Great Australian jelly

Australians love jellies. Theu simply do. Maybe that's the echo of the fight with the climate in the past. All the colours, flavours and shapes are acceptable. And who doesn't like fruits soaked in a fragrant wine? Or a wine with some ripe fruits soaked?? Especially if it's a light fair Australian wine? This jelly is especially good with some ripe melon but you can also try other soft fruits like watermelon or strawberries. Anyone's freezing? It's an Aussie summer right now!

Melon jelly

makes 4 portions

300 g melon flesh, cut into small pieces

400 ml white Australian wine (necessarily!)

80 g sugar

1 Tbsp gelatine

6 dried apricots

1. Soak the cut melon in wine for half an hour. Drain.

2. Bring the wine to the boil, dissolve sugar. Take from heat and dissolve gelatine in wine. Leave until  it starts to set (egg white consistency).

3. Scald apricots with boiling water and drain. Chop into stripes.

4. Combine wine jelly with soaked melon and chopped apricots. Divide into four 150 ml glasses and leave in a fridge for about two hours.

5. Decorate with fresh melon, strawberry sauce or fresh strawberries. 

This dessert is especially nice for a cold evening to heat you up. So simple yet elegant, typically Australian.

Not fancy for a liver?

This was a liver testing week for me. This happens if you buy a kilo of offal that your husband doesn’t eat. Following Peter Gordon’s tips on sautéing livers, I went from rumaki through liver and beans to the liver and plum paté. Imagine that you prepare your own homemade paté, you exactly know what is inside and there is nothing artificial! Not mentioning the whole mistery of making a paté! It is a good thing as a spread for a party canapés or simply to go with some cracers. Or with some toasts for the open-air breakfast...

Liver and plum paté

360 g chicken livers
50 ml red wine
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
130 g red plums
2 Tbsp honey
50 g butter salt

1. Wash the livers, remove the sinews. You can cut them into halves so they cook more quickly. Heat up the oil in the frying pan, place the livers when it’s very hot. Fry for a minute or two on one side, or until you see that the upper side changes the colour into some grey brown. Turn over and keep frying for another two minutes. The livers should be cooked through but still pink. Place on the sieve and let it cool down and drip the oil and some juices.

2. Remove stones from the plums, cut the fruits into small cubes, heat up the honey in the frying pan and cook the plums until they start to soften. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down.

3. Melt the butter. Put the livers, butter and wine in the food processor and blend well. Now’s the funny thing. You have to pass the paté through a sieve, using a spatula or by pounding the paté on the sieve with a ladle. 4. The rest is the easy task. Season well with salt, add plums with all their honey juices and mix well. Place in a container. It will keep at least for a week in a fridge. You should get 300 g of your own homemade paté.

Besides did you know that livers are actually more valuable as a source of vitamins, minerals and proteins than the meat itself? Chicken and duck livers are both tender and versatile in using. Apart from these, the best it is said are those of calf, than lamb’s livers. Beef’s, pork’s or sheep’s livers have stronger flavour. It is important to remove sinews and fibres. You can soak livers in milk for getting a fair colour. You don’t salt the livers until it is cooked, otherwise it will harden – a good exception from that is to marinate livers in the soy sauce. Stewed liver with the onion sauce is a classic Polish dish, equally loved and hated. Liver for a living?

Cabernet-Negrette Aubergines

Hungry mind walks strange ways (you can quote that). Do you too starve yourself to stimulate your mind to create some tasty dish? Lying in bed at night I was thinking about stuffed aubergines, marinated roasted aubergines, pickeled aubergines. For me there is no more French vegetable than this one, even leeks lose the contest with it.

Rosemary Cabernet Negrette Aubergines
(for 2)

1 medium aubergine
1 tsp chopped rosemary
2 Tbsp extra vergin olive oil
100-150 ml Cabernet-Negrette or another red table wine
100-150 ml double cream
salt, freshly groung pepper
pasta for 2 people

1. Slice aubergine into thick slices (around 1 cm) and cut them into four pieces. Start boiling pasta, by the time it will be ready, you will finish with the aubergine and a sauce.
2. Heat the oil in the frying-pan, add rosemary, stir for half a minute. Add aubergine, saute for 2 minutes, mixing halfway.
3. Pour wine and stew under cover for 3-4 minutes tossing.
4. Pour cream, season generously with salt and pepper, mix and leave under cover for another couple of minutes.
5. Remove the lid and reduce the souce, seasoning if necessary.
6. Arrange pasta on plates, cover with the aubergine pieces and the nice purple sauce. Decorate with herbs.

Enjoy delicious flavours of rosemary in this red wine sauce! Absolutely amazing dish, although so simple and quick.

Small note on wine: the good thing about cooking with wine is that you don't need a superb wine to cook a superb dish. Sometimes something hardly drinkable can go well if used in the cooking process.

Whatever is your experience with VdP du Comte Tolosan Allegoria Cabernet-Negrette (vintage 2005) or Negrette in general, please share it here. I only can assure you, it goes well with aubergines!!!