Poulet au vinagire

Following a decision to expand the range of herbs that I cook with, I went to The Mothership's herb garden for inspiration. I hadn't used much tarragon before so I found a recipe that called for it. This is Delia Smith's adaption of 'poulet au vinaigre'.

The tarragon complemented the chicken well. Its flavour is difficult to describe, I'd say that once cooked it was partly reminiscent of lemon, raw green pepper and maybe a tiny bit of aniseed. I think the tarragon I used was Russian Tarragon which is inferior to French Tarragon. From doing some reading about this it seems like French Tarragon is a very particular plant and needs a fair amount of attention for it to flourish. The tarragon in the garden seems to be growing very happily without any special treatment, plus I think it didn't give as much flavour to the finished dish as French Tarragon should.

This version was 6/10 but I will try it with French Tarragon (and without burning it) and see if this elevates the score.

For anyone who has, or aspires to have, their own vegetable/herb garden, I was interested to read that not many pests like tarragon and growing it amongst other plants helps keep the pests away from these too.

Here is the recipe I used:

From Delia's Summer Collection: Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce

For 4 generous portions

1.75 kg chicken, jointed into 8 pieces
150 ml sherry vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
425ml medium-dry Amontillado sherry
12 shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves plus small sprigs of tarragon to garnish
1 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, while doing this season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Fry the chicken pieces until golden brown (this is best done in two batches) then remove these to a plate.
Add shallots and garlic to the pan until these are slightly brown.
Turn the heat down, put the chicken pieces back into the pan with the shallots and garlic, scatter the tarragon leaves into the pan and add the sherry vinegar and sherry. Pour glasses of sherry for the people you are cooking for and yourself too, enjoy.
Let the contents of the pan come up to a simmer, then turn the heat down until barely simmering.
Leave for 45 minutes, turning the chicken pieces halfway through this time. The sauce will reduce during this time.
Do keep checking there is still some sauce, don't leave it and go and enjoy a summer's evening in the garden with everyone else and plenty more sherry as I did, or you risk the sauce starting to 'caramelise' and yourself starting to marinade in sherry.
Remove the chicken pieces, shallots and garlic from the pan onto a warmed serving plate. Whisk the creme fraiche into the remaining sauce and season to taste. This still works if the sauce has started to catch a bit, as I found out!

Serve with new potatoes, or rice, or whatever you fancy. As the picture shows, in my slightly inebriated wisdom I had decided to add diced carrots to the rice part way through cooking the rice.

An experiment

1989 was one of the best vintages for Crozes-Hermitage.  The Mothership recently discovered that she had a case which had been forgotten about at some point in the last 21 years, so we decided to open some and see what it was like.  It turns out that while I can claim to have tasted this vintage, I am none the wiser about what a good Crozes-Hermitage would be like, because it was very much past its prime.  It smelt like seaweed, all iodine and decomposition, and not in an exciting whisky kind of way, but in a 'yuk, what IS that?' kind of way.  It tasted like vinegar, which is exactly what it is.  The only person to benefit from this is The Geek God, who being an '89 vintage himself can keep some unopened bottles for posterity, safe in the knowledge that none of us will want to drink it.  I might plough through the rest of the case on the very off-chance that there is a bottle that is still ok, it's all going to get poured down the sink anyway.

Fantasy spot for post-hiking supper? It's a Shoe Inn

I'm not sure how much, if at all, the name of this establishment is intended to be a pun, but it was definitely exactly what we were looking for.

Last weekend The Whisky Fiend, The Modeller and I took on the South Downs Way between Winchfield and Petersfield.  We camped near Exton, and the owner of the farm where we camped recommended The Shoe Inn for food, and even gave us a lift there.  We were footsore and hot and  appreciated this kindness.

The Shoe Inn is the brilliant kind of pub where you'd feel equally comfortable whether you were in walking boots or dressed more smartly.  It has a beer garden leading down to a river which is where we sat.

A quick glance at the menu was enough to convince me that given our location South Downs Lamb was the only option.  I had a burger made with lamb and feta, which came between two mini flatbreads with rocket, tomato and aioli.  The mix between local and meditteranean/middle eastern influences had flair without being pretentious, mainly because it really did work.  The feta, rocket and aioli enhanced the flavour and sweetness of the lamb, and the flatbread was tasty and also functional in mopping up the  juices that came from the burger (a good one to eat outside as it eliminates the worries of making a mess!) It came with skinny fries and a salsa which were much needed after the day's exertion but totally overshadowed by the burger. 

The Whisky Fiend had a beef and 6X pie with roasted vegetables which was claimed to be excellent- I cheekily sampled it and can happily confirm this.  The Modeller had belly of pork which looked like it had the perfect meat:fat ratio.

We ordered a bottle of Malbec which I admit I can't remember much about except that the expected red fruit and slightly earthy flavours worked well with all of our food selections.  By the time we had explored some more wine and beer, and finished with whisky (what did we expect with The Whisky Fiend on board?) we were prepared for the walk home.  While walking back we saw fireworks being set off, and I also saw a shooting star, the first I have seen in the UK.

I'd love to tell you we navigated back by the stars, but you'd be amazed at what iPhones can do.  A photo of the lamb burger will be posted once The Whisky Fiend has emailled it to me.

Wairau Cove

Exciting times!  The first 9/10 on the blog.

A gorgeous Sauvignon Blanc that The Cyclist brought over for dinner with myself and The Fiesta.  Wairau Cove Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough New Zealand, 2008.  "Incredibly vibrant" says the label. I say quite sweet for the genre but gorgoeus tropical fruit flavours, maybe some lychee in there too.  Less of the almost metallic taste that can characterise Sauvignon Blancs, and the extra sweetness adds a bit more oopmh that means this wine has a bit more scope for pairing with autumnal food.  We had Cottage Pie; not a planned combination, nor even a great one, but it worked, and to be honest we'd enjoyed a lot of the bottle before eating!

I later discovered it was on offer at Tesco (The Cyclist is an intelligent one too!) and stocked up.  I took a bottle for dinner with Bond and Jones, more details about that in a later post.

English Wine

The Cyclist and I have just finished a 7 week course on Wine Appreciation, so when we saw English Wine on sale this weekend we decided that we should try some- in the interests of broadening our education, of course.





Frankly, it was a good job that we didn't buy with pleasure in mind, because it did turn out to be an exercise in wine tasting, rather than an overwhelming sensory experience.





The tasting team consisted of The Cyclist and myself, both enthusiastic amateurs in educated quaffing, and The Lollipop Lover, who claims not to like wine, but has been known to enjoy a glass or two of Desert Wine!





The wine was 'Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Dry White Table Wine', produced in the New Forest. We bought it from the Gift Shop at Beaulieu.








We all gave it an overall rating of 3/10 [I will post my rating system on here soon!]


Looks: Clear pale yellow; all one shade


Nose: Clean. The Cyclist's first response was Honeydew Melon, I also got something that it took me ages to put a name to, but subsequently became convinced that it was the smell of cold roast chicken breast, with a metallic touch, almost like the chicken had been stored in tinfoil. There was also a slightly bready note. The Cyclist and The Lollipop Lover agreed that chicken smell was there!


Flavours: Tropical (Honeydew Melon); some Gooseberry; and something of the chicken smell (didn't actually taste of chicken!).


Sweetness: Surprisingly sweet for something billed as 'Dry'. The Cyclist and I both thought it was pushing the sweeter boundaries of off-dry. The Lollipop Lover thinks of Eiswein as medium sweetness, so happilyagreed with 'Dry'.


Acidity: Medium to high-possibly too much acid/not sweet enough to balance the acid.


Body: Medium


Length: Medium length, with something of a dry sherry edge to the aftertaste (we even got out the sherry to compare!).





I admit that I found the chicken association disconcerting. We had a long chat about what could be causing that flavour, and the use of sulphites was suggested. The Lollipop Lover has a background in analytical chemistry, however, and was dubious that sulphites would cause that taste. Guess a career in the detective branch of the wine industry is not for me, then!



For those of you keen to see a rave review of a wine, there is certainly one coming up, all about Malbec!