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Dine Me
The Kilkenny Observer Friday 27 August 2021
Food & Drink
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Better to pair wine with white cheese
With
Chicken jalfrezi Preparation and cooking time Prep:10 mins Cook:1 hr Easy Serves 4
Instead of calling the Indian takeaway, make your own easy chicken jalfrezi. This curry is also healthy with two of your five-a-day and a dose of Citamin C. STEP 2 To make the sauce, fry ½ roughly chopped large onion, 2 chopped garlic cloves and 1 finely chopped green chilli in a large pan with a little vegetable oil, for around 5 mins, until browned.
Ingredients For the sauce • ½ large onion, roughly chopped • 2 garlic cloves, chopped • 1 green chilli, finely chopped • vegetable oil, for frying • 400g can plum tomatoes • 1 tbsp ground coriander • 1 tbsp ground cumin • 1 tsp turmeric For the meat & veg • 2-3 chicken breasts, diced • 1 tsp ground cumin • 1 tsp ground coriander • 1 tsp turmeric • ½ large onion, sliced • 1 red pepper, chopped • 2 red chillies, finely chopped (optional) • 2 tsp garam masala • handful of fresh, chopped coriander leaves • cooked basmati rice or naan bread to serve Method STEP 1 Take 2-3 diced chicken breasts and coat in 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander and 1 tsp turmeric then leave it to marinate in the fridge while you make the sauce.
STEP 3 Add 300ml water to the onion mixture and simmer for around 20 minutes. STEP 4 Meanwhile, put a 400g can plum tomatoes in a food processor and give it a good whizz (aim for a smooth consistency). STEP 5 Heat another large pan and gently fry 1 tbsp coriander, 1 tbsp cumin and 1 tsp turmeric in a splash of oil for about a minute. Add the tomatoes to this pan and simmer for around 10 minutes. STEP 6 Next, whizz your onion mixture in the food processor and add it to the spiced tomato
sauce. Season generously, stir, then simmer for 20 minutes. You can make large batches of this sauce and freeze it for later use. STEP 7 Fry the marinated chicken in vegetable oil and stir continuously. After a few minutes, turn down the heat and add the remaining ½ sliced onion, 1 chopped red pepper and 2 finely chopped red chillies. Stir until the onions and pepper soften. STEP 8 Add the sauce you prepared earlier to the cooked chicken and simmer for around 10-20 minutes, adding a splash of water if it gets too thick. STEP 9 Just before you dish it up, stir in 2 tsp garam masala and handful of chopped coriander leaves. Serve with basmati rice or naan bread.
Mushroom brunch Preparation and cooking time Prep: 5 mins Cook: 12 mins - 15 mins Easy Serves 4 You only need mushrooms, eggs, kale and garlic to cook this tasty one-pan brunch. It’s comforting yet healthy, low-calorie and glutenfree too.
Ingredients • 250g mushrooms • 1 garlic clove • 1 tbsp olive oil • 160g bag kale • 4 eggs
Method STEP 1 Slice the mushrooms and crush the garlic clove. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan, then fry the garlic over a low heat for 1 min.
Add the mushrooms and cook until soft. Then, add the kale. If the kale won’t all fit in the pan, add half and stir until wilted, then add the rest. Once all the kale is wilted, season. STEP 2 Now crack in the eggs and keep them cooking gently for 2-3 mins. Then, cover with the lid to for a further 2-3 mins or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Serve with bread.
THE tradition of matching red wine with ‘a cheese board’ is fraught with difficulty. With a plate full of cheeses covering the gamut of blue, goat’s, creamy and hard styles, red wine is rarely the optimum choice. One of the favourite cheeses from the point of view of both taste and wine-friendliness, is quality Parmesan. With its protected designation of origin status, ParmigianoReggiano comes only from the north of Italy, its sweet and nutty flavour matching so well with many wines. But Parmigiano-Reggiano is given added interest because the cheese is sold with different levels of maturity, which in turn give the cheese subtly different aroma, flavour and texture characteristics. It is sold with a minimum of 12 months of ageing, but 18-, 24-, 36-month cheeses are labelled as such, even 48-month Parmesan appears in specialist cheese shops. a cheese from Lithuania called Džiugas, produced by Žemaitijos Pienas, which is in a broadly similar style to ParmigianoReggiano. It too celebrates different maturation styles, with 12-, 18-, 24-, 36-, 48and even 60-month examples. It is revered in Lithuania and comes from the town of Telšiai, where Žemaitijos Pienas employs almost 1500 people. The youngest of the cheeses has a touch of crumble and nuttiness, a few crystals just beginning to form, but the smoothness and waxiness is much more pronounced than in the more mature examples. Džiugas describe the aroma as ‘hay meadow’ and I like that: something hay-like and dry, but fresh and flower/grass-like too. That suited this unsual Sauvignon Blanc very nicely: a single vineyard wine from Spain, it is partly fermented and aged in American oak, so there is creaminess and texture as well as pristine Sauvignon aromas and flavours. Try it with a Torres, Fransola Sauvignon Blanc 2017.\As the cheese has matured it has become firmer and more friable, and Džiugas’ suggestion to snap off chunks to nibble is a very good one, especially with the right wine. The 24-month worked very well with the white wine, and with the Champagne, but was probably best with the Beaujolais. The crunch in the cheese has developed, as well as a slightly toffeed quality, but the lightness, forward fruit and good acidity of the Cru Beaujolais from Henry Fessy cut through and made for a really interesting combination in the mouth. The cheese is not strong, but does have personality enough to take on a low-tannin red. Choice: Henry Fessy, Brouilly ‘Les Brulees’ 2017.
