White Wine Spritzer

  

Fall is upon us and what better way then to make use of that partially chilled bottle of wine. A cool and refreshing way to toast summer and hot summer nights, late August celebrations and in-between seasons.

White Wine Spritzer 

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makes 1 spritzer

Fill a wine glass with ice cubes and fill 3/4 full with exceptionally chilled white wine; then top up with exceptionally cold, that means very cold, chilled club soda. Serve with a slice of lemon. 

Notes: An easy way to remember this recipe is 3 parts chilled wine and 1 part chilled club soda.

Have a nice weekend and stay safe everyone! - JD 

Mulled Wine

When it's cold outside this will certainly keep you warm and toasty. Fragrant mulled spices and wine simply embody the many shared celebrations throughout the holiday season. 

Mulled Wine

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In a large stock pot, bring 1/2 litre of water and spice bag to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. 

Add 1 litre of red wine, a 1/2 litre of orange juice, 1 oz of brandy and sugar to taste.

Gently heat to serving temperature. Stirring constantly. Do not boil. 

Notes: spice bag - place cinnamon sticks  orange peel, all spice and cloves in a muslin cloth. Tie with string. If you do not want to create your own then any ready made or prepared mulled spice bag will do.

Hope everyone is done with their Holiday planning and preparing. Wishing you the Merriest! - JD 

Risotto

Another item on my comfort food list is risotto. Perfect as a side or marvellous on it's own. This mushroom risotto with the addition of dry salami adds a pleasant smoky flavour. 

Mushroom Risotto with Mini Chipotle Dry Salami 

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4 cups no salt vegetable stock, room temperature

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 pint of brown mushrooms, washed and sliced

1 1/2 cups risotto rice

1 cup dry white wine

1-2 mini chipotle dry salami sticks, sliced 

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil with 2 tablespoons of butter in a deep large frypan over medium heat until the butter has melted. Stir in the onions and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until the onion and mushrooms are soft and nicely golden. Do not brown.

Reduce heat, add the rice into the fry pan, mix to coat. Cook stirring continuously, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the rice is translucent. Add the wine and cook, stirring continuously until the wine has reduced.

Gradually add in the room temperature stock, a cup at a time. Stirring continuously and add more liquid as the rice absorbs each addition. Increase the heat to medium so that the liquid simmers. Cook for 20 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is creamy but still firm. Gently fold the sliced salami into the risotto's last 5 minutes of cooking time. 

Remove the risotto from the heat and add the remaining, 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix well,  then stir in the Parmesan cheese until it melts. Season with the salt and pepper, if you wish. Serve.

Notes: You may heat up the vegetable stock and add that to the risotto, instead of it being room temperature. Although it may pose some benefit however by the end of the recipe, I think, either room temperature stock or boiled stock create the same taste. So I go with less dishes and use room temperature stock.     

    

Hope everyone a nice long weekend. - JD 

The Cavern

Finally, my husband and myself made it to the Cavern and we certainly did enjoy it! If you like cheese than the Cavern is the place to go, here in E-town. They offer cheese and charcuterie boards along with light cheese inspired fare; all to be enjoyed with a coffee, a mocha, and of course, wine and fine spirits. The staff are friendly and knowledgable.

I chose the UK brunch, picture here, while my husband chose the Mediterranean brunch. Both were tasty and each offered a different selection of cheese and condiments with the addition of thinly sliced salami.  

                                              The mocha was perfect! 

To find out more about the Cavern click *here* 

Wednesday is here and we are shuffling through our week nicely. - JD 

Food Photo of the Day ~ Mushroom and Spinach Risotto

Mushrooms and spinach are great together... add some Arborio rice, wine, vegetable stock, and parmesan cheese and they make one very delicious risotto that compliments just about any meal. I enjoy making risotto because of the multi facet of layers... steps that go into this dish; and how everything comes together so beautifully and taste great. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend! - JD 

Dainty Desserts for Dainty People

Bearing in mind that this pamphlet was published in 1896, some recipes may be circulating today however with different ingredients. Still, it is an oddity. A rare glimpse into the home cook and what was contrived or rather supplied to them from grocers, manufacturers, and products. Glancing through this book there are a few recipes I would consider making, to which I would switch with fruit pectin. I am sure most of these recipes ran supreme back in the 1800's like chicken aspic, sardines in jelly, tomato jelly, and cake in jelly. Today less so.

In this 32 page promotional cooking pamphlet comes an acclaimed page from Knox Gelatine themselves listing an approved and used by noted teachers of cookery at the time, and there are the testimonials that follow. Thought I would share the wine jelly recipe as it would be good when serving cheese.       

Knox Gelatine Wine Jelly

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1 box Knox's Sparkling Gelatine

1/2 pint cold water 

1 quart boiling water

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 pint wine

Juice of 2 lemons

Soak 1 box of Sparkling Gelatine in 1/2 pint cold water 5 minutes; add 1 quart boiling water, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and stir until dissolved; add 1/2 pint wine and juice of 2 lemons; strain and pour into mould.

I also wanted to include a more up to date version of this recipe...

Wine Jelly 

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3 cups of sugar

2 cups of wine

1 pouch Certo liquid pectin

Measure sugar and wine into a large saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved... about 4 to 7 minutes. Do not boil remove from heat.

Stir in the fruit pectin and mix well. Skim off foam, if necessary.

Pour quickly into warm sterilized glasses. Cover at once with new or sterilized lid (they usually come as a two piece lid set), filling up 1/4 inch (0.5ml) from rim.   

Note: you may also add 1/4 cup of lemon juice to this recipe. 

And what would be a PD Day without cupcakes... Have a great weekend everyone! - JD 

Broccoli Cheese Risotto

Serving up something cheesy always has it's advantages. This risotto is easy and comforting, to say the least. To make this simple yet satisfying dish you will need the following...

1 white onion, diced

a crown of broccoli, raw and chopped

2/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup asiago cheese, grated

1/2 cup old farmer's cheddar cheese, grated

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2/3 cup dry white wine

3 cups low sodium vegetable stock

1-3/4 cups risotto rice (Italian or arborio)

   

First you want to heat the olive oil in the saucepan. Add the onion and cook over low to medium heat. Stir occasionally for about 10 minutes or until soft. Then add the broccoli and cook for a few minutes.  

When the broccoli has turned a nice bright green colour, stir in the rice. Stir and cook for at least 1 minute or until the rice is translucent. Whatever remaining oil that is left in the pan will coat the rice.  

Pour in the wine and simmer for 1 minute, stirring until all the wine has been absorbed. Gradually adding the stock. You do not have to pour all the stock in at once... gradually and slowly. Reserving half of the stock until most of the liquid is absorbed from the first addition. Add the remaining stock. Increase the heat so that the liquid simmers. Simmering for about 15-20 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. You want the rice to be creamy however firm to the bite. With this recipe the rice should not be mushy.

Once all the stock has been absorbed remove from heat and add the cheese. Gently stir until all the rice has been coated. You may season with salt and pepper if you wish. Serve immediately. 

Hope everyone is having a good week! - JW 

Christmas 2013

Christmas Eve: We did a traditional full on English fry up for dinner. I opted for half of the full on, pictured here. Which was more than enough. I found a few grocery stores here in E-town that carry *British* baked beans and yes there is a difference. They are not as sweet as the ones that are regularly sold here. Also I found a deli which sells Cumbria sausages.   

For dessert we had a slice of date, prune and fig cake from Fortnum and Masons called Ambrosial Alchemy and it most certainly was! It was quite lovely. A cup or two of Classic Earl Grey hit the spot nicely before watching A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim. 

Christmas Day: We started the morning off with a round of Bucks Fizz and a lovely mincemeat pie, dusted with gold on top, from Fortnum and Mason's. The pie was from their Three Kings minced pie collection. I could really not resist having these for breakfast. Especially this one that had the fragrance of rose.   

The midday meal was roasted pheasant with roasted veggies and stuffing. The pheasant was wrapped in slices of bacon to seal in the moisture. A Chateauneuf - Du - Pape was the wine of choice. It was satisfying to have the major meal midday. That way digestion was slow and a walk was gratifying.   

And later on if you were feeling a bit peckish then mixed kale dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette, slices of Lancashire cheese, malted biscuits and a slice of Melton Mowbray / Pork Pie kept the hunger at bay.

It was a great day to relax. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas everyone! - JW  

  

Romany Recipes and Country Wines and Cordials

I purchased these two little cookbooks while I was in England. They are 4x6 in size and about 47 pages. The perfect little memento. I found these two quite interesting as I have no cookbooks small or large that have these recipes in them. These charming books have a variety of titles and sometimes are regional, they do offer traditional and favourite recipes. Sometimes the recipes offer ingredients to which by today's health conscious standard we no longer gravitate towards. Each book has recipes I would like to try. They are fun to leaf through and ponder. This weekend I think I will make the Quire of Paper Pancakes from the Romany Recipes and one day I will try to make the Lavender Liqueur from the Country Wines & Cordials.   

99% Cocoa

Over the weekend I decided to try some 99% cocoa. I wholeheartedly tried one square and quickly came to the realization that this isn't like any other chocolate I have tried. The texture was somewhat smooth. The taste slightly bitter and strong. One wafer thin square is all your need. On the package it said *dark* but I think intense is another key word that should have been used. This kind of chocolate would be good with coffee or possibly a very good red wine. -JW

Just a Jug or Two

This cookbook I thought would be fun to add to my growing collection. With a Jug of Wine by Morrison Wood; Thirty-first printing, 1971, hardcover. Upon my research I found that the book remains out of print. Even though my copy is the thirty-first printing I am pretty lucky to have it and it must have been a very popular cookbook. Some reviews date Morrison Wood's musing in the kitchen pre Julia Child. The book starts with the discussion of wine, champagne and liqueurs. Then goes from appetizers to desserts with ease. One thing I do luv about this cookbook is that the recipes have easy to obtain ingredients. Most of the ingredients you would find in your pantry. Now I know cooking with wine... with alcohol is not for everyone. You could use cooking wine instead. I really enjoy when authors of cookbooks add stories, commentary... it makes it more personal. Fun to read. On page 63 is a recipe for Iced Chicken and Curry Soup which was a favourite of actress Myrna Loy. Whom was married to one of Woods old friends, Gene Markey. Interesting tidbit. Tomorrow night I am going to put this cookbook to the test and make Beef Stroganoff. I will be substituting the beef for chicken.

And just when you thought With a Jug of Wine couldn't get any better Morrison Wood came out with, More Recipes With a Jug of Wine; Thirteenth printing, 1971, hardcover. This companion has a whole new set of recipes. Similar to, With a Jug of Wine, they range from classic to exotic aka European. His stories and commentary are also present in this edition. I did find out that Morrison Wood did a third book called Through Europe With a Jug of Wine. I do not own a copy of that cookbook. - jw

© photos by Jacqueline Williams.