This wine is made by the Gallo Family Vineyards and called California White. It’s made from a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and despite it being only 11.5% (which usually is too weak for a decent flavour), I enjoyed it remarkably. The flavours were apples and pears, and at a stretch, limes on the nose. I drank it with a snack of celery, each piece of which I always wash first, shake to get most of the water off, then sprinkle salt along the length, which sticks to the remaining water. It’s best just out of the fridge, although if you run it under a cold tap for a while, this has the same effect, especially if you keep it standing in a couple of inches of water.
Archive for February, 2009
Winemaker’s Seal
Saturday, February 28th, 2009Flankers’ Tackle
Saturday, February 28th, 2009This would’ve been a review of Flankers’ Tackle, but alas ’twas not to be.
I was in The Anchor waiting for a friend, and saw a beer I’d not had before: Flankers’ Tackle; I believe it’s from one of the Greene King subsidiaries. I thought it a little bland and disappointing, with a slightly off taste. It was then I noticed the sediment settling through my glass. Egad! This beer was off.
There wasn’t, it turned out, a new barrel ready to go that evening, so I was given a pint of IPA as a replacement. Greene King’s IPA is a throughly unremarkable, though not entirely unpleasant, beer. It tends to be fairly uniform wherever it’s served, and tends to deteriorate rapidly in anything less than immaculately-clean cellars and lines.
My friend arrived presently and, having finished my beer, we headed to Vaults/Depot for a cocktail.
Urban Spoon and Haozhan
Friday, February 27th, 2009
My dining companion was testing a new iPhone application called Urban Spoon (I haven’t downloaded it yet). You shake your iPhone and it works out where you are and runs through the nearby restaurants. You can limit the search to things like ‘pizza,’ ‘pub food,’ ‘Italian,’ or Oriental.’ Up popped Haozhan on Gerrard Street. Neither of us had heard of it but we decided to give it a try. It’s very good.
I began with chilli squid (first class), then went on to Haozhan scallops done with madademia nuts, and I had lotus root with some nicely firm chopped asparagus, and fragrant rice alongside. I’d never had lotus root, but it was love at first taste, and the scallops were beautiful, and presented in a delicate basket. Afterwards came pumpkin cream with ice-cream and coconut. Mmm. I like pumpkin.
With all this went down a South African South Ridge chenin blanc. Haozhan is very good without being too pricey. Score a first for Urban Spoon.
Blue Cove
Friday, February 27th, 2009
I tried a couple of wines from the same winery: Blue Cove from South Africa, Western Cape. Each wine was 13% and from 2006, and although I enjoyed both wines, the Chenin Blanc was better than the Sauvignon Blanc, probably because the South African wineries tend to be a lot better at Chenin, and also because I prefer my Sauvignon very young and fresh. The Sauvignon was mostly of tropical flavours, with a sweeter finish than usual. The Chenin was also quite sweet, hinting at honey.
As it was, I’d say each would go very well with seafood or fresh, fruity dishes, or on its own, perhaps next to the riverbank on a warm day. The website’s well worth a look, giving plenty of detail and notes on their (slightly exaggerated) philosophy.
Lemon lambs’ liver
Thursday, February 26th, 2009It was a quick and satisfying supper: I diced a potato and set it off to boil, later adding carrots, broccolli, green beans, and savoy cabbage to the same water.
I chopped the liver into approximately half-inch cubes, and put into a hot frying pan with garlic and rosemary. After the blood started to come through, I turned the cubes over and squeezed fresh lemon juice over the pan and liver lumps.
It was a good meal: the veg was crisp and went well with a little more lemon juice on it, and the acidity cut nicely through the liver; rosemary and garlic were bound to be good flavours for it!
Chocolate fountain
Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Just in case the guests were not getting enough calories at the pancake party, there was a chocolate fountain. It took some time to get going, with broken pieces of high cocoa chocolate fed into a tray at the bottom. Eventually there was a smooth continuous flow of chocolate from the top over the curved sides of the layers below. There were strawberries and pineapple chunks to dip into the chocolate. It was quite delicious, and not nearly as sinful as it looked, since the chocolate on each piece of fruit only amounted to a thin layer. It was a good party piece, with guests gathered round it and chatting as they helped themselves.
Pancake party
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
I was invited to a pancake party. We all took along wine and stood or sat while pancakes were made. In the UK these are usually crepes rather than the small thick pancakes favoured in the US. The pancake chef was very good, and used a proper thick pan, so we had pancakes of the right, slightly spongy texture, and of the right size. He tossed them when one side was cooked, but was less expert at this, achieving a success rate of about 70 percent without them folding, including one spectacular failure, parts of which ended on the ceiling, parts on the floor! However, they were still among the best pancakes I’ve tasted.
The range of toppings was also spectacular. There was the classic butter and lemon juice, nutella, ice-cream), golden syrup, assorted jams, chocolate, vanilla toffee sauce, whipped cream, maple syrup, bananas, and condensed milk, to name but a few. Among the best I enjoyed was the combination of nutells chocolate sauce with ice-cream. Mmmm.
Favourite pancakes
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
On Shrove Tuesday, aka pancake Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, people use up all their fats before beginning their Lenten fast. My favourite pancakes are Crepes Suzette. You make the pancakes from a basic flour, egg and milk batter, keeping them very thin. Then you melt butter in a pan and squeeze oranges and lemons into it, before adding sugar, cognac and Grand Marnier. Here’s Delia’s recipe:
For the crêpes suzette:
1 medium orange, grated zest only and 1 tbsp caster sugar mixed into the batter
For the sauce:
150ml/5fl oz orange juice (from 3-4 medium oranges)
1 medium orange, grated zest only
1 small lemon, grated rind and juice
1 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp Grand Marnier, Cointreau or brandy
50g/2oz unsalted butter
a little extra Grand Marnier, for flaming.
You mix it, put the pancakes, folded into quarters into it, add more liqueur, and set fire to it! It is one of the most sublime tastes known to humankind. One of my friends, first introduced to it, remarked that “it tastes of power…” He was not wrong.
Gin and cranberry
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
I had gin, but mixers were thin on the ground. I settled for cranberry juice, or, at least, ‘cranberry juice drink’ which contains all manner of other things, presumably because this is cheaper than squeezing the vitamin-rich pulp of actual berries until the carton is full. I always dilute stuff like this anyway, not least because it makes it go further. So it was a measure of gin, ‘cranberry juice drink’ and about one third of a glass of water. It was all right, but I will make a point of getting tonic next time, to enjoy the classic favourite: gin and tonic, with a segment of lime.
Chocolate cornflake clusters
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
It’s not the sort of I think I normally eat, but boxes of chocolate cornflake clusters were on sale in Sainsbury’s, reduced to £1.49 for 18. I did a quick calculation that they looked quite good value at 8.25p each. I could eat a few and give the rest away to guests as a post meal snack. I could hardly wait to get them home, with memories of school cornflake and syrup tart (the school favourite), and of homemade chocolate rice crispie balls. They’re quite good, very chocolatey and not too sweet. The taste lingers, and you wouldn’t want to eat too many at a time.