Waitrose Wine Challenge
A few weeks ago, some very nice people from Waitrose Cellar contacted me. Would I like to try and pair one of their wines with a somewhat more unusual dish? I'm not one to shrink from a challenge - well, unless it involves physical pain. I'm certainly not one to shrink from a challenge when the challenger is offering to send me several bottles of wines to choose my pairing.
Contrary to evidence / opinion, I'm not a massive drinker these days so decided to leave this one to fate. Other bloggers were, I'm told, being challenged so I said I'd just take whatever bottle was left... which is how I got to try and match something different with a bottle of Moss Wood Amy's Blend 2011, from Australia's Margaret River.
According to the official tasting notes, “This blend of classic Bordeaux grape varieties [Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot] displays
ripe plum and cassis fruit with an enjoyable, long finish. Seldom do wines
bestow such luscious, sweet tannins as this delightful red. Try with a roast rib
of beef with all the trimmings.”
Elsewhere on the web, it was a similar story. All the tasting notes I found talked of dark fruits - plum, mulberry,
blackcurrant – the classically Australian Cabernet Sauvignon hint of
menthol and to quaff Amy's Blend with roast meats.
Two problems there. It's summer and a straightforward, hearty Sunday lunch didn't really appeal. Also - and more importantly - a roast isn't really what you'd call unusual, is it? I needed to do some lateral thinking but, happily, tangents are one of the things I do best.
Thinking of Australia, my dad often tells mouth-watering tales of spit roasted lamb and vast feasts put
together by my step-sister’s Eastern European in-laws in Adelaide. With the Amy's Blend being
an Aussie wine with European influence, I got to thinking of other European
influences on that country, and Italian sprang to mind. Lamb and pasta - now
there’s a combination on which to build a recipe. But, you know, it's still not that unusual.
Hitting another tangent, I quickly went from "Australia" to "barbecue". While I'm a little barbecued out at the moment (see next month's delicious as to part of the reason why) I have been salivating recently over Francis Mallman’s excellent Argentine cook book Seven Fires. In there, there’s a glorious recipe of rolled lamb shoulder, stuffed
with confit lemon, parsley and rosemary, slow-cooked to melting perfection in a
bottle or two of Malbec, and served in a reduction of said cooking wine. I made the dish a few weeks ago and it was good, although I'm in no rush to make confit lemon again. But the fact that it had lemon was a surprise. Lemon with red wine? That's not an obvious pairing to my mind but exactly what I was looking for here and so now I had lamb, pasta and lemon to work with.
One of my favourite lamb recipes is an old Jamie Oliver one,
which is served with fresh mint and chopped capers, instead of mint sauce. The
acidity of the capers, the punch of the fresh mint – particularly with the
menthol of the Cab Sauv - is a combination that sings alongside the unctuous
fatty lumps of lamb. Also, I really like the vinegary hit. In a lot of my
cooking recently - probably the barbecue influece - I’ve been playing around with the use of different vinegars
to bring out flavours rather than an over reliance of salt and pepper, and I
love that little tingle it gives.
And finally, I couldn't help but think that broad beans needed to feature. This is partly because I absolutely adore them, partly because they're bang in season at the point of writing, partly because the dish was crying out for a splash of colour and a little texture, but mostly because we've got hundreds of the things at the allotment.
Thus was born this pasta dish which is vibrant and light enough to
eat in the garden over summer, but hearty enough to run through the colder
months too. Most of all though, I think it sets the (delicious) Moss Wood Amy’s Blend off
a treat.
Pasta with slow-roast
shoulder of lamb ragu, broad beans, mint, capers and lemon
For the shoulder of lamb – best prepared a day or two ahead.
One shoulder of lamb – bone in, bone out, whatever you
prefer. As for the size? How many are you feeding? Do you like leftovers?
Shredded bits of slow-roasted lamb are one of the best things to have in the
freezer at any given moment, as they defrost quickly and are terribly
versatile.
Garlic – several bulbs, peeled and cut into decent slivers
Rosemary – several sprigs
Lemon Thyme – might as well get that lemon flavour going
now, right?
(I'd also usually add anchovies – say, half a dozen, chopped into 1cm pieces - but forgot to pick them up this time.)
Method
Pre-heat oven to the highest setting. With a small sharp
knife, take out all your frustrations on the fatty side of the lamb shoulder
and stab several holes in it, all over (but be careful if you’ve got a bone-in
piece because it hurts when you stab in the wrong place). Take your sprigs of rosemary and lemon thyme, your chunks of garlic and
your slivers of anchovy (if you've got them) and stuff the holes with all of these / a few /
whatever you can fit. Rub a little olive oil all over the lamb, season
generously with salt and black pepper. Stick it in a roasting tin – if you’ve still
got lemon thyme and rosemary, lay the lamb on more sprigs of these - cover it
with tin foil making sure everything is properly sealed, and then put it in the
oven. As soon as it goes in, turn the oven down to 170 degrees C / 325 degrees
F / gas mark 3 and set the alarm for at least four hours.
After four hours, remove from the oven
and check how it’s looking. By this point, much of the fat should have melted
away and you’ll be able to pull the lamb apart easily with a fork or your fingers.
Shred it into reasonable chunks and strands, put a fist sized portion aside per
person and freeze the rest.
For the ragu (serves approximately four)
Lemon zest
Four fistfuls of shredded lamb shoulder
One onion
Garlic – one, two, more cloves depending on your taste,
thinly sliced
Olive oil
Butter
12 tomatoes (quartered) or 20+ cherry tomatoes (halved). You could use tinned, of course, but I prefer the real thing.
Broad beans – fresh or from frozen (or, indeed, peas)
Mint – chopped leaves, about 2 tbsp
Parsley – optional, about 1 tbsp if you fancy it though
Capers – chopped, 1-2 tbsp depending on taste
Pasta – I particularly like pappardelle for something like
this, lots of surface area and relatively easy to eat in a garden chair using
just a fork.
Parmesan Cheese
In a saucepan, heat a little oil and then add the diced
onion. Sweat it down for a few minutes – low heat, a pinch of salt, small
saucepan lid over the onion works a treat – then add the garlic and your
tomatoes. Let the tomatoes warm through so that they start to pop. As the
liquid fills the pan, add the meat and warm it all through, stirring
occasionally. Salt and pepper to taste.
You can, if you want, grate or peel the tomatoes but I quite
like the texture of those little rolls of skin in the finished dish.
If you’re adding broad beans, steam them separately for no
more than three minutes or until the outer “jacket” on some start to peel away
of their own accord. Pod them straight away – trust me, it’s SO much easier to
do this when they’re still warm. Do keep the little outer jackets though: chopped
up and sautéed with garlic and butter or added to a curry, they’re absolutely
delicious.
While you’re at it, boil the pasta in accordance with the
packet instructions. Add a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water to the
ragu, but drain the rest. Toss with a little butter and salt and pepper.
Add the capers to the ragu so that they warm through. (If you’re using
frozen peas, add to the ragu now so that they cook through.)
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| Yeah, same pic again. But come on, look at it... |
Comments
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