Yesterday afternoon, Neil sent me a message to say that he was going to go and do a quick food and wine matching session prior to hosting Feast's (fab restaurant in Gorey) next food and wine dinner on 26th February (It has a South African theme). Since Garth, their Head Chef, has put together an amazing, if little more unusual menu (not telling, it's a secret!!), Neil and Liz needed to ensure that the wines we have chosen to showcase match perfectly with the food. This is something we regularly do so I didn't think any more of it. However, I suddenly got a call about 30 mins prior to say that the tasting was going to be at our house (I thought it was going to be at Feast!) and that I would be cooking the food and that Annie, the lovely owner of Feast would be coming too.
Well this was bit of a shock as the kids are on half term, one of Oliver's friends was going to be arriving for a sleepover (at the time we would be tasting) and our cleaner was also in the house. But, I'm never one to turn down a challenge so when Annie arrived with the starter (at least I didn't have to cook two courses) and Neil and Liz arrived with about 16 wines to taste, we cleared the kids out the kitchen, the cleaner went up to the bathroom and I turned on the oven. Annie gave me 4 beautiful pieces of meat (secret!) she had just picked up from John Meyer's Deli at Red Houses and I suddenly had to go into Masterchef mode. I have never cooked this particular meat before and Neil asked me to make up a sauce to go with it similar to what we will be having on the night. Aghhh! I love cooking but I also like to work to a recipe not out of my head. I then said asked what we were going to eat with the meat, so Neil and Annie raided the fridge, got the pealer out and chopped up some sweet potato whilst I cooked the meat and put together a red wine, orange and cinnamon sauce, how, I don't know but it worked and the meat was great. Phew! A great team effort. Sometimes the most impromptu get togethers are always the best.
Cutting a long story short, we were able to easily match the wines for the starter and main course and we can't wait to taste the full menu on the 26th!
Thank you Annie for bringing the starter which was stunning and I desperately want the recipe, and for the lovely meat fillets. The kids behaved brilliantly, the cleaner (who ended up spending 1 hour in the bathroom) did a fabulous job (not surprised after an hour!!!) and we got to have a really enjoyable 2 course lunch. I was not expecting that......
Jane
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