.It’s not often that I am invited back to sample the delights of a restaurant for a second time, but thankfully after last years menu relaunch at the Monro on Liverpool’s Duke Street [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/blogs/the-monro-liverpool-menu-re-launch-august-2015] and an overtly positive experience I am back. The first time was due to combined efforts of owner Will, the kitchen staff and expert service and welcome from James, the second time the former and latter are taking a back seat for the proceedings. On this occasion, the purpose of the evening was to experience a Rioja pairing with some of the best bits from the Monro’s menu, the wines were supplied by C.V.N.E. (Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana [http://www.cvne.com/en/]) and Hatch Mansfield’s (also responsible for Errazuriz, Villa Maria and Louis Jadot) Sandy Greetham and C.V.N.E’s Carlos Delage, the latter of whom provided some guidance on the wines that were paired with the food. Scallops, pea brulee and black pudding fritter (paired with Viña Real Rioja Blanco, Barrel Fermented) A feast for both the eyes and for other senses, this combination of earth, meaty and fresh crisp flavours is an inviting herald for a spring menu. The flavours married excellently with the wine pairing addition of an acidic but balanced white Rioja. Sweet notes from the pea bruleé and the golden raisins set the dish up to deliver plenty of satisfaction through contrast with the intense savoury of the black pudding and fragrant scallops, solid and in no way jarring. The presentation was also rather inviting, scattered and ornamental elements not out of place and the bruleé was particularly impressive. The white Rioja, made with 100% Viura grapes brought a lot of fresh acidity and light fruitiness to the table, with the American oak aging affording a finish which is soft, cream-biscuity and lightly vanilla touches. Definitely a complimentary pairing on this occasion, with no distracting contrasts. Very well paired. Stone bass, chorizo, potato chowder and samphire (paired with Contino Rioja Reserva) This was another well-presented dish, balancing delicate white fish with the more rough-and-ready elements of chorizo with a buffer of potato and cream to produce something that was rather surprisingly robust enough to stand up to a superficially unlikely pairing. By virtue of the chorizo, the strength and nature of the wine was tempered rather excellently, allowing yet more competent cooking to shine through and the flavours on offer to do their thing without interruption from a tannin-overload. The only longing I experienced with this dish was a slightly more forgiving texture from the potato; perhaps the elasticity of gnocchi would have sated this, but I am splitting hairs and I am a sucker for good gnocchi. The Contino Reserva benefits from aging in both French and American oak over two years before it is bottled, a vibrantly deep red wine is the result along with notes of berry fruit, especially blackberries and redcurrant along with some more tart edges to the finish. Thick, rounded and full-bodied, this actually worked supremely well with the dairy, chorizo and bass. Fillet of beef, fondant potato and truffled wild mushrooms (paired with Viña Real Rioja Gran Reserva) The fillet was quite exceptional; often the cut can be wonderfully textured and beautifully succulent, but often lacking in flavour. The textures were all there, along with perfect timing on the cooking, but there was plenty of flavour to bounce off the pairing set with this dish, completed with the ballast of a fondant potato and rich medley of wild mushrooms, looking like they had been foraged that same day. The Gran Reserva was an excellent example of how well Spanish reds can perform with food and why they should never be discounted again their French and Italian cousins for food pairing. This blend of Graciano and Tempranillo grapes presents some full on youthful fruitiness along with the depth of some older dried fruit tangled up with elements of tobacco, leather and spice. A pretty powerful, deceptively coloured and complex wine, which paired as ever, particularly well with the kitchen’s output. Vanilla Panacotta and raspberry espuma The dessert was reminiscent of my last blog visit to the Monro, but it was as every bit as pleasing as the first time. The balance of acidic and sweet raspberry along with the creamy pannacotta provided a simple and effective punctuation to the evening; an additional surprise was how well the Gran Reserva continued to work alongside this dish. More contrast than compliment, but nevertheless, it worked. The standard on display from this showing definitely builds on the menu revamp from last year and I was informed by the staff that the kitchen staff driving the event were the more junior members of staff; if this was the case, then the support available to the kitchen looks incredibly assured. The wines provided by Hatch Mansfield and Cvne were all excellent and paired perfectly, with the red paired with white fish being a surprising and very welcome change. From recent memory, these were some of the most enjoyable Riojas I have tasted for some time too, so much so that have had the odd daydream about a roast dinner and the Viña Real Gran Reserva Rioja.
Salud! Pedro. ----------------------- Disclaimer: This meal was offered to ElectroKemist Cuisine in return for feedback following an invite to review this restaurant, however, the review above remains an honest opinion of the experience. The Monro 92 Duke Street Liverpool L1 5AG Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMonro Web: http://www.themonro.com/ Tel: 0151 707 9933 CVNE Web: http://www.cvne.com/en/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cvne Hatch Mansfield WinesNew Bank House 1 Brockenhurst Road Ascot Berkshire SL5 9DJ Web: http://www.hatchmansfield.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/HatchMansfield
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Liverpool Food and Drink Festival has been growing with each year it pitches up at Sefton Park, with more local food and drink producers, more restaurants and more punters present time. The two day Festival itself signals the beginning of a week of events in the city which have included some independent supper clubs and pudding clubs held in the city, a pop up restaurant in the Palm House courtesy of Amber Lounge and a wine tasting in the same venue a few days earlier. Despite a rather rainy start to September, the Food and Drink Festival was still in rude health across the weekend, especially during the downpours from the scouse skies on Sunday. Despite a grey ceiling, the visitors were not put off, simply electing to find cover and a stall to grab something hot and tasty. Wednesday was no different with its weather, but the Palm House is a more than adequate shelter, providing lovely tropical floral surroundings in which there were six companies exhibiting typical wines from their selections; Roberts & Henry Fine Wines, Vinea, Origin Wines, Wine Time at Scatchards, Belpasso, Cultural Wines. The wines each of the stalls had to offer ranged from fizz such as Fragolino, Prosecco and an Australian pink Moscato through many styles of white into Beaujolais and then to full on chewy reds from around both New and Old World. Pleasingly, there were a few dessert wines on show at 3 of the exhibitor tables and each was very different but high in quality. There was also the opportunity to have a more formal tasting session at the venue, with a separate area set out to allowed for structured instruction in a variety of wines that the exhibitors were selling and allowing for tasting. These structured sessions were available on a first come first served basis at the event for no extra cost. The event provided an excellent opportunity to interact with Liverpool’s (and indeed, slightly further afield) most prominent wine merchants outside the comfort of their shops. Sadly, many people are put off by the thought of going into any wine shop and searching the shelves for something to enjoy for a Saturday night in with a film and a few nibbles, or for a dinner party gift or indeed to just compliment Sunday lunch or midweek dinner. This event happily showed that with an inquisitive demenour and a willingness to indulge in conversation, there is much to learn and the world of wine is simply not as daunting as many suspect it to be. All the stalls were headed by knowledgeable and friendly people, keen to share their wines with the visitors to the Palm House and engage in depth if necessary. Should you ever find yourself in R&H Fine Wines, Vinea, Belpasso, Scatchards or Origin, you should (on this evidence) be made to feel most welcome and provided with some excellent opinions for all occasions calling for a drop of wine. There were simply too many wines at the event to comment on here, but there were a few stars of the show. Vying for top spot were the Dominio Del Bendito El Primer Paso (using Tempranillo grapes, 2011) from R&H Fine Wines, Nativa Terra Reserva, Cabernet Sauvignon (2009) from Vinea and the Ottavia Rube Rosso (using Dolcetto and Croatina grapes, 2012 vintage) from Origin Wines. Each of these was a fantastic full bodied red in their own way and worthy of pairing with red meat, deep stews or cured meat if not simply on their own. The dessert vines briefly touched upon earlier were also outstanding and often overlooked by many, but paired with a fantastic dessert (remember, the rule of thumb is that the wine should be sweeter than the dessert) they get a chance to shine. One such wine was the ‘Chocolate Shop’, a non-vintage chocolate wine blended in the UK which sounds less than promising; paired with a baked chocolate and beetroot gateau this sang brilliantly with lovely chocolate and cherry overtones and a mellow earthiness which complimented the beetroot. This event was thoroughly enjoyable and a superb chance to interact with the wine community, showing that despite TV experts best efforts to give the impression it’s all affected gesturing, precocious language and pretentiousness, wine really is something that can be enjoyed in a simple way. Happy drinking guys, catch you next time!! Pedro. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can find each of the merchants online or otherwise here: R & H Fine Wines Twitter: https://twitter.com/RHFineWines Web: http://www.randhfinewines.co.uk/ Address: 12 Queen Avenue, Queens Insurance Building (off Castle St/Dale St), Liverpool. L2 4TZ Telephone: 0151 345 0306 Vinea Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vinealiverpool Dan Harwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/danharwoodwine Web: http://www.vinealiverpool.co.uk Address: Vinea, Unit B7, Britannia Pavilion, Albert Dock, Liverpool. L3 4AD Telephone: 0151 707 8962 Origin Wines Twitter: https://twitter.com/originwines Web: http://www.originwines-spirits.com/ Address: Origin Wines & Spirits Ltd, Unit A2, Enterprise Court, Wigan Enterprise Park, Seaman Way, Ince, Wigan, Lancashire. WN2 2AG Telephone: +44 7816 162687 Wine Time @ Scatchards Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jonthewine Web: http://www.winetimewines.co.uk/ Address: Unit 1, 209 Great Howard Street, Liverpool. L5 9ZH Telephone: 0151 2071134 Belpasso Oil and Wines Web: http://belpasso.co.uk/ Address: Unit 4, Malthouse Business Centre, Ormskirk. L39 1QR Email: [email protected] Telephone: 01695 581 176 Cultural Wines Web: http://culturalwine.com/wines.html Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Telephone: 07841 248758 or 07747 052890 Something has been rumbling for a little while now in the Baltic Triangle area of Liverpool, located just a stone’s throw or three from Liverpool One the Camp and Furnace has gone modestly about garnering Liverpool with an impressive creativity. The creativity has seen the arrival of the Threshold Festival, Food Slam Events with new venues and ventures adding to the buzz including the Baltic Bakehouse, Unit 51 and Siren amongst others. It would possibly take another five articles or more to break the surface on each of the interesting aspects of the happenings at the end of Jamaica Street. Over the August Bank Holiday, the Camp and Furnace played host to the Summercamp event; a music and street food extravaganza featuring some pretty good bands and providing a contrast to the more mainstream pop on display down the road at the Pier Head and down at Sefton Park. Within the Summercamp itself, there were several pop up banquets alongside the music, cocktails, Craft Beers and street food vendors. These banquets have been orchestrated by the Camp and Furnace's very own Steven Burgess. Chef Steven Burgess has been heavily industrious of late, cultivating a reputation for inventiveness and impressive fastidious culinary skills. There have been a few events to date where Burgess has put forth banquets of his own for conceptual evenings both in praise of meat and vegetarian diets, so much so, the Treehugger's Banquet at August’s Summercamp event was to be followed by a visit by the yummy brummie himself, Glynn Purnell. The Treehugger's Banquet was a 10-course showcase of some relatively simple ingredients with touches of panache and the aforementioned inventiveness. Recently Marina O’Loughlin writing in the Guardian mused that anything beyond 11 was stretching not only the waistband a little too much, but also the attention span and capacity for enjoyment – more can be seen here on this interesting piece: [http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/aug/26/restaurant-pet-hates-ruin-my-appetite]. Thankfully, the ten courses fell below this bracket, although had it been more, I would have had no problem sitting for just a little longer to be both entertained and stimulated by flavour, excellent use of colour and presentation. The opening gambit of the banquet was a homemade cracker and cream cheese combination, decorated with fresh herbal sprigs and nasturtium flowers in a gentle and effective manner. Delicate flavours were paired with a sharp and grassy Sauvignon Blanc, with the dish itself balanced with great contrasts of texture. The second dish paired an egg yolk with potato cooked as a mousse and as small but crisply delicate puffs, punching in a surprisingly citrus flourish alongside a rich and creamy base to the dish. Possibly the most triumphant dish in the menu followed the potatoes, the use of a slow roasted garlic, duck egg and goat’s curd was magnificent. The heavy tang was frittered away from the garlic, leaving sweetness and a light pungency to sit with the rich duck egg and excellently accompanying curd. Here is where Burgess has and should continue to capitalise, simple and elegant flavours teased from excellently sourced produce. The Adobe Chardonnay accompanying the roasted garlic also paired well going forward into polenta, juicy gordal green olives and smoked tomatoes, allowing all the elements of the dish to work together giving a smoked sweet verdancy in the mouth. The Cauliflower dish was well thought-out, but possibly needed a stronger cheese in the flavour of the pannacotta to break up the velouté and caramelised cauliflower. The viognier wine pairing worked perfectly bridging the cauliflower dish and the course of sweet carrot, caraway and cumin dukkah; which gave an excellently worked earthiness under the sweet tones of the carrot and apricot. Tempting and competently baked beetroot macarons followed; deliciously crisp, creamy, sweet, earthy and chewy, they ticked all the boxes of expectation which precipitate from presentation of a macaron. The Rosé was possibly the weakest of the wines on display, yet it still found a suitable pairing with its dishes and paved the way for a Lancashire Cheese roller, rather heavier on flavour and texture than I would have expected, but not totally out of place. The ascorbic sweet and sour of the apple sherbet was a welcome touch on a doughy focal point and worked surprisingly well with a touch of the Branston pickle, secreted by the roller. Finally, the sorbet gave one last flourish from the banquet; resting atop a honey parfait, with the honey produced by local bees no less. The contrast in textures again, was well worked along with relatively safer flavours; safe possibly in context, but no less rewarding. The standard has now been set high by Burgess at the Camp and Furnace, with excellent diligence and competency from the front of house, the bar has been set refreshingly high in the most unusual of settings.
Venture to the Baltic Triangle while you can, the talent on display here has brought Simon Rimmer and Glynn Purnell and will no doubt please you. I know it has pleased me. Pedro. ----------------------- Thanks to Lian Challis for the post-dinner tour and insights. Special thanks to Jon Young for the excellent Photographic contribution. Occasional Supper clubs and Food Slam Fridays (usually on every Friday evening at the Camp and Furnace) More information on the Camp and Furnace can be found here: http://www.campandfurnace.com/ To follow Steven Burgess on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rhub_custard To follow Camp and Furnace on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CampandFurnace After much stress, drinking of wine, tasting of cheese and practicing some presentation skills that I haven’t used in quite a while, the Wine Tasting event went off rather well. At least by judging the feedback and beaming (possibly tipsy…?) faces at the end of the event, it was well received. There were 8 wines on show for people to taste, starting with 3 variable styles of white and then onto 5 equally variable reds. The event was started by explaining a little about tasting wine (using some excellent structured advice from Jancis Robinson in her BBC book ‘Wine Course’ published in 1995) and how to search for flavours; what the various terms of body, length, acidity and balance mean with regard to tasting a wine. As the presentation progressed (somewhat…!), additional notes on old world and new world wine differences were discussed, fruit acids and how grapes take on flavours from their fermentation and treatment during this period and beyond. The first white wine was from Oddbins, their Green Fish Verdejo 2011 (Spain). This is a simple, light and fairly dry wine with slightly peachy flavour and a lot of acidity. The wine is from the Rueda region of Spain (the area just to the North West of Madrid) and the grapes are harvested at night when it is cooler; this prevents the oxidation and therefore browning of the juices on maceration, keeping the wine lightly coloured. Possibly, this was the least praiseworthy wine on offer in the event, at least judging by its reception. The second white was the Ridgy Didge Chardonnay 2012 from Australia, a white peach coloured white with an abundance of stone fruit flavours of peach, apricot and melon accompanied with a hint of ripe apples. The wine was slightly oaked, giving a slightly spicey, vanilla undercurrent and a buttery mouthfeel. Another relatively simple wine, but different enough from the other two whites to give the attendees a tangible variation. The final white on show at the event was the Les Cascadelles Pouilly Fumé 2011 (France, of course). The selection of this wine was to show the dryness accompanying the Sauvignon Blanc grape and the fresh green acidity with gooseberry and slightly citrus-sharpness, terrific minerality and the aroma of gunflint. At this point, a little time was taken to explain how Terrior [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir] comes into play and how French appellations are used. Moving onto the red wines, the first foray was the Freeman’s Bay Pinot Noir 2011 (New Zealand). A very pale red wine, light in colour and body, although deceptively full of flavour. A very smooth yet meaty and slightly oaky character with flavours of cherry, plum and strawberries all present alongside a slight vegetal taste and aroma, less pronounced than in some French offerings. Was generally well received by the group. The second red wine was the fairly reknowned Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 (Spain), which some members of the group seemed to be familiar with. This is a full-bodied red wine using the Tempranillo grape with flavours of berries, plums and a hint of some tobacco and leather. The wine can be quite tannic, having a slight pepperiness and pleasant mouthfeel also. Positive feedback from the group all round with this one! Following the Tempranillo was a delicious Rioja with a little age behind it in order to show the group how a grape can change flavours with age and treatment and by accompanying it with other grapes. As with the Toro Loco, this is a full-bodied wine with plenty of vibrancy and flavour; the colour was noted to have been significantly different (slightly less reddish-purple around the edges, tending to be a little sepia coloured). This wine is also stored in oak for a while, giving an undercurrent of spice. A superb value wine; which was positively received from all the attendees. A very interesting wine was had to follow the Rioja in the form of the Mont Rocher Pays D’Herault Carignan 2012 (Rousillon-Languedoc, France). Taken from old gnarled vines in the Mediterranean region of France, this is a juicy and quite fruity red with plenty of body and a slightly confected aroma twinned with flavours and aromas of sumptuous violets. An excellent wine which was well received by the attendees. A very interesting wine was had to follow the Rioja in the form of the Mont Rocher Pays D’Herault Carignan 2012 (Rousillon-Languedoc, France). Taken from old gnarled vines in the Mediterranean region of France, this is a juicy and quite fruity red with plenty of body and a slightly confected aroma twinned with flavours and aromas of sumptuous violets. An excellent wine which was well received by the attendees. The final wine was something with tonnes of body and robust flavours in the Santa Rita Medalla Real Carmenere 2009 (Colchagua Valley, Chile). A little way of explanation about the Carmenere grape was given, along with the tasting, with the wine giving flavours of chocolate, coffee and plums along with deep savoury notes. Fruit was present in the form of some dark berries, but there was a comment from someone that one of the strong aromas reminded them of fly-spray, indeed, a very unusual aroma that accompanies the use of fly-paper was present. Slightly disappointing that the wine was not strongly received considering the interesting and complex flavours on offer. To round the event off, there was a little contest between the attendees to see who could correctly identify the placings of each of the wines from the tasting in terms of their cost (at time of purchase). The wines were as follows:
The highest mark was 4/8 and two people went into a tiebreak, being asked to name the three grapes used in making Champagne. Alas they both correctly identified Chardonnay, but fell down on naming any more (for those curious/uninformed – also Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier), luckily they were in a couple so shared a lovely bottle of red lovingly selected for a prize. A special mention needs to go to the excellent Liverpool Cheese Company, based in Woolton Village, for supplying cheeses to the event, a lovely selection from the shop was soon demolished in less than 15 minutes (you’d think these people had never been fed?!). The buche log goats cheese and Y-Fenni with mustard seed were excellent, along with a very interesting cheese washed named ‘Baltic’ with Liverpool’s own Wapping Beer from the Baltic Fleet pub (brewed in the basement) by the cheesemakers. Their website can be found here: [http://www.liverpoolcheesecompany.co.uk/] and they are located at 29A Woolton Road, should you wish to visit their lovely shop (where you can also pick up deli-items including many beers from the local breweries of Merseyside). Another successful event, I shall keep you all informed as more crop up (there are ideas floating around at the moment, but until they turn concrete, I’ll hold fire). Should anyone have any ideas for an event, please just give me a shout and we can perhaps work together to put something on! Until next time, adios! Pedro. -------------- P.S. to follow Liverpool Cheese Company on Twitter go here: http://twitter.com/liverpoolcheese It’s been a busy few weeks for me, not only because the day job underwent some serious intensity and lots of weekend hours but because of trying to keep tabs on all the great beers and wine I’ve been trying out of late. Sadly, I didn’t get to note everything down, plus I am sure there is more than enough for you all to scan through here to keep your interest sated until the juicier titbits of events/beer festival updates and recipes come along (there are plenty lined up!! As those who have been following the twitter feed can attest). Let’s start with some beverages, which are now freely available somewhere near you. First up is something in a very fetching blue bottle (not Blue Nun, seriously… you people), which has been brewed and marketed slightly differently by Adnam’s Brewery (of Broadside Bitter fame). Adnam’s Spindrift is held within a very flashy container and premium at 5% abv, although the handpulled beer is only at 4%. This blonde style beer is a heady citrus blend with some wheat beer character thrown in at the end of the tide, the drink is deeply pleasant and has plenty of flavour but will also be something I will stock up on for Summer, available for £1.50 (at time of purchase) from Morrison’s supermarkets – I recommend doing the same. New World Chardonnays – Available from a supermarket near you!
As some of you might have noticed, I have gently plugged the next ElectroKemistry event here and on the Facebook page, tickets are going to be available very soon, stay tuned to the twitter feed for release. With this event in mind, there was a fair amount of research to be done in terms of wine selection for the lucky punters to attend. I’ve drunk a fair amount of new world Chardonnay to try and pick something out to give people a fair crack of the grape. I’m not going to spoil the surprise of the selected wine, but here’s some of the others (in reverse order of how I ranked them) that were tested with a brief review and ranking in case anyone wants to go seek them out…. 5. McGuigan Bin no.156 Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (SE) - £5 at Sainsburys/Tesco An example of melon and peach flavours in a Chardonnay, though slightly less pronounced than most of the others reviewed. There was some vanilla sweetness present and a smoothness to the body of the wine and slight biscuity undercurrents. Unfortunately, there was a touch of unpleasant sharpness and the wine was pretty short, all things considered. 4. Wolf Blass Winemaker’s Selection Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (SE) - £6.99 at Morrisons Definite white stone fruit are at the forefront of this wine and the melon ripeness is highly evident. There is some oak, but not strongly defined on the palate. The wine is, overall, nicely balanced with a crisp finish, alas there is a lack of length as with number 5. 3. Redbridge Creek Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (New South Wales) - £7.99 at Sainsburys This wine was full bodied with a slightly creamy mouth feel, there were plenty of peach and apricot present and a good spritz of citrus to bring balance to the wine. There was, alas, very little by way of length here to follow on from the fruit. 2. Crux Gisborne Chardonnay (2011) – New Zealand - £7.99 at Morrisons This Chardonnay is very drinkable with a cream and good balance, there are plenty of tropical fruit and some honey notes in the flavour. The wine is very fresh, fruity and well balanced, the finish is also distinctly fruit laden. 1. Hardy’s Nottage Hill Chardonnay (2012) – Australia (SE) - £5 at Asda, £8.99 in Sainsburys The Nottage Hill Chardonnay was well rounded and as full-bodied as a Chardonnay can be, there was some faint vanilla and a creamy/buttery mouth feel to follow from some storage in oak. There were good levels of acidity and tropical fruit and melon flavours providing balance. The wine had a pleasantly dry finish with some lingering fruit. ------- ElectroKemistry Review - Amber Wine Bar, Rose Lane, Mossley Hill Having heard quite a few glowing reports about the establishment (apparently) made famous in that god-awful ‘Desperate Scousewives’, both through social media and in a few online reviews by those who had made a visit prior to my fellow diners and myself I felt it was time to give the place a visit. Our visit was on a Sunday afternoon, looking for somewhere to provide a roast dinner plus other options for those not particularly fussed on a Sunday tradition. The interior is pleasing enough; it looks somewhat like a cross between a bistro and a current-fashion living room with suitably comfortable seating arrangements. The service and greeting were good, no issues with the demeanour of the staff who were helpful and smiles. Upon being greeting by the sound of babies in stereo, there was slight feeling of deflation having hoped for a relaxed quiet affair; the sound of Sinatra was just at the right level, alas the sound of three babies competing for oxygen and attention was not really in keeping with what we had hoped. Onward and upward, nevertheless. The menu on a Sunday comprises a set 1, 2 or 3 course dinner with incremental pricing, all of which it has to be said are pretty reasonable. The wine menu looks good enough for a bistro style restaurant with no insane mark-ups on the white or the red wines; however the fizz does take a leap into the deep end of pricing, comparatively speaking. The only major aberration on the drinks menu would be the absence of any decent beers for those who are not planning on drinking wine. One awful (nitrokeg) bitter and two average lagers do not exactly set the world alight, for myself at least. When the starters arrived in the form of a chicken liver pate, it has to be said they were definitely on the generous side, although the pate was rather sloppy. A side salad, onion chutney and toasted ciabatta were all served with the pate, which despite the perplexing texture, tasted pleasant enough. The main courses were at differing ends of the spectrum from delicious to disappointing; roasted hunks of lamb served with ample pools of rich gravy, watercress and neat spoonfuls of mashed potato looked excellent and judging by the willingness of the lamb to fall from the bone, were cooked as such. The roast potatoes were anaemic and undercooked, the mashed potato was a touch overseasoned in compensating for the lack of seasoning for the lamb, but the other vegetables, gravy and texture of the meat were pretty much spot on. The fish and chips with mushy peas presented a different set of highlights and disappointments; the fish itself was excellent with huge flakes of sweet cod wrapped in a golden sepia batter shell, alas the chef had failed to drain the oil from the fish completely and the bottom of the fish was soggy, as were the chips unfortunately. The desserts were well presented and received no complaints from any quarter. It was certainly a case of missed opportunities with the meals on our table; some good, some bad with a frustrating level of execution in some areas. The basic things are all there, decent produce and a solid menu (at least for a Sunday) are promising, but these small errors provided the snake to the hard work and presentation’s ladder. A return visit to sample the a la carte menu midweek will be a further requirement before solid judgment is passed. For the moment and based on this visit, there can be some satisfaction drawn from the efforts; but the undercurrent is that of being underwhelmed. --------------------- In other news, the Electrokemistry Introductory Wine Tasting event is now settled - 20th July and will cost £12 per person for the wines and cheese, it will start at 4pm promptly. The location will be divulged upon receipt of an email confirming interest at: [email protected] - be very quick though as most of the places have already been booked!!! That's all for now folks!! See you next time. Pedro x Hello Everyone!
Welcome to 2013!! Well, I guess it is a little late for that having only just got my act together to write something up nearly a fortnight into the year, but you can’t blame me too much. It has been rather a busy time of late with the Laboratory playing host to the families for Christmas Dinner and then a leaving party for a friend on NYE, but that doesn’t mean the experiments and observations have stopped at any point! As alluded to in some of my (less than occasional) twitter updates, there is much on the horizon this year to get gastric juices flowing and to feel rather excited about in the first few months of this year at least… I have no doubt there will be much more in the pipeline later on too. First up is the CAMRA Winter Ales Fesitval which is taking place again over in Manchester [http://nwaf.org.uk/] which we attended last year and were pleasantly surprised at some very good beers on offer. Full details can be seen here: [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/threshold-festival-gets-its-own-beer-plus-the-camra-winter-ales-festival-in-manchester.html]. However, due to the seasonality and hop availability, you must go expecting the more Chestnut and Amber Ales to take the place of paler counterparts. Bear in mind that there are some exceptional Stouts and Porter Ales also available, not least last years superb offering from Coniston Brewery in the form of an oatmeal stout. The festival is running from the 23rd to the 26th January at the Sheridan Suite in Manchester, Saturday and Friday tickets are £5 for the session and you will be charged another £1 at least for a programme! Also described in the article linked above was the Threshold Festival [http://www.thresholdfestival.co.uk/], which is back this year with a vengeance. Holding the festival in March will mean slightly more clement temperatures than those experienced last year, but the Camp and Furnace will be ready for more great music, art and Threshold’s own delicious beer from the Liverpool Craft boys. More details on the festival will be given in another article at some point soon!! The Laboratory is considering some events of its own this year, in lieu of the successful Wheat Beer tasting that was run during the summer of 2012, there is going to be an introductory wine tasting conducted at some point (explaining the very basics of wine, vintage, grapes etc). Stay tuned for details on this; the pricing is likely to be in the region of £12 per head (with all wine and probably some cheese and nibbles included!) and places are going to be limited based on the venue we have available. There may be follow up tastings based on the success of this event with some more experienced speakers, so I will keep an eye on things and keep you all informed! The second event that the Laboratory is hatching is going to be a pub crawl, which was conducted last year to great success across the city centre, picking people up along the way and finishing with a curry at East Z East at the King’s Dock on the waterfront. The event will be completely free aside from providing your costs for booze and food should you feel the need, but at some point soon, a map will be published showing the likely establishments that the Kemistry will be taking place. Full details will be given soon. A return visit to the Liverpool Organic Brewery has been booked for the 2nd February, a full review of this can be seen here: [http://electrokemistcuisine.weebly.com/1/post/2012/11/liverpool-organic-brewery-tour-november-2012.html]. I shall report back if anything has changed, but suffice to say, the event was great and there are two extra dates planned in March (Saturday 23rd) and in May (Saturday 18th). You can book onto the Brewery Tour events here: [http://lobtours.eventbrite.co.uk/] Finally, I shall leave you with a brief write up of a restaurant we attended at the back end of last year for a break at the Manchester Christmas Markets, as always, no marks out of five or ten, but our best descriptive offering should suffice! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ElectroKemistry Review: Phetpailin – 46 George Street, Manchester Disclaimer: This review was conducted in December, so it is possible the menu and prices have changed. After picking up a couple of decent bottles of vino from Hanging Ditch (located near the cathedral), we headed to this place on the recommendation of a friend who was due to attend the following week for a Christmas meal with work colleagues. All in all, we were not disappointed with the food on offer and the experience was overall, a very pleasant and positive one. The ambience of the restaurant is pleasant enough, with the usual Thai paraphernalia placed around the restaurant along with various greenery, although this does make it feel a touch more claustrophobic with the premises being relatively long and narrow as it is. With the restaurant busy or 'ticking over', you can still hold a conversation without too much raising of voices, again, another positive. The food was very very good, all presented very well and cooked perfectly. The dishes our party ordered ranged from sharing platters of spring rolls, bite size entrees and dips to excellent Peanut (penang) Curries with King Prawns and the 'Weeping Tiger' (sirloin steak sliced and cooked with spices, beanspouts and other vegetables). All the food was delivered in a timely manner and with a friendly smile. We had expected some fuss over the wine we brought, but a cooler was brought without fuss for both bottles. I would definitely recommend this place for a visit, the pricing was reasonable for all dishes, plus being able to bring your own drinks means it works out a lot cheaper to pair beer or wine with your meal should you want to give the soft drinks a miss. One minor quibble was that over the charge we incurred for asking to take some leftovers (of which there were a reasonable amount - portion sizes are fairly generous!) away. A surcharge of 50p per plastic tub was added to our bill, which while no great shakes in the grand scheme of things, is a pretty poor touch considering the restaurant had scored highly for everything else in our evening. I would suggest this is scrapped in the interests of their reputation. Short of ideas? You could do far worse than giving this place a visit, just remember to bring your own drinks! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, that was rather a jam packed episode this time around! I hope you stayed focused and are rubbing your grubby palms with glee at the prospect of the forthcoming events in Liverpool? I shall endeavour to keep you all abreast of the events as details reveal themselves to us at the Laboratory and bid you farewell for a couple of weeks until more information hits us! Adios mi todos! Pedro. This instalment is something of a departure from our usual format... that is, I am not going to be the author! This foreword is my only contribution, save some minor edits where needed. I have asked for any ideas for other people to contribute to some material for our followers to try out and we have our inaugural response right here folks! This is the first in a two part blog from our contributor, the second will be published in the not too distant future... but for now, I shall hand you over to Mr. Paul Arrondelle on the subject of home winemaking..... Pedro. ------------------------------------------------------ Beginnings My introduction to wine making is not that uncommon with other people. In my case it was my Dad who made wine when I was a kid, but most people of my generation seem to have a relative, either their Dad or an Uncle, who home-brewed. I can therefore remember him using an aged juicer on evenings to get apples ready, and the fact that my Mum worked on a pick-your-own farm meant that we had so many strawberries that we got sick of them, leaving the surplus available for a far nobler cause. Even my brother got in on the act, as he managed to blag a wine making kit for a birthday one year. He can't have been much more than 10, but was still allowed to make it and the result was declared a "Hock", and drunk with Sunday dinner. I sort of remember asking for the same privilege, but never got it for whatever reason. Years later I did have a go and made some Elderflower, around age 14 or so. I have no idea how it turned out, as it got forgotten and then poured down the sink without a tasting. My actual start to wine making, and home-brewing at large, came at University. An office mate was a keen brewer and didn't take much persuading to get me to go down to the Boots in Leeds city centre and buy a beer kit, with all the ingredients and equipment needed to make 20 pints of lager. This was duly done, with reasonable results, but the space required didn't really fit in with the small flat I had; so at some point, and I can't remember how it came about, I bought "First Steps in Winemaking" by C.J.J. Berry and that was that really. Since then, for 17 years with breaks here and there, I've gone through phases of making beer and wine. It has to be said that at the moment I’m going through a pretty major phase, although the arrival of my son has hampered things of late. Still, I get to grab a moment here and there to keep things ticking over. What this blog will tell you When Pete first suggested that I guest write on his blog I thought it was a great idea. In fact I considered writing my own blog and just cross-posting to his every once in a while (still may do this!). My intention is to start off with wine for this post, then cover beer the next and spirits the one after. Once those are done I will probably concentrate on wine, for reasons that will become apparent, but I can be persuaded otherwise if need be. The reason that I’ve chosen wine is that it is far easier and takes up less space than making beer, and with spirits you don’t really make them (unless you’re breaking the law) you just add different flavours. Firstly you’ll need to get equipment. You don’t need much, in fact to get all you need to start off will cost you less than £25 brand new and some of it you may already have or can improvise. What you need is: * A vessel big enough for all the ingredients; * A method of moving the finished product around; and * A way of making sure that all parts that the wine touches are clean. Of course you can go overboard and spend a fortune on much more, and indeed if you catch the bug this is exactly what you will do, but let’s keep things simple for now. I’ll go through one of the easiest recipes I know step by step and describe what was used along the way, with any shortcuts I can think of. “Aldi White” I found this recipe on a forum, where it was called “Lidl Red”. The principle is pretty basic, but a great idea - you buy 4 litres of cheap fruit juice and a kilo of sugar from a budget supermarket, put it all together and add some yeast, and in a month or two you have 6 bottles of wine. Easy as that! I considered starting by describing how to make a wine from a kit of concentrate, but to be honest this is easier and probably cheaper. Plus I felt that if I did that it would be akin to Pete blogging about a pot noodle that he made, or a pizza he ordered. Once I’ve covered the basics with this recipe I’ll expand out to wines that are a bit more adventurous, but for now this is as much about process as it is about content. Clean your fermentation vessel (FV), be it a demi-john or just an old 5 litre water bottle, using hot water and washing up liquid, then sterilize it. This can be done with a purpose made home brewing chemical, or with household bleach. The only disadvantage to bleach is that it is a bit of a bugger to rinse out, as I tend to get paranoid about any faint whiff of it still in the FV when actually I’m probably just smelling it on my fingers. And yes, I did say when rinsing out. You basically spend ages getting your kit sterile and then rinse it all off with tap water. Don’t ask. The way around this is to use “no-rinse” sterilizers, which of course cost more. The bottom line is keep everything clean and you should be fine. For all of the gallons that I’ve made over the years I’ve never lost anything due to lack of cleanliness. Because I’ve got the equipment I measured the specific gravity of the fruit juice using a hydrometer and a test jar. By doing this I have estimated the sugar content and so the potential alcohol I can get. It came in at 5%. The rule of thumb is that for every pound of sugar added to a gallon (sorry for mixing metric and imperial!) you add 5% to the wine, so if I had just mixed the juice and sugar that I bought in the same jar, then provided it all fermented out I would have had a fruit wine of between 15 and 16%. Not bad. In actuality I followed a slightly different route; I emptied one litre of juice into a pan, heated it and dissolved half the sugar in. Once it had gone into solution I mixed all of the juice together into my demi-john then poured some out into my trial jar to re-check. The potential alcohol came out at 10% so I added another 250g and remeasured - it came out at just over 13% which is what I was aiming for. Why? Different yeasts will ferment to different strengths. When I started out you only really went up to 12-13% unless you used a specialist yeast. Now you can go up to 23%, but the yeast I am using is unknown to me and if I added a shed load of sugar and it didn’t ferment out I would be left with an over sweet wine. Once that happens you either have to put up with it, or get into all sorts of trouble trying to restart the fermentation. Too much bother! If the wine ferments out all the sugar you can always add some extra - once the sugar is in though you can’t take it out. Needless to say if you are trying this recipe all you have to do is use a yeast that will ferment to 16% or higher and you should be fine without needing to buy a hydrometer. This also neatly bypasses the fact that the reading that you take is dependent on the temperature of the solution. Kit required so far: FV, cleaner, hydrometer & trial jar (optional), yeast. Once you have the potential strength you want the solution goes into your FV , you add the yeast you have chosen to use and seal the FV. If you are using a demi-john you would most likely use an air-lock of some kind, but you can just put a tea-towel over the top, use kitchen roll and an elastic band, or just the bottle closure without screwing it down air tight. What you are trying to do for the time being is keep dirt and bugs from getting in but allowing the carbon dioxide generated by fermentation out. Once closed, simply leave in a warm-ish place until the yeast has worked its magic. Again this depends on the variety, but it will take around 2 weeks for a modern yeast and around 4 for an older style one. You can tell that this has happened in a number of ways. The easiest is the hydrometer again; modern ones even have a scale that estimates where you are but if you are fermenting to dryness then the gravity will be 1.0 or less. Without the hydrometer you can watch the airlock for bubbles or make the FV air tight and see if it pressurises. Once fermentation has finished you should keep air from getting to the wine so that it doesn’t spoil, and let the yeast settle at the base. We’re almost there now, just a couple of steps left. The next operation is to get the fermented wine off the spent yeast, and this is usually done by syphoning into a second FV. If you use a tube with a special foot in it then it will draw the liquid from above, and so minimise the amount of yeast that transfers across. You may want to add finings at this point to make perfectly clear wine, but you don’t have to. Finally start thinking about storage. The best way is to use old wine bottles, and if they have a screw cap even better. Clean them out and sterilize them, then use the syphon again to fill them from the FV. Cap and store, then drink! Needed kit: FV, cleaner, yeast, FV closure or airlock, syphon tube and foot, second vessel capable of holding 5 litres Optional kit: hydrometer and trial jar, thermometer, finings, second FV You’ll most likely get 5 ½ bottles from this after wastage, which for the outlay isn’t bad. Do this a few times and the kit will pay for itself. Next time Beer making, and why you shouldn’t do it. Recommended Suppliers Basics, on the high street - Wilkinsons (http://goo.gl/hy3hD) Basics, on the web - Amazon More advanced - http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/index.html or http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/ My local home-brew shop (LHBS) - Arkwrights (http://www.arkwrightshomebrew.com/catalog/index.php) |
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