While the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has made celebrations difficult this year, we’ve been busy thinking of ways to ensure you have a fantastic Easter weekend.
And so, we’ve paired up with Celtic Whiskey Bar & Larder and Head Chef Jason to put together what we feel is a truly delightful menu to try at home and treat your loved ones to. Each meal is simple to put together and can be prepared with little preparation time. We’ve also paired a wine recommendation with each course which will really bring out the rich flavours and be the perfect complement to your three-course meal for this special day. Enjoy!
Whipped Goat’s Cheese, Beetroot, Walnut
Ingredients: (Serves 2)
100g Goat’s Cheese (we recommend using St Tola)
30ml Cream
5g Honey
Salt
5 Beetroots
20g Walnuts
300ml White Wine Vinegar
200g Sugar
100ml Water
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 Bay Leaf
1 Cardamon Pod
Method:
- To begin, wrap 3 whole beetroots in tinfoil with a good pinch of salt and place in a 160C oven for about 1 hour or until tender.
- Next, put the vinegar, water, sugar, and spices in a pot and gently heat to a boil.
- While the pickle comes to temperature, peel and slice the remaining beetroots as thin as possible (we recommend using a mandolin, if not a sharp knife is perfectly fine).
- When the pickle is up to the boil, add the sliced beetroots into the pickle and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cover. Allow to cool naturally. At this point set aside 100ml of pickle liquid for the duck main course later.
- Add the goats cheese and honey into your mixer (or by hand if you don’t have one) and mix on a medium speed with a whisk.
- When the cheese breaks down and becomes smooth, add in the cream and mix until it comes together to an ice-cream like texture. You can now put this in a container and store in the fridge until you need it.
- When your beetroots are cooked and cooled down, remove the tinfoil and peel (the skin will come off easily in your hand). Cut the beets into bite sized wedges and set aside until you need them.
- When assembling the dish, put the goats cheese in the centre of the plate. Dress your roasted beetroots in a small bowl with olive oil and seasoning. Place some beetroots on the goats cheese, then add some disks of pickled beetroots before finally adding the walnuts.
For fans of this region, this might be the most interesting area in Spitzer Graben. The grapes here take longer than usual to develop, probably due to the slate content in the soil. We certainly think they are well worth the wait!
This wine is dry and medium bodied with balanced (medium) acidity. The fruit characters are complex and slow to evolve with flavours of honey, ripe apples, peach, pineapple, and citrus fruits. A serious and complex wine that would partner really well with a variety of foods aside from the above starter. Indeed, it needs food to bring out its best qualities, and one, we feel, you will thoroughly enjoy.
Roast Duck Breast, Turnip, Endive
Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Duck Breasts (we recommend duck from Skeaghnore if possible)
2 Turnips
1 Red Endive (Chicory)
1 Shallot
1 Clove Garlic
Butter
Cream
100ml Reserved Pickle Liquid from the Goats Cheese starter
5 Sprigs of Thyme
Method
- To begin, similar to the pickled beetroot with the goats cheese, we are going to pickle half of one turnip. Using the same method as the beetroot, peel and thinly slice the turnip and cut into bite size disks using a ring cutter if you have one. Otherwise, you could cut thin strips with your knife.
- Bring the 100ml of pickle you reserved back to the boil and add in the turnip, again allow to simmer for 4-5 minutes, then take it off the heat and cover.
- To make the turnip puree, thinly slice the shallot and garlic then add it to a pot with a knob of butter to sweat down (gently cook). While the shallots and garlic are sweating down, finely chop the remaining half of the turnip you have left over from the pickle.
- After 3-4 minutes your shallots should be soft and almost translucent. Now you can add in the turnips and two sprigs of thyme. You can now turn up the heat to caramelise the turnips. Cook for 4-5 minutes stirring occasionally until the turnips are a dark golden colour. You can now add a splash of water to almost cover the turnips, when it comes to the boil add 50ml of cream and reduce the heat. Cook for another 4 minutes before blending until smooth. This can now be set aside until later.
- For the roast turnip, again peel the turnip. Slice the turnip in 1cm slices. You can choose to again use a ring cutter to cut disks or cut into batons. This turnip can be prepared ahead of time and cooked along with the duck.
- For the duck, ensure it is at room temperature before cooking. Ideally take it out from the fridge half an hour before cooking.
- Before cooking, score the skin by cutting shallow parallel lines into the fat. This will help the fat render, giving you crisp skin.
- Heavily season the duck breast with both salt and black pepper before laying it skin side down into a dry medium heat pan. Cook the duck on its skin for at least 5 minutes to get a crisp skin. When the fat has rendered and the skin is golden turn the duck breast over and add in the remaining thyme and 2 knobs of butter. Lower the heat and baste the duck for a minute.
- Remove the duck from the pan and place in a preheated 160C oven for 6 mins (or 44C core temperature) After cooking, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 8-10 minutes in a warm place.
- While the duck cooks and rests, add the turnip into the pan the duck was cooked in. Cook for approx. 4 minutes on each side.
- When you are ready to assemble the dish. Separate a couple of leaves from the endive. Cut the leaves to long sharp points and lightly dress with some olive oil and salt before dressing the dish.
For the main course, we recommend pairing with this fantastic light Pinot Noir wine from Alsace, France. Opens to lovely aromas of lavender, cranberries, redcurrant and cinnamon on the nose. On the palate, it is round and soft with notes of raspberries, cranberries, spice and a hint of smokiness on the finish. Extremely food-friendly wine perfect to pair with lamb, pork or rich tomato-based sauces. Best of all, this wine is organic and biodynamic!
Nutmeg Custard Tart, Clotted Cream
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
140g Butter- chilled & diced
250g Plain Flour
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon of Milk.
For the custard:
250ml Cream
250ml Milk
1 Vanilla Pod
2 Nutmeg
8 Egg Yolks
100g Sugar
Clotted Cream
Method:
- In a bowl, rub the butter and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add in the sugar, milk and egg and work the dough to bring it together.
- Allow the dough to rest for 20-30 minutes.
- While the dough rests, brush softened butter into your tart case to stop the pastry from sticking. After the butter, dust flour into the tart case and set aside.
- Now the dough can be rolled and baked. Lightly dust the table and your rolling pin. Begin to roll out the dough, turning it ever few rolls to ensure it is rolled evenly.
- The dough needs to be rolled approx. 3cm bigger than the diameter of your tart case to allow for shrinkage while cooking. When you have the dough rolled, transfer it to your tart case and gently press it in. Cut parchment paper and cover the tart. Fill the tart with baking beans, or rice to keep pressure in the pastry as it cooks- blind baking.
- You can now put the tart in a preheated 160C oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the paper and baking beans and cook for a further 10 minutes until golden.
- When the tart base is cooked remove it from the oven and allow to cool while you make the custard.
- For the custard filling, add the milk, cream, vanilla and 1 grated nutmeg to a pot and bring to the boil. While the milk mixture heats, beat the egg yolk and sugar in a bowl until it turns pale.
- At this point, taste the milk mixture and decide if you want to infuse for longer to make the nutmeg flavour more prominent. When you are happy with flavour, strain off the nutmeg and vanilla, then slowly pour the mixture over the egg yolk while whisking.
- Pour the custard mixture into the tart case and transfer to the oven. Bake in the oven at 130C for approx. 40 minutes until there is a slight wobble in the centre of the tart.
- When the tart has cooled, grate the remaining nutmeg over the tart. Using a small knife, you can now carefully trim the out crust of the tart to tidy it up.
- Slice the tart using a hot knife and serve with clotted cream.
A delicious blend of old ports from different vintages with an average age of ten years old all of which have been matured in oak casks. This port is youthful but still has plenty of character and maintains much of the freshness and fruit of younger ports. Rich and smooth on the palate, with intense fruit flavours and deliciously crisp, which makes it the perfect wine to pair with any dessert or to simply enjoy as a digestif after this three course meal. Finishes with an elegant structure and long lingering finish.
We hope you enjoy our selections above. Be sure to browse our full range of wines or (travel permitting) why not pop into our store and have a look for yourself. Alternatively, you can also give us a call at 01 675 9744 or contact us on Facebook, Twitter, or email and one of our in-store experts can help you select the perfect whiskey or drink of your choice to celebrate the day.
If you'd like to be the first to know about special offers, discounts, promotions and new releases then be sure to sign up to our weekly newsletters below!
Weekly Whiskey Offer Newsletter:
http://eepurl.com/dsxZE1
Weekly Wine Offer Newsletter:
http://eepurl.com/ducw4v
