The afternoon we arrived at Bodegas Monje was utterly stunning. The sky was a shimmering turquoise and the rows of vines glowed emerald green, rolling down towards the sea. What a gorgeous place.

First up was a tour of the winery (meaning that we had to head into the gloom of the cellar… boooo.)  Still, I learned absolutely loads about wine making (the winery produce a stunning range of wines, mostly exported to the USA).

Next, it was upstairs to the rather beautiful cookery school, to get a crash course in Canarian cooking and test some of those stunning wines as well:

First on our menu was that Canarian staple (and my Disreputable Dad’s absolute favourite): papas arugadas (meaning literally ‘wrinkled potatoes’).  We had a bit of a laugh when we discovered that the type of spud used is ‘Quinegua’ – pronounce it in a Spanish accent and you’ll see exactly how it got its name: King Edward!

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We watched as the small potatoes were barely covered with boiling water and an eye watering amount of sea salt was added (at least two handfuls, but don’t worry, the potatoes will only absorb as much as they need – we tested this theory).  The potatoes were then covered and boiled for about 20 minutes, depending on size.  When tender, they were then drained and returned to the heat where they were tossed and shaken until all the remaining water was gone and they took on their traditional wrinkly, dusty appearance.  Delicious.

Next we moved on to the sauces.  Traditionally, red mojo sauce is served with meat and green with fish.   We were on the green team (the green can be coriander, but is just as often parsley or a mixture of the two) and set to work.  Mojo is traditionally made entirely by hand in a pestle and mortar and takes LOADS of elbow grease.  I bet there aren’t many bingo wings to be seen on the island, what with all that pounding!

For Green Mojo

6 cloves garlic

1 tsp sea salt

1 green pepper, deseeded and finely diced

One small (and very hot) green chilli

1/2 bunch fresh coriander (or parsley)

2 tsp cider vinegar

2 wine glasses of olive oil

First, crush the garlic with the salt, then slowly add in the green pepper, pounding until it’s all completely pulped.  Now add a tiny piece of the green chilli (to taste, but if they’re as hot as the ones on Tenerife, a teeny tiny square is all you need), then add in the coriander and keep pounding. When everything is completely pulped, add in the vinegar ad the oil.

We added a handful of crushed almonds and sultanas, which adds a little sweetness and thickens the sauce, but this is optional, as is an avocadeo, which adds a lovely creaminess.

For Red Mojo

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped

1 red chilli (again, as much as you like, but a small piece if they’re the very hot fiery ones)

1 slice toasted bread

2 tsp red wine vinegar

2 wine glasses olive oil

1 tsp sweet paprika

Again with the red, the garlic is pounded with the salt before the other ingredients are added one by one, making sure they’re completely broken down before the next ingredient is added.  The toasted bread works as the thickener in the red mojo.  Both were absolutely delicious.  We ate the red mojo with some pulled pork and those gorgeous potatoes.

We also had a demonstration of how the locals eat Gofio, the baked corn flour from the mill we visited in La Orotava.  The Gofio is mixed with ground raisins and almonds, milk, a splash of water and local honey.  It’s worked into a firm dough and that’s it.  It’s eaten sliced with goats’ cheese, and maybe even some mojo sauce.  We were divided on the gofio but I thought it was really lovely.

I adored the food on Tenerife: the seafood was delicious and very fresh (the ‘wreckfish’ was delicious, but I’m struggling to find out whether this is just local to Tenerife, or if it’s called by another name elsewhere), and obviously we ate an enormous amount of flan (I suppose we would say creme caramel), delicious custardy slabs, sometimes served with the dark caramel sauce, or sometimes with other little drizzly sauces, but often just plain.

Muy delicioso!

If you’d like to see more foodie photos from my trip, check out my Facebook page.

FOR THE MUMS

Red Magazine is my favouritest magazine ever.  The best food, the best fashion and the nicest editor (follow her on Twitter at @SamatRedMag).  If you subscribe now, you can get 6 issues for just £9.99 plus a really nice Elemis freebie.  Grab it for yourself AND buy your Mum a subscription!

Red has a fabulous new website too! Check it out at redonline.co.uk – there’s beauty, recipes, fashion, news and tons more – it’s like a whole other magazine on the web:

All for Eve is a great beauty brand where  100% of net profits are donated to the Eve Appeal that funds research into gynaecological cancers.  There is currently a capsule collection of 8 fantastic products (the awesome red lipstick was created by make up artist Daniel Sandler).  Great quality, and what a fab cause too.  Available in loads of stores (including Harrods dahling).  Check online for stockists.

Carol Savage, the Dragon’s Den ‘alumnus” and founder of recipe website MyDish.co.uk has launched lovely personalised  recipe calendars for Christmas this year.  You can either source and upload a favourite recipe or alternatively add your own recipes and photos:

The calendar costs £15.00 and £5.00 from every calendar donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Brown and Harris have some beautiful and very on-trend old-fashioned English toiletries which would make lovely gifts.  They have some gorgeous gift-sets as well as individual products – I keep an enormous tube of the lavender conditioning hand and nail cream on my desk which smells absolutely delicious (lavender’s not just for grannies you know!).  The perfumed wardrobe and drawer sachets are gorgeously vintage and make really sweet stocking fillers too.   Available online from their website, and from Amazon, plus other stockists.

Talking of smellies, if your mum is a lover of scented candles (aren’t we all?) look no further than the gorgeously scented Spa Paradisa candles.  The packaging is wonderfully retro and I thought the scents were utterly delicious.  Available at next.co.uk and Debenhams too.

And let’s not forget mums to be in our little line up.  I can heartily recommend the delightfully girly Mum to Be Pamper Me gift set, which includes bath soak, tummy cream and a vanilla scented candle:

They also do a really lovely Little Me Organics lavender-scented gift set for mum and baby.  Lovely new mum Denise Van Outen is a big fan of the range.

Last but not least, if you can count booze as stocking fillers, I’d heartily recommend Martini’s range of festive fizz:

MARTINI Asti DOCG (7.5% ABV, £6.28 at Tesco).  This is the original Asti taste that I remember from many Christmases past, and although a tad sweet for some palates, it makes for a lovely cocktail when mixed with plenty of fresh lime (a tip I learned from the lovely Nigella).

MARTINI Prosecco DOC (11.5% ABV).  Prosecco is well trendy this Christmas and this one, with hints of apple and peach, is gorgeous.

MARTINI Cuvée Speciale Rosé (8% ABV).  I love  rosé – not only because of the colour!  This is the perfect party wine – and has only 75 kcal for a 125ml serving!

The Prosecco and Rose is £6.00 in Asda on spesh at the moment.

Chin chin!

FOR THE DADS

First of all, I must recommend 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die by the fabulous Adrian Tierney-Jones, hubby of my lovely friend Exmoor Jane.  Available from Amazon priced £10.92, it’s a must-purchase for every beer-loving dad.

Still on the subject of beer, here are two fine beers born out of a collaboration between Rick Stein and Sharp’s Brewery.  Chalky’s Bark has subtle hints of ginger, a perfect match for spicy food, whilst Chalky’s Bite has notes of fennel which goes great with any seafood. If your dad’s a real foodie, you’ll seriously be in his good books. Chalky’s Bark & Chalky’s Bite are both available in cases of 12 bottles at £24, from Majestic stores  or www.sharpsbrewery.co.uk

No Dad’s stocking should be complete without this fabulous tin of yummy Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls  mint balls.  The newly designed tin costs just £3.27 and with 100% natural ingredients, these famous mint balls are suitable for vegetarians, vegans and are gluten-free too.  http://www.uncle-joes.com

The brand new Black and Decker 14.4v Autoselect® Lithium Ion Hammer Drill is out now(oh come on, you know every Dad secretly wants a drill even if they don’t ever use one).

Radox have got some fabulous gift sets out at the  moment.   Available nationwide from Boots and all good chemists – one of these sets would make a great stocking stuffer for any dad.

If you’re going to go the trad route and give socks (the hubby insists on it every  year), Jeep have got some really trendy ones.  We (well, not me) tried out the Luxury Terrain ones, and they’re a cut above your normal stocking filler.  Available at the usual outlets priced £7.99.

This gorgeous Mont Blanc Special Edition John Lennon pen is a snip at £585.00 (ahaha), but there are pens for every budget that would make a great pressie for any office-bound brother or crossword-loving dad.  Check out thepenshop.co.uk for loads of choice.  There are tons of Filofaxes in every colour too.

The Powermat is an awesome pressie if your man has an iPhone 3 or 4.  We tried it out and it’s really good.  Once fitted with the special case, you can just pop the phone straight onto the mat and it charges it straight away.  It works for Blackberries/DSi/PSPs and loads more as well.  A word of warning though, if you’ve got a ‘normal’ phone (I’ve got a Nokia 5800), you can’t use it.  There are some extra attachments, but they’re mostly USB based.

It just so happens that I have an amazing friend, Hels, who is also a wine expert.  She used to be a buyer for a big supermarket and now works for a fabulous wine company.  I know – how lucky am I?  She’s very busy doing international winey things and judging at wine exhibitions, but I managed to nab her to give us the low down on Christmas booze.

The culinary countdown to Christmas has begun and decisions need to be made. What size turkey? Make or buy the Christmas cake? How many things I can really put on my Christmas list without looking greedy? All that can wait. For me, the fun part is choosing what wines to get in. With all the thought, love and care that we put into food for the Big Day, this is no time to leave wine to the last minute resulting in a dash to the corner shop for an extra few bottles of Blossom Hill. Of course, there are timeless Christmas Classics – Champagne, Chablis, Claret and Port – but the explosion in wine choice from around the world gives us endless possible glorious combinations. Here are a few recommendations, both classic and not-so-classic, to try:

Christmas Morning – a good Prosecco

I like to think of this as Mother’s Little Helper: a small glass of Prosecco in the kitchen whilst getting things ready, quite possibly in my dressing gown. Others can help themselves too, they usually do. It has a gentle fizz, a touch of sweetness and a definite festive feel. Try and find one from the Valdobbiadene region, a small area in Italy – near Venice – recognised for making fizz from the Prosecco grape that is a quality notch above the rest.

Christmas Lunch

I bloody love Christmas lunch. Being naturally greedy, I love being able to put so many different things on my plate all at once, trying out different food combinations with every forkful: a bit of turkey with cranberry sauce, my mother-in-law’s brussel sprout puree (the only way I’ll eat them) with a bit of sausage wrapped in bacon. Finding a wine that can cope with all these different flavours on one plate is not easy, so have both white wine and red wine on the table. Either stick to whatever colour you prefer or go crazy: have both! Not at the same time, obviously. I seem to start with a glass of white before sitting down to eat and move on to red with lunch. Acidity in the whites will help cut through the saltiness (bacon, sausages).  Chablis – which is made from the Chardonnay grape – is often touted as the fail-safe match for turkey and so it is, but I prefer a rounder, almost creamier Chardonnay to cope with the mixed bag of savoury flavours. Last year we had a Chilean Chardonnay that worked a dream. This year I’m going for an old world classic Chardonnay from Burgundy in France; Meursault (if feeling reckless) or a white from the Macon region (if I’ve spent too much on presents).

For red, I’m going for a big Pinot. I love a good Pinot. Don’t always like the price (notoriously expensive and is a bugger of a grape to grow) but when it’s good, it is so worth it. Now, this grape’s natural homeland is France, Burgundy again to be precise. However, a country on the other side of the world has quietly been getting its Pinot act together over the last few years. New Zealand, specifically a region in the South Island called Central Otago, is producing some of the most delicious Pinot Noir wines I’ve tried over the last year. Again, not cheap but it really will help bring out all the flavours in the food. Often, I see Claret (that’s red wine from Bordeaux under another name) suggested as a good match for Christmas lunch but I find it can dominate the flavours and the tannin clashes with the fat. The less-tannic New Zealand Pinot Noir doesn’t fight with the food, if you know what I mean. If the price of the NZ Pinot puts you off, try one from Chile: arguably better value for money.

For pudding and/or cheese, I’m still usually on the red but if I remember to move on to the sweeties (darling) I am always glad I did. A small 37.5cl bottle of something sweet and sticky, especially Sauternes made from a blend of Semillon and Sauvignon grapes, is a suitably decadent way to wind it up. Made from grapes ripened and naturally rotted, the result is a wine with divinely concentrated sugars, flavours and balance that will match both sweet Christmas pudding and a savoury slab of Stilton.

And then there’s the Amaretto…

Happy Christmas!

KMx

You can find Helen’s blog, Knackered Mothers” Wine Club, just here.

If you want to find the wines that Helen recommended, the lovely Matt at Curious wines has given me the links for:

The Prosecco, The Chardonnay and The Pinot Noir

I thought it was quite interesting, when I was watching the tv programme yesterday covering the rescue of the Chilean miners from the San José mine, that the voiceover guy said:  ’in the past, Chile was only ever famous for its ‘con carne”.  Yes okay, so it made me laugh, but seriously?  I only knew about Chile because of their rather scrummy wine.

I was going to do a Chilean food post, but frankly, unless you count fabulous steaks (nope, sorry – chilli con carne is American in origin) and some rather good seafood near the coast, Chilean food is, well, a bit uninspiring (although if a nice Chilean foodie would like to guest write me some nice recipes, my door’s always open).

Happily, though, Chilean wine is altogether more exciting.  And I asked fellow foodie and wine expert, Matt, from Curious Wines to tell us more:

Chile’s wines have only arrived in the UK and Ireland in big numbers over the last decade or so, so it’s tempting to assume that Chile’s wine industry is a relatively young one. Tempting, but wrong…

Grapes have been grown in Chile since the 1500s when the conquistadors took over cuttings from Spain to grow their sacramental wine. What they were growing wasn’t, frankly, something you’d want to drink unless you had to. But the modern industry began as long ago as 1824, when the first wealthy businessman decided he wanted to grow French grape varieties.

Soon, everyone who was anyone was at it, and expensive wine estates – planted with Bordeaux grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and Burgundy grapes like Chardonnay, were springing up all over the valleys south of the capital.

By the 1980s, the industry had its second re-birth, when producers began to invest in the same sort of new technology that has boosted winemaking standards in places like Australia and California. This, combined with an even-better understanding of just what makes the country’s vineyards tick and special attention to their marketing message shot the industry to world prominence.

Currently the Chilean wine industry is looking to reform its image and with a collective concerted effort the times of cut-price deals might be coming to an end for many producers. Reports from disgruntled Chilean producers suggest that they are no longer willing just to ‘break-even’ as the capitalistic nature of the 1st world countries continue to squeeze them for silly prices, with not a care for cost in terms of product quality.

Using a similar business model to New Zealand – that is bringing wines to market that have real character and distinction, and deliver excellent value within the mid-range price bracket – Chile can compete with anyone on their own merits by producing honest wines that showcase the best of their terroir and the skills of each winemaker. Think of it as a product life cycle. These guys don’t want to see themselves in decline any time soon.

To see Curious Wines’ selection of Chilean wine, check out their website.

Oh, and check out my recipe for lamb shanks braised in Chilean Carménère over at Curious Wines’ lovely blog.

My sister in law, the  lovely Auntie L, has her birthday ridiculously close to Christmas, so on Saturday we decided to throw her a little birthday party.  It also just happens that the lovely chaps at Cobra Beer had contacted me a while ago and said ‘guess what, we know you like curry so we’re going to send you some beer to go with it’.

No way.  ’What, like no strings?  You’re just going to send me beer?

‘Yup’.

‘And you don’t want anything in return?’

‘Nope’

‘What, like not even a mention?’

‘No, we’re cool’

Wow.

I love blogging.

Curry it is, then.

And yup, they did.  Sent us a whole box of Cobras to go with our curry.  And the links to a load of curry recipes on their website.  Anyhoo, digressing.  So I made a beef dhansak and their recipe for marinated spicy chicken (and no, not just ‘cos they sent me free beer, honest), along with some yoghurt/cucumber/mint raita (raitha? I’m never sure), some onion salad with coriander, and a rice pilaff from Nigella’s ‘Feast’ book.

For pud, I set Turtle, my adorable niece,  a secret mission to find out Auntie L’s favourite cake.  It turned out to be coffee and walnut.  Frankly, the less said about this the better.  I made the walnut cake, but my attempt at coffee frosting was a total shambles.  Hell, we poured it over, stuck a few candles in it and ate it anyway.  It didn’t set, but it didn’t seem to matter.  Not my finest moment, but hey, it tasted okay.

Finally, I served frozen shot glasses of my special Chrimbo liqueur: a shudderingly, toe-curlingly whizzy little mouthful of Christmas.  Try it, you won’t be disappointed:

First, then, assemble your ingredients:

1 litre vodka (or Eau de Vie or Bacardi – whatever really)

50g soft brown sugar

1 clementine or tangerine, peel and juice

1 lime, peel and juice

1 tsp mixed spice

A handful of dried cranberries

2 cinnamon sticks (make sure they’re slim enough to fit in the vodka bottle)

4 cloves

1 star anise (likewise, pick ones that fit in the bottle)

2 bay leaves

So first, bung the brown sugar in a pan and add in the juice of the clementine and the lime.

You don’t really need to stir it, just swirl it around and allow it to come up to the boil so it’s all bubbly and kind of syrupy:

…and when it’s bubbling, turn it down and add in your other ingredients:

Stir them around so they’re all coated in the caramel, then take it off the heat and carefully add the vodka (watch out, it’ll spit).  Now, pour the whole lot back into the vodka bottle (you’ll need to poke some of the ingredients in with a knife or something).  And that’s it.  Just leave it somewhere to fester for a couple of days (not too long or you’ll just have cough medicine), sieve it and serve in teeny, cold shots.

Wehay!

So here, finally, is the review of The Forge Restaurant where we celebrated English Grandma’s 70^th.  We went with open minds because (let’s face it, like most restaurants) some of our friends had had fabulous experiences, and others not so good - we’d also heard tales of being rushed through desserts to free up tables, but when I phoned I spoke to a very friendly waitress who assured me that we could take as long as we needed.

First things first, then, it’s in an absolutely beautiful spot.  Nestled in quite a rural location, but only about 5 minutes off the N3 (the main road between Kells and Cavan) and just 4 miles north of Kells.  I’d guestimate that it’s probably just over an hour’s drive from Dublin.  It’s a beautiful old stone building with plenty of parking, and we were given a very warm welcome by owner Irene, who was reassuringly present in the restaurant all evening, and the lovely smiley waitresses.

Obviously the first thing we did was order some wine and we weren’t disappointed with our South African Lookout Ridge Chenin Blanc ’08, which was fresh and zingy.  The dinner menu (we booked at 7pm)  is small but lovingly chosen, and Irene was more than happy to chat about the decisions behind the menu, their suppliers, where their seafood comes from, etc.

We got an amazing platter of warm home made bread while we were waiting, with some lovely spicy fruity walnut bread being my particular favourite.  The fellas all chose a mussel casserole as a starter.  The mussels were small and deliciously sweet, swimming in a generous broth of cream, white wine and onion (which was a bit too creamy for their tastes, but I thought was lovely – maybe in need of a bit more reduction, although I’m no expert):

Grandma and I both chose the smoked haddock fishcakes, which were exactly as promised: with chunks of soft smokey fish and a lovely crisp coating:

Everything was beautifully presented and absolutely scrummy.

For mains, Hubby and I both chose salmon with a crab Creole sauce, #2 went for a rib eye steak and #1 chose a rack of lamb.  I can’t remember what Grandma chose (I blame the Chenin Blanc).  Again, every meal was painstakingly decorated and lovingly presented: the lamb expertly cooked and just pink in the middle:

… the salmon moist and delicate (what?  I stole some chips, okay?), nestled on the Creole crab which was amazingly sweet and warmly spiced:

… and the steak (what was left of it by the time we got a photo) huge, meltingly tender and perfectly cooked:

The side orders were beautiful, and generous: big fat chips, lovely creamy dauphinoise potatoes and fresh crisp vegetables.  Most importantly, they were included in the price of the meal – it really annoys me when restaurants charge you 6 quid for a teeny plate of veg.

On to desserts, then.  And although we were all feeling a bit like overstuffed cushions, the menu was so tempting that we had to go for it.  Hubby and I shared a Baileys and mixed nut parfait in a hazelnut tuille with fruits of the forest coulis, which was first class.  The parfait had an amazing texture and creamy flavour, and the tuille was light and crisp.  Yum:

#2 naturally went for a big slab of squidgy chocolate roulade, complemented by a lovely sorbet (can’t remember what flavour but it was zingy and fruity and fabulously countered the richness of the chocolate roulade):

…and even the birthday girl managed to squeeze in a bit of sorbet:

All in all we were delighted.  It’s not a cheap meal, but the care and attention taken with the sourcing, cooking and decorating of each plate of food means that you feel that you get proper value for money.  The staff and owners are friendly and welcoming (even to little English boys with very loud, squeaky voices) and passionate about their product, the setting is divine and the restaurant is homely, warm and inviting.  If you live in Ireland, do try and make the effort to head north and try out this absolute gem of a place, and if not, then next time you’re in Ireland, you must visit.  In fact, you can pop in to English Towers and say hi at the same time.

The Forge Restaurant
Pottlereagh
Carnaross
Kells
Co. Meath

Tel: 046 924 5003
Fax: 046 924 5917

http://www.theforgerestaurant.ie/

I love butternut squash.  I love its sweetness, its softness, and its beautiful orangey colour.  I love risotto too, and the combination of both of them is one of my favourite meals.  I happened to mention to the lovely Matt, fellow blogger and ’Wine Evangelist’ (I love that title) at Curious Wines that I was going to knock up a butternut squash risotto and he very kindly offered to send me a couple of wines to taste with it.  ‘I can’t taste wine’, was my initial reaction, but with the promise of help and tasting notes, I felt much better.  Was I in?  Too bloody right I was.

#1′s homecoming from bleeding his Grandparents dry in England seemed a good enough time for a little celebration, so I put the vino on ice and set about making the butternut risotto: 

1 butternut squash

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

7 or 8 sage leaves, finely chopped

Butter

1 onion, finely chopped

350g risotto rice (arborio or carnaroli)

2 litres chicken stock

Parmesan, grated, and some for serving 

So preheat the oven to 200/gas 6.  Peel and deseed the squash and cut into cubes.  Spread the pieces out on a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over about half of the finely chopped sage leaves:

Roast for about 30  mins or until soft and slightly caramelised.  You can do this in advance and allow the squash to cool, if you like:

For the risotto: allow the stock to come to a simmer in a saucepan, then keep warm on a low heat on the hob:

Grab a heavy based pan, put it on a low heat and melt a tablespoon of butter.  Glug in some olive oil (about 2 tbsp should do it), then gently fry the onion until it’s translucent (try my trick of adding a pinch of caster sugar to stop it browning too quickly).  Then add in the rice, stirring around until it’s all glossy.

Add half the squash and the finely chopped sage.  Now just keep adding ladlefuls of stock, one at a time, stirring constantly and making sure all the liquid is absorbed before adding another.  When all the stock is gone – this might take half an hour or so – the risotto should be nice and creamy, still with a teeny bit of bite to it.

Now add in the rest of the squash and stir in the rest of the sage (the smell is amazing).  Turn the heat off, have a quick taste and season generously, then stir in another knob of butter, and a handful of grated parmesan, put the lid on and leave it to sit until you’re ready to serve.  Finally, ladle the risotto into warm bowls, topping with some grated parmesan, and serve:

Now to the wine.  Our first contender was the Waipara Springs Premo Dry Riesling 2006 (€12.99 from Curious Wines), and wow did this baby surprise me.  I think the last time I tried Riesling it was some medium German shocker (you can read all about what Curious Wines’ Mike has to say about Riesling here), but this was amazing – so zingy it was almost fizzy on your tongue.  We’re no wine buffs, but could actually taste something citrusy, (#1 had a sip and reckoned he could taste grapefruit – and do you know what?  It was actually on the tasting notes – he’s far too young to be this good) and the crisp, acidity was a perfect foil for the creamy sweetness of the risotto.  Yum.

Onto the next one, then.  Next up was the Tussock Pinot Gris 2007 (€14.99 from Curious Wines).  You can read Matt’s notes about Pinot Gris here.  This was a different kettle of fish.  You could see instantly that it was much darker in colour, and for those of you who might find the Waipara Springs a little too sharp, this was much softer and really, really pleasant, although still retaining a crispness that again complemented the risotto perfectly.  Try as we might, though, our dodgy palettes couldn’t make out the promised pear/apple notes – but I think that was our fault rather than the wine –  and there was a lingering aftertaste that I can’t describe (help, Matt!) but that was absolutely delicious.  Although this was lovely with food, we could well imagine polishing this one off whilst tucked up on the sofa in front of Lie to Me.

Sadly, after finishing two bottles of wine between us, I can’t read many of my notes and lost one of the pieces of paper, but the Waipara Springs definitely came in the winner with an impressive score of 16/20.  So that’s it, then, my first ever wine tasting.  I’d like to thank Mike and Matt for their patience, copious notes, encouragement… and the free wine, oh and for the slightly giggly game of poker that followed.  Bless you.

So this is really clever.  Lovely Lar, over at Ireland’s best wine blog, Sour Grapes , has taken different recipes from various Irish food bloggers nominated for the Irish Blog Awards, and matched them with some rather outstanding wine choices. 

To accompany my Sunday lunch of beef stew with fluffy parsley dumplings.  Lar suggests a Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon coming in at a breathtaking €27.49, but hey, as Lar points out it would be perfect for a special weekend dinner.  And anyway, staying in is the new going out, don’t they say?

Read all about it here.