Category Archives: food

Have Yourself a Merry Little (Midwinter) Christmas

Posted on by Genevieve
6

Let your heart be light: Everyone has their traditions – something they eagerly anticipate each year. Today, I would like to share with you mine.

For the past five years, my friends and I have come together once a year to make merry Midwinter Christmas. For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere, Midwinter is a little somethin’ a few of us down below partake in to observe Christmas in all its wintry, frosted glory… with pinecones roasting atop the fire, mulled cider, festively decorated interiors – as so many Christmas songs, stories and traditions are lost on us in our December summer. So, the exact date is not hugely important - what is, however, is spending an overtly festive day together, accompanied by merriment and turkey.

Christmas decorations come up, Judy and Chris Martin blare ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (one after the other, of course)… there is cocktail attire, fairy lights, cranberry-laiden wreaths… there has even been “Pin the Tail on Rudolph”.

This year’s menu included: an organic free-range Turkey (Boris Junior – brined to ensure maximum tenderness and flavour… this is a must) roasted with a pork + cranberry + pinenut stuffing and orange + sage butter, maple-syrup roasted golden kumara + giant yams, potatoes + parsnips par-bolied + then roasted with garlic in duck-fat, blanched brussel sprouts sauteed lightly with lardons and celery heart leaves, and finally little sausages wrapped in bacon.

Dessert consisted of vanilla panna cottas served with citrus-poached tamarillos and sugar-toasted pistachios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sous chef: This Guy (a Durvillea-aproned Michael).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a special champagne toast to our Durvillea Girl Libby to celebrate her engagement to her fiance (I love calling him that!) Peter. My speech was one for the books…

 

I look forward to Midwinter Christmas every year, probably more so than anything else. Sitting down to dinner with my favourite people, it really is magical… oh no, I don’t want to get all Love Actually on you. So, I hope you all enjoy the photos – because, we really did have ourselves a Merry Little Midwinter Christmas.

Hmmm, maybe I will get all Love Actually … so, to finish:

Particularly enjoy the incredible crassness of this moment when I try to squeeze three extra syllables into the fourth line…

… now if you really love Midwinter Christmas, come on and let it snow.

*Dishes inspired by Chirstmas recipes from (of course) Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey, Nigella Lawson etc. etc.

 

My attempt at pork dumplings!

Posted on by Meg
2

Hello all, Meg here.

It has been a very long time since I wrote on this blog, but, in my defence, I have been quite busy finishing my MA, having a wedding and starting Teachers’ College so at least I have been doing something somewhat useful with my time!

A few weeks ago it was my partner Henry’s birthday and his sister Jessica was kind enough to bring down some Chinese dumplings from Auckland to serve at his party. We had been to the restaurant that she had got them from and really enjoyed them so she bought some frozen ones and carried them down to us in her hand luggage.

I love dumplings and enjoyed having them at home so much that I thought I would try making some. I used frozen dumpling wrappers that I found in the freezers at Yan’s supermarket here in Wellington. I would guess that you could find them in your local Asian supply store too. If you can’t find them and you are not as lazy as me you can google “dumpling wrapper recipe” and find plenty of options. Please excuse my dodgy food photography!

I mixed the following ingredients to make my dumplings:

  • 500g pork mince
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped cabbage
  • 3 finely sliced spring onions
  • 1 tbsp minced ginger
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice (although I did have some constructive criticism that less spice might have been good).

Just mix everything well. This part of the recipe is easy!

Next, take a dumpling wrapper and place about a teaspoon sized ball of mixture in the middle. You may need to lay a damp tea towel over the wrappers so they don’t dry out. They defrost pretty quickly and they can’t be refrozen. The next step is to wet your fingertip and rub it around the rim of the wrapper to make it stick. You then fold the two sides together, making sure to get any air out.

I then attempted to pleat the edges of the dumplings to make them neater. I don’t think it has much effect on taste or cooking time but it does make it a bit tidier when it come to eating and steaming.

We then cooked them in bamboo steamers although there are lots of instructions on the internet for pan frying and then steaming in the fry pan. If you use bamboo baskets don’t forget to put down wax paper or cabbage leaves as they are very sticky!

I served them with some noodles and bok choy stirfried with lots of garlic and with some oyster sauce on top (please ignore the dish brush that has snuck into shot!).

Next time I’d like to try a vegetarian recipe so if any one has a good one please do leave a link!

Last week I was lucky enough to have dinner at Martin Bosley’s restaurant. As you may know, Sophie is leaving Astrolabe (this Friday!) so it was nice to have a chance to catch up. Of course she is my cousin so it isn’t like we won’t see each other again but it was still great to catch up with our Durvillea hats on. Also joining us was Genevieve (the “new Sophie” so to speak). We had a great time – here’s a little picture of Gen, Sophie and I outside.

-  Meg

An Ode to Autumn

Posted on by Durvillea
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The harvest is now over. All the grapes for the 2011 vintage have been picked, except of course the 4 rows of Riesling which we hope will turn into sticky.

Riesling still on the vine at Astrolabe Farm

This is a risky business and we need the weather to be just right. We are also wondering if the weather as affected the mushrooms. For some reason the mushroom harvest this year has been particularly poor. Yesterday Simon and wandered about “shrooming” but we only gathered enough to add to the lamb shank casserole.
It has been a wet Easter weekend so there has been little activity outside. A couple of days rest means I am now eager to tidy up the veggie garden. My vegetable garden has been quite unproductive this year. I still can find potatoes and a few cherry tomatoes from the glass house. However the focus this year has been on growing flowers for Meg and Henry’s wedding. Although that was 6 weeks ago we have marigolds, salvia and dahlias galore.

Dahlias galore

Dahlias have been an absolute highlight for me this summer. They have flowered continuously for weeks.

Marigolds

More dahlias

Dogwood

The Dogwoods are now dropping their leaves. They have been very showy this year. Indeed the autumn colours are lovely. The pear tree is laden and the swans have made a little track across the pond paddock to feast on the windfalls.
We have removed many of our feijoa trees to make way for my firewood coppice but we still have enough to ensure a good supply for eating and cooking . Our good friend James Hall from SPQR was down visiting a week or so ago and he sent me a feijoa cake recipe that has lived on his fridge for some time. Today I made it and include the recipe here for you. I am not sure who created this recipe but it has probably came from the NZ Herald.
The Best Feijoa Cake
125g butter
200g white sugar (approx ¾ cup)
2 eggs 
165g flour (approx 1 1/3 cups)
2tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
30g ground almonds (about one packet)
225g sour cream
1tsp almond essence
Approx.500g ripe feijoas – skinned and cut in a half or thirds
1 Tbsp heaped coarse grained sugar (demerara is ideal)
A generous pinch of ground ginger

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Prepare a 22cm cake tin. Cream together the butter and sugar very well. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined, then lastly the essence. Sift the dry ingredients over mixture and add at the same time the sour cream and ground almonds. Fold in carefully until well combined. (Mixture is quite thick). Spoon into prepared pan and very lightly press in the fruit cut side up. The fruit should be in a single layer. Sprinkle sugar and ginger over fruit. Put the cake into the oven and reduce heat to 180C. Bake 50 mins, turn oven off and leave in oven for an hour or overnight. Serve warm.

(The cake is quite pudding like but very tasty and a change from other recipes I have tried which are more carrot cake in style.)

So Easter is almost at an end. Arabella is back to university tomorrow but has taken all the photos for my blog. We will have to pack away all our Easter chicks until next year. However we love autumn, the perfect season for redheads, and there is nothing quite so nice at the end of the day as drawing the curtains to sit in front of the fire with a glass of pinot noir .

Jane

Tis the season – Yule log recipe from Jane & competition

Posted on by Jane
10

The raspberries are ripening and on Saturday we bought our first cherries of the season. Christmas is upon us, so what I have I done? Well, I have done quite a few good and interesting things in the last few weeks but very few to do with Christmas preparations. I keep saying it is just one dinner, a few presents, and family to stay. However after three weeks away on a northern hemisphere tour we are home and I have a small sense of panic. Just a sniff.

Foremost for me at Christmas is family. This year we will have all the girls home, my sister Nicki and her family, which of course includes our Sophie, and my father. We are fairly traditional at Christmas. Breakfast, presents, champagne, lunch, lounging about, fun activities (planning croquet this year) and left-overs for tea. As you may have read we like to decorate the house for Christmas. Arabella takes the role of Christmas decorating fairy. I also enjoy setting the table with my Christmas napkins and wearing my Christmas apron.All accompanied by various drinks. Christmas lunch will be a roast turkey, but my favourite part is making desert. It is decadent and fun. Actually I really love the whole thing of the people I love best in the world gathering around the table.

Last year we (Libby the baker daughter) and I made a yule log for Christmas lunch. The combination of chocolate and fresh summer berries is excellent. This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Christmas.
Yule Log
For the cake:
6 eggs, separated (luckily my new chickens have come into lay)
150g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-5 tsps icing sugar to decorate

For the icing:

175g dark chocolate, chopped
250gg icing sugar
225g soft butter
1 x 15ml tablespoon vanilla extract

• Preheat the oven to 180 C
• In a large , clean bowl whisk the egg whites until thick and peaking, then, still whisking, sprinkle in 50g of the caster sugar sugar and continue whisking until the whites are holding their peaks but not dry.
• In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining caster sugar until the mixture is mousy, pale and thick. Add the vanilla extract, sieve the cocoa powder over, then fold both in.
• Lighten the yolk mixture with a couple of dollops of the egg whites, folding them in robustly. Then add the remaining whites in thirds, folding them in carefully to avoid losing the air.
• Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment, leaving a generous overhang at the ends and sides, and folding the parchment into the corners to help the paper stay anchored.
• Pour in the cake mixture and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let the cake cool a little before turning it out onto another piece of baking parchment.

- Jane

Here is how to enter the competition. We already have one entry on last week’s blog from Sharon for a Midori & Bailey’s trifle!

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday 10th December for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

O’Tannenbaum – Arabella’s Christmas trees, recipe and competition

Posted on by Jane
7

It’s less than one month until Christmas which means that it is time to start erecting and decorating your Christmas trees! At the farm we have already put ours up, we tend to get a bit overexcited by decorations and already have three trees fully decorated. We have a big tree with all of our old decorations on it, a smaller red and white tree with lots of ribbons and gingerbread men and our latest addition is a radical white tree with colourful Dr Suess-esque decorations.

Another festive thing we get a bit excited about is the food. Although we love traditional Christmas cuisine, being in Marlborough we also have lots of summer produce ready for eating at the farm. There are always plenty of berries, new potatoes and peas from Jane’s vegetable garden. One of my favourite Christmas dinner dishes is peas and pancetta. This salad looks lovely and green on the table and is a delicious interval to rich ham and turkey.

 

Peas and Pancetta

Olive oil

Pancetta (100 grams or so)

1 cup white wine

1 small onion

5 cups fresh picked peas

1 clove garlic

Cook chopped onion and pancetta in olive oil until brown. Add garlic and keep cooking until it smells nice! Add wine peas and black pepper and simmer until peas are tender and wine is absorbed.

We already have some delicious entries into this week’s draw: Danielle’s mushroom and bacon pate, Kathie’s Ham with Spicy Plum and Mustard Glaze, Erin’s Meat Sauce, Lucy’s Sultana Cake, Cynthia’s Christmas mince and Claire’s Parsley Butter. Check them out on last week’s blog. To enter your recipe see the info below.

- Arabella

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday3rd Decmeber for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

Meg’s Christmas recipes & a competition

Posted on by Jane
9

Ok, it’s the second week of our Christmas competition. We already have some entries that were posted on Sophie’s last blog. So far the recipes submitted are Florentine Tarts from Sophie Parker, Amy Maxwell’s Scallops on Cauliflower Puree and Claire’s Chocolate Trifle Supreme! Yum! I think those recipes show the range of foods that we think of as “Christmassy” in New Zealand! To enter this week’s draw see the competition info at the bottom of this blog.

One thing that I really enjoy about Christmas is having so many drinks and nibbles! As you can imagine we always have a well stocked drinks fridge at Astrolabe Farm and as we all know it is very important not to drink on an empty stomach. My favourite classic Christmas nibbles would be Jane’s mini mince pies (which her grandmother used to make for my grandfather) and the delicious smoked salmon pate from the Mapua smokehouse. Another Waghorn family favourite are Devils on Horseback and the recipe is very simple!

All you need are pitted prunes and streaky bacon (free range bacon pretty please!). Wrap the prunes in the bacon stick a toothpick through and bake. Super easy, sweet and savoury, delicious crowd pleasing appetisers!

Last year we celebrated Christmas in Canterbury. We had Christmas morning in Akaroa with the Waghorn’s and Christmas lunch/dinner in Christchurch with the McLernon’s. For lunch our responsibility was the dessert.

We made a chocolate log and a lemon/lime cheesecake. For the top of the cheesecake I made some sugar lemon slices. They are quite easy to make and can hide a multitude of sins on top of any kind of cake!

Step 1. Thinly slice lemons (or limes), put in a bowl and pour over boiling water.

Step 2: Leave to cool, take out and rinse to remove bitterness.

Step 3: Simmer one cup of sugar with half a cup of water until dissolved. Add lemons and simmer for five mins.

Step 4: Place on drying rack. When dry toss them in sugar (caster sugar is probably best).

Then use them for decorating whatever you like!

Competition details:

Post up your favourite Christmas recipe, meal, or serving suggestion on this blog and we will do the second draw this coming Friday 26th November for the next two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this competition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

 

Sophie’s Update and a New competition

Posted on by Durvillea
9

It is just over six weeks till Christmas  and you can definitely tell. Christmas carols are already being played in stores, lots more orders are starting to come in and finally the weather is warming up- today is forecast for 27degrees in Blenheim!

Tasting new releases at Chesters, Brisbane

Last week Jason, Jeremy our viticulturist and I were in Brisbane for a meeting with our Australian distributors. This meeting went really well, we tasted all of our new release wines with them and all four states seemed to be in line in terms of pricing, the branding, and their views going forward. Interestingly the Kekerengu Sauvignon Blanc from our Astrolabe range seemed to be very popular over there.

Currently we only have Durvillea in two of the four states, QLD and VIC, but in both states the brand is being well received, the Durvillea Pinot Grigio seems to be a real winner at the moment.

Coming back to Christmas however, this year we are having Christmas at Astrolabe Farm, and it will be my family (the McLernons) and the Waghorns. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, and the food on Christmas Day is definitely a highlight. We normally have a hot ham and a turkey and many other delicious treats that various family members bring along. This year Meg and I have decided that we should probably contribute a bit more, so we are being a little bit cheeky using this competition to get recipes and ideas from you!

Family Christmas '09

But we will also be giving you a chance to win!

To enter this competition we want you to give us your favourite Christmas recipe, it can be an entree, a dip, a stuffing, a glaze, a whole meal, a dessert, whatever Christmas food/meal is most dear to you.

At the end of each week the prize will be 2 bottles of Durvillea Wine (for the first five weeks) and then the last week (being drawn 17th December) everyone who has entered the competition will go into the draw again to win a Magnum of Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc.

Each week each of us Durvillea girls will also be posting one of our favourite recipes, so to start of this week I am going to give you two little ones that are almost always used in our family!

One is a fantastic Hot Ham glaze, and the other a Turkey Stuffing that my mum Nicki always uses.

Hot Ham Glaze
½ c runny honey
1 ½ c brown sugar
2 tbsp mustard (any)
½ c juice (pineapple or orange)
Whole cloves

Heat honey in microwave until warm,
Stir in the brown sugar
Add the mustard and then juice

Remove skin from ham, cut diamonds into the fat, stud with cloves and brush glaze over. Bake for a couple of hours at 160degrees. Check regularly to ensure it isn’t burning.

Turkey Stuffing
1 C fresh brown bread crumbs
4-6 shallots cooked in olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic sliced and cooked in olive oil
1 c black olives
200gm bacon or prosciutto-chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary

So post up your favourite recipe or meal on this blog and we will do the first draw this coming Friday 19th November for the first two bottles of Durvillea wine (your choice)

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this compeition
* One person’s recipe a week will be drawn from a hat each Friday until the 17th December and that lucky person will win 2 bottles of their choice of Durvillea wines
*Everyone who posted a recipe will go in the draw for the Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc magnum to be drawn 17th December

2009 Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc wins Gold at International Aromatic Wine Comp

Posted on by Durvillea
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We are very pleased to announce that our 2009 Durvillea Sauvignon Blanc (only just released) has won a Gold medal at the International Aromatic Wine Competition this week. For their Press Release click here and for a list of other award winning wines click here

Already this wine has done extremely well, picking up a Gold at the Liquorland International Wine Competition also. Our tasting note for this wine is available below- keep clicking on the image until it is a size you can read!

As I mentioned earlier, Meg and I have been talking and realised that we haven’t held a competition in a while, so we have decided that come November ( not long now) we will hold another competiton! As it often is with us Durvillea girls it will most likely be food based…..

Hope springs eternal

Posted on by Jane
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Spring is such a wonderful time here on the farm. As we wake in the mornings the birds are going crazy. We are enjoying hearing and sighting tui. An added excitement has been a young wood pigeon visiting. A report in the paper said that a wood pigeon sighting at Spring Creek is the first in 27 years. Part of the farm is our large pond which is surrounded by native plantings. We also have several kowhai trees. It is wonderful to see the native birds returning. The white heron has been wintering over on the pond.

It has been a sad winter in the chicken coop. My dear old Wyandotte Winnie died and a couple of months later my little red hen Hettie dropped dead too. These hens were quite elderly and, while I love River Cottage, I ain’t no Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and I have to bring in hired assassins if a hen needs killing. However, hope does spring eternal and I now have four young hens housed in the dog run until they get a little bigger and can be introduced to the older girls. They are brown shavers. My aim is to have continuous egg production throughout the year. The others all went off the lay over winter. I want egg production units! These plain but oh so charming girls are, I hope, the answer. As if in fright the others are all producing again!

The old girls

It is also asparagus time. Alas the crop is poor. The crowns in the bed are over 20 years old and it is time for new ones. The potatoes are sprouting and the weeds are flourishing. I am so keen to get out there. I had my foot reconstructed 5 weeks ago and my gardening has been curtailed. I have my King’s seed catalogue at my side and oh so many plans.

The ground is finally drying out after a very wet winter. The Chardonnay is budding out. We gave Simon Cider Apple trees for Father’s Day with the glorious names of Sidero, Broxwood Foxwelp, and Kingston Black Semi-dwarf. Apple blossom, pear blossom, cherry blossom, quince blossom…….. Hope springs eternal.

Mother's violets in my garden

In memory of my mother Ruth Forrest who died on 26 August, the Durvillea girls’ Nana.

Mother’s Sweet and Sour Pork (a trip back to 1970′s)

1 1/2 lb lean pork cut in strips

2 tablespoons fat

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup green pepper strips

1 med. can pineapple chunks

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 cup thinly sliced onion

Brown pork in the hot fat, add water, cover & simmer until tender – about 1 hour. Drain pineapple, reserving syrup, combine sugar, cornflour & pineapple syrup (3/4 to 1 cup), vinegar, soy sauce and salt. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Pour over hot cooked pork and leave to stand 10 minutes or longer, add pineapple, green pepper & onion. Cook 2 to 3 minutes. Serve with rice or noodles.

Winner of the first July Durvillea Competition

Posted on by Durvillea
6

With ten fantastic entries for how to enjoy Pinot Noir, we all found it too hard to decide on a winner! So we ended up picking it out of a hat this morning. The winner of the first July competition for the “Best way to enjoy Pinot Noir” is Kate Fisher. Kate Fisher likes to drink Pinot Noir in the sounds while the sun is setting with salty hair and skin under warm clothes after a long day of fine entertaining with best marlborough friends! Kate we have a mixed six pack of Durvillea Wines coming your way. Please email us sophie@durvillewines.co.nz with your address.

Do you want to go in the draw to win a mixed six pack of wine too? At the moment my favourite wine is the Pinot Grigio, so for the new competition this week, we want to know your Best food match with Pinot Grigio, it can be a recipe or simply a food wine match. Just comment on this blog below for your chance to go in the draw!

Terms and Condition to Enter:
* Must be over 18
* Comments must be posted on this blog, not our facebook or twitter accounts
* Only those in New Zealand and Australia are eligible for this compeition
* One person’s comment a week will be picked Wednesday mornings each week for the whole of July by the team in the office and that lucky person will win a mixed 6pack of Durvillea wines