January 2007 Archives

I'd be the first to admit that, despite my frequent use and consumption of the fruit of the vine, I don't know much about wine. This is something that I've been meaning to remedy by doing a wine-tasting course but life, somehow, always manages to get in the way. Perhaps a resolution for 2007? I've already missed the first night of the La Cave Wine Tasting Programme but, should I be organised enough, there's plenty more to savour in the coming weeks - must see if I can get there for the evening that features New Zealand Pinot Noir! These events take place in the small French wine bar on South Anne Street from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Each tasting costs €30, which includes all wines and a light meal of cheese, salami and pâté.

Monday 29 January
Introduction to Wine Varietals: Part 1
Riesling (Germany), Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand), Chardonnay (France), Viognier (Argentina), Cabernet Sauvignon (USA), Merlot (Chile), Shiraz (Australia), Grenache (France)

Monday 5 February
Introduction to Wine Varietals: Part 2
Pinot Grigio (Italy), Chenin Blanc (South Africa), Torrontes (Argentina), Albarino (Spain), Sangiovese (Italy), Tempranillo (Spain), Malbec (Argentina), Pinot Noir (New Zealand)

Monday 12 February
Introduction to French Wines: Part 1
Loire, Rhone

Monday 19 February
Introduction to French Wines: Part 2
Burgundy, Beaujolais, Alsace

Monday 26 February
Introduction to French Wines: Part 3
Bordeaux, Cahors/Bergerac/Madiran, Jura

Monday 5 March
Introduction to French Wines: Part 4
Champagne/Sparkling, Provence/Languedoc-Roussillon

Monday 12 March
Matching Food and Wine
What works, what doesn't work

For more information and bookings, you can contact La Cave Wine Bar.

This is the most useful recipe to have in your repertoire. I use it - sometimes with the addition of broccoli, chorizo, bacon or chilli - with gnocchi, pasta, cannelloni and polenta, as a topping for pizza and even when baking pancakes. If you can track down some decent Italian plum tomatoes, it's all the better for that; if you can't, just keep tasting and adjusting the flavour with sugar if it's too bitter, red wine or balsamic vinegar if it's too sweet, tomato purée if it needs more body, water if it's too thick. If you have fresh basil, add it at the end to lift the flavour of sauce. I often use thyme - fresh if I have it but sometimes dried - if I want the sauce to have a herby tinge.

New Zealand cafés still continue to surprise and delight me. A moist Spinach Risotto Cake at Reid's Store during a break while driving to Nelson the morning after we arrived, eaten in bright sunshine outside on the decking was my re-introduction to café cooking, NZ style on this trip. There were other days of happy eating. Marinated Lamb on a Puy Lentil Salad with lemon yoghurt dressing at Nelson's Morrison Street Café, with a glass of local sauvignon blanc; a sticky, dried fruit-packed, gluten free Ginger Slice with a long black, milk on the side (my coffee order of choice in NZ) in Muses Café, Motueka, en route to the Boyfriend's family bach in Ngaio Bay; a last Christchurch breakfast of a fresh-baked savoury Spinach and Cream Cheese Muffin followed by an enormous date-studded sweet scone outside Veronica's Café on New Regent Street, soaking up the last rays of sun as we watched the tourist trams going past.

The secret seems to lie with the fresh-baked, often on the premises, scones, muffins and slices, good ingredients - many cafés (try Under the Red Verandah or Vic's Café, both in Christchurch) trumpet their use of free range eggs and local produce - and proprietors and customers who won't accept stale, prepacked goods made at one location and shipped all over the country as is all too often the case in Ireland. One of the few cafés I've found in Ireland that comes close to the NZ ideal is Michelle Darmody's Cake Café (there's a short piece about it here) in Dublin, even down to the mismatched, old fashioned dishes and cups that feature in my favourite Kiwi cafés.

It's often the small things in NZ cafés that make a customer feel cared for - a carafe of water either arriving on your table first thing or readily available; airy toilets which look like they have been cleaned recently; piles of things available to read while you eat, often including Cuisine, Taste and Dish and a couple of cookbooks. It's always reassuring to see café staff interested in food-oriented publications! The only place I've seen something like this in Ireland is in the delectable Café Paradiso in Cork which, funnily enough, is run by a half-Kiwi couple.

There is always an exception, and on this trip it was the Cityside Café in the ground floor International Terminal of Christchurch airport. Pasty rolls were stuffed with an indeterminate green-flecked paste that went under the name of spinach and feta. A stale chocolate muffin topped with an oddly misplaced dab of raspberry jam made me feel right at home, being a good example of the kind of sweet thing on offer in many Irish cafés. My flat white was barely lukewarm and, for a last taste of NZ, it really was a disappointing experience. Next time I'll make sure I bring in my muffins from Muffin Break - a shopping center café chain that manages to get it right, albeit in (usually) horrible surroundings, with decent muffins and lots of gluten-free options. At least their coffee is made with hot milk!

Two weeks in New Zealand and I didn't want to leave. Being on holidays and it being summer, rather than grey and gloomy Irish winter, certainly made things harder, especially as we had such a good time catching up with family and friends on that side of the world. We thoroughly enjoyed the main reason for our trip - the Boyfriend's sister's wedding last Saturday - especially as the reception was held in a recently opened vineyard in Moutere, Woollaston Estates, and I had more than a few chances to sample their 2006 Nelson Sauvignon Blanc!

Special mention must go to the Boyfriend's mother for cheerfully catering, twice daily, for at least eight people. I've taken down plenty of recipes from her notebooks. Now all I need is a little Irish sunshine to give me an excuse to make her Rice and Chickpea Salad or maybe I could get motivated to whip up a batch of her Chocolate Chippies this weekend...

While I didn't manage to bring back as many foodie items as Heidi did from her North Island trip - the Boyfriend had to fit another rabbit trap and a new fishing rod somewhere, after all! - I still managed to squeeze in a pile of cookbooks, a couple of new purchases and a few old ones from my Christchurch kitchen shelves.

Although I picked up Nicola Galloway's Cooking for your Child as a gift for a friend, after spending hours looking through the Boyfriend's mother's copy of these commonsense recipes and advice for friends and family of all ages, methinks I'll have to spend some more quality time with it before passing it on. It is a mine of useful information on catering for people with food allergies and intolerances and, like me, she believes in using real, wholesome butter rather than messing around with those interfered-with spreads and margarines. I also brought home The Great New Zealand Baking Book by Allyson Gofton - the perfect thing to keep at the cottage for wet Saturday afternoon baking sprees and a dear old copy of that Kiwi classic, the Edmond's Cookery Book, a present from the Boyfriend's aunt to keep me entertained after I was knocked down by a courier truck in Auckland two years ago.

Some of the tempting new NZ cookbooks that I found on sale but could not, alas, justify in buying included The Confident Cook by Cuisine writer and Savour New Zealand 2007 Programme Director Lauraine Jacobs; Taking Tea in the Medina, an exploration of Middle Eastern tastes and flavours by Julie Le Clerc and and Joh Bougen; and new collections of old favourites from Kiwi writers Ruth Pretty and Jo Segar (Ruth Pretty's Favourite Recipes and Jo Seagar Cooks). Christelle Le Ru also has a second book out - French Fare is the follow-up to her Simply Irresistible French Desserts and watch out for Passion Chocolat in 2007.

Knowing that the latest edition of Cuisine is waiting at home - I'm on my second subscription now - I avoided that on the magazine racks but, as I return to the stormy Irish winter, I grabbed Taste and the new Julie Le Clerc magazine to fortify myself with descriptions and pictures of summer barbeques and salads, picnics and pool parties. It's not helping though!

We left a damp, wintery Ireland last Friday morning and touched down to blue skies and sunshine in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Wednesday after a three-day stopover in Kuching with my Malaysian family. Sure beats sitting around in Ireland with the post-Christmas blues! While in Kuching we got a chance to feast on our favourite teh tarik, or pulled tea, and roti canai, layered Indian breads that are served with a runny dahl. The next day, the reheated roti are especially delicious when they reappear with kaya, an unctuous coconut spread, not unlike lemon curd. Daily feasts of tropical fruit at my aunt's house included papaya, the hairy-skinned rambutan, several types of banana, mangosteen, sweet ripe pineapple and rich, juicy-to-your-elbows windfall mangos from the neighbour's tree. This time round we avoided the durian, however!

This was my fourth trip to Kuching - the Boyfriend's second - and our laziest. Tired from the first leg of the journey, we just relaxed, read, slept, enjoyed the heat and had some quality time with the family. There was time to snack on my aunt's rich fruit cake, my cousin's sesame-flecked brownies - although we didn't go for too much of the durian cake, after our last experience with that noxious fruit - with meals of homecooked Malay curries contributed by neighbours and my uncle's relatives. Had some good, spicy, although not too hot, Tom Yam, dishes of Mee Goreng (fried noodles), Butter Prawns and Nasi Ayam, but we missed out on Laksa, Satay and Murtabak this time round. We'll have to store up those treats for the next time we return.

Now we're back in the land of numerous types of ginger beer - Bundaberg is still at number one and, we discovered on a brief explore round the city, also available in Singapore - Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon, feijoas, fantastic cafés, the Boyfriend's favourite savoury meat pies, kumara and Ginger Gems...roll on the next couple of weeks!