To kick start the new year, we spoke to a local cook who gave us 3 fantastic recipes to get involved with, complete with suitable wines for each dish. Why not give them a go this year?
SEAFOOD SALAD – Starter (Serves 4)
Ingredients
1 Chicory washed and chopped
60g of Cucumber diced
1 stick of celery diced
1 small carrot diced
120g of peeled prawns
1 whole cooked squid, diced
8 anchovies fillets
60ml of olive oil
The juice of one lemon
1 whole lemon quartered
Salt and pepper
Some chopped parsley
Preparation
1. Place salad food and chopped fish in a bowl mix with it salt and pepper
2. Add the oil and lemon juice
3. Dress this onto a suitable serving dish
4. Chris-cross the anchovies on top and sprinkle over the parsley
5. Serve small brown rolls with it
Suitable wine: Marlborough Sauvignon Blank NZ
STUFFED CHICKEN BREAST – Main (Serves 4)
Ingredients
4 Chicken breast skinless
60g of cooked ham minced
4 mushrooms finely chopped
4 whole mushrooms peeled and scored and cooked (keep hot)
1 shallots finely chopped
20g of parsley finely chopped
4 large rashers of smoked bacon
60ml of olive oil
Salt and pepper
200g of roughly chopped celery, onions and carrots plus the mushrooms peeling and stalks and some chopped rosemary. (Bed of roots)
500ml strong chicken stock
125ml dry white wine
Some thickening agent (bisto?)
Preparation
1. Using a very sharp knife, make an incision on the thin side of each breast
2. Still with the knife make a pocket
3. In a suitable bowl mix ham, chopped mushrooms and shallots with some oil
4. Season it and make a paste with which you will fill the 4 breasts
5. Wrap each breast with a rasher of bacon
6. In a suitable roasting tin place the rest of the oil and over lively heat sauté the bed of roots and after place on it the chicken, 120 ml of water and cook in a hot oven (190° C) for 20 minutes, reducing the heat (to 150°C) for a further 15 minutes
7. Check the temperature inside the thicker part of the chicken and if it reaches 75°C the chicken is cooked. Keep the breasts hot while you make a sauce
8. Keep the chopped vegetables in the same tin and reheat them rapidly to reduce all liquid
9. Add the wine reduce further and then add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes, strain into a suitable saucepan, add the thicken to the wanted consistency
10. Onto a suitable serving dish place the breasts and a cooked mushroom bedside each
11. Sprinkle with chopped parsley with a “fillet” of sauce all over
Serve roast potatoes and buttered broccoli with it.
Suitable wine: Beaujolais Village
POACHED PEARS IN RED WINE – Dessert (Serves 4)
Ingredients
4 Large Williams pears
500ml of red wine (Rioja?)
120g brown sugar
6 cloves and 2 bay leaves
100g marzipan
250ml of double cream whipped thick
Preparation
1. Peel and the pears and core them from the lower part and keep the twig intact
2. Place some wine in a suitable saucepan, add 100 g of sugar, cloves and bay leaves
3. Bring to the boil then place the pears in it adding the rest of the wine
4. Simmer with lid on until tasted with skewer, feel soft then take it out and cool
5. When cold insert in each enough Marzipan, dress them onto a suitable dish
6. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on them decorate at will and serve the cream separately
Suitable wine: Tokaji
Recipes from John Springlow
