The Corkless Mind

Tag: Winter

  • Chenin Blanc Chicken Pot Pie

    Chenin Blanc Chicken Pot Pie

    Last week Friday (15th of June) we celebrated #DrinkChenin day with a notable stormy chill in the air. I love and enjoy the occasional Chenin Blanc but in winter I tend to enjoy a full bodied red wine more over a perfectly chilled white. So to make it a little more suitable for an icy winter’s day, I’ve made a chicken pot pie with this delicious Chenin Blanc from Kleine Zalze. The renowned wine estate has recently won an array of awards from the Decanter World Wine Awards, John Platter Wine Guide, and the International Wine Challenge just to name but a few.

    Chenin Chicken Pot Pie 070

    For those who aren’t aware, besides being known for award winning Chenin blanc and Shiraz, Kleine Zalze is also home to one of the most esteemed and revered restaurants in South Africa, Terroir. Having opened in 2004, and won two EatOut top 10 awards since, with Micheal Broughton at the helm of this local gem,   I have yet to visit and tick Terroir off of my bucket list.

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    Chenin Chicken Pot Pie 052

    Chenin Chicken Pot Pie 004It is said that South Africa’s Chenin Blanc is known to be up there with the world’s finest! Chenin Blanc has a long history. It’s thought to have been established in the Anjou region of France as long ago as the ninth century and was probably known then as Chenere. The variety was renamed Chenin Blanc, after Mont Chenin, in the 15th century soon after being exported to the Touraine region in the Loire Valley. The unique white wine also has a long and interesting history in South Africa and is believed to be amongst the first vine cuttings that arrived here in 1655.

    Chenin Chicken Pot Pie 035

    Chenin Chicken Pot Pie 061

    Chenin Blanc Chicken, Spinach and Thyme Pot Pie.

    Makes 1 big pie or 6 individual pot pies.

    Ingredients: 

    • 4 chicken thighs, deboned, shredded and skinned (skins saved to make chicken crackling)
    • 200 g spinach
    • 1 tablespoon of fresh thyme sprigs
    • 1 sheet of store-bought butter puff pastry
    • 1 egg, beaten
    • 1 shallot, chopped
    • 50 ml flour
    • 340 ml chicken stock
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • 60 ml chenin blanc
    • 1 tablespoon of butter
    • 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
    • 1 leek, rinsed well and roughly chopped

    Method: 

    On a high heat in a large pan or pot, sear the chicken until golden brown. Remove and set aside. Reduce the heat, then add the butter, olive oil, chopped shallot,leek and thyme, cook for 2 minutes. Then add the spinach and garlic, cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the chicken to the pan, stir to combine.

    Add the Chenin and let the alcohol slowly cook away. Add the flour, then the stock and continue to stir until a thick consistency is achieved.  Cook for 15 – 20 minutes stirring continuously, until the chicken is cooked through. Take off the heat and set aside to cool.

    Working quickly with the pastry, roll it out and place in your preferred dish, add the chicken mixture to the dish, and add another sheet of pastry to the top to seal the pie. I made one with a wonky lattice, an open one with pastry only at the bottom and another one completely closed marked with a fork. Brush with egg-wash and bake in the oven for 25 – 30 minutes until puffed up and golden. If baking in ramekins, place on a baking tray. I’m not particularly sure how true this is, but it reduces the occurrence of soggy bottoms.

    To make the crispy chicken skin crackling: remove any fat off from the inside of the skin and place on a paper towel season with salt and pepper (be mindful of how much salt you use, as the skins shrink and could be a bit too salty) Place on a parchment lined baking tray at 200 degrees C. cover with another sheet of parchement and another baking tray to stop the skins from curling up. Bake for 15 minutes until crisp. set aside to cool. Serve as a snack or alongside your pie as an added extra crunch.

    Enjoy with a chilled glass of Chenin Blanc.

    Cheers! x

     

     

    **Information supplied by the Chenin Blanc Association website. This is not a sponsored post, all views are my own. The costs of making this blog post I have paid for out of my own expense**

  • Spiced date and pecan nut pudding

    Spiced date and pecan nut pudding

    This gorgeous dessert is straight out of this month’s issue of PnP’s Freshliving magazine, and oh what a decadent treat it is for the cold days that are still ahead!

    I don’t get to shoot much these days, it however feels amazing to be back behind the lens and it feels like second nature to me. There is no better reminder of your passion than to constantly put it to practice. This I am glad I made the time for. We all need reminders of what we love doing or what we are good at when times are turbulent.

    This dessert is a spectacular as a hearty addition to any Sunday lunch or dinner for that matter. I love that the flavour reminds me of Cinnabon, especially with the caramel sauce I added, crushed pecan nuts and subtle notes of cinnamon. Eat with caution should certainly be the caveat that should accompany this dessert.

    I wanted to serve this dessert with a molten, salty, dripping caramel sauce to complement the nutty sweet flavours of this pud. I improvised and made a smokey salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce to drench the pud with. Butter being the key in this recipe 🙂 butter indeed does make everything taste so much better!



    Spiced Date and Pecan nut pudding with a salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce. 



    Ingredients:
    – 150g Medjool dates

    – 100g Butter, melted.

    – 250ml Milk

    – 2 free-range eggs

    – 8ml vanilla extract

    – 125g caster sugar

    – 3ml salt

    – 300g self-raising flour

    – 50g pecan nuts, chopped

    – 10ml cinnamon

    – 5ml ground ginger

    – 5ml ground cardamom

    – 250ml sugar

    – 310ml boiling water

    – 60ml sherry or clemengold mandarin juice (I used a combination of both)

    – Smokey salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce to serve.
    Method:

    Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease any dish. I used a Bundt mold.

    Whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Using my NutriBullet or you could use any other blender, blitz half of the dates together with the melted butter until a paste-like consistency is achieved. Roughly chop the rest of dates, I did this for extra texture in the pud. Add this to the date paste.

    Add the date mixture, milk, vanilla extract to the egg mixture. Combine the flour, salt, nuts and spices together then fold into the egg mixture.

    Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin or dish, sprinkle over brown sugar evenly over the batter.
    To make the topping: 

    Mix together the water and sherry/mandarin or orange juice, pour over the back of a spoon to cover the pudding. Bake the pudding for 35 minutes or until just cooked. Serve with cream and the salted buttermilk butterscotch sauce drizzled over.

  • Unusual suspects – The Guava.

    Unusual suspects – The Guava.


    Winter is finally upon us, and with that comes the kind of comfort food that requires stretchy clothing to consume copious amounts of the heart warming genre of food. For me, the arrival of seasonal Fruit such as the Guava, signifies the start of winter.

    Being a single mom of three daughters, my mom never really had the time to stand over a hot stove for hours in a kitchen, but when she did, my mom made the most delicious yet inexpensive chocolate cakes and Swiss rolls with that yummy tinned caramel spread sandwiched in between. Watching her create such homemade masterpieces, I was in awe, I think this is where my love affair with food ignited . I recall we had a incredibly tall guava tree(which I used to climb all the way to the top) and whenever they were in season, we had an amazing bounty of Guavas that we gave away to neighbours/family or my all time favourite dessert would become of it, my mom stewed the tropical fruit in a syrup of water, sugar and spices, served with a generous dollop of box custard. To this day I am guilty of the ultimate sin, I love box custard, there I said it! Inspired by this memory, unusual suspects is all about Guavas this week.

     Instead of stewing or poaching the guavas, I roasted them with a 100g of sugar, juice of one fresh lime, a vanilla pod and star anise. Roasted until tender. I left the skins on the guavas as I find they are packed with flavour too. To accompany the roasted guavas I made a syrup cake, made with 85g of flour, 1 egg, 100g butter and 110g of castor sugar, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy, add the egg and mix till fully incorporated, sift in flour and fold till just combined. Caveat: don’t over fold, you’ll end up with a stodgy crumb, to achieve a light and airy crumb, gently fold. Bake in a preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius) in a lightly greased muffin tin for 15-20 minutes. Pierce several times and pour syrup of roasted guavas over the cake. Allow to cool and soak up. 

    The photos were taken between 14:00 and 17:00 yesterday on my balcony, whilst the stormy clouds were rolling in. 

    “Cooking is about emotion, it’s about culture, it’s about love and memory” – Massimo Bottura. 

  • Souper!

    Souper!

    This year, much to my delight, Winter has arrived a lot earlier than expected in Cape Town. My sister says, that being born in a particular season affects not only one’s personality but obviously how we take to the elements in that particular season, and me, being a Winter baby, I absolutely relish at the advent of Winter. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing better than a perfect beach day with the sand in between your toes and ice cream melting everywhere. So to celebrate the start of Winter, today is such a lovely rainy and overcast day, and of course I crave something warm and comforting.

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    Pumpkin and Leek soup.

    The photo above, is a Pumpkin and Leek Soup with Chunky Croutons, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds to garnish and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil with a pinch of salt.

    The recipe is developed by myself and is rather unconventional for a soup recipe, but in my kitchen there aren’t any rules.

    Recipe:

    1.5kg of Pumpkin cut into chunks
    2 leeks washed thoroughly and roughly chopped
    1 large onion
    4 cloves of garlic smashed and roughly chopped
    1.5 liters of water to cover contents in the pot
    500ml Vegetable or chicken stock(I find chicken stock makes the soup that much richer in flavour)

    Method:

    On a medium heat, sauté the onion and leek and then garlic in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. When the onion is translucent, add the pumpkin and leave to caramelize for 5-10 minutes. Add vegetable/chicken stock and water. Allow to simmer on a medium to low heat for 25-30 minutes or until the pumpkin has a really soft consistency. If you own a stick blender, blend to a smooth consistency or if like me, you like your soup chunky, serve with crisp croutons. To make the croutons, take a slice of bread and tear into chunks, heat olive oil in a pan on a medium to high heat to toast the croutons, once a toasty golden to brown colour is achieved, add to the soup and serve hot.

    Enjoy!

    Wishing you all a warm and wonderful winter x