Asparagus with Prosciutto and blue cheese

This is one of our favourite appetisers.....Asparagus with prosciutto and blue cheese.

This is one of our favourite appetisers.....

Asparagus with prosciutto and blue cheese.
First place the prosciutto on your worktop or plate, put a dollop(teaspoon) of blue cheese on each piece and wrap it round the middle of the asparagus'.

Preheat a barbecue grill or chargrill pan on high and spray the asparagus lightly with olive oil. Cook on the grill, turning occasionally for 3-4 minutes or until the prosciutto is golden and the asparagus is tender and crisp. Transfer to a serving platter to serve.

Our Red Signature Chardonnay will go perfectly with this and so will the Red Signature Shiraz, because of the blue cheese, if you only drink Red.
Or otherwise drink our Shiraz with any main meal of your choice; a good steak, roast beef, ribs, spicy sausages, any smoked foods in particular. Big beefy stews such as ox cheek especially cooked in the wine or with a touch of smoky paprika is lovely.

You can find our Chardonnay and Shiraz at Co-op.

Lamb Cutlets with Salsa Verde

Andrew came home with a bottle of Parallel Vines Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc last Friday night, and said "We have got to try this tonight".

Andrew came home with a bottle of Parallel Vines Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc last Friday night, and said "We have got to try this tonight" . We were not disappointed! We started drinking it  on its own and enjoyed the citrus/apple notes we picked up with grassy undertones. We then drank this with our meal and thought it was a great balance of flavours. I had used a lot of herbs and I think with this combination it went really well.

Lamb cultlets with salsa verde, quinoa tabouli and roasted potatoes.

I marinated the lamb cutlets with soya sauce and fresh rosemary for an hour. Whilst that is marinating you can move on to the side dishes.

For the roast potatoes use red desiree potatoes and dice them into small cubes leaving the skin on. Cover them in plenty of mixed herbs, chili, salt, pepper and plenty of olive oil.  Place them on a baking tray and cook in the oven until crispy.

For the Quinoa Tabouli put the following ingredients in a bowl and mix.

1 Cup of cooked quinoa

1 Small red oinion diced

2 Tomatoes diced

1 Cucumber diced

Lots of mint and parsley

The juice of 1 lemon and a dope of olive oil and black pepper

Salsa verde

1 Cup of parsley 

1 Cup of basil leaves 

1 Garlic clove

2 Teaspoons of capers 

1 Boiled egg, 

2 Slices of bread.  

Process all the above ingredients together until the consistency you like then add lemon juice, salt and pepper to your liking.

 Now your side dishes are ready, you can take out your marinated lamb cutlets and pan fry them. Let them rest for a minute before serving with the potatoes, salsa verde and quinoa tabouli.

Home made Ricotta Cheese

Last week I made my own Ricotta Cheese. My family love Ricotta Cheese, and living on the farm/vineyard, I don't always get to the city to buy the best Ricotta, so I thought I would make it myself.

Last week I made my own Ricotta Cheese. My family love Ricotta Cheese, and living on the farm/vineyard, I don't always get to the city to buy the best Ricotta, so I thought I would make it myself.


You need to make sure all your utensils are well cleaned and rinsed in boiling water before commencing.

Recipe
4 cups of full cream milk.
1 cup of buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon of salt.


Method
Place all the ingredients into a stainless steel saucepan and bring gradually to just boiling point before lowering the temperature to just simmering. You don't need to stir it, you will see the curds and whey separating and forming solids on top. Let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes until you see this separation, give the saucepan a little jiggle to see how the solids are forming. Take off the heat and let it sit for about 10-20mins.

In the meantime, place muslin or a fine linen tea towel over a fine sieve and hold this over a large bowl. Scoop the solids out of the saucepan and place them on the lined sieve, allowing the whey to drain through. Pour the rest of what's in the saucepan over the curds and then let sit for about half an hour until fully drained. The ricotta is now ready to eat warm or you can keep it in the fridge for about a week. You can then use it in cooking or just have fresh with tomato, basil and onion on bruschetta. Lots of ways of using this great cheese!

Serve this creamy cheese on bruschetta with our Rose or our Chardonnay Viognier.

Tip - Don't discard the whey, this can keep for a week and can be used in making bread(use instead of water. It makes the bread lovely and creamy! I also use the whey sometimes to soak my chickpeas, it made the best Hummus I had ever made.

Moroccan Chicken

I hear you are having some lovely weather over there so try this flavoursome light dish for those summer nights. Moroccan chicken with savoury Freekeh, served with our Chardonnay Viogner delicious!

I hear you are having some lovely weather over there so try this flavoursome light dish for those summer nights. Moroccan chicken with savoury Freekeh, served with our Chardonnay Viogner delicious!

Ingredients
8 chicken thighs fat removed, and cut into halves.
Half a cup of crushed pistachio nuts
350g of wholegrain freekeh
2 cups of chicken stock
1 diced red onion
1 diced carrot
1 red capsicum
2 cloves of garlic
½ a cup of feta cheese
Parsley and coriander

Spice Paste
1 brown onion chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley
1/4 cup fresh coriander
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Method
To start with you need to make the spice paste, so put all the ingredients listed above into a food processor and process until finely chopped. If you would like to add a little kick to the spice paste you can add as much or as little fresh chilli as you like.

Place the chicken in a large glass or ceramic bowl. Then add the spice paste and rub over the chicken to evenly coat. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour to develop the flavours.

Once the chicken has marinated place into an oiled grease proof dish and cook in the oven on 180c until cooked. Half way through, toss half a cup of slightly crushed pistachio nuts, this will crisp up and coat the chicken.

Serve with the following;
350g of wholegrain Freekeh cooked in 2 cups of chicken stock, until puffed and tender. Separately fry up 1 diced red onion, 1 diced carrot, 1 red capsicum, and 2 cloves of garlic.

When the freekeh is cooked add the vegetables plus 1/2 a cup of chopped Parsley and 1 cup of diced coriander. Squeeze some lemon juice over and toss through 1/2 cup of feta cheese. Serve the freekeh up on the plates with the chicken on top and make sure you pour any of the chicken juices over it. Garnish with more coriander and chilli if required.

Bonfire Night!

It is school holidays at the moment and once or twice a year with the children, family, friends and neighbours, we get together and have a big bonfire night!

It is school holidays at the moment and once or twice a year with the children, family, friends and neighbours, we get together and have a big bonfire night! We collect together all the off cuts of vines, branches etc from the winery and make a huge pile ready for the big night.

We bake potatoes in the coals and cook the sausages on top so they get a great charcoal taste, we love it! We then pile up the potatoes with cheese, sour cream, coleslaw, and fried onions, the flavours are delicious.

We then all sit around the fire and watch the flckering of the flames forming various shapes of dragons and lions (The children's imagination is fascinating). To finish off we usually toast marshmallows for the children and enjoy the night, sitting back with a glass of Red.

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings!

We have employed a UK couple Andrew and Suzanne Boothroyd, who have moved over to Australia to work in our company.

We have employed a UK couple Andrew and Suzanne Boothroyd, who have moved over to Australia to work in our company. The weather is starting to cool down now, so we decided to cook something warm and hearty!

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings (Suzanne's family recipe)

There was 10 of us for Dinner, so I bought a 3kg ribeye Roast with the bones still attached.

To the meat add cloves of garlic and cover with lots of cracked black pepper. Seal the meat first in a hot oven for 15 minutes and then turn it down to a moderate temperature and cook in the oven for an hour. Take the meat out of the oven, cover with foil and rest for 20 minutes.

Gravy

Drain off the juices from the meat into a saucepan and add 2 tablespoons of flour, a cup of red wine and half a cup of vegetable stock. Blend this altogether with a teaspoon of jam, if you like your sauce a little sweeter.

Suzanne's homemade Yorkshire puddings

 

For 4 people (we doubled this recipe)

 

Ingredients

75g plain flour

2 eggs

75ml milk

55ml water

salt & pepper

oil for the tins (my mum uses lard)

Method

Mix the flour, milk, water, and eggs together in a large bowl and add some salt & pepper to season. Put the yorkshire pudding tins in the oven, at 220 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes, before you add the mixture so that the oil is really hot. Pour the mixture in to the tins and cook for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown and puffed up. 

Serve with horseradish potato mash (add a couple of tablespoons of horseradish cream to the Mash), steamed green peas, carrots, and Suzannes' yorkshire puddings.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo.

 

 

Smokin' Pork (Southern Style)

We have got ourselves a new large smoker cabinet and we did this recipe on the weekend

We have got ourselves a new large smoker cabinet and we did this recipe on the weekend.

Firstly we had our own salamis that we smoked using our shaved wood chips, from the wood planks that come out of the wine tanks. The Salami is now ready to use in paellas.

We then did a Smokin' Pork (southern style)

Pork (whatever cut you like and size dependent on how many people the recipe is for)

Smoky Paprika

Cumin

Brown sugar

Garlic

Cayenne pepper/Chilli powder

Salt

Smokey BBQ sauce

Coleslaw

Corn

Sweet Potatoes

Method

Firstly cover the pork with a dry rub blend of, smoky paprika, cumin, brown sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper or chilli powder and salt. Rub all over the pork and let it rest for at least a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge.

Take it out of the fridge an hour before you are going to cook it so it is room temperature. Cook in a moderate oven for half the cooking time (depends on the size and cut of the meat) and then place in the smoker for 40 minutes. If you don't have a smoker complete the cooking in the oven. If you use ribs, cook in the oven for 20 minutes and then 20 minutes in the smoker. If cooking a roast it can take 1-3 hrs in the oven and then 1-2 hrs in the smoker.

We used half oak wood chips and charcoal in the smoker and added whole bulbs of garlic too, cook these until there soft and serve on the side of the pork. Serve with Smokey BBQ sauces, coleslaw, corn and mashed sweet potatoes.

Our Shiraz Malbec goes really well with this Pork dish.

Peaches cooked with jack Daniels whisky!

Peaches

70g Melted Butter

1/3 Brown sugar

¼ of Jack Daniels Whiskey

Ginger nut biscuits

Cream

Method

Cut the peaches in half and place in a greased baking tray. Then make a mixture of 70 grams of melted butter, 1/3 of a cup of brown sugar and a ¼ of a cup of Jack Daniels whisky, pour over the peaches, cover them with foil and bake in the oven until soft.

Take off the foil and crush ginger nut biscuits over the top and cook for a further 10 minutes until slightly toasty. Serve with cream.

Serve this dessert with our Moscato