Cracking Carignan

I picked up a bottle of Mont Rocher Carignan last week from Edinburgh Wine Merchants. It's a Vin de Pays De L'Herault from the increasingly hilly region of the Languedoc north-west of Montpellier.

Marketed as an old-vine wine, but made with grapes from a collection of different vineyards, I don't doubt that some of the vines are very old but probably not all of them. Not that this is a great problem. The balance of old and young vines is probably a major factor in the beauty of this wine, resisting the classic flaw of Carignan of being cheek-suckingly tannic. Instead, what you get is a velvety mouth-feel, drawn out into a plum fruit and delicate spice finish. The wine is eye-catchingly crimson and while light on the nose, not bland.

Mont Rocher
Carignan
£6.99
EWM

9/10 in it's price bracket

Manuka Mythbusting

Hold onto your purse! It took me a little while to sift through the plethora of (sales based) Manuka 'research' but I did eventually sniff out some independent stuff from The Telegraph with slightly more veracity.


Basically, Manuka is a species of Tea Tree, the flowers of which produce honey with a slightly better antiseptic or antimicrobial quality than other honeys (not a great susprise given what we know about Tea Tree). Remember however, that all honeys are slightly antiseptic. Additionally, any antiseptic benefit appears to be restricted to occassions when the honey is used externally rather than eaten. One of the main reasons for this is that, when applied to wounds, (any) honey's high sugar content provides an anaerobic environment in which any antiseptics are quite effective.

The University of Waikato have done the best research and their page is excellent but not great for the scientifically uninitiated. The evidence for any benefits when eaten is sketchy to say the least, but if you're buying it instead of elastoplasts, crack on! Interestingly, the oft quoted UMF is hardly present in the University research, go figure!

I would be inclined to buy it if it tasted great (I haven't tried it but apparently it's not a patch on acacia/apple blossom/heather) and buy savlon if I had a cut! Maybe I'm too cynical but this seems to be 80% gimmick!

Hollow Bones

The best ossobuco I've had was cooked by the good Dr's Grandmother in France. Somehow she managed to produce meltingly tender meat but retain the gelatinous glory of the marrow. I tried yesterday and while the result was good, I found most of the marrow had melted into the sauce.

I stewed inch thick slices of beef shin in equal quantities of beef stock, white wine and passata with stock veg, garlic and bay. I had a quiet day and the delightful opprtunity to leave it in the oven for a serious amount of time. About 5hrs at GM2 (Probably not much of a surprise the marrow left home!) actually. The higher marrow to bone ratio of veal might have been better for a purist's ossobuco but the flavour of mature shin is quite sublime.

Easy prep, great result, and perfect with a slurp of Carta Roja Gran Reserva 2001. 100% Monastrell grapes, a variety I don't know much about but which proved to be plummy, spicy and very drinkable. The result being that I'd dried up before QT came on, which was shit.

Cheers!

Meals On Wheels!

I took delivery of my first fruit and veg box from East Coast Organics on Wednesday. I've ordered a selection of seasonal organic veg and not-so-seasonal, organic fruit. Plus milk, cheese, eggs, bread, salad and herbs. I suppose if I were to buy the spearate products from the supermarket I could probably get them cheaper but then they wouldn't be organic and they wouldn't be covered in dirt. Something which gives me no little satisfaction in this age of sterilisation!

The jewel in the dirt was without a doubt the salad bag, containing as it did, land cress, mustard greens and something like baby choi-sum. Anyway, they held up admirably in a chicken stock and noodle broth with some chilli, ginger and coriander. Elsewhere there were parsnips, carrots, spuds, a January King cabbage, broccoli, onions, chestnut mushrooms and tomatoes. The fruit section comprised bananas, kiwis, apples and oranges.

I've paid for a month and in that time hope to see a decent variety of veg come and go. A real pitfall of the box scheme could be a lack of variety leading to a lack of inspiration and a nagging obligation to use all the produce. Watch this space...

Vodka Apple Cake

This started out as something like an apple crumble cake but because the Mrs didn't get home with extra butter quick enough, I had a quick change of tactics midway!

5 Medium apples

225g Butter

225g Caster Sugar

225g Self-raising Flour

4 eggs

1tsp Baking Powder

Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka

1 Vanilla Pod

Pinch Mixed Spice

I used British Royal Gala apples, they're nicely balanced with sweetness and a crisp bite. Chop the apples into 8ths and take the core out, don't bother peeling them, I find the skin keeps the texture a bit and holds the flesh together (I'm also prone to bouts of laziness). Soften the apples in some butter and sugar and flambe them with some Zubrowka Vodka. Set aside.

Its really just a basic old 2-2-2-2 sponge cake with a twist so cream the butter, sugar and seeds from the vanilla pod until fluffy and light in colour. Add the eggs and beat together. Sift in the flour and Baking Powder and fold in until you have a smooth mixture. If you find it too stiff loosen it with a little milk but not too much as it needs to hold up the apples somewhat. If you're a slow cake eater it's quite a good idea to substitute about 50g of butter with 50mls sunflower oil as this really keeps the cake moister for longer.

Place the apples evenly across the surface of the mixture, finish by sprinkling with caster sugar and a dusting of mixed spice. Bake in a pre-hated oven at GM4 for about 45 mins checking for wobble regularly.

While the cake is baking, reduce 100ml of apple juice with 6tsp sugar and a splash of vodka. Put the vanilla pod in for about 2mins of boiling but not much longer as it can be a bit sickening in an already sweet cake. Reduce until you have a thick syrup which you can drizzle over the cake when it's cooled.

Gran Sasso Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2005

I picked this up in Peckhams at the weekend after a member of staff recommended it. Rarely a good way to buy wine admittedly, given the propensity of the greasy-haired student staff to feign knowledge of the good stuff. This however turned out to be a little gem. In the sub £15 category, Monte's are frequently young and promising but ultimately a bit tame. This effort however really delivered above it's £12 tag.

Depth of flavour like an old Syrah, big fruity, chocolatey nose and a warm, spicy finish. I had it on it's own, which I felt suited it perfectly. Why is there always a need to match food and wine? A meal requires wine much more than a good wine needs a partner.

Gran Sasso
100% Montepulciano D'Abruzzo
Colline Teramane
2005
£12.75 at Peckhams

8/10

Peasant Lamb

Since the season has obliged us with a massive dose of 'welcome-to-winter', the time has never been better to sit on your backside with a glass of red and something hearty on your plate. The TV is rot (although a damn sight better without the abhorrent Ross spoiling our Friday nights with ill concieved interviews of genuinely interesting folk) so have a bash at this.

It's the best time of year for using lamb for stews, the meat has plenty of fat and is developing a bit of an older flavour without being really muttony. I get my meat from George Bower in Stockbridge, accountability and high quality.

Half a lamb shoulder (about 1kg including the bone which goes in too)
Tin Borlotti beans
Tin Cannellini beans
Tin chopped tomatoes
2 Celery sticks
2 Carrots
2 Onions
2 Garlic cloves
2 Bay leaves
1 Dried Chilli
Small bunch of Oregano
1 tbsp tomato puree
700ml Vegetable stock
Balsamic vinegar

Take the meat and fat off in large chunks and keep the bone. Let's not fanny about with the fat, leave it in because it has so much flavour and will be completely rendered down in the cooking. Dredge the meat in flour and brown it really hard in olive oil and butter. Don't turn it too much and don't worry about it sticking as it will all unstick in the oven. In generating a really dark golden colour you 're causing reactions (the Maillard reactions) between carbohydrates and proteins that result in hundreds of other complex, aromatic compounds which give the meat and the resulting stew depth and rich, roasted meat flavours and smells.

Chop the veg extremely roughly; bashed garlic cloves and carrots, onions and celery into four or five diagonal bits. Tie up the oregano inside a ribbon of leek with the bay leaves into a simple bouquet garni. That's all the prep you need, put everything together in the pot with the meat, give it a quick stir, let it come to the boil and put it in the oven on gas mark 4 for anything between 2-6hrs. I use veg stock because it leaves more room for the flavour of the lamb and tomatoes, and you're putting the bone in there with the stock veg anyway.

I like it served with a stack of sauteed winter greens; curly kale, cavalo nero, chard and some crusty wholemeal, all from the Farmers Market on Castle Terrace. The last time I made it i washed it down with a Ravenswood Zinfandel. There is a lot of cooking time but prep is about 10mins and it's well worth the wait. A real belter.