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SweervyWine Cooks

No guilt no pleasure at Christmas

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The well known fact is that Christmas is a time to indulge. To indulge into all sorts of guilty pleasures – the more the merrier – until the January blues kicks in with all the detoxes, dry Januaries and other kinds of depressing New Years resolutions. But until then, we enjoy stuffing our bellies with hearty filling delicious things (solid and liquid) in company of our beloved family and friends and we do it without any hard feelings.

Therefore, in the spirit of Christmas indulgence, here is a dish I made for dinner today, inspired by Fiona Beckett’s Instagram post. It is ridiculously easy to make and even if you happen to be one of those people who wishes sprouts to become extinct – worry not, you can simply replace them with a veg you enjoy. And here how it’s made:

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Toss your sprouts (or baby potatoes or any other veg of your choice) with sea salt and a bit of olive oil and roast on a baking tray in the oven until tender. Get your Camembert out of the package and put either into its own wooden box or into a little ovenproof dish and using a sharp knife score a large cross in the top of the cheese. You can add some rosemary or other herb to taste if you wish (I left it plain). Roast in the oven together with the sprouts so they are ready at the same time.

Arrange on a wooden board or serving tray with crispy rind bread (baguette, ciabatta or similar) and serve with beetroot & red onion chutney (mine was out of the jar and delicious). You can go with cranberry jam or any sweet component you prefer with cheese.

This can serve as a delicious starter on your Christmas dinner or maybe as a main for vegetarians. Enjoy and let me know what you think about it!

Recommended wine pairing: full bodied creamy Chardonnay from Burgundy, Australia or California to match the weight and creaminess of the cheese. A more adventurous alternative, especially if you are having a sweet chutney or jam with it, would be a sweet red wine.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

SweervyWine Cooks

Quick & easy green veggie bake

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I have to admit it’s a rather rare occasion that a meal coming out of my kitchen doesn’t contain a representative of the world fauna. But there are days when your fridge happens to have 5 different veg, all with best before date being yesterday while the chicken is enjoying its deep winter sleep in the freezer. A girl needs to eat after all and the outcome of my vegetarian mission turned out surprisingly delicious! Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients:
Pack of Brussels sprouts
Pack of broccoli florets
Pack of baby courgettes
2 tbsp of low fat crème fraîche
2 tbsp of low fat mayo
1 tbsp of low fat cream cheese
1/2 pack of low fat grated cheddar cheese
Seasoning: salt, white pepper, nutmeg, thyme

Preparation:
Boil the veg in salted water – my Brussels sprouts were quite big in size so I put them into the water first, followed by the broccoli and courgettes cut in bite size pieces a few minutes after. While the veg is boiling mix the crème fraîche, mayo and cream cheese in a bowl. Drain the vegetables as soon as they are almost done but still have a bit of crunch to them, transfer into a backing dish and pour the dairy mix over, season with pepper, nutmeg and bit of thyme and more salt if needed (just taste a piece of veg for salt first). I also added half a handful of grated cheese before mixing everything thoroughly so that all vegetables are evenly coated with the the creamy mixture and seasoning. Top with the remaining grated cheese and put this baby into preheated oven (~180C) for about 20 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Et voila, surprisingly yummy and healthy meal where even the biggest meat and poultry fans wouldn’t notice it is vegetarian (I think that’s thanks to all the cheese ;-))

Green veg bake 1

Green veg bake 2This dish is perfect as a meal on its own but can also be enjoyed as a side dish to meat or poultry of your choice. And YES, you are right  thinking of Christmas dinner! It will be a wonderful accompaniment to your turkey or any other roast you decide to make.

Variations: to transform this innocent dish into a filling guilty pleasure use full fat dairy products – this will certainly enhance the flavours even though it’s going to feel more heavy in your stomach. To make it even more evil add chopped pieces of bacon or pancetta. Whatever variation you choose, add flaked toasted almonds for a special twist – the crunch will add texture to the dish and match wonderfully  with the creamy vegetables.

Sweervy's Wine Tasting, SweervyWine Cooks

When a duck meets a Riesling (an incredible love story)

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It was a rainy Wednesday eve in London when both my body and my soul were calling for something filling, hearty and warming. Knowing that all I had left in the fridge was some exotic mushrooms, two duck legs and purple sprouting broccoli I first wasn’t quite what to do. Thanks to the great era of internet it didn’t take me long to find an inspiration.

But then I looked into my wine racks and faced the next problem. The few classic matches I found – a few bottles of my favorite New Zealand Pinot Noir and some Merlot based Bordeaux were waiting for a more special occasion while fuller bodied big South African and Aussie wines I had available would have put my palate on fire if combined with the rather spicy dish I had in mind. But then I noticed an old friend tucked away and almost forgotten about – a 2007 Dr. Hermann Erdener Treppchen Riesling Kabinett from Germany. Knowing this would be at least an off-dry and very fruity wine I thought it might be a good combination with the sauce and seasoning of the dish, even if a very unusual one with the duck itself. So I decided to be brave and give it a shot, especially because my drinking window note on the bottle said 2011-2016.

duck2First to the food: I used this recipe as a rough guide but did modify it quite a lot. I used duck legs rather than breast, first browned it in a stove-to-oven frying pan without any additional oil (if you fry your duck skin side down first it will give off more than enough fat!) and put it into the oven on medium heat to finish off. Before moving the duck to the oven I put a few drops of agave sirup and a splash of soy sauce over the duck.

photo 3Also, I added garlic and purple-sprouting broccoli to the veggies. Broccoli need to go into the wok first as they take longer to cook than the mushrooms. Very unusual for me not to have fresh ginger at home but the problem was solved quickly with little leftover packs of pickled ginger from the Japanese takeaway (never despair when you’re lacking an ingredient, there is almost always a way to deal with it 🙂 )

The outcome of the adventure were delicious Asian style spicy duck legs with amazing flavors of ginger, chilli, soy and sweetness from the sirup and a wok full of vitamin-loaded joy to go with it! (click on photos above to see them full-size)

DrHerrman1Now to the wine: I like German Rieslings a lot. They are often very good value for money,  most are very good quality (like anything made in Germany really) and even if they are on the sweeter side, their mouthwatering high acidity levels make them very easy drinking wines.

TASTING NOTE:  Medium sweet on the front palate but thanks to the very high acidity level the wine has an almost dry finish. Pronounced typical petrol notes and honey on the nose, stone fruit, cooked apple and sweet spice on the palate. Frankly, the finish doesn’t last forever but the wine is very well balanced. Light bodied and very easy drinking. Now the best thing about it – only 7.5% alcohol!! It’s almost healthy! 🙂

As I mentioned before it took me courage to pair this Chinese style duck with a Riesling. I was hoping for the chilli, Chinese five spice mix, garlic and ginger to match and play well with the sweetness of the wine, and at the same time the sweetness of the wine to balance off the heat of the food. Luckily my expectations were fulfilled! I absolutely loved this food and wine pairing and it turned out to be just as I wanted! What else was amazing about it is how the sweetness from the agave sirup and the sweetness of the wine harmonized with each other, it was like a match made in heaven! It is always a such a delight to find new fantastic food and wine pairings rather than always going to the well-known classics (as e.g. Pinot Noir or Merlot with duck)!

In my opinion this wine represents an excellent value for money (I got it for under £10 at Majestic a while ago) but this vintage seems to be no longer available in the UK. However, if you got too curious about this great wine please do let me know and I will do my best to help you source it.

P.S.: btw, if you fell in love with the duck on top of the page click here 😉

SweervyWine Cooks

Azerbaijani Meat Kutab amateur style

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The only way I can ever make this dish myself is when I have access to ready made lavash, a very thin flatbread from Azerbaijan (think 1/3 thickness of a Mexican tortilla). Luckily, my family brought me a few dozens recently and I needed to act quickly as lavash perishes fast.

Frankly speaking, using lavash to make kutab (or qutab) is a plain cheating. The traditional way involves preparing dough, rolling it out to 1 mm thin sheets and cutting round shapes. And only then you fill it with either meat, herbs or squash.

But back to my cheating/amateur method. All I needed to do is prepare the filling, which consisted of organic lamb mince, finely chopped onions and seasoning of salt and pepper. I added a tsp of dried oregano for a personal twist. 😉

Then you (traditionally) fry your kutab on a convex iron griddle stalled saj. My kutabs had to settle for a ceramic frying pan. I first tried to fry them without any fat like my mom normally does, but it didn’t go well with the first batch, so I lightly brushed the remaining kutabs with sunflower oil before putting them in the pan. I will spare you the details of how my two(!) ceramic pans looked afterwards, but all I say is that it was absolutely worth the trouble and the overall kitchen damage!

photo 2

Meat kutabs are traditionally served with sumac, a dark red lemony flavoured spice made from crushed sumac berries. (I like mines with ketchup) If you are curious about the real thing, this link will give you a bit more insight: traditional kutab

Surrau IGTLast but not least, the wine. I had an open bottle of 2012 Vigne Surrau Isola dei Nuraghi IGT from Sardinia (Cannonau, Carignano, Cabernet Sauvignon and Muristellu blend) in the fridge. You would be surprised how well it paired with kutab! I believe this is mostly due to the high acidity level of the wine playing well with the sumac spice and its overall Mediterranean character matching the dish. 

Tasting note: medium ruby, med. flavor intensity, high acidity levels, soft tannins, med+ body; red berries, sweet spice, hint of leather, very food friendly wine. Would keep for another year or two but ready to enjoy now, not designed for long-term ageing.

 

SweervyWine Cooks

From SweervyWine’s kitchen with love..

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First thing I need to point out – in my defence (!) – is that I barely spent any time in the kitchen until I got married. But once you have tied the knot you will inevitably (especially as a woman), sooner or later, find yourself there, in the four walls of your own family kitchen. Luckily (esp. for my husband), it turned out that I quite enjoyed cooking, and this is how the series of SweervyWine’s kitchen adventures was launched.

1795747_303298993173396_984092376441356033_nI decided to apply the same principle here as I did with the Restaurant Dining section, meaning that you can admire all my (not so attractive-looking) food creations to-date in my Facebook page album. Please do let me know if you would like a recipe to a particular dish you see there.