Around the Word - France

We ticked off another country in our World Lockdown Tour with France being No. 8.

The food was cassoulet, maybe not the classic recipe although there are many versions described on the web, but it had the essentials of meat - in this case chicken- and beans which were mostly cannellini. And my secret ingredients.

With it we had a super delicious southern French Syrah blend from Languedoc.

 2016 Château Saint-Jean D’Aumières l’Alchimiste Black Edition (France, Terrasses du Larzac)

Intense, dense and utterly delish!

where to for No 9?

Country 7 was New Zealand

Around the World - New Zealand

 Country seven in our Lockdown Tour is New Zealand.

We've enjoyed visiting NZ in real life and hope to return, but a virtual trip is much quicker and less stressful since NZ is 24 hours flying from London. I've done it in one burst, arriving at about 1am,  disorientated, badly jet-lagged, and determined to never do it in one go again. Spending a few days in Singapore one suffers from jet-lag and then get jet-lag again when arriving in NZ. Breaking the journey in Sydney seems best as from there it's less than 5 hours to NZ and there's no second jet-lag.

But there's no jet-lag at all in traveling virtually. As it was Sunday we started with a glass of fizz.

N.V. Cloudy Bay Pelorus Brut (New Zealand, Marlborough)

Cloudy Bay is probably the most famous name in NZ wine, and their traditional method sparkling wine is terrific. Predominantly Chardonnay with some Pinot Noir it's aged on lees for two years before disgorgement.

There's said to be more sheep than people in New Zealand, so we chose New Zealand lamb for our representative dish, roasted with parsnip and potatoes and steamed cabbage, carrots and broad beans. In NZ we'd have had roasted Kumara (a variety of sweet potato) but since that wasn't available we had parsnip.

And to accompany, we had a red Bordeaux blend   from NZs oldest winery, Te Mata.

2018 Te Mata Estate (New Zealand, Hawke's Bay)

The 2018 is a blend of  47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc, aged in a new and seasoned French oak barrels for 11 months. Delicious wine.

Country 6 was Ukraine

Around the World - Ukraine

Country Six in our Lock Down Tour is Ukraine.

The food was Chicken Kiev. The last time we had this dish was in Kiev in 2019 when Viking Sineus moored there at the end of a cruise from the Black Sea port of Odessa and up the Dnieper River. (blog post here)

I brought this wine home with me, bought in Odessa and it’s a varietal Odessky Cherny which translates to Odessa Black, so both start and end points of the cruise are referenced in this meal.

Chicken Kiev (breaded chicken breast stuffed with garlic & herb butter) was accompanied by sautéed new potatoes with onion, broad beans and cauliflower florets.

2018 Kolonist Odessa Cherny (Ukraine, Odessa)

Odessky Cherny (Odessa Black) is a successful 20th Century Ukrainian crossing of the red fleshed Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon. 

The wine was opaque black red and had thrown a lot of deposits along the bottle where I’d kept it on its side for the past 18 months. It had the structure of Cabernet together with the intensity of Alicante. Very enjoyable, but unfortunately my only bottle.

Where to next?

Country 5 was USA

Baking Loaves

 Baked another four Hovis Granary loaves today.

Early Daffodils are Late

 

The early Daffodils in the front garden have just bloomed. This is 17 days later than last year, and seven days later than 2019.

They didn't get hit by frost, though they did wilt during the recent cold spell of snow.

But two blooms have their stalks broken, probably by street footballers

Frozen Water into Can

Bright sun is melting the snows of the past few days, but today I noticed this frozen stream of water from the greenhouse drain into a watering can.

First Covid-19 Vaccination

 

To Asda at Watford for our first Covid-19 vaccination.

Around the World - USA

 

Our Around the World in lockdown Food and Wine Tour continues with USA as Country No. 5.

And the food had to be Hamburger with Zinfandel as the wine. The burger and chips were Deliveroo'd from Meating Room. Burger was fine, chips were good and plentiful, and it was good to get a bread roll (toasted) rather than the all too common brioche that just disintegrates in ones hand.

The Zin was one of a case I'd bought from The Wine Society.

2018 Once & Future Wine Zinfandel Oakley Road Vineyard (USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County)

This was made by the King of Zin, Joel Peterson, late of Ravenswood. When Ravenswood got too big he sold it and started a small operation that would get no larger than he could personally make wine.

The Oakley Road vineyard was planted with Zinfandel wines on their own roots 118 years ago. The  deep sands of the vineyard were deposited by river flooding, washed down from gold-rush excavations, and give protection from phylloxera.

The wine is restrained and elegant, offering purity of fruit and great pleasure. It was aged in French oak barrels, 30% new.

Country 4 was Greece

 

Around the World - Greece

Our Around the World in lockdown Food and Wine Tour continues with Greece as Country No. 4. 

Many decades ago we travelled with a company that flew to Greek islands that had just opened their military airfield to tourists. There was one plane a week from the UK and the islands were remote and had seen virtually no tourists.

Tavernas were basic and served local dishes. One was beans served on the island of ανάμνηση  that I tried without success to recreate back home. Then one year I saw a recipe in an airline magazine, and I've made it ever since. 

We call it Greek Beans. It's dried cannelloni, lately with a few butter beans, cooked  for hours with lots of olive oil, onions carrots, celery and tomatoes till the onions vanish leaving the beans in a thick pale orange sauce.

This time, instead of the usual beans, a mixed pack of ten types of beans were used; this makes the dish look different, but it tasted good. Served with a chunk of granary bread, mixed salad and retsina.

N.V. Greek Wine Cellars (D. Kourtakis) Retsina of Attica (Greece,  Attica) 

Country 3 was Italy