Stumble It! PleaseDepending on your wine background you might choose France, Germany or even Spain areas to visit where each has a strong wine identity and history. I love to visit these areas and soak up their uniqueness.
But how lucky am I? I live in an area of Australia that is only one hours drive from wine growing areas that can produce wines with the characteristics of all of the above. From the Alpine Valleys where the grapes grow slowly in a cooler but longer season, to the hotter lower lying Rutherglen area. During the next months I hope to give you the opportunity to not only hear about these wines from places such as Beechworth, The King Valley, Millawa, Glenrowen and Rutherglen but taste them in conjunction with food that pushes the epicurean boundaries. More of those exciting developments later.
Lets get onto a little more of My Journey with Wine
MY JOURNEY WITH WINE 4
I arrived in New Zealand after about 5 years of travelling in 1967. This tiny ex dominion of the UK, still had many, if not all it's European settlers calling where I had come from and often they had never been, the 'mother country.' At the time I used to think, if only you knew. I had come from a country where unemployment was high to one where you could count those not working on the fingers of one hand (believe me this was true.)
I arrived at Mangere Airport in Auckland following a romance begun in Sydney, only to embarrass the girl when I knocked on her door and anger the boy she had chosen this night to celebrate her engagement with. So instead of the vision in my head of a warm embrace and an even warmer bed, I was faced with a white faced girl and threats of what would happen to me if I didn't get out of town. It was so long ago but I still remember the address as Melody Lane Otahuhu. I remember walking for several hours, dragging a heavy suitcase without wheels and a large rucksack that contained my worldly possessions. Someone must have felt sorry for me because I was offered a lift to a place called Henderson. Not knowing that this was taking me north away from the city of Auckland, I gratefully accepted and was dropped in the main street of Henderson at 10:30 pm at night with just a few dollars in my pocket and no idea where I was going. It was here that I first experienced the amazing hospitality that New Zealanders are capable of. A young couple asked if they could help and I said I needed a place to stay until I got my bearings, but had just arrived from Australia without a lot of money and my accommodation had fallen through. Without hesitation they both said come with us and we'll make sure you are okay. They took me to the place where they were living, fed me, let me steam in a bath, phoned friends who might be able to set me up in a job and by 3 am I had a place to stay including meals(with them) until I got some wages, a lift in the morning to a job interview and a loan to cover lunches. I got a job at Fisher and Paykel in Ellerslie and lived with those great people for about three weeks until I found a flat, back in Auckland.
During the time I was with those folk I was introduced to the concept of having a wine before the evening meal. Alice's (the girl in the couple) parents had always had a glass of sherry before the meal and her dad had a glass of port afterwards. Alice was determined to introduce this refined practice to all who came to her place. I had drunk wine in the past because the water was poor and to get sociable at a party while travelling, but I must admit that the rough and dry wines of Spain and France didn't prepare me for the viscous and sweet drink that also has its origins in Spain, prior to eating and the experience of eating warm fruit cake that was the Port, at the end of the meal. It took me some time to come to terms with these extremely sweet thick drinks being classified as wine and I know that I and the boys would often sneak a beer to break the sweetness and cleanse the palete.
Not understanding the range of drinks that are classified as wine left me a beer drinker for some time after, and it was many years before I was able to appreciate the place of sweet sticky wines in the wine continuum.
Alice never knew how much I hated that wine and sadly she will never know having passed away some years ago, but Jack still smiles when I do my wine rave and talk to people about maturing the blends within my muscat, Tokay, port and sherry barrels.
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MY WINE LOG
Tonight I prepared peppered turkey steaks, potatoes and a Greek Salad The turkey was supplied by our local Haus of Chicken, which until recently, was located in the
The steaks were quite small and I had underestimated the amounts when ordering, which was probably ok for my health.
Preparing the
I placed the steaks on a flat plate and applied ground rainbow pepper to them, turned them over, covered them in glad wrap and left them to sit in a cool place for an hour.
I am always amazed by the amount of liquid that most of our meats produce when left to stand and was not disappointed as the meat has produced it's own sauce and the pepper was right through the meat.
Preparing the Cranberry Glaze.
Combine the following ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil..
½ cup of Canola Oil
½ cup of fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon of Tarragon wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon of dried tarragon leaves
½ teaspoon of dried sweet marjoram leaves
200 mils of jellied cranberry sauce
½ cup of Sauvignon Blanc or Verdelho
Simmer until thoroughly integrated.
Cooking the
Place the steaks in a dish in a preheated oven (180 degrees C)
Use the glaze to baste the turkey steaks with until it is all used. Then continue basting using the pan drippings until the turkey is almost cooked. Remove turkey from oven and from pan and allow to finish cooking under foil or Glad wrap.
Save the glaze for future use by freezing when cooled.
Preparing the Vegetables
The potatoes were Desiree boiled in their Jackets and quartered when cooked
The salad was a simple mix of rocket and baby spinach leaves, with a handful each of crushed walnuts, grapes, grated cheese, fetta cheese marinated in garlic and olive oil with heaps of big red Kalamata olives with a side dressing of Greek Yogurt and lime juice.
We shared a bottle of Mirrool Creek Merlot 2000, from Miranda Wines, a company with Vineyards in the
Merlot is sweeter, smoother and has less tannins than Cabernet Sauvignon and is most often used to blend with other varietals to make them more palatable. Lately we have noticed an increasing number of straight Merlot vintages, which indicate that the wine is coming into it's own as a varietal. What a surprise I got, this is a very fine wine. It had good deep crimson colour and a distinct and pleasant spiciness on the palate. This wine variety is no stranger to you North Americans but I'm glad that Australians are finally recognising it's outstanding characteristics. If you haven't tried it before as a varietal, it is an admirable alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon and
For those of you who would like to try or expand your repertoire of turkey recipes here are some links to pages that may assist
http://www.ehow.com/how_6594_roast-turkey-paper.html
http://www.turkey.mb.ca/recipes.htmlhttp://www.justturkeyrecipes.com/index.html
http://www.homeschoolzone.com/m2m/turkey.htm
http://homehearth.virtualave.net/leftturk.html
http://www.myprimeyears.com/rv/yeaw_holidaycook2.htm
http://www.todaysturkey.com.au/
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Meat-and-Poultry/Turkey/Main.aspx
http://www.eatturkey.com/home.html
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