Drink, eat and be merry
Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 9:45PM 
It has been a chilly run up to Christmas. Well chilly for London, it has rarely been above 5C over the last two weeks and we have been well below 0C almost every night, sometimes as low as -3C Nasty! We even have had snow, don’t worry though we didn’t lose power and London was no too hard hit and there were only minor delays on the underground. You might have heard that the weather had a bit of an adverse effect on the chunnel train, 
something to do with dampness and electrics. You would have thought that a train that runs through a tunnel a kilometre under the English channel could handle a bit of damp but no. Perhaps the chunnel company should have consulted with some North American engineers, or maybe the Germans, somewhere where things don’t shut down because of damp or cold. One report mentioned that during the 18 hours the train was stuck in the middle of the chunnel the staff announced that everyone should stay calm and not breathe to heavily to conserve oxygen…very reassuring!
Despite the travel carnage Emma and I have been having a great December, Emma has been getting very excited every time it snows and we are very much in the Christmas mood. We are all set for the big event, food and wine is ordered, the Christmas menu is set and we are already starting to enjoy the more relaxed pace of life this time of year always seems to bring. Even Cassie is getting Christmassy.
Emma, Emma and I went out on Friday to The Sampler, a wine shop in Islington where you can 'sample' over 80 of the in-stock wines, for a price of course. We came home with 7 bottles of white wine all of which Miss Richler (the second Emma) found and recommended to us. The pick of the crop, in my opinion being the 7 pound a bottle Picpoul de Pinet 2008. If you can find it in your country buy it! Emma (my Emma) was bowled over by the ABC, Au Bon Climat 2005, a California Chardonnay! If you like chardonnay and can get this...do it, go, now (it is bit more spensive though)! With the white wines set for the near future I spent most of the day on Saturday trying to find some nice red wine for the holidays...I ended up ordering some good stuff from Berry Bros. & Rudd a wine merchant recommended to us by our friend Emma Richler again. Their website is fantastic. I also poked around on the very good Bibendum website, again lots of fun to browse for wines, and dream. What did I get? Some Berry's Extra Ordinary Claret 2005, some Smith and Hooper Cab/Merlot 2006, a Yarra Yering Underhill Shiraz 2006, a Cape Mentelle Cab/Merlot 2006 and finally a bottle of Cambels Classic Rutherglen Muscat. All will be deliverd before Christmas, or so I am assured, lets hope it doesn't snow...or rain...or the wind doesn't blow the wrong direction.
Part of relaxing a bit is cooking up some yummy food. I had two culinary adventures over the last two weeks. I made my first ever Mexican mole dish and then followed it up with an attempt at a ‘Polynesian Crab Stack’ which is a dish I had years ago at a restaurant in San Diego. I would like to report that both were smash successes but I can’t.
Mexican mole is quite a complex dish; I have loved it ever since I first had it in a small city in Mexico called Chetumal (or as I like to call it Cheddar Melt). I almost always order it when I find it on a menu but have yet to find it as good as I did in Chetumal. Emma and I recently bought a good ‘authentic’ Mexican cookbook and it had no less than six mole recipes! (Diana Kennedy’s The Art of Mexican Cooking) I tried to make Coloradito (red Oaxacan mole). It was an involved recipe with 19 ingredients! Real Mexican cooking is a bit of a challenge here in the UK as we pretty much only get 5 types of chillies, Thai finger chillies, Jalapeños, Habeneros, Scotch Bonnets and a generic Red hot chillies. In Mexican cooking you can expect to see dozens of types called for. What the heck is a Chilcosles chilli, have you ever heard of a Guajillo chilli? Me neither. Anyway I forged ahead with the recipe substituting where I could with what I thought was sensible (or what the internet recommended). How different can Oaxacan oregano be from English oregano? For that matter is Mexican chocolate very different from Green & Blacks organic dark chocolate?
Well after following the recipe and serving up chicken breast cooked in mole with rice I can report a poorish result. There was lots of potential in the dish but I was let down by a few key ingredients. The chief suspect was the cinnamon that I used. My mole had a strong woody taste that was also a bit bitter. Emma and I had to hunt for the cinnamon and we ended up with some poor quality stuff. I also think I used too much. Lesson learned for next time! I was also disappointed with the chilli heat and flavour, I will have to be a bit more heavy handed next time! Still all in all it was a good learning experience and Emma and I want to try again soon!
On to the Polynesian Crab Stack. It was super! I highly recommend it! Not only did it turn out looking really good it tasted great too! Go make it right now! Here is the recipe…
Ingredients (makes 3-4 stacks)
- 6 Tbsp. fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- 4 Tbsp. sugar
- 6 Tbsp. lime juice
- 2 Tbsp. garlic, diced
- 1/2 C. water
- Red chillies, finely diced (optional)
- 1/4 C. pea shoots or watercress
- 1/4 C. Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 C. cucumber, sliced
- 1/4 C. red onion, diced
- 1/4 C. mango, diced
- 1/4 C. avocado, diced
- 1/4 C. fresh crab meat
- 8 Tbsp. coarsly crushed peanuts
- 1/4 C. fresh cilantro, chopped
Prepare ginger-lime dressing: Combine ginger with sugar, lime juice, garlic, and water. Let sit overnight in refrigerator or warm together in a saucepan on the stove to blend flavours.
Using a tin can opened at both ends layer the stack ingredients, packing them down well.
Cucumber (thin layer)
Watercress (medium layer)
Tomato (thick layer)
Cucumber (thin layer)
Red onion (medium layer)
Watercress (thin layer)
Peanut (thin layer)
Coriander (thin layer
Mango (thick layer)
Avocado (medium layer)
Crab (thick layer…about 60g or ½ tin if using tinned)
Drizzle several Tbsp of dressing over the top of the stack then remove the tin mold sprinkle a few bits of peanut and coriander over top and serve! YUM!
Emma has not been idle all this time either, she is on day two of a four day mulled wine concoction! She is also roasting chestnuts (in the oven sorry no open fire) and best of all, making an apple crumble!!! I am very happy. I just sampled the apple crumble…mmm…it won’t last more than two days.
Emma has also been doing some more decorating we now have Mistletoe hanging here and there and loads of pretty flower arragnements!
Emma and I hope you all have a super Christmas holiday!
Hugs and Kisses to all!!
Reader Comments (2)
Next time we're over you'll have to cook all the good stuff for us, and open the good wine ;)