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

Food

First lunch of spring with yours truly in the kitchen.

Canapés

First up French onion loaf, a recipe from Helen Goh baked with caramelised onions and a batter of flour, eggs Comte and Parmesan served warm with a dab of French goat’s cheese.

Gary Linnane assisted today with a canapé of smoked salmon mixed with dill, crème fraîche, and lemon zest and topped with Yarra Valley salmon roe.

I loved the flavours of this canapé salmon dominant not overwhelmed by the other ingredients. A great balance of flavour and texture.

Next up was the last of this season’s truffle shaved on some French goat’s cheese on crostini.

Main

Inspired by a Peter Gilmore recipe. Duck breast with prunes Pedro Ximenes sherry, sherry vinegar, black pudding and cauliflower cream.

The duck breasts were seasoned then rendered and finished in the oven, they sat on top of a cauliflower cream that had some cayenne heat.

Prunes were marinated overnight in water and then warmed for fifteen minutes in Pedro Ximenes sherry and sherry vinegar. The prunes were removed and the remaining jus reduced to make the sauce.

Some greens on the plate, snow pears blanched then finished in butter and seasoning. A good crunch!

Black pudding availability was scarce so we sourced three versions Rodriguez brothers Villawood, Sam the Butcher, Bondi and an unknown maker purchased from the Russian deli Bondi. All very good yet different.

The result was a dish showing a layer of sweet, sour, salty flavours, balance and texture.

Much praise to the team in the kitchen assisting with meal preparation and plating.

Cheese

I requested one of my favourite cheeses today, a French semi-hard cow’s milk blue, ’Fourme D’Ambert’ It didn’t present as well as we’ve seen it in the past, today a little dry missing the moist creaminess.

A tall cylindrical cow’s milk cheese made in the twin towns of Ambert and Montbrison and matured in old railway tunnels in the Auvergne.

The cheese is often featured in the original stained glass windows of the local churches and legend claims it was the forbear of the Stilton recipe introduced to the English Midlands at the time of the 11th-century Norman Invasion.Easily recognisable by its shape, which gently concertinas as the cheese matures, the natural rind is a powdery grey-blue, and the texture is soft, dense and sticky with marbled blue veining. Mild and creamy, it has a good blue mould aftertaste.

Accompanied by a salad of shaved fennel and apple with parsley, evoo, and apple cider vinegar dressing.

Bread today a sourdough from Humble Bakery Circular Quay.

Wine

The theme for today was essentially duck and Pinot, a union blessed by the Saints. James Hill did a wonderful job with the Duck, which was perfectly presented. A great effort. See Food Report for details.

We started with an Austrian white, a 2017 Gemischter Satz a blend of potentially, 13 grape varieties. I was shown a list of the possible contenders for inclusion and my best guess was that there was some Riesling, some Gruner Veltliner, some Muller Thurgau and possibly some Pinot Gris. This would be the perfect wine to take to a masked tasting, it would torment even the experts. As far as the wine was received today, it was regarded as a pleasing match for the superb pass-around prepared by James. I was baffled in trying to put out a sensible description of the wine, other than to say it was exotic, with lots of mixed fruit, but quite dry, well balanced with a clean finish. My research indicates that the good folk in Austria seem to enjoy it, and good luck to them.  

The red wines. We kicked of with two highly respected Pinots, a Georges Lignier Chambolle – Musigny 2012 12.5% and a Farrside by Farr, 2012 13.5%. The French wine presented as a medium weight Pinot of red brick colour with some hints of dark fruit flavours. An elegant wine, a great match for the duck, but the finish lacked any lingering aftertaste, possibly due to diminishing acid.

The Farr Pinot was a bigger wine, showing great depth of colour and flavour, a beautiful combination of oak, fruit and tannin leading to a balanced silky finish. Great with the duck.  But again like the French wine, the aftertaste disappeared quickly, due to diminishing acid. Perhaps both wines were not suited for long term cellaring, the view around the room was that both wines would have been more enjoyable about 4/5 years ago.

Wine three was a Northern Rhone Syrah, a Maxime Graillot Equinoxe Crozes-Hermitage from 2015, 13%.  This wine poured out of the bottle with an impenetrable blackness through which no light could pass. Indeed it was the colour of black ink. The wine had an unusual taste on the front palate, intense stewed fruit, with very powerful tannins and oak all combining to produce a wine I thought was out of balance. A degree of volatility was noticeable. Perhaps the wine needed more bottle age or be put into a carafe for some hours before being drunk. Either way, the wine was not in my view enjoyable.

The last wine for the day was the Farr Shiraz 2014 13.5%. I really enjoyed this wine from Geelong. A wonderful mix of spicy shiraz, oak and grippy tannins. Tons of flavour and deep dark Shiraz fruit colours, but at the same time all in harmony, leading to a clean, powerful wine with a satisfying and lingering finish. Perfect with the cheese. An excellent wine, my pick of the day.