Category:Food

May 7
Slow Wednesday – Chicken Pie and Benjamin Laroche Chardonnay 2012

It was very deja vu like yesterday. Day off. Cooking Slow. Kids sick. At home. Again!!! Bloody heck. But all was well and the house was quiet with movies, an open fire blazing and yum aromas from the kitchen.

Chicken Pie. My theory with pies is if you are going to put a lid on it, put something below it too; pastry all over. That means if you are making short-crust pastry you gotta make double. pastryAnd when you are making said pastry it is always better to have a food processor to mix the butter and flour because if you do it by hand you are more likely to melt the butter.

So to start. Once butter and flour are blitzed, in a bowl slowly add cold water until you have a solid ball of pastry that is elastic like in texture and not crumbly. Cover and sit in fridge for about 30 minutes. Next brown whole thighs of chicken off with butter, tarragon and garlic in batches with the occasional slug of white wine to glaze and release the crusty bits.

browning chook Remove chook from pot and soften leek, carrots, slippery jack mushrooms and more garlic. Throw chook back in and top with chicken stock and white wine until almost to the top of the pot. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer and walk away for about 4 hours.

About an 3 hours in grease of round baking dish with butter and roll pastry in. Make sure you have plenty to tuck in and to hang over side. Cover with baking paper and weigh down and on about 150°C for about 12 minutes. Then remove baking paper and heat on same temp for another 10 minutes until semi-hard and tanned and with that, pour the reduced yumness in and pop the lid on and brush with an egg wash and bake until golden brown. Awesomeness awaits!!!

ready for lidlid ondone

Now with a pie like this you are going to want a wine that has punch yet finesse as well. The Benjamin Laroche La Manufacture Bourgogne 2012 from Burgundy. A Chardonnay. Pithy grapefruit and lemon aroma’s waft up with a hint of stone fruit and white licorice powder and more pithy grapefruit come through on the palate. Not too big but not too skinny either. Ripping and always $37le manufacture

Ingredients:

Pastry

500 grams plain flour
250 grams butter
Cold water

Pie

1.2kg chicken thighs
1 big handful of tarragon
3 x carrots
1 x leek
1 whole bulb of garlic, skinned and thrown in whole
3 x slippery jack mushrooms
1 litre of good chicken stock
400 mL white wine
Salt and pepper

April 30
Slow Wednesday – Corsican Stew and Cavallalotto Dolcetto

Yesterday marked the first day that the store was open but I wasn’t here; sort of strange but nice to have a sleep in I guess. Now the one thing I have missed since being here everyday (and yes, my family of course) is cooking. I love to cook. And I love slow cooking. Love it, love it, love it.meat and pasta

Something else I love is pasta. Home made pasta that is. Usually when I make pasta at home I would usually have Henry, Little Red #2, helping me out. Yesterday I had both Little Reds due to both being home from school with a lurgy. So both had to help. Yeah, what could go wrong? Not a lot I’m happy to report and the end result was a bench full of pasta.pasta

Next thing to sort was to brown off the meat in some white wine; just your garden variety chuck/stewing steak. Once done add soaked cep mushrooms, bacon lardons, bay leaves and a handful of rosemary and pretty much walk way for about 4 hours.

The end result is a gorgeous pot of slow cooked meat that everyone in the family will eat, especially the kids because they helped put everything together.full pot

But the meal isn’t complete without wine, and with a meal this hearty and rich the wine needs to be able to be big enough to standup against such robust flavours. The Cavallotto D’Alba Dolcetto 2012 from Piedmonte Italy. I really love Dolcetto, but don’t let the name fool you; she aint sweet!!!. This wine is earthy with dark tart black fruit, spice, savoury bay leaf notes and effortless acid and tannin structure. An absolute Sussan – you know, ‘This goes with that at Sussan’ – with my Corsican Stew and $38 alwayscavallotto

Ingredients & Method for Corsican Stew and home made pasta:

Pasta
3 x eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
pinch of salt

combine eggs, flour and salt and mix until firm but doughy. Roll out in small batches and lay out to dry on a non-stick surface. I cling wrap the bench.

Corsican Stew
1 1/2 kg of stewing beef
200 grams bacon
40 grams cep/porcini mushroom and 2 lites of water
450mL white wine
2 x bay leaves
A handful of rosemary
2 pinches of cinnamon
100mL pasata
3 x cloves of garlic
3 x onions, quartered

In a large plastic bowl soak porcini/cep in boiling hot water for 30 minutes. Cut the beef in to large chunks and brown in small batches. De-glaze pot after each batch with white wine. Do the same with bacon. Add remaining ingredients as well as liquid to soak mushrooms. Top with water/stock to the top of the pot. Bring to boil then immer until reduced. There should be plenty leftover for a few leftover lunches I reckon. Having some now actually; it’s delish!!leftovers

April 18
Slow Cooking Season – Lamb and Cabernet

SLOW-COOKED-HALF-SHOULDER-Slow cooking season is upon us. Prep in the morning. Turn oven on. Whack contents in to oven. Go about your biz for the rest of the day doing the usual blah blahs that weekends tend to throw at you, and anything up to 6 hours later you have a feast befitting Brunswick royalty.

 

To kick of the #SeasonOfSlow we are going to start with an Aussie staple; Lamb. Beautiful ever reliable Lamb. And to drink with said Lamb one of my favourite drops is the Chateau Pierre-Bise Anjou Cabernet Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon Sur Spilites 2010 from the Loire Valley in France. A beautiful wine with layers of mocca, dark chocolate, cassis and achingly supple tannins with balanced acid. Sexyasnuts I say. anjou

So you have your wine, now you just need to cook the lamb. Here’s a good start. Happy times!!!

Ingredients:

  • 2 lemons
  • 650g waxy potatoes, peeled
  • 2 onion, sliced into wedges
  • 4-6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 half shoulder of Scotch Lamb 800g
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 2 big handfuls of rosemary from the back yard
  • 2 generous glugs of olive oil
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 300mL dry white for the lamb, 150mL of wine for you

 

Cooking:

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Cut away zest from the lemons then thickly slice one and squeeze the juice from the other. Cut the potatoes into large chunks and place in a large roasting tin along with the onion wedges, garlic and sliced lemon. Pour over half the oil, lemon juice and wine.

Place the shoulder of lamb on top of the vegetables, then drizzle over the remaining oil, scatter over the thyme lemon zest and plenty of seasoning then rub this all into the skin.

Stick in the oven uncovered for about 20 mins so crisps up a bit then loosely cover the tray with foil and put it in the oven and cook for a further 10 or so mins.

Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C then bake the lamb for 2 hours.

Remove the foil, baste the meat with the pan juices, but don’t disturb the potatoes too much. Roast uncovered for a further 1 hour & 30 mins until the potatoes are golden and the lamb tender. Serve the lamb with the potatoes, roasted garlic and onions along with some green vegetables.

Tickityboo Sweetasanut. Chateau Pierre-Bise Anjou Cabert Franc/Cabernet Sauvignon Sur Spilites 2010 is $32 always. Good cooking to all and 1!!!