Food & Wine

Wicks Estate is an up and coming state of the art winery from the Adelaide Hills. The first release was in 2005 and with Tim Knappstein at the helm wine making, this winery has gone from strength to strength . Good food and wine with good company is always an enjoyable experience and the Wicks Wine Dinner at the local yacht and rowing club certainly fit the bill. A glass of the new release sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir on arrival set the tone for what was to be a very pleasant evening.  Wicks Estate Winery is  family owned and operated, moving on from their Orchard and Nursery operations to the wine industry in 1999.

Tim Wicks was on hand to chat about the families dedication to producing quality cool climate wines, giving insights into each variety as the evening unfolded.  

Chef excelled himself presenting five courses with flavours and textures each complemented by the wines matched. 

First up was :-

Fresh figs wrapped in prosciutto with fried haloumi and lemon vincotte matched with Wicks Sauvignon Blanc

Seared Hervey Bay scallops with cauliflower and blue cheese puree, crisp pancetta and black caviar   - Wicks Chardonnay

Tartlet of roast rabbit with a salad of watercress, apple and walnut with sweet aged balsamic reduction - Wicks Riesling

Spiced Quail served on char grilled zucchini, red grapes,  agresto and verjuice a great match with Wicks Cabernet Sauvignon

Venison fillet with roast parsnip, caramelised baby beetroot and blueberry jus - Wicks shiraz

Finally assorted cheeses with quince paste and lavosh - Wicks Eminence Shiraz Cabernet.

A delightful presentation of interesting combinations of flavours and well considered wine matches all came together for a  memorable dining experience.

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Recently attended a slow food breakfast at Blue Ginger Restaurant, where apart from an excellent breakfast of ricotta pancakes served with tomato, basil,  onion and olive oil, followed by coffee bean panna cotta,  the secretary for Slow Food Noosa  Convivia  Anne Marshall was the guest speaker.  Anne who has been an active member of the food industry for many years, with amongst other things 22 cook books to her credit gave an insight into the slow food movement and its philosophy.  Slow Food is an international member-supported non-profit organisation. This international network supports sustainable food production and distribution, promotes educational projects around the world and encourages regional food traditions.  Promotes taste  education, defends bio diversity and supports small scale, sustainable, local economies worldwide.

Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. The food we eat should taste good;  it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.

I love the taste of fresh fruit and vegetables but with our current systems of producing, processing and distributing food, taste and the  health benefits of the finished product is quite often compromised.  I spent many years in a rural environment and the pleasure of  being able to grow and eat fruits, vegetables, herbs etc grown in the backyard knowing exactly what went into their production ( if a lemon is required go and pick one).  This is a time I will cherish always, mind you there was a lot of work involved as well. In the urban environment I find myself in now is not always so easy to grow your own food so I am a great supporter of Farmers Markets and all things organic. Educating  children is high on the agenda and its great to see schools starting vegetable gardens, teaching permaculture and encouraging children`s awareness  of the joys of food.

Anne took time to tell us a bit about herself and her involvement with the Slow Food Movement and its humble beginnings. That great phrase “from little things big things grow” is a good fit here.

Is there a Slow Food Convivia in your area?

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Quintin and Avril Quider love to stoke up their wine barrel smoker to cook up any number of delicacies. With an abundance of Pinot Noir soaked oak staves they have come up with a great way of reusing the barrels and that is to convert them to a gas fuelled smoker/barbecue cooker, which not only looks great but works really well. As summer rolls on we all love to be outside around the bbq - beer, wine, spirit or soft drink in hand, waiting for the food to cook, so apart from giving us a run down on the new look barbecue Quinten gave us a recipe as well which matches the Wild Earth Pinot Noir perfectly.

Rabbit Stock

1 leek                                                                                        6 peppercorns

1 large onion                                                                         salt to taste

3 carrots                                                                                2 kg rabbit or chicken carcass

3 celery sticks                                                                    1 x 400 gm tin of tomatoes

4 cloves of garlic                                                             shells of prawns (see below)

Water to cover

Roughly chop all the veggies. Lightly sauté in olive oil, till soft. Add the rabbit pieces and sauté till brown. Add the tin of tomatoes, then the bottle of wine. Bring to the boil and cook for five minutes. Add the water until the ingredients are covered. Bring to boil, and then simmer for 1hour. Strain stock and discard solids. Shell and de-vein prawns. Add the shells and heads to stock (if the heads are black discard), reserving the prawn meat. Bring back to the boil and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Strain stock again, discarding the solids.

Paella

3 sweet tomatoes                                                              zest of lime

2 red capsicum                                                                 1 tbsp paprika

1 small fennel bulb                                                         1 tsp New Mexico chilli powder

1 cayenne pepper                                                            1 tsp fresh wild thyme

3 cloves garlic                                                                   salt and pepper to taste

6 rabbit Maryland                                                           3 cups of rice

6 vine leaves                                                                     1 cup of red wine

6 cups rabbit stock (as above)                                  pinch of saffron

10 mussels                                                                        20 prawns

Olive oil, to sauté                                                           10 scallops

6 rabbit back straps, cut into 1 inch pieces        400g calamari, cut into strips

Smoke the tomatoes, capsicums, fennel, chilli together with garlic (alternatively roast in oven). When cool chop the veggies fine. Wrap the rabbit Maryland in vine leaves, and smoke till cooked. Steam the mussels in 1 cup of rabbit stock, then add the finished mussel stock back to the rabbit stock. Keep mussels in pot with lid on to keep warm. Heat finished stock in another pot. Sauté chopped veggies in oil, add rabbit backstraps, lime zest, paprika, chilli powder, thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Add the rice and sauté for 5 minutes add the wine and cook for 5 mints. Ladle in the warm stock 1 cup at a time to keep the rice covered. Add pinch of saffron and when five minutes away from rice being done add prawn meat, scallop meat, and the calamari. When the rice is cooked, arrange the smoked rabbit Maryland and mussels on top of paella. Squeeze juice of half a lime over the top. Serve and enjoy

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A perfect spring day, what better way to spend it than having a long lunch at Season Restaurant. It was one of those delightful days with  a great view over the beach, good company, good food and wine, a perfect way to spend an afternoon.  Catalina Sounds Wines from Marlborough New Zealand were paired with a delicious assortment of courses. Having wine maker Nina Stocker on hand to talk us through the wines and tell us a bit of her story was an extra bonus. Nina`s interest in wine making was ignited at a young age and Nina has work experience gained from McLaren Vale, to Italy (Barolo), Bordeaux to Northern Rhone, & Yarra Valley. This was all a great opportunity for Nina to gain expertise in different wines and wine making styles from ‘old -world’  to ‘new-world’ which she has now taken to Catalina Sounds in New Zealand.  Nina continues to produce top quality wines , bringing complexity and longevity to her creations.  Fruit being the main focus the cool climate and  interesting sub-regions of Marlborough give Nina plenty to work with.

Here is a look at the Degustation Menu and wine matches for the day

1st course

an Oyster shot with Catalina Sounds sauvignon blanc, chilli & lime , which was delicate but still with a bit of zing. The 2009 savvy was served.

2nd course

spanner crab, squid ink noodles, fennel, chervil & salmon roe. A subtle touch of smokey savouriness added complexity & texture to the wine and a good balance to the tropical fruit flavours and was a good match with the food.

3rd Course

Poached king prawn, spring peas, orange & carrot puree, ricotta & min matched with 08 Pinot Gris  which is rich and full with a hint of spice and good acidity on the finish producing a very food friendly wine.

4th Course

Slow roasted ocean trout, (cooked to perfection), caramelised cauliflower, raisins soaked in the pinot noir, toasted almonds & frisee (a salad green).  The 07 Pinot Noir with its up front fruit and fine tannins matched well with the food.

5th Course  yes it still keeps coming

Belgian chocolate tart, salted peanut praline & double cream. What can I say,  it was both rich and delicious, still managed to finish up the afternoon with a coffee and went home feeling very fortunate to have been part of this long lunch.

When was the last time you had a long lunch?

Maybe its time to get together with friends, good food and wine to have an enjoyable, relaxed meal.

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Glenloth Pheasant Terrine.

Ingredients

2 Glenloth pheasant (size 9)      

500gm organic chicken breast

120gn sliced prosciutto

220gm fennel cacciatore sausage

200ml thickened cream

15gm sea salt

white pepper

Method

Preheat oven 125 degrees Celsius

Line a 30cm rectangle terrine mould with cling film, two layers, set aside.

Bone out the pheasants keeping skin on breasts and set aside.

Remove skin from leg meat and dice, (20mm) set aside.

Remove skin and any fat from chicken breasts, dice, (20mm) and set aside.

Prepare chicken mousseline by processing chicken breast meat with pheasant leg meat with 10 gms of the salt.

Add egg white and process 30 seconds, then gradually add cream whilst motor is running. Stop and scrape down sides when necessary.

Stop when cream has been combined. Season and taste.

Pass with scraper through drum sieve or through a fine meshed mouli. After this cook a teaspoon of mix in boiling water to check consistency and seasoning.

Adjust.

To build your terrine firstly evenly line terrine mould on cling film with prosciutto, leaving lengths hanging over outer top of mould.

Next pipe 2cm chicken mousseline evenly into bottom of terrine, leaving no gaps or air pockets.

Next lay 2 halved pheasant breasts in terrine mould, season lightly.

Place fennel cacciatore end on end in terrine on top of pheasant breasts

Next pipe more mousseline along side cacciatore.

Next lay two halved pheasant breasts in line with first layer of breasts, lightly season.

Next pipe and fill terrine with chicken mousseline, level off with palette knife and fold prosciutto over the top neatly to cover.

Then fold glad wrap over squeezing out any air.

Cook au bain marie for 70 min or until internal temperature reaches 60 degrees Celsius.

Chill for 24 hours before removing from terrine mould.

Slice to serve 

Serve with quince jelly and petit fennel bread.

Recipe courtesy of Matthew Baldock

Executive Chef - ebb - waterfront dining & cellar

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Sicilian Style Squid                                    

Recipe as follows

150gm fresh baby squid

¼ preserved lemon finely sliced

1 long red chilli finely sliced

1 tbls baby capers

½ tbls fine diced spanish onion

2 tbls lemon juice

2 tbls extra virgin olive oil

handful rocket leaves

2 slices grilled ciabatta

salt & pepper

Method

Place all ingredients in to bowl accept lemon juice, rocket and of course the bread.

Heat a frying pan with a little oil until it starts to smoke place in your squid mixture and toss very quickly for about 20 seconds put in the lemon juice salt & pepper remove from heat serve on top of rocket leaves a slice of lemon & your bread to mop up the juices

Note

if you can rub ciabatta with clove of garlic and a little oil and char grill it on bbq or grill pan for a much better result also season this dish using a good sea salt rather than table salt.

Recipe Courtesy

David Page  Head Chef

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David Coomer of Perth`s Star Anise restaurant presented an Asian Curry cooking class at the Noosa Food and Wine Festival.  The popularity of TV cooking shows seems to be at an all time high and Master Chef Australia seems to be leading the way at present. David presented a fabulous dish and for some great tips on flavour combinations and a dish we could all try out at home,  check out our video:-

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Winter is here and a time to enjoy a good warming red wine, and more hearty meals. Grenache is a great food wine, largely due to its low tannins it can be matched with any number of dishes from roasted pork, beef stew, meat lasagna, baked tomatoes, chicken, vegetable quiche, mild cheddar to Jarlsberg, the combinations are endless.

Gaining ground as a single varietal, Grenache is a grape with many guises, the rich sweet fruitiness and potential high alcohol levels making it a perfect base for fortified wines for which it was widely grown in Australia. It suffered a mass vine pull out as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz increased in popularity. The Barossa and McLaren Vale in South Australia did not totally succumb to this vine pull and are now producing from low yielding old vines a darker more tannic wine, rich and complex with dark fruit flavours, earthiness, and subtle tannins with clean dry finish. The best show spicy fruit, length and appropriate use of oak.

An incredibly versatile variety it is adaptable to variable soils, high yields able to withstand heat, ripens late and creates generally spicy berry flavours, sweet fruitiness and low phenolic compounds. This makes it perfect blending material particularly with Shiraz and Mourvèdre to create the classic GSM Rhône style wine. Known as Granacha in Spain it is the second most grown variety after Tempranillo.

Rosé has had a comeback to the wine fashion stakes and the cherry red and berry aromatics of Grenache make it a great variety for this style both sweet and dry The Grenache Shiraz blend style of wine, offers excellent value for money and we are seeing more of them represented on wine lists and in bottleshops. Previously not being a huge fan of the single varietal, found it a bit lacking in depth and structure have had the pleasure of tasting some old vine Grenache’s which have given me a whole new outlook and agree that it is a great food wine.

Shelley Thompson wine maker for Yangarra Vineyards at McLaren Vale talked to us at  the Hyatt Wine and Food event about her passion for Grenache, the rich and intense flavours from their Grenache vines planted in 1946 and also Cadenzia a GSM blend .

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How wonderful it is to meet  people who love what they are doing, are passionate about their product  and are  willing to share their knowledge and skills with others, not a lot of industries can boast such an openness.

Executive Chef Gianmaria Morelli (Jimmy) has moved from restaurant kitchen to the commercial kitchen at Belmondo`s  where he and partner Natalie Kay are using traditional Italian recipe for producing gourmet Gelato - vanilla, chocolate and pistachio . Sourcing premium seasonal produce allows  innovation with the flavours of pineapple, rockmelon, fig & cinnamon, or ginger and lime for that Asian twist  to mention a few. The vanilla I tasted was rich, smooth, flavoursome and a sheer delight.  I have my order in!!Sorbet is also created. This couple with their passion for their business and product have recently received awards for not only the Gelato but for the environmentally friendly retail packaging.  Palato Gelato will be involved in food events throughout the year and we look forward to bringing you more from this dynamic couple. Jimmy & Natalie tell their story:-

What is your favourite Gelato flavour?

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