Was it the würst?

Welcome back to the blog and apologies for taking a wee break . One Wednesday was Boxing Day , the other new year week.

Boxing day gets quite full on in our household. We have a quiet Christmas Day which is then followed by an additional four of the family arriving and….let catering begin.

Many of you who know me already know that I am a foody. What do I mean by that? Only that for me it is not just a means to sustaining my energy levels, vitamins etc but the eating and tasting of food is a pleasure in it’s own right. That’s why I often refer to myself as a woman of substance because I have worked hard over the years to create this rounded physic and a lot of money and time has been invested in that too…although not always mine. I also tend to plan meals and always have fresh vegetables and herbs in and outside the house ..that’s the herbs not the vegetables.

I am a reasonably good cook who has no idea about presentation and occasionally the cooking doesn’t go to plan. My strength is soup. Last year Boxing Day started with a roasted beetroot soup that was spectacular and this year it was a pea and roasted garlic soup. Lighter than the beetroot and equally delicious.

I’d spent a long time researching making a nut roast for my sister for Boxing Day. She is a fish eating vegetarian and not at all fussy but does have some health related issues so can’t do fatty or heavily fried things etc. Normally I do her fish (and quite often join her in that myself. She would also be just as happy with a plate full of vegetables and the trimmings etc. But I really like to try and create something special as I often feel vegetarians can be short changed or an after thought . Because the meat eaters were having roast beef I thought nut roast might be the better option but they are often dry and sometimes tasteless. So I’d found one on line that claimed to be the juiciest and tasty too. It proved to be both but because I wanted to get the proportions right I’d made enough for about eight people. That meant the others could taste it and Fi had some to put in the freezer. The key seemed to be the addition of cheese to the loaf, egg and not too much nut. For me I think the texture still wasn’t right and so I will be working on my own variety. I do do a very nice lentil loaf anyway so I make look to combine the two.

The beef….well despite following the cooking timings it was over done as far as I was concerned. Still slightly pink but not pink enough for me. It tasted good though. Vegetables for all were asparagus and green beans quickly steam cooked in a little water and a tiny bit of salted butter. There was mashed potatoes for all as everyone had a sauce. Meat juice for the meat eaters and a Porcini, garlic and white wine sauce for my sister. That was made by hydrating dried porcini and keeping all the juices. Cooking the mushrooms in a little butter then a little wine and reducing it down, adding the porcini juices and reducing down and a little butter on the end for glaze and thickening.

Pudding was two fold and not made by me. A traditional trifle…yum and then ‘affogato’.

‘Afffogato’ ,if you don’t know , in it’s simplest form is just a nice vanilla ice cream with a hot espresso poured over the top and in it’s more celebratory form, with a brandy as well as the coffee..or other triple that tickles your palate. I do not like coffee flavoured things but I like coffee. This desert is lovely.

The other thing I am fortunate to do from time to time is to be treated to top end restaurants and yes, we are talking Michelin. They have all been good and some have been remarkable and many, memorable. It sounds like I have been to a lot and in some ways I have although others have been return visits . Two places I have returned to L’enclume in Cartmel in the Lake District and Martin Wishart’s in Edinburgh. Both truly delightful. L’enclume was the first place I ever experienced the playful artistry of complex dishes. Things made out of things you are not expecting them to be made of and looking like something else. Once this went from the sublime to the ridiculous with IOC in Copenhagen. The dishes there were so ridiculous at times (you often felt like you were crawling through the undergrowth, that we spent a lot of time laughing….nothing wrong with that and they did taste good. However I don’t think those serving were expecting that level of hilarity and some of the other guests were either eating in reverential silence or so used to high end experiences they couldn’t be bothered to enjoy the experience at all but maintained the same sour face throughout. On the whole I have found the experiences to be beautiful. Gorgoues surroundings, wonderful food served with a real artistic flair….something I’d love to aspire to but know I’ll never achieve because it takes hours and hours of preparation.

I take these experiences as an absolute privilege and never lightly . I cannot ignore the fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer and there I am eating food, often at eye watering prices, that might keep a family in ordinary food for a month…or more in some cultures. I am, like many, conflicted. I did not have a privileged upbringing but I have learned that a little bit of luxury can be very nice. I love it I confess. I am also aware that the ability to have these moneyed experiences could change at any time and so enjoy them fully I will while I can.

Last night we went to Sylvio Nickel’s restaurant in the Coburg palace in Vienna. A two starred Michelin restaurant . We were met downstairs in the hotel, ushered through to reception and then sent up in a lift. On exiting the lift you are met by staff who take your coats and lead you to your table. The restaurant was spacious and we had a sort of crescent shaped banquette seat that allowed us both to face towards each other and then outwards. They ask you if you would like to choose from the menu, have the nine course tasting menu or have the chef’s choose where you can choose the number of courses you think you can manage but the chef decides what those courses will be. We discussed it and decided to let the chef choose but to go for five courses not nine. We were also asked if we would like to see the wine menu. We said yes and then laughed hysterically as the A3 size manual was placed in front of us. We always try to choose local wine but even the Austrian section was absolutely massive. Unlike, some people I have heard, unfortunately usually men, who feel the need to show off by saying, “yes, interesting, your wine menu is very extensive but do you have the Gruner 1978 from the Blahdeblah vineyard”, we laugh and ask for recommendation . Always good and no-one, contrary to popular stereotypes, has ever recommended the most expensive wine. Just as well at those prices. Then the theatre began.

You always get variously titles ‘amuse bouche’ or ‘appetisers’ regardless of how many courses you were having. It started with a growing foliage display that had two little cones of smoked mackerel and pickled vegetables in, some glazed belly pork on a skewer and then a large ostrich sized egg arrived. The lid was taken off and inside was a smoked cream foam with little sweetbreads and a tiny yolk..all with a smoked flavour ….lovely…and a spoon full of tender lamb with a vegetable and mango salsa.

I can’t possibly talk you though all the dishes but they looked spectacular and tasted fabulous. Having been in Salzburg and then Vienna for four days by then and fed on a lot of meat products with very little vegetables we were wondering how the humble Würst and pork shoulder could be elevated to Michelin level but the whole thing was a delight. As well as the cones and pork belly you got a little spoon with some lamb with mango salsa, their own sour dough bread and two types of butter , one herb and the other…I can’t remember but it did taste good. There were also some tiny toasts with some very tasty meat fat type thing on it.

After that came a dish that was such a surprise. Lots of mushrooms and foliage and within it another, larger, mushroom…but it wasn’t it was a perfect looking mushroom made out of foie gras. In the background you can see a tiny brioche loaf. A lot of butter went into that I can tell you. There was dark chocolate in there too.

Then we had a scollop dish. I don’t think either of us worked out what the orangey brown thing was but..yep you guessed it…it tasted good. Next came sturgeon. Barely cooked and delicately flavoured followed by venison.

I’ve missed one out that was one of my favourites. It looked so colourful and tasted divine. It was beetroot, coconut and white chocolate. Not sweet and all the flavours went really well together. I was really surprised by the beetroot and coconut combination. Finally, or at least you think it’s finally , the most spectacular apple desert. It really was so beautiful that you didn’t want to disturb it but I did and accidentally ate the lot. It had a lovely sorbet and some crumbs for texture.

I’ve posted a photo of the wine in case anyone is interested just to finish off but the end is never truly the end. You always get home made truffles of which there were 3 different flavours all spectacular. Apricot, salted caramel and blackcurrant I think! After a meal like that you then have to go and lie with your stomach in the air for quite a while…not in the restaurant silly…back at the hotel. All portions are small and provided you don’t pig out on the delicious bread and brioche you can manage them all….well I did.

Happy New Year. I hope you had as good a time as possible and I look forward to sharing more ramblings with you over 2019. Cheers.