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kilkennyobserver.ie
Dine Me
The Kilkenny Observer Friday 13 August 2021
Food & Drink
Come
Good Prosecco has to be in sparkling form
With
Chicken & mushroom hot-pot Prep: 35 mins Cook: 25 mins Serves 4
Ingredients • 50g butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing • 1 onion, chopped • 100g button mushrooms, sliced • 40g plain flour • 1 chicken stock cube or 500ml fresh chicken stock • pinch of nutmeg • pinch of mustard powder • 250g cooked chicken, chopped • 2 handfuls of a mixed pack of sweetcorn, peas, broccoli and carrots, or pick your favourites • For the topping • 2 large potatoes, sliced into rounds • knob of butter, melted Method STEP 1 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the butter in a medium-size saucepan and place over a medium heat. Add the onion and leave to cook for 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the mushrooms to the saucepan with the onions.
STEP 2 Once the onion and mushrooms are almost cooked, stir in the flour – this will make a thick paste called a roux. If you are using a stock cube, crumble the cube into the roux now and stir well. Put the roux over a low heat and stir continuously for 2 mins – this will cook the flour and stop the sauce from having a floury taste.
STEP 3 Take the roux off the heat. Slowly add the fresh stock, if using, or pour in 500ml water if you’ve used a stock cube, stirring all the time. Once all the liquid has been added, season with pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and mustard powder. Put the saucepan back onto a medium heat and slowly bring it to the boil, stirring all the time. Once the sauce has thickened, place on a very low heat. Add the cooked chicken and vegetables to the sauce and stir well. Grease a medium-size ovenproof pie dish with a little butter and pour in the chicken and mushroom filling.
STEP 4 Carefully lay the potatoes on top of the hot-pot filling, overlapping them slightly, almost like a pie top. STEP 5 Brush the potatoes with a little melted butter and cook in the oven for about 35 mins. The hot-pot is ready once the potatoes are cooked and golden brown.
Easy chocolate fudge cake Ingredients • 150ml sunflower oil, plus extra for the tin • 175g self-raising flour • 2 tbsp cocoa powder • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda • 150g caster sugar • 2 tbsp golden syrup • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten • 150ml semi-skimmed milk FOR THE ICING • 100g unsalted butter • 225g icing sugar • 40g cocoa powder • 2½ tbsp milk (a little more if needed) Method STEP 1 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Oil and line the base of two 18cm sandwich tins. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Add the caster sugar and mix well.
STEP 2 Make a well in the centre and add the golden syrup, eggs, sunflower oil and milk. Beat well with an electric whisk until smooth. STEP 3 Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake for 25-30 mins until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from oven, leave to cool for 10 mins before turning out onto a cooling rack.
STEP 4 To make the icing, beat the unsalted butter in a bowl until soft. Gradually sieve and beat in the icing sugar and cocoa powder, then add enough of the milk to make the icing fluffy and spreadable. STEP 5 Sandwich the two cakes together with the butter icing and cover the sides and the top of the cake with more icing.
LIKE most wines, all prosecco is not made equally. Prosecco, a type of sparkling wine, is made with grapes from the Conegliano Valdobbiadene region in Veneto, Italy. Grapes in this region grow at different altitudes; the higher the altitude, the better the prosecco quality, says wine expert Vince Anter, founder and host of the V Is for Vino show on Amazon Prime. Before buying a good bottle of prosecco, it’s important to understand what prosecco actually is — and more speci These key differences stem from each sparkling wine’s production process. “The big difference is how the bubbles are formed,” Anter explains. “Prosecco is made in the Charmat method. All the fermentation is done in pressurized tanks and that’s where the bubbles occur. In Champagne, bubbles occur in individual bottles.” This method variance brings about another important difference: price. To make Champagne winemakers add yeast and sugar to each individual bottle before capping it to trap the byproducts of heat and CO2. (In still wines, these elements evaporate into the air.) With the Charmat method, they do the same thing but in big tanks versus individual bottles. “You can do hundreds or thousands of bottles at a time,” Anter says. Champagne’s tedious production process correlates with a higher price point. “Champagne itself [from the Champagne region] starts at about €40 to €50, and you can spend way more than that,” Anter says. “Prosecco taps out in the €50 to €75 range for the high end, and you can easily get a really good prosecco for €30.” You don’t have to go to the slopes of Veneto, Italy, to determine which prosecco is best. Just look for the DOCG label, Anter says. It’s an acronym for denominazione di origine controllata e garantita, which in English means controlled and guaranteed designation of origin. “There’s DOC prosecco and DOCG. DOC is made in the DOC and DOCG are certi look for these certi Anter’s second trick for buying good wine? Skip the supermarket. “I’m big on this for any wines: Go to your local wine shop,” he says. “Grocery stores have to stock the wine in, say, 50 stores. When you do that, you essentially say this wine has to be mass produced — but wine isn’t like something made out of a factory. When you bring up the yields, you diminish the quality.” For the optimal prosecco experience, chill the bottle in the refrigerator. “Fridge cold, which is actually too cold for white wines, is just right,” Anter says. “Sparkling wines should be served out of a refrigerator or an ice bucket.”
