Food review by James Hill

We saw a welcome return to the kitchen with Chef of the Day, Roger Straiton, cooking for our monthly wine tasting. French wine was the theme and Roger was the perfect choice as our Society Francophile. He was ably assisted by son-in-law Adam and on canapés Denis Redfern.

Bryan Belling, Chairman of the Board of the Royal Exchange, was welcomed as a guest at lunch today.

Canapés

There were three canapés today:

Gorgonzola and ricotta with grape segment, pecan and pomegranate seeds on a round of cucumber.

Salmon rillettes two-ways on toasts. Rillettes made with skinless-salmon cooked sous-vide at 52C for 45 minutes and cold-smoked with ash chips. This salmon was mixed with chopped commercial smoked salmon, Kewpie mayonnaise and horseradish and served on toasts. Some of these were also served with optional Beaver brand wasabi that wasn’t too overpowering for the salmon.

Bruschetta in brioche cups. Chopped tomato with basil, aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil in brioche cups made by sandwiching quarters of brioche between two mini muffin pans and baked until crispy. There was some variation in the thickness of the brioche due to one of the early production methods. Typically bruschetta is served on flat thick toasts, however, Denis thought that making cups would avoid spillage.  He suggests more development of this canapé is required.

There were bountiful canapes, they looked good and had great texture and taste.

Main

In theme with our wines today Roger presented lamb racks perfectly cooked moist, pink and full of flavour. They sat on a bean stew. Roger kept it simple and it worked.

The bean stew was a Rick Stein recipe of borlotti beans, butter beans, chickpeas, petit pois, baby carrots,  lots of garlic, shallots, thyme, parsley and stock. Finished with lashings of salted butter.

The lamb was cooked in a hot oven for 15 minutes then rested then garnished with a little rosemary and parsley.

This dish was a great match to our brace of Bordeaux. It was delicious.

James Tinslay bought the bread today it was from Cornucopia at Naremburn, good bread.

In the tradition of the Society there was robust discussion on wine and good comments overall, one chap rose and quoted the bard ‘now is the winter of our discontent …’

Long may it continue.

Cheese

Gary Linnane presented a Society favourite today, Ossau Iraty, a semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese from France.

New-season ewe’s milk is collected from the shepherds of the Ossau Valley and Iraty Forest, in the Basque Pyrenees to make this traditional hard-crusted cheese. The method used in making these cheeses is claimed to be one of the oldest surviving in the world and dates back at least 4000 years. After cooking the curds, the rind is washed and hand salted before being matured in cellars for six months by affineurs. This cheese is made exclusively with milk from local breeds of sheep (Manech and Basco-Bearnaise). It has a succulent and complex flavour, developing notes of hazelnut and caramel as it matures. Firm, nutty with a slightly sweet finish, this AOP cheese is often only available for six months of the year due to the short lactation period of ewes.

It was a good example of this cheese today.

The cheese was served with an assortment of dried fruit and nuts.

Coffee was supplied by the Royal Exchange.

Wine

The wine tasting selection was a great selection of Bordeaux. Some of the wines were a little fruit deficient due to age and cork but enjoyed by the majority They were:

2009's

Chateau La Serre

Chateau Cantermerle

Chateau Saint Pierre

2000's

Clos du Marquis

Chateau Talbot

Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste