Food review by James Hill and wine review by Stephen O'Halloran

Food

Our Cellar master Nick Reynolds was on the hobs presenting a Spanish-themed lunch. Nick always draws a crowd when he’s cooking and today was no exception.

Canapes

Nick presented three variations on traditional tapas/pintxos for canapés.

The first was 30-sheet patatas bravas. The potatoes are very finely sliced then layered, baked, and pressed. They are then sliced into individual serves and deep fried, then topped with crème fraîche and a bravas sauce of tomatoes, sweet paprika, and olive oil.

Next was another deep-fried tapas, this time panko-crumbed blue cheese and walnut croquettas.

Our final offering was a platter of gildas of guindilla peppers, stuffed olives and Yuritta Cantabrian Anchovies.

Steve Sparkes assisted with the canapés and James Hill provided much welcome assistance with both preparation of the gilda pintxos and plating of the main course.

Main

The main was a deconstructed paella with bomba rice cooked in chicken stock flavoured with saffron and a tomato, garlic, and red pepper sofrito. The protein on the dish comprised sous vide-cooked chicken winglets and drumettes, two La Boqueria Chorizito (small chorizo), steamed mussels, and prawns. The chicken and mussels were drizzled with a lightly thickened saffron, paprika, and chicken stock sauce while the prawns were dredged through a butter and garlic sauce and served topped with chopped parsley. Because the paella was not traditionally cooked and didn’t have the slightly burned crunchy socarrat crust, Nick created a socarrat chip to his own recipe. This was made from paella and tapioca starch, recooked, flattened in a tortilla press then dehydrated and deep fired.

There was an incredible depth of flavour in the rice, while all the other ingredients were perfectly cooked.

Nick created a fine-dining interpretation of a classic Spanish dish.

As Chilly said it ‘wasn’t great it was sensational!’

Cheese 

In theme Cheesemaster Prof.Mark Bradford presented a ‘Mahon Curado’ a hard cow’s milk cheese from Menorca Spain. Mark advised that the rind is edible. Nick accompanied the cheese with warmed almonds and raisins soaked for three days in Pedro Ximenez sherry.

Vahon is the capital of the rocky island of Menorca, the most, northerly of the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain. Cheese has been made on the island since 3000BC. Today, two ancient) breeds of dairy cattle, red Menorquin and black/white spotted rison, graze on dense island grass and are milked on small 'family fincas' or farms which total 600 on Menorca.

Traditionally this cheese was bound in cloth before pressing, which is still done on a small scale on the island. A larger proportion of production is now made in a more efficient modern way which uses square moulds instead.

The result is a consistent cheese that captures the true essence of the original. The rind is still rubbed with olive oil and paprika which imparts a rusty-orange colour to the exterior. The wheels are then ripened for a minimum of 6 months on wooden shelves. When mature oi curado, the cheese maintains a milky character and has developed a nutty flavour and characteristic tangy finish.

Wine

The theme for today was Spanish, which is just about my go-to style of cooking these days. Nick Reynolds was wearing two hats today, taking on the cooking role as well as his normal duties as Wine Master. The pass-arounds and main were delicious, well done Nick. For more details see Food Report.

For starters, we enjoyed an Albarino, a white from Spain 13%, 2022. An excellent choice, fresh with prominent fruit flavours of pear and citrus, but quite dry, with a firm crisp acidic finish. The wine was perfect for the pass-arounds. I think we should congratulate our Wine Master for introducing us to this style of wine from Europe, which along with the Soave we had a few weeks ago makes a rewarding alternative to our usual entrée wines such as Riesling and Semillon. Nothing at all wrong with these, but a change is enjoyable as well as being an insight into wine styles we are not familiar with. I was assisting with the wine pours and this wine received uniform praise. More, please.

The lunch wines were a collection of four good quality Spanish reds of various vintages ranging from 2010 to 2022. First was the La Vendimia 2021 14%. A blend of Garnacha and Tempranillo, spicy, medium body, tannic and acidic overtones, a lightish wine style built for immediate consumption, a happy wine, just the drink to go with a big plate of garlic prawns. Nice clean flavours, very drinkable.

The second wine was the Joven Mencia from the producer Guimaro 2022 12.5%. Sadly, a bottle of this wine did not find its way to our table, so I am unable to comment further.

Wine no 3 was the Marco Abella Priorat Loidana 2013 14.5%. A very impressive wine in my view. A blend of Garnacha and Carigan drinking beautifully.  Very well rounded fruit flavours of black cherry and leather. Strong robust colour of deep red.  Some gentle tannin and acid carried it through to an appealing finish. A very rewarding drink.

Wine 4 was the 2010 Torres Salmos 14.5%. This was by any yardstick, a big wine. Deeply coloured red/blackish, with an alluring aroma. The bottle had one of the longest labels I have ever seen, running nearly the length of the bottle, written in both Spanish and English in fine print. Despite all this information the label failed to tell anyone what the wine was made from! This seems to be a habit of European winemakers who seem loathe to share the composition of their product. Not to be deterred, I consulted Dr Google and found that the wine was a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Carignan. I really enjoyed this wine with its sweetish chewy dark berry flavours. Well balanced combination of tannin and oak produced a strong, powerful finish that lingered. For a wine that is now 14 yo, it showed no sign of ageing, although it was clearly a wine with plenty of bottle age. A great choice.

I noticed that some tables shared a bottle of Ch Rochemorin 2014 from Bordeaux, however, I did not taste the wine, so there is no news on that front.