cairanne and a 15-year-old Verdelho Madeira.

The goat worked well with both the red and the white wines, particularly the white. The Madeira didn't like it at all. The Green's Cheddar was too much for all the wines - the white became flat and the red lost its fruit. The Madeira was the only wine to put up a fight but it wasn't an ideal match for this very strong cheese. It came into its own, however, with the Smoke Acre, the slight sweetness and smokiness of the wine balancing well with the saltiness of the cheese. The white was also tolerable with the Smoke Acre but the red became pretty bland.

We all agreed that the cheese of the tasting was the Pennard Ridge goat's cheese and that it also provided the best match - with the white Hautes Côtes de Beaune. I'll definitely be enjoying this pairing again.

A Supper of Farmhouse Sausages

2009-06-20T11:05:00.005+01:00

Our local farmshop, at Stourhead Gardens (a National Trust property), is a favourite stopping point for excellent local meat and cheeses. Yesterday I called in for some hard cheeses for a cheese tasting but, as usual, I came out with a bag full of extras having been unable to resist their plump and succulent Cumberland sausages and a few other goodies.

An idea had immediately sprung to mind for the sausages and, later in the evening, I got started on preparing a puy lentil accompaniment for them. It's very simple - fry some chopped red onions and garlic in a little olive oil and add chopped sundried tomatoes, capers, seasoning and then a slug of red wine. I also threw in a few chopped fresh tomatoes to bind the sauce. To this, add some cooked puy lentils (I use the Merchant Gourmet pre-cooked lentils for speed) and let the whole thing simmer gently for a few minutes while grilling the sausages. Chop some fresh oregano and add it to the lentil mixture, leaving a little for garnishing. We enjoyed this with a watercress salad and a bottle of Perrin & Fils Côtes du Rhône Cairanne 2007 (red). 2007 was an excellent vintage in the Southern Rhône and this juicy Cairanne went perfectly with the rustic simplicity of the dish.

Summer Vegetable Pilaf (in the rain)

2009-06-17T16:45:00.010+01:00

It was looking fairly summery outside this morning when I planned tonight's supper but, now I'm cooking, the rain is coming down. Still, this old favourite should brighten up the evening - a light pilaff, using basmati rice, with asparagus, freshly-podded peas, lots of lemon (juice and zest), spring onions and fresh basil and oregano. My husband can't resist some grated pecorino cheese on the finished dish but take care as they can mask the flavours of the other ingredients. I'm chilling a bottle of white Saint Pourçain from the Auvergne - a blend of Chardonnay, Aligoté, Trésallier and Sauvignon - a fine, fresh match for the pilaf.

To follow, there's some Saint Marcellin cheese and crusty bread which should also work with the Saint Pourçain.

Meatfest

2009-06-15T20:45:00.009+01:00

After yesterday's meatfest on the barbecue (homemade lamb and mint burgers with pork ribs marinated in maple syrup, garlic, paprika and tomato puree), I find myself, of a Monday evening, with yet more lamb mince to do something with. We also had aubergines, broad beans, feta cheese, mint and olives. So here's what I concocted:

I fried an onion with some garlic (5 big cloves - I do like a lot of garlic) and then added the lamb mince. Once browned, I threw in some cinnamon, cumin and dried thyme, chopped black olives and some aubergine that I had sliced, brushed with olive oil and grilled. The aubergine was chopped into smaller pieces before being added to the lamb. I simmered the whole lot for 20 minutes or so in some fresh vegetable stock and seasoned it well.

At the same time, I boiled some broad beans, took them out of their thick, outer shells and added crumbled feta, chopped mint, lemon juice and a drop of extra virgin olive oil.

We scooped up the lamb and broad bean salad into toasted pitta bread - messy but delicious. To drink, we had a young Spanish red from Tempranillo which worked fairly well although I think, given the richness and oiliness of the lamb, a crisp Loire Chenin or even a Jurançon Sec might have been more interesting and a bit different.

I would try this again with pieces of shoulder or neck of lamb, slow cooked and served with couscous but I would stick to a red wine for this heavier style of lamb.

A fish barbecue

2009-06-13T15:29:00.008+01:00

The minute the sun comes out everyone is barbecuing and we are no exception although we are fairly traditional in our practices here - no gas barbecues or easy-to-light coals in our garden! The weather looked fairly promising this morning and, having acquired some whole rainbow trout, we decided to barbecue them, stuffed with thyme, sage and lemon juice, with some Jersey Royals (par-boiled first and then finished on the barbecue on wooden skewers) and English asparagus. All this was accompanied by homemade lemon mayonnaise and a green salad of Lollo Rosso straight from the greenhouse. My wine choice was Gavi, a fairly aromatic white wine from the Piedmont region of North-West Italy. It's made from the Cortese grape and today's bottle is a 2007 - very fresh and lemony.

NB I have been asked to mention, by my husband, that the trout was excellently cooked and filleted to perfection. I find myself compelled to agree. Like most men, the caveman tendency reveals itself whenever a fire is lit.

Summer Fête Season

2009-06-12T18:51:00.003+01:00

Today I've been helping at my children's school summer fête where my job was to look after the cake stall. I also was tasked with making two dozen scones for refreshments. Some friends tell me that homemade cakes are banned at their school fêtes for reasons of hygiene. I find this unbelievable and completely over the top and, considering that the only worthwhile cake on a cake stall is a homemade one, the act of presenting me with a shop-bought cake (as many parents did) is an outrage.

Anyway, I shall get off my high horse now and go and make paella. With it, I'm going to have one of my favourite wines - a full-bodied rosé from Irouléguy, a gorgeous village in the foothills of the Pyrenees in French Basque country.

Another summer tart success!

2009-06-07T18:30:00.004+01:00

Last night's feta, tomato and basil tart was great summer food. This time I went for (homemade) shortcrust pastry rather than my usual favourite, puff! After baking the shortcrust blind for 15 minutes with my baking beans, I ladled on some sliced onions, chopped garlic and baby courgettes that I had browned lightly in olive oil. Then I added some sliced baby plum tomatoes, crumbled feta and some finely grated Grana Padano and poured over a mixture of beaten eggs (3) and double cream (150mls). The whole lot went in the oven for about 20 minutes at which point I added a bit more crumbled feta and some torn mint and basil before baking for a further 5 minutes. Delicious and doesn't need much with it - just a big green salad with perhaps an olive oil and balsamic (or lemon) dressing.

As for a wine accompaniment, we had some Chilean Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon open but it wasn't the best of matches as I had thought. Today, I've had cold leftovers with a white Rully 1er Cru 2007 (Burgundy Chardonnay) which was a much better partner.

Lunch at Le Givry in Givry (Burgundy)

2009-06-03T17:09:00.011+01:00

It doesn’t seem possible that it’s a week since we enjoyed a great lunch at Le Givry in Givry – a town in the Chalonnais wine region known for its reds from Pinot Noir and the rarer whites from Chardonnay. Slightly panicked by a loud whining noise coming from the car as we parked it in the town, we decided there was nothing to be done about it at lunchtime and that the best thing to do was to face it later and on a full stomach!

After heading in completely the wrong direction on foot, we eventually came across the restaurant in a small square looking out at the Halle Ronde, a round building as the name suggests which houses a covered market.

Two waitresses were very attentive and installed us outside, overlooking the Halle Ronde, and after my husband nearly did himself an injury trying to put the patio umbrella up over the table, the Patron came out and remonstrated with it – there was clearly a knack. A bottle of red Givry 1er Cru 2006 from Domaine Mouton was brought out after we had chosen our dishes and it was delicious – soft, full of fruit and perfect with our selections from the short but varied menu. The list also featured wines from Domaine Joblot, a well-respected name in Givry.

So to the food – my husband went for a fillet of beef in a Pinot sauce. He asked for it to be cooked ‘saignant’ which is usually slightly rarer than ‘rare’ would be in the UK. When it arrived, it was nearer medium but my husband pronounced it to be delicious and it was served with a potato purée, very fine asparagus and a little round of puff pastry with ratatouille. I went for an open ravioli with a velouté of three types of mushroom and ‘escargots’ which looked like not much more than a mouthful in the large plate on which it was presented. Under the ravioli, however, was an abundance of mushrooms and snails and the velouté was divine – light yet creamy and full of flavour.

The children were catered for with stuffed tortellini with a slightly spicy pesto sauce followed by ‘deux boules de glace’ – chocolate of course! Both main course and pudding disappeared in no time.

So if you are looking for a relaxed lunch in that part of the world with good local wines and excellent cooking, I can highly recommend Le Givry. Oh, and by the way, the car was fine when we returned to it but gave up the following day and is still in a garage in Chalon-sur-Saône nearly a week later while someone sorts out who should repair it – the French garage or a UK one. Thank God for the AA!

Just back from Burgundy - cheese tasting!

2009-05-31T17:23:00.003+01:00

We’re back from Burgundy and the garden has gone mad in just a week. The vegetable patch is growing well – the broad beans particularly. Still hoping for a good crop.

It’s been wonderful to come back to summer and we’ve sat outside today and tasted our cheeses from Alain Hess in Beaune with some Aligoté from Bouzeron, the place most known for producing the second white grape of Bourgogne, Chardonnay being the obvious chief here. We went for some of the lesser known cheeses – mostly very local goat’s cheeses (Clacbitou, Vézeray and a tiny Baratte affiné). We also chose a cow’s milk cheese, Chaource, produced in Burgundy and Champagne-Ardenne.

The goat’s cheeses were all creamy and went well with the Aligoté. The Baratte was quite dry and dense with citrus notes, the Clacbitou similar but milder and much creamier and the Vézeray, my favourite of the three, was softer and less dense. It could have been better matched with a less lemony wine, perhaps, a Rully springs to mind? The Chaource was creamy but pretty salty and didn’t suit the Aligoté at all. I would have preferred a sweet wine with it.

The most famous cheeses of Burgundy are orange-coloured, washed-rind cheeses from cow’s milk, often soaked in Marc de Bourgogne to aid maturation. They are members of the Chaource family but are much more flavoursome. Names you might recognise are Langres and Epoisses, readily available over here, as is Chaource. I particularly like Ami du Chambertin from Gevrey-Chambertin which I found at La Fromagerie in Marylebone. These cheeses are salty and are recommended as matches for Sauternes. We tried Monbazillac with them before we went to Burgundy and that worked pretty well. There was much argument as to whether a Pommard was a good accompaniment or not - I would stick with the sweet wine suggestion if I were you.

A few food matches for champagne and some sparkling wine suggestions

2009-05-20T18:34:00.009+01:00

An invitation to an evening of ‘fizz’ with friends tomorrow night found me wondering about the complex issue of what to drink with champagne. Whilst it’s often enjoyed as an aperitif at the start of a dinner party, it rarely features as an accompaniment to the meal itself and more’s the pity. I can proudly admit to having drunk champagne all the way through a dinner party on a couple of occasions and a jolly good time was had by all!

For me, favourite foods with non-vintage, dry (Brut) champagne include Thai-influenced dishes – monkfish saté, meatballs in a coconut, chilli and coriander sauce with noodles and a simple Thai chicken curry spring to mind. Seafood is an obvious pairing perhaps – a platter of fruits de mer seems very sophisticated and fresh crab is perfect. If you're feeling really decadent, why not poach some white fish (turbot or seabass perhaps) in champagne with a little butter , a splash of cream, a squeeze of lemon and some chopped chives and shallots - and then drink the remaining contents of the champagne bottle with it!

Soft, creamy, white cheeses and goat’s cheeses can be surprisingly good matches for champagne as can cheese-based canapés like the Burgundian speciality, gougères (cheesy choux buns), that I made on Sunday - see photo. A recent cheese find, Brillat-Savarin, is a cow's milk cheese which hails from Northern Burgundy although its true provenance is often disputed by those over the border in Champagne-Ardennes. I adore this cheese and it doesn’t last long in our house – you can get it at Waitrose. It also works with the Burgundian sparkling wine, Crémant de Bourgogne, which will be lighter on your pocket than champagne.

Other reasonably-priced French sparkling wine options include, from the Loire valley, Vouvray Mousseux Brut from Chenin Blanc which I particularly like with Thai food. Another favourite is Crémant de Limoux from down in the Languedoc – often a blend of two of the champagne grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir although Mauzac is the indigenous and traditionally-deployed grape.

I wonder what will be on the menu with our fizz tomorrow night!

Simple Salmon Supper

2009-05-19T18:26:00.005+01:00

Tonight, simple and quick was the name of the game for supper so I roasted some salmon fillet and served it with puy lentils through which I forked roasted red onion, lemon juice and chopped flatleaf parsley. To go with it, I couldn't resist more British asparagus, also roasted. The whole ensemble was served with a big green salad.

And to drink.......? How about a young, dry Chenin Blanc from the Loire (Vouvray Sec, white Chinon) or a lightish Pinot Noir (a red Sancerre perhaps and a good tip is to stick it in the fridge for half an hour first).

We went for the Chenin option as we have done on more than one occasion - it lapped up the salmon and puy lentil mélange but didn't cope with the roasted asparagus at all (a seasonal addition to this tried and tested recipe - so leave it out if you're doing Chenin). We also tried an AOC Bourgogne Pinot Noir (2007) which didn't work with the salmon nor the lentils both of which rendered it quite bitter. It wasn't bad with the asparagus though and I might try it with asparagus and goat's cheese another time.

I haven't mentioned Chablis with this dish and it would do a fine job - just a village wine or even a Petit Chablis if you want to keep the price down.

In the veg patch!

2009-05-18T16:50:00.005+01:00

I know it seems to be the 'in' thing this year but we have gone for it again with our veg patch (and greenhouse), hoping for a better crop than last year. Even the damson tree gave up last summer so my husband, aka Jam-maker Supreme, had to rely on a meagre crop of cooking apples in the garden and a surprising glut of blackberries in the hedgerows around our village. Sloes were virtually non-existent so we made no sloe gin which was disappointing and stocks of the 2007 vintage are now exhausted so here's hoping for a bumper crop in 2009.

This year, I'm experimenting with a few things I've not tried before - butternut squash, cucumbers, sweetcorn and broad beans. I've always relied on my mother-in-law's excellent efforts with broad beans in the past but, as she lives a reasonable distance away, we have only had a couple of big bagfuls from her of a summer and I am hungry for more! I only hope we can live up to her reputation. My mouth is watering just thinking about broad beans with feta cheese and mint (really must look into Greek wines) or with chorizo and a juicy Spanish red. I can't wait - the first planting is flowering now and the second is not far behind!

More on the veg patch as things are ready to use.......

Tim Atkin on Food and Wine in the Observer today

2009-05-17T16:50:00.002+01:00

Interesting article in the Observer on food and wine matching today by Tim Atkin. He sums the whole subject up very well so follow the link below to read the full article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/17/tim-atkin-wine-food-matching

Which wine for Bourride?

2009-05-16T18:03:00.006+01:00

I've never cooked Bourride before although I've eaten it a few times in France. Bouillabaisse has been done in my kitchen on occasion, and with success, but on Friday I was on a mission to find a good Bourride recipe and a great wine match for it. As with many things French, there seem to be endless variations on a theme with Bourride so I mixed and matched from three recipes I found in my rather-too-extensive-as-far-as-my-husband-is-concerned cookery book library. The three were from Leith's Fish Bible, Michel Roux Junior's 'Matching Food and Wine' and Clare Ferguson's 'Flavours of Provence'. The latter provided most of the inspiration although I used white fish easily available here - hake and monkfish.

So how does Bourride differ from that other southern French 'stew', Bouillabaisse then? I like to differentiate between the two by saying that Bourride doesn't include tomatoes and that it is served all in one go whereas, with Bouillabaisse, the done thing seems to be to eat the broth first (with rouille, grated gruyere and little garlic toasts) and the fish is tucked into afterwards, almost as a second course. Feel free to correct me!

Wine suggestions for Bourride seem to centre on white Cassis and provençal rosé although other possibilities abound. I can vouch for the Cassis so, to ring the changes, I went for some cheapish white Bordeaux (sémillon/sauvignon) which I wasn't expecting to be anything special in terms of a match, an Albariño (grape of the same name) from Rias Baixas in Northern Spain and a Corsican rosé (niellucio, grenache, alicanté). Whilst I can see why a rosé might work with Bouillabaisse, I was struggling to see how it could work with the Bourride sauce which was made with egg yolks, aïoli and crème fraiche.

Sure enough, the rosé did nothing for the Bourride nor the Bourride for it and the finish on the wine became very bitter. For me, the Albariño worked tolerably in combination with the dish although some of its characteristic floral and spicy notes were lost. The body and lemony flavours of the white Bordeaux were fantastic with the Bourride and the wine kept its character completely whilst enhancing the lemon flavours in the stew. My quest for the perfect wine for Bourride ends here - it's great how this food and wine matching game often throws in a real surprise!

And now I'm off to make gougères in celebration of the fact that we're off to Burgundy in a few days. Mmm, might put some Crémant de Bourgogne in the fridge...........

Ah! British Asparagus

2009-05-14T22:53:00.000+01:00

Where better to start my blog than with something I look forward to every Spring. British Asparagus has started to appear in the shops in the last two weeks and, not having had the chance to go and source it somewhere rural, I have had to rely on my local Waitrose. We planted some asparagus this year but it takes three years for it to produce, or so I am reliably told. Fortunately, the hours I spent planting tomatoes, aubergines, squash, rocket, onions, peas, broad beans and a whole host of other stuff should, weather permitting, see things come to fruition this year. Watch this space....

So, let's get back to the asparagus. I cheated and bought some ready made puff pastry, which is a shame because my husband is the ultimate puff/flaky pastry king but saves his delights for the Christmas sausage rolls. Onto the rolled out pastry, I ladled my homemade (yes, really) pesto, some softly-sweated onions, thin slices of goat's cheese and some delicately arranged (in nice, neat rows) asparagus spears. A sprinkling of grana padano and a brush of milk on any bare ends of pastry finished it off before placing in the oven. Truly delicious with just a green salad and ,the leftovers are perfect taken the next day to work, cold, in a lunchbox.

To drink with that, we had a Loire Sauvignon Blanc from Reuilly, nice and acidic from the 2008 vintage and ready, therefore, to cope with the goat and the roastiness of the asparagus. Reuilly is a lesser-known and usually cheaper neighbour of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. I would highly recommend it.

What are your favourite wine matches for asparagus?

Introduction to The Food and Wine Diarist's Blog

2009-05-14T21:55:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my food and wine matching blog which is all about having a bit of fun with both traditional and contemporary recipes and then finding great wines to accompany them, whether it be for a posh dinner party, a casual weekend lunch at home, a seasonal occasion or just a weekday supper. Recipes come at us from all over the world nowadays as do the wines and there are so many potential matches to experiment with. By using a few tried and tested ideas as guidelines and throwing in a bit of ‘whatever you fancy’ a world of gourmet enjoyment is to be had! The one principle that, for me, should constantly be referred to is the fact that, in regions where wine has been produced for centuries, or even just decades, the inhabitants have built up a pretty good idea of which recipes work well with the wines of the locale. We should bear this in mind.

So, do drop in to the blog. If you have some great food and wine matches to share, let me know. And feel free to comment if I’m struggling to find the ideal pairing – I’d love to hear your ideas.