6 minute read
Food & Drink
To chill or not to chill?
Dave Anning has the answers
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There’s very little that’s more enticing than a delicious glass of chilled wine. But cooling wine can seriously mute aromas and flavours. We could have a science lesson here with formulas and everything, but I think you want to know WHICH wines chill well, not why - so here goes! Serving wine at the right temperature can be important, but if the weather is hot, the temperature of your wine changes as soon as you pour, so keep it simple. Part-fill a container of water and ice, put it on the table and use it as required. To chill a bottle quickly, add plenty of cooking salt - this will chill a bottle from room temperature in about 15 minutes – or you can buy a simple wrap-around temperature band or other similar devices for a few pounds if you wish.
Lighter wines chill best, and low alcohol wines like riesling do especially well. But don’t write off reds! Wines made from gamay, pinot noir and cabernet franc are delicious lightly chilled - a great solution if you’re planning a meaty barbeque. Sicillian frappato is even light enough to drink with fish. Aromas are usually first to suffer when wine is chilled. Luckily there are ‘aromatic’ white wines worth looking out for. Sauvignon blanc, riesling, muscat and viognier you may well have heard of, but there are others such as torrontes and gewurztraminer. Good quality examples of these will normally remain enticing on the nose when chilled, and open up as you hold them. Treat rosé as you would white. Examples range from dry (eg Provence) through off-dry (a touch of sweetness) to sweet (eg American ‘white’ zinfandel). The only way to find out which you like most is to knuckle down and try a selection! The ultimate treat is sparkling wine, and as Champagne is always expensive, take advantage of the opportunity to try some lesser-known sparklers. Cava from Spain is usually significantly cheaper than Champagne; prosecco is widely available (but buying the cheapest bottle can be disappointing); the French make ‘cremant’ outside the Champagne region (Loire, Alsace, Bourgogne, Bordeaux), and Australia, South Africa and Argentina aren’t obvious choices but make some truly brilliant fizz! In warm weather, lighter, fruitier sparklers come into their own. Asti, with its distinctive aromas of grapes (oddly not a common aroma in wine), is also low in alcohol and distinctly sweet. It is perhaps the most ‘lemonadey’ of wines and very refreshing - good job the alcohol is low! In summary the ‘rules’ are different according to the weather - keep ice and water to hand and if the wine isn’t cool enough pop it back in!
Dave Anning
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Eliza Acton’s Christmas pudding
With Christmas fast approaching, we thought this would be a good time to share the Christmas pudding recipe we use at home. This is a true Victorian classic, taken from Eliza Acton’s 1845 book ‘Modern Cookery’, and described as ‘a remarkably light small rich pudding’. Even the legendary Carved Angel pudding follows the same recipe (their equivalent size costs approx. £20). Traditionally you should make this on Stir-Up Sunday, the last Sunday in November - 21 November this year - to give your pudding time to mature, and bake your Christmas cake on the same day. But a week or two later is fine!
Ingredients
75g each of plain flour and fresh white breadcrumbs
175g suet (vegetable suet if preferred) 175g each of raisins and sultanas (washed if necessary) 110g Cox-type apple (one large apple), peeled, cored and chopped small 150g soft dark brown sugar 50g candied peel (washed if very sticky) Heaped teaspoon of mixed spice (or 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp mace) Pinch of salt Small wineglass of Cognac (or other brandy or liqueur e.g. Cointreau) 3 eggs, beaten lightly
Method
Mix everything together in a large mixing bowl, adding ingredients in the above order.
Stir thoroughly – and don’t forget to make a wish! We also add an old 6d wrapped in foil - the finder keeps the sixpence for a year and returns it on the next Stir-up Sunday.
Pack the mixture firmly into one large pudding bowl or several individual bowls; leave about 5mm space before the top, then cover the pudding layer with greaseproof paper. If using a plastic bowl, clip on the lid now; if using ceramic bowls, put on a lid of foil and tie a string handle around the top of the bowl so that you can lift it in and out of the pan. Put the pudding(s) in a saucepan of boiling water, covering 2/3 of the depth of the bowl.
Turn down the heat, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for about 3 hours for large puddings or 1hour 30 minutes for mini-puddings. Check the water level regularly and top up as needed – if too low it won’t cook properly and if too high the fat will escape from the pudding. They’re cooked when nicely dark.
Store in a cool, dark cupboard till Christmas, then replace the foil and reboil for about an hour for large puddings, 30 minutes for mini-puddings. Serve hot with cream.
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Builders & Contractors Ltd With 30 years’ experience working in Devon & Cornwall, we are experts in constructing highly specialised designs for architect and client projects. Our specialist expertise includes: • New Builds • Extensions • Barn Conversions & Listed Works
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