Events

Hentley Farm Dinner at National Wine Centre

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

20130626_203420

disclaimer: I was the National Wine Centre‘s guest at this dinner.

date: Wednedsay 26 June 2013

If you follow the Eating Adelaide calendar (and the sporadic Friday posts on Facebook) you’ll know that throughout the year, the National Wine Centre (NWC) has been hosting a series of wine dinners. In my pre-baby life, I would have been all over attending events like this but those kind of activities have slowed down somewhat in the last almost 4 years, so while I’ve been able to tell you about them happening, there have been no first hand accounts.

Luckily for me, the National Wine Centre extended an invitation to attend the Hentley Farm dinner. I was thrilled that I was able to accept (thank you, Andy, for not only taking on baby sitting duties but also dealing with the flat battery due to some idiot leaving the car’s lights on) but also very interested because Hentley Farm is a winery that has a good reputation (both for its wines and its cellar door restaurant). It’s somewhat remiss of me not to be familiar with their wines so this was an opportunity to fix that.

So I spent a good month looking forward to this meal, and finally headed along to the centre’s Vines dining room, feeling a bit self conscious that I’d be walking into the event solo but figuring that I would at least recognise Lucy from the NWC.

The evening started with mingling, the Hentley Farm Riesling (the only wine for which grapes are not sourced from Hentley Farm’s Barossa estate) and delicious kingfish canapés, served with finely shaved radish, kohlrabi and fennel and finished with a Meyer lemon purée. These worked really well with the vegetables providing texture and layers of flavour and the lemon purée finishing off the morsel cleanly with a tasty citrus zip.

It came time to sit down and I headed off to my table, and sat down next to a couple. I turned to introduce myself to the woman next to me. “Hi, I’m …” I started, only to have my sentence finished. Yes, only in Adelaide can you head along to a dinner and randomly sit next to someone you went to school with and haven’t seen in the last n years!

Katie now works for the design company which does lots of work with the NWC, but since leaving school she’s done a couple of degrees, worked in the US and done the family thing. So there was a reasonable amount to catch up on.

Also at the table was Andrew Quinn and Keith Hentschke, Hentley Farm’s winemaker and owner respectively, as well as some NWC staff and guests. Both Keith and Andrew spoke between courses to introduce the wines and Hentley Farm story. I thought that they struck the balance between being informative and entertaining really well and I loved that they chose not to use the lectern but wander around the room a little (something that only works if you’re confident and can project your voice!). It made their talks feel more like chats and I think it definitely encouraged questions.

20130626_194930

First course was a trio of entrées: belly pork, duck confit and black sausage, served with haricot beans. While I really liked the concept of this dish, I thought that the black sausage was a little bit lacklustre. My time in England was spent eating a lot of full English breakfasts and forming some very strong opinions on black pudding and I’m yet to find one in Adelaide that cuts the mustard. Which is a shame because pork belly and black pudding is one of those really classic combinations. The entrée was served with the 2012 “The Stray Mongrel” (a Grenache Shiraz Zinfandel blend) and the 2012 Zinfandel. My pick of these two wines (both in terms of the wine and the wine and food match) was the straight Zin. In particular I thought it worked really well with the anise flavours in the duck.

20130626_205745

Next up was, what was for me, the star dish of the dinner. Venison loin, served with chestnut and celeriac, date compôte and pickled blueberries. I love venison and celeriac but have to admit I was a bit nervous about the date compôte. I’m a bit funny about fruit in savoury things – especially something that might be so obviously sweet as dates. But my goodness – it worked really well and next time I am cooking something gamey (probably relatively soon, as I have some pheasants coming my way) I’ll definitely be experimenting. I was also really impressed that the venison was served beautifully pink. Well done to the kitchen. Too often meat served at functions will be overcooked and dried out – something that is both easier to do and avoids any complaints from the well done brigade. Congratulations to the kitchen at the NWC.

This course was paired with 2011 The Beauty and 2010 The Beast. Both Shirazes but wines that receive very different treatment. The Beauty is 3% Viognier (cofermented) and sees 40% new French oak, whereas The Beast is 100% Shiraz and sees 80% new oak. Now, based on those descriptions alone, I would probably choose The Beauty as my pick, but on the evening, The Beast really stood out as the stand out wine (of the dinner) for me.

20130626_215427

The final course saw the 2010 Clos Otto Shiraz served with Ossau-Iraty: a French sheep’s milk cheese (which also happens to be one of my favourite cheeses). The cheese came with some hazelnut baguette and black cherry jelly. While the baguette was neither here nor there for me, the black cherry jelly was excellent (served with some crushed hazelnuts on top) and a really clever change from serving quince paste.

The meal wrapped up with door prizes, some wine specials if you wanted to buy wines and, naturally, coffee and chocoMe chocolates.

I think it’s obvious that I had a great time: some of my favourite things to eat were served, along with some very classy wines. The real litmus test with events like this is – would I spend my own money? And unreservedly, I can say I would. The dinners are usually around $100-$120 a head and they are set menus, so if you are a picky eater they might not work for you. But if you like food and wine you should have a ball.

And you might even sit next to someone you went to school with …

The next dinner is on Wednesday 17 July and it will feature wines of the Hunter Valley. More details are available on the National Wine Centre site.  The dinners do usually sell out so if you are interested in heading to one – don’t dawdle!

World Gin Day

- Alex Leave a comment

Did you know there is such a thing as World Gin Day? Well, there is and it rolls around again this Saturday 15 June.

I always think of gin as a summer drink so it’s hardly surprising that World Gin Day (now in its fifth incarnation) originated in … the UK where 15 June is as good a guess as any as to when that one day of summer might actually be!

But even if it is a bit wintery in Adelaide, if you’re prepared to brave the cold on Saturday, there are plenty of gin related activities.

The Howling Owl on Frome Street is offering a gin masterclass as well as gin tasting boards and, naturally, the chance to win gin.

Yelp is running a more structured event in conjunction with West Winds gin, where you can head to four different venues, sampling four different gin cocktails along with the way … with a gin expert in tow.

Even some venues outside the CBD are making an appearance: Eden Dining Room & Bar will be showcasing four different gin cocktails (including one that involves basil and sous-vide, I’m told) at a pop up bar on Leigh Street.

And if you can’t participate in any of these more official activities … you do have the perfect excuse to start your Saturday evening with a gin based apéritif.

Games Season at The Highway

- Alex Leave a comment

20130429_194909Crocodile skewers – beware the chilli sauce!

Disclaimer: I was a guest of The Highway at this sneak peek dinner.

date of visit: Monday 29 April 2013

Last year you may remember that I took my parents to The Highway for my mum’s birthday dinner. It happened to be Game Week, something about which I was quite excited, and then we all promptly ordered from the non-game menu.

This year Game Week is Game Season and The Highway invited along a few Adelaide bloggers, and their guests, to take a look at the menu. My friend, Rob, and I were joined by the guys from The Chopping Board and Xin and his wife, Tina, from Adelaide Foodies. Andy was left at home on baby sitting duties.

We started off in the Lounge Bar with a tasting selection of most of the dishes on the game menu. Nick Finn, the Highway’s head chef, talked us through the dishes and some of the thought processes behind putting the menu together. Nick was not only really friendly but did a great job of both explaining and selling the menu.

Things kicked off with the rabbit cacciatore. The idea behind this was to make part of the dish something with which people are really familiar and comfortable: that’s the cacciatore part. And as rabbit is perhaps one of the less obviously gamey meats, it acts as a good vehicle for carrying the cacciatore’s flavours. As rabbit is lean lots of sauce and slow cooking is a good thing.

Next out of the kitchen was a platter of kangaroo burger sliders. The kangaroo burger actually features as a main course dish, so these were to give us an idea of what the finished dish will be like. The kangaroo meat made a really good burger (I thought): quite dense but absolutely packed with flavour. The buns had bush chutney on one side and an aioli on the other – I thought that we could have done with even more aioli but that was my only criticism!

This was followed by crocodile skewers with shoestring chips. I think crocodile is such a pointless meat. It tastes of nothing. I’ve had it before and thought that, and I still think that. The skewers were served with a fearsomely hot chilli sauce. I am good with spicy food, and I wouldn’t have described it as too hot for me, but I really thought that for most people (including the ‘standard punter’ who the chef has to have in mind with any dish) this would have been too hot. Sing agreed – saying it was too hot for him. Nick acknowledged that everyone in the kitchen at the Highway is a bit of a chilli fiend so they may be slightly out of touch! I’m not sure if they’ll have been able to tone it down, so if you order the skewers, tread carefully with that chilli sauce!

20130429_195920Venison with gnocchi

We wrapped up the bar side tasting with the slow braised Denver venison, served with gnocchi. Super rich and warming, the perfect rib sticking meal for a cold winter’s night. And the gnocchi (which the Highway does buy in) were amazing.

At this point I was pretty full, but we all toddled off into the Bistro for our dinner. I ordered the venison and Rob chose the duck breast with lentils, tomato sugo and witlof. The duck breast was described as crispy skin and, unfortunately, it wasn’t. Also, both Rob and I thought that the duck breast was overcooked. However, on this point I am prepared to accept that it was probably cooked to the exact degree of doneness the kitchen was after, and how I like my duck cooked most people would describe as undercooked. Rob did rave about the lentil and tomato base (I didn’t get to try that, but trust me, Rob knows what he’s talking about).

The kitchen provided us with one last treat: a huge dessert tasting platter. Crema catalana served with blood orange sorbet and basil syrup (I loathe things orange but Rob really rated this very very highly), churros with chocolate sauce and caramel sauce (the caramel sauce was my favourite), a chocolate torte, a berry parfait and, probably the star of the platter for me, a beautifully light strawberry and moscato jelly, topped with a very light white chocolate mousse and Persian fairy floss.

20130429_214222Dessert tasting platter … no game!

Now I can tell you right now that if I saw that dish on a menu I would never ever order (I’m not a big fan of strawberries and generally moscato isn’t my thing and I loathe white chocolate) it but I absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately for you, these are all the summer desserts and they won’t be on the menu for much longer …

Drinks wise, I very much enjoyed the Fraser Gallop Chardonnay (available by the glass, and reason enough to go to the Highway!). We also had a bottle of the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir – a very red berry fruit forward approachable Pinot.

I think the menu does a great job of taking some potentially unfamiliar ingredients and making them very accessible. Which is what it’s all about: encouraging people to try something a little out of their comfort zone.

Game Season, an annual event, this year runs until 15 May in the Bistro at the Highway. Bookings recommended.