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The Kilkenny Observer Friday 04 March 2022
kilkennyobserver.ie
Food & Drink
Dine Me Come
With
Roasted cod with zingy beetroot salad Prep: 10 mins Cook: 18 mins Serves: 4
Make the most of the colour and flavour of beetroot with our easy roasted cod served on a beetroot, new potato and carrot salad with a lovely zingy dressing.
The hidden gold of Bordeaux
Ingredients • 200g baby new potatoes, quartered • ½ tbsp olive oil • 4 skinless cod fillets (or any white fish) • thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely sliced • 1 lime, sliced For the beetroot salad • 1 red onion, finely chopped • 4 carrots, peeled and grated • 2 large raw beetroot, peeled and grated • 1 lime, zested and juiced • ½ tbsp honey • ½ small bunch of coriander, leaves picked Method STEP 1 Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put a pan of water on a high heat. When it boils add the potatoes, then turn the heat down and simmer for 10-12 minutes until tender. STEP 2 Meanwhile combine all of the salad ingredients, reserving a little coriander. Season lightly. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain and run under cold water to cool. Drain again and toss through the salad.
STEP 3 Rub the oil over the cod fillets, then put on a non-stick baking tray and lay a few ginger and lime slices on top of each fillet. Put in the oven and cook for 6-9 mins, depending on thickness.
STEP 4 Divide the salad between four plates, then top with the cod and remaining coriander.
Roast chicken thighs, brown with rice and salsa verde Prep: 10 mins Cook: 35 mins Serves: 2 How about a healthy, low-calorie roast chicken dinner? Enjoy this tasty meal with benefits like vitamin C from the salsa verde which helps iron absorbtion. Ingredients • 3 skinless boneless chicken thighs , cut in half • 2 tbsp rapeseed oil • 2 garlic cloves , bashed • ½ small pack coriander • ½ small pack parsley • 1 anchovy fillet • ½ tbsp capers • ½ lemon , zested and juiced • 200g pouch cooked wholegrain rice • 200g baby leaf spinach
Method STEP 1 Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Season the chicken, rub with ½ tbsp oil, then put in a large roasting tin with the garlic and roast for 25-30 mins. STEP 2 Meanwhile, blitz the herbs, anchovy, capers, lemon juice and remaining oil with some seasoning in a food processor until finely chopped. Set aside. STEP 3 Once the chicken is cooked, remove the tin from the oven and squeeze the garlic out of their skins. Tip in the rice and use a wooden spoon to break it up, then add the spinach and lemon zest and toss. Return to the oven for 5 mins. Divide between bowls and dollop on the salsa verde.
THE region skirting France’s southwest coast produces some of the world’s finest and priciest wines – an achievement which has led to the assumption that Bordeaux wines are only worth drinking if they cost top dollar. Bordeaux’s reputation precedes it. One doesn’t have to necessarily be a wine geek to know that. The wine region sprawls from the city of Bordeaux to flank the Gironde estuary, which spills into the Atlantic Ocean while splitting into the Garonne and Dordogne rivers on the opposite end, with vines comprising the landscapes surrounding both waterways. In addition to merlot and cabernet blends, Bordeaux is also known for sweet wines made primarily from sémillon, sauvignon blanc and muscadelle grapes infected with Botrytis cinerea, a fungus known more familiarly as noble rot. A trifecta of morning mist rising from the Garonne, adequate rainfall and warm afternoons fosters just the right amount of humidity for the fungus to flourish.
Noble rot
Instead of damaging the grapes, noble rot dries the fruit, causing the pulp to concentrate. The painstaking harvest process involves hand-picking the grapes over the course of several weeks, which are then pressed into complex golden wines displaying bright, enveloping flavors like citrus, stone fruit, raisins, honey and candied fruit, as well as spices like saffron and toasted nuts in the long-aged versions. A bottle of Sauternes, Bordeaux’s best-known sweet wine appellation, can exceed €500. Consequently, its prestige eclipses the region’s other sweet wines, most notably those from eight nearby appellations situated around 20 miles south of Bordeaux city, along both sides of the Garonne. As members of the Sweet Bordeaux association, 350-plus producers cultivate 1,800 hectares of vines to produce nine million bottles annually, of which 38% are exported. These wines offer comparable quality at markedly more accessible prices, and when it comes to pairing these wines with food, winemakers agree that the sweet wines are not just for dessert. Unsurprisingly, sweet plus sweet can, at times, yield an all- too-cloying coupling. “Traditionally, these wines are associated with being served alongside foie gras (which we’ve done for centuries), dessert and for special holiday meals, but there are other ways to enjoy them,” says Hugues Hardy, who has overseen Château Faugas, his family’s winery, since 2020. “I really believe our sweet white wines are far more complex [than others], and they can even be more complex than a marvellous red.” PART 2 next week
