Madeira Wine

Cheers! Today my blog is one year old.

Last week I visited Old Blandy Wine Lodge in Funchal on Madeira to see how Madeira wine is made. We had saved this for a rainy day and it was very rainy that day.
This building was built in the 17th century and was part of a monastery. It was bought in 1840 and converted to a winery. This is a working lodge where the wine is being aged by natural heat.
For about 5 euros a knowledgable guide will take you on a tour and this includes 2 generous glasses of Maderia to sample.

The vat below would hold up to 10000 litres of wine. This one is for display purposes and has had the archways cut into it so that you can walk through it. The smell inside was wonderful, aromatic wood and wine together. There are deposits of sugar on the inside. Chestnut wood was used for the casks, there are sweet chestnut trees in Madeira, and nowadays American oak.The vats were made of Brazil mahogany and nowadays Brazilian satinwood.

The method for making Madeira was discovered by chance. The island was a stopping off point for ships. Wine taken on board in oak casks had brandy added to it to help preserve it. When a ship returned to Madeira with an unopened cask it was discovered that the taste of the wine had improved on its journey due to the heat of the tropics. So wine was sent on round trips to improve it. Eventually this process was achieved by storing the barrels in the warm loft at the top of the wine lodge building. See below. The smell in the wine loft is fragrant and aromatic. Later the wine is transferred into the large vats and continues to age until it is bottled. These are on a lower floor where it will age at a lower temperature and are filled to about 90% to leave an airspace to slowly oxidise the wine.


In the museum there are accounting books from the last 3 centuries.

There are 4 main types of Maderia named after the grape varieties used. At the end of the tour we were given some samples to taste. On the left is a 3 year old Sercial and on the right a 5 year old Bual. The Sercial is dry and the Bual medium rich. I much prefered the Bual for its rich honey and raisiny flavours. We then had some 15 year old Malmsey the sweetest, deepest in colour and richest for taste like an extract of very good Christmas cake with toffee or butterscotch and my favourite. We were told that it makes a good accompaniment for Christmas cake or chocolate. I was in such a hurry to taste this one that I forgot to photograph it!

There is also a vintage tasting room, it is still possible to buy wines dating back to 1920 and in the museum there are bottles dating back much further.

Cheers!

Apples

Charles Ross

I have had a good crop of apples from the garden starting last September with a variety that I think is Charles Ross. We inherited the tree so to try and identify it I checked with Brogdale. They are in Kent and have the national collection of fruit trees and a farm shop. These apples can be used as cookers or eaters. In September they are fairly sharp as eaters but cook well together with blackberries. I start with the windfalls or pick as we need them. The flavour mellows and they are at their best by the end of October as the birds soon discover. I pick the rest just before that point and they keep till about Christmas. The flavour is superb, sweetish with a touch of pear.
Charles Ross is a hybrid of Cox’s Orange Pippin and Peasgood Nonsuch.

I planted the other tree, for me it is a must have, it is a Bramley, in my opinion a superb English apple. I picked these during October and November and they usually keep for months, a welcome taste of summer and autumn in the depths of winter.

Bramley

The first Bramley tree was grown in Southwell in Nottinghamshire from an apple pip planted by a young girl. The original tree is still bearing fruit two centuries later and even survived being blown down in a storm. When I was a school girl I used to pass the house on the bus on my way to school. There is a stained glass window in Southwell Minster portraying the town's links with this apple.

Bramley

Bramleys have a characteristic shape being flatter at the poles than most apples. This is useful to know when buying as I suspect that some of the apples passed off as Bramleys are inferior green cooking apples. Raymond Blanc is no fan of these apples describing them as cooking to an acidic green fizz. Sadly many of the supermarket offerings can be like that. Maybe they were picked before they were ripe; they do improve if you keep them in the kitchen for 2 or 3 weeks. But they don’t often have the colour, scent and wonderful flavour of a home grown one.

It holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit.

In the 1990 s samples were taken from the original tree and clones were propagated at Nottingham University using biotechnology techniques. (This is not the same as genetic engineering.) Apples from these trees were found to be superior to Bramleys from trees produced after generations of grafting. so maybe that explains in part the variations found when buying apples.

Charles Ross and Bramley

Cape Malay Chicken Curry

Cape Malay Chicken Curry

Makes 4-6 portions

2 medium or large onions chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped
I kg chicken portions
4 carrots chopped
400ml stock
2 tbs tomato puree
2 handfuls raisins
2 tbs Cape Malay spice mix from Spice Mountain

2 bay leaves
3-4 in ginger grated (I used ready prepared frozen ginger)
3 tbs cider vinegar
2 tbs apricot jam
2 tbs natural yoghurt

I used a large Le Creuset so the frying and oven cooking can be done in the same pot.

Fry the chopped onion and garlic in the oil for a few minutes.
Add the spices, bay leaves and chicken and brown for a few more minutes.
Add the stock, tomato puree, cider vinegar, ginger, raisins and carrots.
Put the lid on and cook at gas 5 for I 1/4 hours.
Before serving, mix in the apricot jam and yoghurt.
I served this with rice and broccoli.
Delicious!

I based my recipe on the one on the Spice Mountain website adjusting it to use what I had available.

Lunch at La Barbe

La Barbe is a French restaurant in Reigate. We went there just before Christmas for their December menu. Outside was snowy and cold and the restaurant filled up as people seemed to be taking the opportunity to come out having been snowed in for a few days. It was nice to come in out of the cold to a friendly welcome and sit down to a meal cooked by someone else.

Terrine de Confit de Canard à l’Andouillette Duck confit and andouillette terrine

Andouillette is a type of sausage and not as I imagined a kind of bird!

Coussin de Saumon Fumé aux Baies Roses et Aneth

Smoked salmon filled with roasted salmon, cream cheese and dill mousse with pink peppercorns.

This was very good.

Bourguignon de Venaison aux Champignons et Lardons

Venison and mushroom casserole with lardons and boiled potatoes

Suprême de Canard aux Poires Sauce Bigarade

Roasted duck breast served with caramelized pears and orange sauce

No vegetables came with this dish so some had to be ordered extra. I had spinach and plenty of french bread. The bread was excellent, light and with a crisp crust.

Bûche de Noël au Praliné

Praline flavoured Christmas log

Bûche de Noël is a traditional French dessert served near Christmas. It is a sweet roulade that is usually decorated to look like a log with chocolate buttercream icing. I chose it because of the praline flavouring and it looked stunning. I would have prefered the cake and the buttercream to be lighter.

Overall it was a lovely meal beautifully presented.

Christmas Cake

Mixed dried fruit ( sultanas, raisins, currants candied peel, chopped dates ) 22 oz
cherries or chopped dried apricots 3 oz
chopped pecans 2oz
5 eggs
4 oz Muscavado sugar
8oz butter
10oz SR flour
3 tsp mixed spice
Booze, 5fl oz or half a mug. I used Beaume de Venise, have been known to use sherry, Madeira, brandy or whiskey. One at a time!
Flaked almonds

Soak the fruit and spices in the booze overnight.
Use the butter at room temperature and cut into cubes, add the sugar and eggs and beat till fluffy. Add the fruit mixture and mix using a wooden spoon then add the flour and mix. If the mix drops easily off the spoon it is ready to cook. If not add up to 5 fl oz cold tea to make the mixture looser.
Put into a well buttered 8in square cake tin and sprinkle flaked almonds over the top.
Bake in a pre heated oven at gas 2 for 2 hours. After this time check to see if the cake is ready by prodding it with a skewer or knife. If it comes out with sticky cake mix on it give the cake another half hour and check it again.
This improves with keeping if it doesn't get eaten in the meantime.
I usually make an almond paste topping covered by lemon icing instead of the flaked almonds.
We have the first slice on Christmas Eve in the afternoon.

Sausage and Red Cabbage Casserole

This winter warmer is a one pot dish. While it cooks slowly in the oven the flavours meld together and makes a sweet and tasty liquor and the house fills with inviting aromas.
Veggie sausages could be used instead.

for 4-6 servings

I red cabbage

4 onions peeled and sliced

3 cloves garlic chopped

12 sausages (I used Waitrose Gourmet sausages, they are not fatty and have a good flavour, or Toulouse sausages would be great)

6 medium sized potatoes sliced, no need to peel.

1 handful raisins

I tbs Branston Pickle

Large glass of red wine

teaspoon French mustard

2 Bramley apples cored and sliced

1 tsp Seasoned Pioneers cardamom masala spice mix

a drizzle of olive oil

Fry the onions and garlic in the oil. I used a Le Creuset casserole dish.

Add the sausages and brown.

Add the wine, mustard, raisins, pickle, apple slices and spice.

Cover with a layer of red cabbage and finish with a layer of potato slices.

Put the lid on the casserole and cook at gas 3 for 2 1/2 -3 hours

Autumn Raspberries

We are well into November now, some of the trees have shed their leaves while others, like the silver birch in the background of these photos, still hold onto their golden leaves. The raspberries are still are still producing fruit at the rate of a small bowlful a day. I originally planted 2 varieties, one of them called Autumn Bliss, and one year they were fruiting right up till Christmas. Just about the only care these raspberry canes get is a pruning followed by a thick layer of home made compost once a year. The Autumn crop is more flavourful and less sharp than the Summer crop.