Just back from the family holiday in the Adelaide Hills and apart from the bushfire that almost had us packing up the first day, it was great! So much good food and wine, lovely scenery, places of interest and for the kids’ lots of lolly and chocolate shops. No trip to the Hills would be complete without a pilgrimage to the National Motor Museum, a marvelous place for any motor enthusiast,
drool factor 11/10!

My favourite cellar door I visited was Nepenthe, a very classy affair perched on a hill top with gorgeous views over the vineyards. The smoke from the recent bushfire still hanging in the air gave the whole scene a dreamy quality. The wines were a delight with the 02 Pinot Noir a stand out with the 03 Pinot Gris and 04 Sav Blanc following closely behind. (And yes, we stock them all!)

Later I visited Hahndorf Hill Cellar door, once again great views and a classy vibe, but the wines were a bit too cool climate for my liking, all that searching around for flavour thing leaves me cold.

Next day we went to Bridgewater Mill to check out the Petaluma range. I was taken by the huge water wheel, all 27 tons, still turning and making the side of the mill almost a moving art form. The wines were excellent and my favourite being their 02 Chardonnay, so full bodied, intense with amazing balance and looking at the price list- $46- probably not much chance of me tasting these outside the cellar door!

I could go on for hours about my holiday in the Hills, but it’s a bit like looking at someone’s holiday snaps, it can get a bit dull!

So in conclusion, I highly recommend a trip to the Adelaide Hills, but not in bushfire season!

Food

Butter Chicken with Basmati rice

Heres an easy one I threw together the other night. It only takes an hour or so of total cooking time and comes up a treat. All the hardware you will need is a pot with a tight fitting lid and a 10cm deep baking tray. Then these ingredients.

1 Chicken thigh per person ( or two if you’re a big eater)

1 jar Butter Chicken cook in sauce, Pataks is my favourite

1 tin coconut cream

100g pumpkin per person cut into lge chunks

2 cups Basmati rice

coriander to garnish

fried shallots to garnish

Pappadams

Set the oven to 170. Then put the chicken thighs and the pumpkin in the baking dish, tip over the sauce. Using tongs lift the chook pieces through the sauce to ensure total coverage. If there’s not enough sauce to cover the chook then you can mix in some coconut cream. Cover it tightly with alfoil and throw into the oven for 1 hr, check for tenderness, it should fall apart when pulled.

30 minutes before the chook is ready, put the rice into the saucepan and add 2 ½ cups of water. Bring the rice to the boil for 5 minutes, put on the lid and take the pot off the heat, let it stand for 10 mins. Test the rice for doneness.

The whole meal should be ready at around the same time. To serve plonk a large pile of rice in a wide bowl, spoon over the chicken pumpkin and its sauce then garnish with some coriander, fried shallots and some big Pappadams. YUM!!!

I had it with Trenthams 04 Viognier, a sensational flavour bomb of a wine that is custom made for food from the Far East such as this.

Tasting

This Friday afternoon we will be tasting the wines of DeBortolis Windy Peak range. So we’ll see you all at the tasting corner between 4.30 and 7.30pm.

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