Sunday Chutney Sunday - the Tomato Chutney Recipe

Today is Chutney Sunday.  It was commemorated by the Irish band, 2U and sung by Bozo – in ‘Sunday, Chutney Sunday’ (Relish Records ©1992). 

Yesterday I chopped 15 pounds of tomatoes and 30 onions with the help of our charming Swiss homestay student Sofi. “At least we can say we cried together,” she joked.  Her suggestion of submersing the onions after peeling them was a good idea and helped reduce the tear gas scenario somewhat.

After that, I sprinkled salt of the three pots of tomato/onion mix and left them for 12 hours to sweat it out.  This morning – drained the liquid and added the final ingredients.  Right now – I have three pots bubbling away merrily and the house ‘stinking’ of vinegar (according to Miss 9).

Then it’s a matter of reducing the mix over a few hours and finally thickening it with flour and mustard before bottling. 

Like a good wine, chutney improves with age. About 12 months is right – all the flavours blend together and the chutney is just right for cold meats, with cheese, or curries.

Here’s the recipe:

Phil's World Famous Tomato Relish

2 pounds (1Kg) tomatoes, chopped: finely as you can be bothered.

3 chillies cut finely

4 onions, chopped finely

1 tablespoon dry mustard

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon curry powder

2 cups brown sugar

3 tablespoons plain baking flour

2 1/4 cups malt vinegar,

then 1/4 cup malt vinegar

Put tomatoes and onions into a non-metal bowl. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 12 hours. Drain off liquid formed. Put vegetables, sugar, first measure of vinegar and chillies into a preserving pan. Boil gently for 1& ½ hours, stirring frequently.

Mix mustard, curry, flour and second measure of vinegar to a smooth paste. Stir into relish. Boil for 5 minutes. Pack into hot sterilised jars (heat in oven). Makes about 4 small jars.

For extra flavour:  

Ginger dry or fresh (grated), cumin, cinnamon, cloves, 5-spice, and fennel:  ground – about 3 tsp of each

Garlic: 6 cloves - fresh, peeled & sliced.

(All added with the mustard, curry, flour mix.)

I get a bit ‘creative’ with amounts – but that should be right for two pounds of tomatoes 

Phil runs food and wine tours in Auckland New Zealand.

Italian Wines in NZ

For all its distance - the wine, food and culture of Italy seem to have an endless fascination for Aucklanders.  And not unlike the rest of the world, we have been eager to embrace panini, espresso, cappuccino, pasta, pizza, Chianti, Prada, and a whole bunch of other stuff ending in a, e, i and o.

Having said that, Italian wines tend to be a bit of a mixed bag.  Even the quality control system is fairly random; with the DOC (Denominazione de Origine Controllata) appellation not much of an indication of how good the wine is.  It just says ‘the name of the area where these grapes were grown is controlled.’   DOCG is a bit better: (Denominazione de Origine Controllata e Garantita) - ‘the name of the area where these grapes were grown is controlled and we guarantee that’s where they came from.’

Italy has for many years been predominantly a bulk wine producer (second only in global output to France), pumping out gazillions of litres of fairly mediocre wines into Europe and beyond. 

As a general rule, any wine produced south of Rome is probably not going to be of very high quality.  Regions like Puglia and Sicily are hugely productive hot climate areas producing the bulk of Italy’s easy drinking lightweight wines – often simply called ‘Vino di Tavola’ – table wine, made from blended varieties.  These wines are generally pretty good value, but nothing remarkable.

Having said that, there are some interesting wines worth seeking out in NZ.  Here are a few I randomly sourced locally:

San Crispino Chianti 2002 $21.95
Sourced from the Auckland Fish Market’s wine ‘Cellar’. This one was a gamble – being ten years old, despite its DOCG label.  Realistically, it’s pretty well over the hill age-wise but carries echoes of nice Chianti which should have been at its peak about 5 years ago.  Has some nice raisiny and Sherry characters with medium tannins.

Farnese Montepulciano D’abruzzo  (Docg) 2010  $17.00

The Abruzzo region of Italy is synonymous with the Montepulciano grape variety – and this wine is a very good example.  Soft, extremely ripe and fruity – this is a great value wine which delivers the goods.  Black currant, prunes and dark cherry flavours and spice with silky tannins.

San Marzano Primitivo Puglia 2010  $18.00

Primitivo is a robust wine which grows well in southern Italy. It is rumoured to be the same grape variety as Zinfandel – the mainstay of California’s  blockbuster reds.  Similarly, this is a big wine with fairly assertive tannins but it is very ripe and drinkable, with cherry, spice and toasty vanilla oak influence.

Phil Parker is a wine writer and operates Fine Wine Tours in Auckland.

www.insidertouring.co.nz 

UFO spotter on wine tour

 

Today I had a one-person tour. I.e. just me and one passenger.

Normally I don’t take singles, because the margins are fairly low and it’s a gamble as to who you get on the day. Yet, strangely enough I have had some fascinating people on these one-off tours as well as a few very odd ones.

Odd ones:  A manic New York lawyer who hired me for $100 an hour to drive him around Auckland, looking at architecture.  He insisted on the air-con being on maximum, so I had to shout at him to be heard over the freezing cooling fans and could barely hear his many rabid questions.  Then there was the  US State Dept. Guy who said almost nothing during a full day tour.

Interesting ones:  Charming female Melbourne based romance novel writer (as yet unpublished) who seems to have a healthy inheritance and pops over to NZ almost yearly.  An old  ex-British Royal Navy captain who loved wines, but insisted on following a road map of our progress on the day.  A sad 60-ish Frenchman who had married a British lass, raised a family, ran a country pub and his beloved  French restaurant, till she ran off with the rep from the beer company, and took half of everything.

But today – John.  Ex British Air Force, born in 1932 in Cornwall.  Was a fighter pilot till he changed to air traffic control in the 60s and eventually ended up at Heathrow, London.  He was offered an air traffic  job in the ‘colonies’ in 1967 with a choice of Hong Kong, Australia or New Zealand.  He chose NZ.
When I picked him up, he was neatly dressed – shirt and tie, (plus a necessary rain jacket) and a baseball cap.  He is now eighty years old but has a keenness, humour and vitality which defies the years.  John also has a great knowledge of wine. 

When he was in high school (about 1948) his school did a student exchange with a French school. He was plunged into the French culture and stayed with a family in Bordeaux, who were associated with some of the top red wine producers in France.  Thus began his passion for wine.

Interestingly, he was an air traffic controller at Wellington Airport for many years – overseeing many a hairy landing on its notorious short and wind buffeted runway.  Also, he was on duty the night of the Kaikoura UFO incident where speeding objects were tracked on Wellington aviation radar on the South Island’s east coast – doing speeds of 240 knots.  John swears they weren't the planet Venus, fishing lights or migratory birds.

What a fascinating chap.  But he hates Chardonnay.

Phil runs wine tours in Auckland New Zealand

What Makes Syrah / Shiraz Peppery?

 One of the distinctive aromas and flavours of Syrah (or Shiraz as the Aussies say), is black pepper.  This is very helpful when you're doing a wine options contest and need to identifiy the variety.  One whiff of fresh ground pepper and you can pretty well nail it as a Syrah/Shiraz.

Now, wine science is filling in the blanks for us with a new study which has identified a chemical compound - rotundone, as the common factor in both the wine and the spice. See here for the New York Times article.

Meanwhile, our own New Zealand Syrah grapes are producing some stunning wines, particularly from Hawkes Bay's Gimblett Gravels appellation region.  Longer and hotter Hawkes bay summers combined with the gravelly red metal soils in the region seem to be a winning combination which makes for full bodied, ripe and fruity reds with silky tannins.  As pictured left - Sacred Hill is a top performer.


Phil runs Food and Wine tours in Auckland New Zealand

Hangover Cures

Okay – just about everyone who has a fondness for alcohol has at some stage, if not quite often, over-indulged and then felt the repercussions the following day.

Hangovers are very personal and vary from drinker to drinker.  A colleague who I talked to yesterday, regularly imbibes 750 ml of wine a night with no ill effect, but suffers slight headaches if she has another few glasses.  Certainly the volume consumed is directly proportional to the physical and mental damage.

Personally, if it gets to the point where I’m unsure of how many glasses I had - but it’s about 1.00 a.m. and I’m on Facebook dispensing swathes of wisdom and hilarity, then there is a very good chance that I will be unwell the next morning   For me, it pans out as nausea, mental confusion, dehydration and a pounding headache.  As the day proceeds with a leaden gloom, foul mood, general feeling of loss of will to live, and an inability to form complete sentences.  This doesn’t disappear for about 24 hours if I’m lucky.

So – is there a cure for hangovers?

Yes.  Duh? Don’t drink too much.  . 

Nah, but yeah truly - is there a cure for hangovers?, I hear you ask.
Not really, but there are some measures of damage control which appear to have some scientific backing.

•   Drink as much water as you can during the evening and before you go to bed to alleviate symptoms caused by dehydration.  Continue drinking fluids the next morning.  Sports drinks, such as Gatorade,  relieve dehydration, and replace electrolytes.  The downside is (hopefully remembering) to get up in the night frequently to relieve the bladder.
  
• Painkillers – Aspirin, and ibuprofen help to reduce headaches and muscle pain.  But don’t use them if you have any gastric pain or nausea, because these painkillers are also gastric irritants and can add to stomach lining irritation. Paracetomol is a more gentle option.

• Eggs are thought to help with breaking down toxins associated with alcohol breakdown

• Ginger – either tea or in pill form can help to relieve nausea

• Bananas help to replace potassium and other electrolytes

• Fruits and fruit juices replace vitamins and nutrients, particularly vitamin C

• Berocca and vegemite  (not mixed together, silly).  Both good sources of vitamin B.

Then there are Ye Olde hangover cures – which you may wish to try: pair of pickled sheeps’ eyes in tomato juice, tea brewed from rabbit droppings, or the more familiar Prairie Oyster.  I.e.  a whole raw egg and Worcestershire sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper. The aim is to swallow it in one gulp without breaking the yolk.

Phil runs winery tours in Auckland New Zealand 

Waiheke Island Wine Tours

Just over a year ago I made a serious effort to get to know the Waiheke Island wine region.  See here.   And after that initial foray, I took the plunge and set up a Waiheke Island wine tour option on my website.

The uptake has been modest, but the good news is that I have been able to share Waiheke's magic with many people over the last 12 months.   Waiheke can be over hyped and its wines vary from year to year, but there is something magical about the Island.  As soon as you step off the ferry, there is a feeling of having left all the rest of the world far behind - deep breath - exhale slowly.  Relax. 
That's part of the charm of Waiheke Island: nothing is done in a hurry, just be laid back and enjoy the day as it unfolds. 

Waiheke does boast one of NZ's most famous red wine producers, the organic Stonyridge vineyards.  Their 'Larose' Bordeaux style blend is legendary and tends to sell out even before it's released.  Other overachievers are Te Whau and Te Motu along with Kennedy Point and Jurassic Ridge.

Along with some of NZ's best restaurants, stunning scenery and views of the Gulf, Waiheke does deliver.

Phil runs wine tours in Auckland New Zealand

Wyndham 333 Pinot Noir- drinkable, and at ten bucks

I'm always on the lookout for a bargain Pinot Noir - being a Pinotphile from way back.

In NZ it is hard to find any Pinots under $25 that aren't wimpy raspberry-lite BBQ quaffers.

Admittedly, the Marlborough Pinots seem to be getting better each vintage with older vines and improved vineyard management. But they are still clocking in at about $24 for anything reasonable.   Or 'drinkable' as some wine tossers are prone to opine. (It's a funny thing how saying a wine is drinkable is a good thing.  Whereas if you described a dish as edible it would be pejorative.)

Anyway, at the risk of losing my citizenship, I do find the Aussie Wyndham 333 Pinot Noir often available at $NZ9.99 a bottle very good value.  It's a medium style with fruity cherry and red fruits flavours plus a fine grained tannin.
The wine seems to be a blend of South Eastern Australian wine, with no particular region quoted on the label.  I have bought bottles over the last few years and the Pinot tastes like it is blended to a particular consistent style (not unlike their 555 Shiraz). In former times as a Shiraz fan, I often drank their 555 Shiraz.  And nothing wrong with blending for consistency - French Champagne makers have been doing that for yonks.



Even Wine Spectator give it 86/100. Very imbibable, says I.  (I'd swear on the Bibable)

Phil runs not for profit Wine and Food Tours in Auckland New Zealand, God bless 'im.