Gravadlax, broad bean, golden beet, celery cress
Langoustine, caramel carrot, sea beet, sea purslane
Pea puree, crab salad, quail egg
Last week I had the priviledge of cooking for two of the Barossa’s foodie legends – Maggie Beer and John Duval. Some years ago at cooking school I was introduced to Maggie Beer when we learnt about the ingredient verjuice, then still an unknown condiment in South African kitchens. I loved it because of its ability to lend acidity to a dish without overpowering, and how its gentle sweetness somehow enriches dishes and lifts out the finer characteristics of ingredients. At Vinoteca we often use the Verjuice from her range, although I had no idea how large the range of products was - including Vino Cotto, fruit pastes, jams and of course white as well as Sangiovese verjuice.
Vinoteca’s Winemaker dinners are well known by now and are an exciting way for us to highlight special wines and create an eveing of informative and fun conversation with the people who actually produce the wines. Friday night’s dinner with John Duval was fantastic – its always great when producers are really passionate about what they do, and this made the evening really special and successful. John makes three fantastic wines under his own name – Eligo Shiraz, Entity Shiraz and Plexus SGM. The menu format of the two evenings were similar but the wine pairings turned them into two very distinctive events.
Guests were welcomed with Charles Melton Rose of Virginia, and a pre-starter of home-cured gravadlax with a salad of broad beans, Secrett’s Farm baby golden beets and micro herbs started the meal. The starter of Scottish Langoustines, carrots caramelised with verjuice, sea purslane and sea beets was paired with an Eden Valley Riesling from Pewsey Vale. The same Riesling was served with a crab, lemon and mint salad, poached quail egg and pea puree for the Duval dinner.
Pheasant Farm Home Block Shiraz was served with char-grilled onglet, asparagus, jersey royal potatoes and a sauce enriched with Maggie Beer’s Cabernet Paste for Maggie’s dinner, and on the second night the John Duval Entity and Plexus shiraz’ were served with the same main course. These South Australian Shiraz’ are known to be big and rich with intense fruit (excuse the generalisation!) but paired well with rare onglet and a rich jus.
Montgomery Cheddar with Maggie Beer Fig and Fennel Seed Paste and homemade oatcakes filled in the cheese course (I still dont understand this concept of the cheese before the dessert) and then the meal was concluded with traditional English Custard Tart and rhubarb roasted with Sangiovese Verjuice. The latter was prepared intentionally tart (as if the rhubarb needs it!) to liven up the custard tart and to showcase the Deen De Bortoli Vat 5 Botrytis Semillon’s classic tart apricot and peach notes. Once again it was successful, as I was a bit doubtful – rhubarb can be quite tricky in wine pairing.
It was great cooking for two such legends, bring on the next Winemaker dinner!
tallchef
1 Comment
May 18, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Nice work Tonya.