Yves Cuilleron à Chavanay Rhône Valley Les Vignes d'à Côté Roussanne 2011 and my French Onion Soup

Sometimes things just work together. Simple ideas that make it obvious. The Yves Cuilleron à Chavanay Rhône Valley Les Vignes d'à Côté Roussanne 2011 and French onion soup work together. Well. Simple. Not together and the Roussanne is just another aromatic wine and the French onion soup is just a viscous and winter warming soup. Together they shine with the wine full of rich honey suckle and soft candied peaches and pears on the nose, the palate continues on this way with touches of prickly stewed pineapple, ginger and plenty of finesse.

I think I have called the end of Summer at least a dozen times. I'm going to call it again because right now it is hailing and 13°C here in downtown Brunswickistan, so this wine and this soup need your attention people. Alone good, together stunning. Simple and delicious pleasures.

My French onion Soup

1 kg brown onions  - sliced

100 grams butter

1 tablespoon of flour

1 litre of water

200 grams Gruyere cheese

1 baguette

salt and pepper

Melt 150grams of butter in a big pot. Slice all onions and add to pot. This needs plenty of stirring and should take up to 20-30 minutes to colour. When you have a decent colour, add flour and continue to stir for a couple of minutes. Add water and 100 grams of Gruyere to melt in soup. Bring to the boil and and reduce to simmer for 30 minutes. Cut up baguette on an angle and lightly toast. Cover with grated Gruyere cheese and stick under grill and place on top off soup when cheese melted. Bon.

Drink with my French onion soup

Drink till 2015

96

Diam cork 13%v/v $30 Seddon Wine Store

 

Fathers Day Reuben sandwich

The start of the greatest sandwich in the history of mankind - The Reuben.

• lots of corned beef
• lots of Swiss cheese, or Jarlsberg for the politically correct
• lots of Noisette multi grain bread
• lots of my Russian dressing - home made mayo, mustard, tomato sauce, horseradish cream and Worcestershire sauce
• lots of Sauerkraut
• lots of paper towel to wipe sauce from running down arm
• a good Chardonnay

The wine today is Sinapius Tasmanian Chardonnay 2010 from Pipers Brook; pretty much cos there was a glass left-over from last night, but also cos it has just enough acid to cut through the sauerkraut and corned beef. Not that I am proposing this is a great match to sauerkraut - don't think any wine would be, just cos once again it was convenient.

Happy Fathers day boys!!!!

Tim made pork and pistachio sausages

My first batch of Brunswick-made sausages. And they tasted better than they look....

Pork and pistacio mix
1.5 kg pork neck
300 grams pork fat
80 grams pistachio's, blanched then skinned
20 grams salt
15 grams black pepper
pork casing
1/2 glass white wine

Alvins bruised salad and Hidden Bird Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Version I

I like Masterchef. I think it is great and actually. I love Masterchef. There you have it, an unashamed and spontaneous pledge of affection. And like most Australians this year, I have taken a few recipes from the Masterchef website and given them a go myself. But the one I reckon has had the most hits is the one that the judges loved; Alvin’s drunken chicken and bruised salad.

Version II - bowl licked clean 2 minutes later

In the past four weeks, not once, not twice but thrice, I have fixed together Alvin’s bruised salad – minus the drunken chicken, that stayed quite sober each time. A fair-dinkum ripper (that mind you is the 383,590th time that ‘Fair-dinkum’ has been uttered since this election started). No really, this salad is the dogs bollocks, the ridgy-didge, the full-lot and the narly dude all rolled into one – even my daughter Imogen thought it was ‘rad-man’ – on my mother’s life!

It really is that good!

Oh yeah, we had a bottle of Hidden Bird Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc 2009 to wash it down – quite nice actually (the word 'Martinborough' is hidden on the label; get it, Hidden Bird), not bitter and astringent like those other savvies from the south island. This has got a bit more minerality than cats pee if you know what I mean!

Drink with http://www.masterchef.com.au/drunken-chicken-with-bruised-salad.htm
Drink now
90
Screwcap 13.5%v/v $21 from Kooyong Cellars, Glenferrie Road, Kooyong

Terradavino Piedmont La Casa In Collina Barbaresco DOCG 2005

If you are living in Melbourne right now and not in a coma, you will have noticed how bloody cold it has been this month. Before I rant anymore I must add that I am a winter person with no real affection for anything north of about 28°C, but this current cold spell has me longing for Calypso cricket and my boardshorts. But this cold spell has had me in the kitchen cooking my world famous ‘Old Lady Stew’s’ (Thanks Pam). And when you have an ‘OLS’, you need a hearty wine; by gollies’ you do! The Terradavino Piedmont La Casa In Collina Barbaresco DOCG 2005 is just that wine.

First the stew. Now stew’s can pretty much take any veg and meat that you have hiding in the fridge and pantry. What makes the stew though, for me anyway, are the stock and the one or two additions that are not so garden variety. for this stew I used mushroom stock and some saffron.
Recipe:
1 tsp saffron threads
2 cloves
10 black peppercorns
5 cloves garlic
½ cup of chopped parsley
Sea salt
Olive oil
1 cinnamon stick
1½ kgs chuck steak
2 red capsicums, deseeded
2 onions, sliced
2 carrots, chopped
5 potatoes, cut into chunks
440gms of tinned tomatoes
½ bottle of red cooking wine

In a pestle, pound saffron, peppercorns, cloves, garlic, cinnamon stick and sea salt into a paste and transfer to a bowl with warm water. Heat oil in a large oven proof pot and fry off meat until browned then set aside. In same pot fry off cap, onions and carrots until soft. Return the meat to pot and add spice mix, wine and tomatoes and bring to boil them simmer for two and half hours. Sweet as a nut!


Now the wine. The Terradavino Piedmont La Casa In Collina Barbaresco DOCG 2005 is a 100% Nebbiolo from Piedmont and is quite often confused as a hoity-toity Barbera; not so. The Barbaresco area is strikingly similar to that of Barolo with soil, altitude, weather and grape all pretty much the same. It is in fact a very small zone, the production of which is about one third of its more famous neighbour on the other side of Alba.

In the glass this wine has a very deep garnet colour with an aroma packed with spice, red cherries and bacon. It is balanced beautifully in the mouth with elegant firm tannins, lively acidity and bright fruits ranging from currants to tart cranberry the longer in the glass. An absolute cracking wine and a fair dinkum Susan for this stew.

Drink with my saffron stew
Drink till 2017
93
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $28 from Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick

Summer BBQ Time! - Cookbooks Part 2: Ross Dobson's Chinatown: sweet sour spicy salty

Home from hospital – it’s a good feeling! The stay at North Park Private to try and get Henry to sleep has sort of worked, cos’ I have come home with some better strategies for him to sleep longer – fingers crossed!! Home from hospital also means no more hospital food. I can categorically say that I will not miss their cooking! Sitting down and filling out my meal orders was probably one of the hardest things I did in the last week. All I could think about was my BBQ - pork, beef, crabs and prawns sizzling away while I sip a frosty beer.

It is going to be a bit tough to get organised for a feast tonight with not much in the fridge or pantry, so it will have to wait until tomorrow night for our gourmet spectacular. So to continue my series on summer cookbooks, tomorrow I will be using Ross Dobson’s Chinatown: sweet sour spicy salty.

A couple of weeks ago I had a massive hankering for some home cooked Chinese food. My cookbook range on the subject was very thin, so instead of spending mucho $$ on some new glossy from Kylie Kwong, I borrowed one of the many cookbooks my sister has on the subject, with Ross’ definitely looking the best.

So, in no particular order of what’s going on the BBQ this summer, here are some of the dishes that will get a decent circulation; and yes, I know I have two tofu recipes here carnivores, but they are both delicious so get used to it you meat lovers out there.

Salt and Pepper Tofu – this is such an easy and cheap dish to prepare. It will only work on the BBQ if you have a side wok attachment.
• 600 grams of silken tofu, cut in cubes
• 750 mL vegetable oil
• Half a cup of cornflour
• 1-2 teaspoons of Sichuan pepper and salt mix – one tbsp Sichuan peppercorns, two teaspoons and two tbsp salt
• One lemon, cut into wedges
Cut up tofu in to cubes and carefully place onto a plate lined with paper towels. Place a couple more paper towels on top and leave for about 30 minutes so the water may be absorbed; roll in cornflour. Heat oil in wok and gently slide/place tofu cubes in wok two at a time for about a minute or golden brown. Remove and place on a paper towel to drain then toss in salt and pepper mix. Serve with Peter Lehman Barossa Semillon 2006.

Char Siu rack of Lamb - another super dish for the BBQ with fantastic sweet and spicy flavours from the marinade combining with the juices of the lamb.
• Third of a cup of Chinese BBQ sauce – Char Siu
• Two tbsp honey
• Third of a cup lemon juice
• One teaspoon sesame oil
• One tbsp peanut oil
• Rack of lamb, about 750 grams
Combine Char Siu, honey, lemon juice and sesame oil and rub marinade in to lamb rack and refrigerate for at least eight hours. Char the rack on the BBQ for about 30-45 seconds to burn a little; this gives a really good flavour hit from the Char Siu. Place in a baking dish and cook for a further 20 minutes in BBQ. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes and carve up. Serve with Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 or De Bortoli Estate Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007.

Chilli Blue Swimmer Crab or Singapore Chilli Mud Crab - this will get messy so don’t forget finger bowls and not your children’s wading pool!
• Four blue swimmer crabs/mud crabs
• Three tbsp Chinese chilli sauce
• Three good glugs of tomato sauce, not ketchup – we are in Australia people!
• 200mL chicken stock
• One teaspoon castor sugar
• Half a cup of vegetable oil
• Two garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• One tbsp grated ginger
• Two spring onions, white bit chopped and green bit sliced diagonally
• Two large red chillies, not birds-eye, thinly sliced diagonally
• One egg, lightly beaten
Combine chilli sauce, tomato sauce, stock and sugar in a mixing bowl and dissolve the sugar; set aside. If the crabs are still alive, put them in the freezer for about an hour. Using a cleaver or a heavy bladed knife, make and incision through the head of the crab, put the crabs on their back and lift the tail apron and using your thumb, lever off the top of the shell. Remove the spongy grey gunk and rinse. Cut the crab in half and half again and refrigerate until ready.

Heat the oil in the wok to very high heat. When it reaches smoking point, toss half of the crab contents in and give a good toss for about 3-4 minutes or until coloured. Remove from wok.

Drain almost all of the oil from the wok and add garlic, ginger, spring onion whites and half of the chillies and cook for about 7 seconds then toss in crab and sauce mixture and bring to the boil – keep the kids away at this time cos’ it gets really hot! Keep tossing for a while then slowly pour the egg in as you keep stirring. Cook for another minute. Serve with green spring onion and remaining chilli as garnish. Serve with Provenance Geelong Pinot Noir 2007 or Pepper Tree Hunter Valley Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2008 – this has a lovely tang to it!

Tofu with soy and ginger – this is a great appetiser for something like the last recipe.
• 600 grams of silken tofu, cut in cubes
• 750 mL vegetable oil
• Two tbsp light soy sauce
• One tbsp fish sauce
• Two teaspoons grated ginger
• 40 grams tapioca flour
• Half a teaspoon of fine ground white pepper
• Two spring onions, green part only thinly sliced, diagonally
Prepare the tofu the same way as the first recipe. Simmer fish sauce and ginger in a small bowl to soften ginger. Remove from heat. Heat the oil in the wok to very high. Toss the tofu in flour and cook until golden brown and drain on paper towels. Reheat the sauce mix and pour over tofu with spring onions to garnish. Serve with Bloodwood Orange Riesling 2009.

Summer BBQ time! - CookbooksPart 1: Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook

‘Nature forms patterns. Some are orderly in space but disorderly in time, others orderly in time but disorderly in space.’ - James Gleick ‘Chaos’

A few years ago I bought this book for a little bit of light reading over summer. It turned out that it wasn’t, and isn’t, the type of ‘light reader’ you look for over summer. Though it was while reading this last night that I came across the above sentence that made this post seem all so necessary.

It is sort of getting warmer here in Melbourne, and with that the BBQ is going to get rather busy. There was a time in my life when a BBQ meant burnt sausages and greasy onions, but these days, with a little bit of culture under my belt, I am lending towards a more ‘anything goes approach’ – the Chaos Theory you might say, where chaos begins, classical science – or in this case classical BBQ – stops!

It is with this in mind that I have trolled through some of my more worn cookbooks, and Maeve’s DVDs of ‘Food Safari’, and put together a taste of what will be prepared for the 2009/2010 BBQ season here in Downtown Brunswick. Let the drooling begin!

Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook
A personal favourite of mine with many of the pages stained with sauces. I have chosen three very classic French dishes, with all of them needing the BBQ in one manner or another.

Salade Niçoise – this one will have two versions; no bonjovies for Erin and lots for me and Imogen.
· Salt for cooking and to taste
· 170 grams haricots verts or green beans
· four small red bliss potatoes, scrubbed
· One garlic clove, peeled and crushed
· Extra virgin olive oil
· About three tbsp red wine vinegar
· Black pepper
· Bibb lettuce
· One green bell pepper, cored and cut into thin slices
· Anchovy fillets, white preferred
· 100 grams Niçoise olives. Get these bad boys from a very good deli such as the French deli at the Queen Vic markets for all of you Melbournians
· Four ripe Roma tomatoes
· High quality canned tuna or seared fresh tunaFour hard boiled eggs, peeled and cut length wise in to quarters.

The ingredients follow very easily onto the plate, but a tip is do not leave the blanched vegetables sit too long; pat them dry when you remove them from water. I'd go for something like the Sorrenberg Beechworth Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008.

Moules Marinières – this was a favourite when I was living in London all those years ago.

· About 150 grams of quality butter
· Two shallots, sliced thin
· 500 mL white wine, cooking – not drinking, yet
· 3 kg mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded just before cooking
· Flat parsley, finely chopped

Melt the butter off in a big pot over a medium flame and add shallots to cook for a couple of minutes. Pour in wine and bring to the boil and season. Throw the mussels in and pop the lid on to cook for about 10 minutes or until all mussels have opened – never force a mussel open; very, very bad for your tummy! Shake the pot as you go and keep the lid nice and secure so you don’t get any of the very hot juices scorching your private bits (always cook with your clothes on). Toss in parsley, stir some more and serve in a massive bowl is you have one. Open a Grosset Springvale Watervale Clare Valley Riesling 2009 with this one being a bit more flinty than the 2008.

Côte de Boeuf – this is the one from my Father’s Day post this year – super mucho fantastico!!!

· 1.5kg rib steaks, on the bone
· Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
· Olive oil, a couple of glugs

This is a big piece of meat, so it is going to be very cold when you pull it out of the fridge; get it out about 30-45 minutes before you put it on the BBQ so to bring it down to room temp.

I am not going to pontificate, but this is best cooked medium rare because it is so big. Only poke and slice until rested for about ten minutes or so. Eat with something like the Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2007 - masses of rich dark fruit combined with chewy tannins make this one a Susan.

I think it wise at this point to break this post in to instalments, otherwise I will be writing this, and you will be reading, until tomorrow. So off you go, clean the BBQ, get your gas cylinder re-filled and cook, cook, cook!

Santa Marta Salusrti Tuscany Montecucco Sangiovese 2004 DOC and my Prickly Moses Beef and Potato Pie's

Vineyards of Santa Marta

There is not more important factor than the weather when it comes to producing great wine. The wine maker can be as famous as they want to be, but if they do not get a decent growing season, you can kiss goodbye all those glowing reviews they had been counting on. The final month is probably the most fraught with stress to the wine maker; when is the right time to pick? Can I leave the fruit out for just one more week? Will that rain band alter its course and miss my fruit?

Just one hot day at the end of the growing season can push the potential alcohol up in fruit by up to 2% which can effectively change the style of wine that was intended to be made. In Tuscany in 2003, the vintage after the hottest on record of 2002, growers were faced with this dilemma in late September with their Sangiovese. Ultra dry and hot weather hit the area in the last week of September and pretty much wiped out the fruit for that year to a lot of growers. So in 2004, growers were so vigilant in this period that they had picking crews on standby if the celsius got over 28°. With added bunch and shoot thinning in this season, 2004 eventuated as the most stressful for some years in Tuscany, but the stress paid off with many saying the 2004 vintage as the best since the great vintage of 1997.

One of the great wines to come out of this vintage is the Santa Marta Salusrti Montecucco Sangiovese 2004 DOC. Yet another gem purchased from Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick, this wine shows all the hallmarks of coming from a superior year, with just a touch of ripeness telling me that they got the fruit of just in time I’d say. This wine however was not an impulse purchase; I needed something that had great acid structure with fine and tart fruit layers in it for my stout chuck steak and potato pie.


Like most meals I prepare, plenty of time is needed as the chuck steak needs about three and half hours to braise with the spuds. So here is how you do it:
· 500 grams of good stewing beef
· Good oil
· 750mL of stout, Prickly Moses for this one
· Water
· Three Desiree potatoes, peeled and diced
· Two cloves of garlic, crushed
· Three shallots, cut fine
· Puff pastry, baked in oven


As I said, the meat needs to be braised for about three and a half hours, so brown the beef in a pot and add stout and water and bring to boil. The mix will head up quite a bit so keep an eye on it. Once it has boiled, bring to simmer and add the remaining ingredients and stir every 15 minutes. Once you have the braise, spoon in to bowls and cover with the pastry. Bake to a desired puffiness.

Imogen in Action.... literally

A good fun thing to do with the kids is to cut out the starting letter of their names in pastry and put it on top of the layer of pastry. This is an easy way to get your children to eat their meal because they have some sort of ownership in the making of it, that’s what happened with Imogen anyway.
Now the wine. Very Sangiovese in the glass, with a clear translucency about it with a ruby red/pinkish hue. The nose is all prickly fir and morello cherry with a little hint of prunes. Very savoury acid in the mouth that builds to red fruit right at the end. This wine also had about 30 minutes in the decanter before dinner.

Like I said, you get a good growing season you get good fruit and in the end good fruit equals good wine, and this Sangiovese is great and a definite Susan with my pie’s.

Drink till 2025
Drink with my stout beef pie
92
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $30 at Mediterranean Wholesalers, Brunswick

Brave New World! Kharisma 'Isola dei Nuraghi' IGT Sardinia Vermentino 2007

A possible snapshot of future Australia written by guest blogger Aldous Huxley:

‘As the subtle hum of the biosphere’s dome rings in my ears, I step out in to the street where I am instantly coated with the perennial humid mist that is ever present in our lives. Heading down Chapel street I notice yet another ‘Oxybucks’ oxygen bar opening with dirt stained noses lining up for the morning ‘fresh’ hit. But it was another grand opening of a shop three doors down that got my attention. It was another MSA clinic – Marlborough Sauvignon Anonymous.
It had been 15 years since the planet exhausted its stocks of Marlborough Sauvignon, the drink that in the early years of the 21st century commanded 93% of wine consumption throughout the civilised world. In the years since the vine disappeared due to the rare disease, Catspissus necrosis, the 35 million Australians who were responsible for the majority of the demand were yet to get over the demise of the grape and had still not been able to stomach any other variety, with the Sauvignon stripping the nations palate completely.......’

Thanks Aldous.

Sounds scary doesn’t it! Bu there is hope out there people. There is life after Sauvignon Blanc, and it comes in the guise of many dry white wine varieties such as Gros and Petit Manseng, Semillon, Arneis, Pinot Grigio and my fave at the moment, Vermentino.

Grown primarily on Corsica and Sardinia, Vermentino as small plantings in and around the Murray Darling region, with Bruce Chalmers of Chalmers Nursery being the driving force behind its growth. But if you want a choice you will probably have to go to speciality wine shops who deal in imported wine, and one of those is the Enoteca Sileno on Lygon Street Carlton, an Italian providor dealing in all things culinary and alcohol, and it is here where I picked up the wonderful Kharisma ‘Isola dei Nuraghi’ IGT Sardinian Vermentino 2007. Yes the name ‘Kharisma’ is bit kitsch, but there is absolutely nothing kitsch about the wine.

On this day I needed a crisp white to go with my Carbonara. Chardonnay would have done the trick, but I’m always drinking Chardonnay, and I thought something Italian with my pasta sauce. Vermentino has naturally high acids which are perfect in cutting through the thick unctuous sauce that is Carbonara. And my Carbonara rocks – and there is no cream in this one people! So here is my recipe for my Carbonara:

· Four egg yolks
· 200 grams of good bacon
· One onion
· Two cloves of garlic, crushed
· Cooking white wine
· Good olive oil
· Parmesan cheese and good spaghetti – Martelli

Simply separate yolks from whites and place in a bowl with a splash of water and a good glug of oil and cracked pepper, mix. Reduce diced onion and garlic in white wine, add bacon and reduce again. Cook off pasta al dente, toss all ingredients together and top with biting parmesan. Yummo!

Now the wine. The Vermentino has a surprising yellow gold colour to it with quite a rich nose of flowers, preserved lemon and salt. The mouth is fantastic with layers of citrus, soft herbs, banana and melon. Fantastic complexity with this one and a definite ‘Susan’. On a side note, I would definitely decant this wine; there is plenty of SO2 in it so the air is necessary to blow off the burnt match smell.

Drink till 2012
Drink with my Carbonara recipe
92
Quality cork 13%v/v $42 at Enoteca Sileno 920 Lygon Street Carlton North

http://www.enoteca.com.au/

My World Famous Potato Salad

The siren has sounded on yet another AFL season with Geelong getting over St. Kilda in an absolute classic game; I hope you are alright today Kate!

Yesterday I took my daughter Imogen over to my old friend Snowy’s house for the second year in a row so that our kids (minus Henry who was with his mum) could run amuck and the grown up’s could watch the game! It wasn’t the greatest day weather wise with rain, wind the cold being a constant factor. But the one factor of this day, and other BBQ’s that have either been attended at my place of theirs was My World Famous Potato Salad; at 4% fat free, this bad boy will clog your arteries by just being in the same room as it. When it comes to my potato salad, I have to admit that I am not very modest – It is the greatest potato salad ever, and I have the testimonials to prove it:


‘I thought mine was good, but this is the best I have ever had!!!’ – Serin
‘chew chew slurp slurp swallow – translation, ‘I’m so glad you made this today’ – Ange
‘Why won’t anyone eat my Jamie Oliver moorish salad?’ – Snowy

There you have it. So for all of you BBQers out there, here are the ingredients:

· Two kg’s of Desiree potatoes, peeled
· 250 grams of quality French butter (or the Farmers Direct stuff Erin orders)
· 200 grams quality bacon, fat left on
· Two tbsp Dijon mustard
· Three tbsp seeded mustard five tbsp of sour cream
· One tbsp of red wine vinegar
· White wine for cooking
· Three cloves of garlic
· Chives
· Salt

Now if you are going to attempt this one you are going to have to start the bacon at least 24 hours before the BBQ. Melt some of the butter in an oven proof pan on the stove with the crushed garlic on low heat so the garlic does not change colour. Once the butter has been well and truly coated on the pan, add bacon and resume the low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the remainder of butter and white wine to cover the bacon.

bacon mix before

Heat the oven to 160°C for five minutes to get some warmth happening then turn it down to about 80°C and put pan in and leave for about eight hours! Once the eight hours has ticked by, turn the bacon in the pan so it can cook through consistently and add more wine and butter if needed. Cook for a further six hours at 60°C.

...and after

After you drag yourself out of bed, have your coffee and read the paper, peel the spuds and cut them into whatever size you want and boil in salted water. Once cooked, drain off and let them cool off a bit. Once you have sampled the bacon mix at least nine times, add both mustards, sour cream, red wine vinegar and give it a good stir and then add to potatoes. This may look like a Cameron Ling centerfold, but who cares! Garnish with chives and ta da, my world famous potato salad – sexy stuff this one.

Season of Soup - Broccoli soup with Torrent Bay Nelson Sauvignon Blanc 2008

This soup has caused quite a stir; Imogen and I like it but Erin cannot stand it. And why? Cos’ it’s broccoli and green and tastes like broccoli!! This is a simple one that does not take much time to prepare, and eat at that matter, where all you need is broccoli, water, salt and that’s it!

I saw the 'enfant terrible' Gordon Ramsey dish this up in one of his restaurant re-vamps a couple of years ago (this was when Gordon was popular on the box), and really, like I said previous, it is so simple to cook.

· Broccoli, about three bunches – florets only
· Water
· Salt
· Glass of wine - to drink, not for cooking

All you need to do is boil the broccoli, strain out to another pot. Add the water the broccoli was cooked in while blitzing. Make sure you don’t have it too thick – you don’t want to be chewing it now do you! Add salt to taste. Simple hey?

Now the wine. A lot of people say that you cannot match wine to food that is high in sulphur. These are probably the same people who also say you cannot match food with Sauvignon Blanc. These two points may hold merit, but I am going to rock the boat and say that two wrongs make a right with this one! Broccoli soup with Torrent Bay Nelson Sauvignon Blanc 2008.

Located on the northern tip of the south island just west of the capital of Sauvignon, Marlborough. This wine has a very light colour to it, bone straw will do. The nose has very definite hay aromas followed by stone fruits – nectarine. The mouth is similar with grassy flavours, big acid then more stone fruit to follow. After about ten minutes a sweeter feel of passionfruit coming through.

This match is a no-brainer, but not a Susan people!

Torrent Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2008
Drink now
86
Screwcap $18 12% v/v

Fathers Day

‘Children’s children are the crown of old men;
And the glory of children are their fathers.’

Proverbs, 17:6

Don’t worry, I’m not getting all religious on you now.

Yesterday was father’s day across Australia, with most of us having a sleep in followed by bacon and eggs, paper and strong coffee.

One of my three presents (all being books on food) was ‘Fat’, a great book on that misunderstood ingredient by Jennifer McLagen, where on page three I had my own Jerry McGuire moment with her first three words being, ‘I love Fat...’. What a dame hey!!

With this as ammo, I headed off to the Queen Victoria markets with Henry in tow in search of the biggest Rib eye I could find, and I did.

Dusting off the BBQ, I started slow roasting at about 4.30pm, at which time I also decanted the wine of choice for the night, the Brokenwood Graveyard Vineyard Hunter Valley Shiraz 2001. What a wine hey!! Massive deep red colour with a pinkish hue. On the nose there was immense cigar box aroma with a little bit of sweet plum and leather after about two hours in the decanter. In the mouth were still very firm tannins and gorgeous acid with savoury herbs and liquorice in the glass – almost Barolo like actually. Absolutely divine! Brilliant balance, huge length and wonderfully complex with super layered structure. Just faultless really with typical Hunter woft. Mucho Fantastico!!

It’s a shame that we didn’t save any wine, cos’ there is still more than half of the Rib eye (cooked rare medium rare)left; looks like beef sandwiches all round for the next week – big sigh!!!

Drink till 2031
Drink with above Rib eye
98
Quality cork 13.5% $90

Season of Soup - French Onion and Pichot Domaine Coteau de la Biche Vouvray Moelleux 2002

With each new day dawning to blue sky in cosmopolitan Brunswick, my daughter Imogen asks me if spring is now over and is summer coming sooo quickly. Well my dear, I am sorry to say this is Melbourne, home of the ‘G’, the upside down river and those glorious four seasons in one day....

‘.... lying in the depths of your imagination, Worlds above
and worlds below, the sunshine’s on the black clouds hanging
over the domain.
Even when you’re feeling warm, the temperature could drop away
Like four seasons in one day......’

'Four Seasons In One Day' Crowded House

So with one eye on a beach towel and the other on an umbrella, we in Melbourne are still in the throes of winter, which brings me to soup. But this is no ordinary ‘Season of Soup’ entry. Today is not only our favourite soup (Erin and me), but a Susan match that I reckon is one of the best!

French Onion Soup with Pichot Domaine Coteau de la Biche Vouvray Moelleux 2002 – a big mouthful, but a good one.

French onion soup is pretty much that, onions and lots of them!!!! This is sort of like risotto; lots of looking and lots of stirring. The key element to a good French Onion soup is making sure the pot and onions brown. So here is my French Onion soup.

· brown onions, plenty of them (14 serves four)
· olive oil
· flour, just a pinch
· Gruyere cheese
· butter, optional though
· salt to taste
· crusty bread
· water
· swimming goggles

After cutting up the multitude of onions, add a good glug of oil to the pot and heat. Add onions and add another glug of oil over the onions. Let it sit for a while on heat with the occasional stir. Once there is an obvious reduction in volume or the pot, add butter and season to taste. Keep stirring!! After a while the pot will start to brown over in the hot spots – this is good. Keep stirring.

Once you have the contents a good brown, add flour and stir for another five minutes. This thickens the contents of the pot so it is easier to reduce evenly. Add water to cover entire volume and add a few small cubes of Gruyere for a creamy edge. Reduce to a good ratio of onion and water. Grate some Gruyere over some bread and grill to your liking.

It is important to let the soup sit for a while so you don’t burn your tongue – this bugger is super hot just out of the pot.

Now the wine. Just to let you know that Vouvray is Chenin Blanc. Now Chenin Blanc in Australia gets a bad rap I reckon. Why you ask? Because we don’t get it; that’s at both levels – producing and drinking.

The very best Chenin Blanc’s come out of the Loire Valley in France. Now before you start thinking that I am banging on about French wines and how they are superior to ours (well yes), I’ll just remind everyone that in France they can only grow certain fruit in certain areas, unlike here where we can bloody grow anything any-bloody-where.

So back to the Loire Valley, and in particular to a little town called Vouvray. You punters out there may know this name from a couple of years ago when a nag by the same name was favourite in a couple of group 1 races. If you are like me and put a few bucks on it and are cursing the sound of the name ‘Vouvray’ (cos’ the mongrel didn’t salute once), I am sorry for bringing back bad memories.

Vouvray is situated on the Loire River just west of Tours in central France where Chenin Blanc is King. Here there are three styles, sec, demi-sec and Moelleux; dry, semi dry and Moelleux which is the sweetest of the three and by far the most sought after.

Moelleux wines can have up to 500 grams/litre of residual sugar in them, making them syrupy sweet and perfect with rich food such as Foire Gras.

This Pichot Moelleux has only 94 grams/litre of residual sugar, but this by no means makes it a light weight in this style. The colour is a beautiful light golden/straw with a yellowish hue coming through. The nose is super sweet with candied orange and saffron. Decanting this wine will benefit. After a while in the glass and decanter, this wine develops richness similar to Sauternes that produces a very warming mouth feel with glycerol, honey and marmalade coming through.

The reason I have given this combo the ‘Susan’ is that I reckon this pairing has got equal measure of richness – both develop a natural viscosity with time – and natural sweetness from the caramelised onions and candied orange in the wine. Ohh I do love it!!

Drink till 2032

94

Quality cork (blackened at tip is an indication that it spent time in underground cave)

$55 12.5% a/v

Season of Soup - Chilli Chickpea soup with De Iuliis Hunter Valley Aged Semillon 2002

I was down at ‘Blackhearts and Sparrows’ in Brunswick last week in need of a wine that would match up to my chickpea and onion soup. The wine needed to have plenty of mouth-feel and weight to go up against a very viscous and nutty soup.

I could have gone the easy option with an Alsacean Riesling or Australian Pinot Gris, but instead went for something that I hoped would be both a great drink and an inspired choice for the soup; should have gone the safe bet. But first the soup.

My chilli chickpea and onion soup sounds simple and it is. This soup can be prepared in quick time which is good for the corporate high flyers out there who also have to juggle a couple of kids. A real straightforward flavour about this one – chickpeas gives that lovely nutty flavour with the chilli adding that extra factor to the palate

· 2 x 400g cans of chickpea’s or 500g cold soaked chickpea’s
· 4 x onions, chopped
· ½ red chilli
· 2 x cloves of garlic
· 1 litre of water
· Salt and pepper to taste
· Good olive oil
· Crusty bread
· Swimming goggles – for chopping the onions

Method
Heat oil in saucepan on low heat and glaze the chilli for about five minutes and discard. Sauté onions and garlic until soft. One big mistake us humans make with cooking is having the pan or pot too hot. All you need is a low flame which means the heat in the pan/pot is going to be more consistent.

Once onions are done, add the water and chickpeas, set to boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Once there is a real chickpea smell coming from the pot, blitz and serve with bread.

It’s probably a good idea to let the soup cool for about 15 minutes, otherwise you risk burning your tongue like this amateur chef did.

The Wine:
As I said before, I was looking for something with a bit of weight and structure, so on paper the De Iuliis Hunter Valley 2002 Aged Semillon looked the goods. Me shooting 6 under in the final round of the US Masters looks good on paper also; seems like I’ve found a good use for paper then.

The wine has quite a pale look to it, so the aging has got a long way to go I reckon. The nose is very fresh with a little bit of wax there and citrus at the end. In the mouth there is more citrus – lemon, honey, toast and a little bit of spice, but it was just a little, not the lot that I thought there would be.

You know what, it’s a nice wine, but not with my chickpea and onion soup. Go with a Pinot Gris I reckon.

Drink till 2014
16/20

Season of Soup - Minestrone with Foster e Rocco 2008 Heathcote Sangiovese

Minestrone soup – this one I used to think was the hardest of the lot. Actually, I used to think soup in general was difficult and messy to make. It just turns out soup is mess, not difficult in its preparation.

The classic Minestrone from Lombardy includes pancetta for the salt kick. In Milan the recipe varies according to what is on hand, which is handy I guess. My recipe is pretty basic, and like the Milanese, variations come and go with what is in the pantry.

It’s hearty and filling and really is a few meals in one. And this is a great meal to have in the fridge or freezer when it comes to leftovers.

Tim’s Minestrone
· A good couple of glugs of olive oil
· Bacon or pancetta or cacciatore sausage or salami or cooked spicy lamb sausage
· 1-2 onions finely chopped*
· 2 garlic cloves; crushed
· 2 celery stalks; peeled and chopped
· 1-2 carrots; chopped
· 1 zucchini; chopped
· 1 litre of stock; chicken or veg
· 2x400g cans crushed tomato
· 2 cups of water
· 1x420g can cannellini beans; rinsed and drained
· 2 cups of finely shredded cabbage
· ½ cup of pasta shells
· 1 handful of chopped parsley
· Crusty bread

*when cutting onions I find wearing swimming goggles helps avoid the tears. It may look funny, but it works!

Heat oil in a large pot and cook of meat. Try and burn the bottom of the pan; this leaves crusty bits which add heaps to the flavour. Once cooked set and leave aside. Sauté onions and garlic for a couple of minutes and add carrot (I always add carrot about 3 minutes before other veg just to cook through a bit more), zucchini and celery and cook until tender.

Return meat to pot with stock, tomatoes and water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for ½ an hour. Stir in beans, cabbage and pasta and cook for about 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked. Add parsley and serve with bread.

The wine:
This is a fairly rustic dish so I thought of a rustic wine. White I believe would be no good with this because of the heavy flavours from the meat. We had a Sangiovese from Heathcote, Foster e Rocco, a wine made by Adam Foster and Lincoln Riley.

Both guys are sommeliers like me, with Adam just having started at The Lake House in Daylesford and Riley having been at Taxi for a few years. These guys have constructed a very nice little wine here, and they haven’t over worked it like a lot of Australian Sangioveses. This wine has got a good lot of earth and acid to keep it grounded and food friendly.

The colour is deep red with a pink hue, telling me it spent a bit of time on skins. The nose starts out as morello cherry, which is typical with Sangiovese, and then longer in the glass shows a good hit of dark chocolate. The mouth is very true with the nose; morello cherry followed by chocolate. All in all, a very nice wine.

Drink till 2013
17/20

Season of Soup - Chicken noodle soup with Cave de Beblemheim ‘au chateau’ Alsace Pinot Gris 2007

With shadows growing longer and longer earlier in the day and noses become runnier and runnier, we retreat in to the kitchen for a bit of luvin in the form of soup. Soup has been for so long the one dish in winter that is not only remedial, but in so many forms can bring many smiles to the dinner table. Did I also say how easy they are to prepare.

Like all food, soup goes wonderfully well with wine. Be it vegetable, bisque, consommé or whatever, wine is suited to a gamete of soup styles.

This is going to be the first in a series of soup and wine matches, a ‘Susan’ series if you may – ‘...this goes with that at Susan’ you may remember.

So, without boring you anymore, I will kick off this series with Erin’s favourite – Chicken noodle soup!!
Prep time – 20 minutes
Cooking time – 40 minutes
Ingredients
· 2 tbs (or there abouts) olive oil
· 1 onion, finely chopped
· garlic
· 1 carrot, diced
· 1 stick of celery, sliced thin
· 2 potatoes peeled and diced
· 1.5 litres of chicken stock
· 300 grams chicken breast, minced
· 1 egg
· Parmesan cheese, grated
· 50 grams ≈ dried spag, broken up in to little bits
· Handful of flat leaf parsley
· Toasted croutons

Method
Heat the oil over a medium heat without burning or boiling oil. On same heat slowly cook onion and garlic until they are translucent for about 10 min. Add rest of veg and cook for 5 min.

While this is happening, ball the minced chicken, egg and parmesan cheese and sit in fridge for about 30 minutes to congeal the balls. The balls should be just smaller than a golf ball.

Add stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 min. Add chicken balls and pasta and cook for a further 8 min.

Add croutons and parsley and get stuck in!

Wine
Cave de Beblemheim ‘au chateau’ Alsace Pinot Gris 2007

This is a great little find from King & Godfrey in Carlton.

The colour is real Pinot Gris, coming through in pinkish greyish tones with a clear pink hue. On the nose comes white petal straight away with just a little bit of prickly acid. The mouth is once again all Alsace Pinot Gris; slippery glycerol, a bit of bees wax and clean long acid.

In Australia we seem to bastardise this grape and create wines that are either too thin or too big. Sometimes we should leave it to the experts, the French that is. Saying this however, I do believe T’Gallant from the Mornington Peninsula and Grey Sands from Tasmania are probably our best interpretations of this style of wine.

The reason for this match – the wines acid is ample enough to cut through the oiliness of the soup, not that the soup is acid, but the oily feel from the chicken, onion and garlic that is left after reducing all for so long.

So, I would drink the Cave de Beblemheim ‘au chateau’ Alsace Pinot Gris 2007 till 2016 and give it a 16/20.

Stay tuned for more soup adventures!!

Toodaloo