PUZZLES - Peacock Sky Vineyard!
Transcription
PUZZLES - Peacock Sky Vineyard!
26 April 2012 6 Waiheke Weekender Epicurean The verjus phenomenon ‘Grape farmer’ and now verjus maker, Rob Meredith grew up with an appreciation of good food and good wine. He enjoys spending time in the kitchen but admits that he tends to use every dish in the place, creating debris from one end of the kitchen to the other. More often than not you’ll find a pan stuck to the ceiling, he admits ruefully, and as a result his wife of 23 years Connie, herself a chef, tends to manage most of the kitchen duties. As co-owner and self-titled a grape farmer, Rob explains how their verjus at Peacock Sky came to be: “Thinning in vineyard management (sometimes called a “green harvest”) is a technique used to reduce the final fruit yield in a vineyard. “Immature grapes are removed before they fully develop, leaving the vines to put all their energy into ripening and maturing the remaining bunches. Theoretically the remaining grapes will be of higher quality with better flavours so this technique is used commonly in the production of fine wines, where a high volume yield is less of a priority. “In many cases these immature grapes are dropped on the ground, but this year we harvested some of the green grapes and pressed them to make verjus.” Never keen to see waste, he sought the expertise of his Hungarian colleague Balazs Haga, an experienced wine and verjus maker, to help him master the new techniques. Australian cook, vintner and food writer Maggie Beer began the modern resurgence of verjus when she began commercial production in 1984, after a harvest of Rhine riesling grapes could not be sold. She persuaded a winemaker friend to help her turn the juice into verjus. PUZZLES Rob Meredith, at home in the kitchen. Below – Grilling the lavosh, also known as lavash, a thin, crunchy Middle Eastern style bread. After slow national sales, 15 years later came international sales that were then followed by local products in France and elsewhere. Today you can find verjus recipes everywhere and Rob says the biggest challenge to participating in this story was which recipe to select. Fascinated by the diversity of applications, Rob has been having fun with his little bottle of green juice in the kitchen developing some favourites. He finally settled on a poached salmon dish to show off the verjus which he describes, as in wine talk, in terms of balance, texture, flavour and colour. He is fascinated by its acidic complexities that pair delightfully with an oily fish such as salmon. And he loves a recipe using chicken or pork where he can use his verjus to deglaze or replace wine in cooking to create an alcohol free dish. Salmon poached in verjus This is a nice, straightforward recipe that shows the versatility of verjus in cooking. Here we use it not only to cook the salmon, but also as a component of the dressing on the accompanying salad. 1 cup verjus 1/4 cup minced shallots 2 salmon steaks, each 2-3 cm thick (about 250g each) 1 tablespoon butter Salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon chopped chives Put the verjus and the chopped shallots in a 20-25 cm frying pan over high heat. Add the salmon steaks. Cover and bring to simmer. Continue to simmer, turning once, until the fish is no longer Latest release WASGIJ? Puzzle or assorted previous releases 19 $ 99 SAVE $10 145 Ocean View Rd Tel 372 7174 153 Oceanview Road, Oneroa Ph 372 6139 [email protected]