A Guide To The Fine Art Of Living

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30173, 3 July 1963, Page 3

A Guide To The Fine Art Of Living

HOW TO WINE WHEN YOU DINE | [Bn A. TREMAIN] Since the advent of a new form of licence for hotels and restaurants in New Zealand, the public are wining a lot more with their meals. Wine taken in moderation is an aid to digestion and also a tonic and will turn a simple meal into something special. A bottle of wine usually holds eight glasses and would be plenty for four persons. If you have a special occasion, serve half a bottle a person and see how benign your guests become.

If you sip your wine, slowly, very slowly, with your meal, it will relax tense nerves and take your hand and lead you gently into a w’orld where everyone is young and happy.

To drink a red wine it is best to draw the cork, let it breathe, and stand the bottle in the dining-room for at least two hours before serving. This is known as chambering. I knowmany will disagree; but heavy wines, such as those of the Rnone, are better drunk a few degrees warmer than the room. This can only be decided bv trial.

A great deal of nonsense ■ talked about the icing of white wines Only sweet w.nes should be iced. When too cold, the natural aldehydes, esters, etc., do not volatilise and tickle the drinker’s nostrils as they should. The temperature of cold spring waiter —between 50 and 55 degrees—is about right. Aa to the order of serving. ome should not take too much notice of "white before red.” However, it is better to start with the Light and finish with the heavy serving the best with the cheese. What wine to serve with what dish? This is really a matter of personal taste, most gourmets preferring that delicate dishes should be accompanied by delicate wines and seasoned dishes with a heavier wine. White wines go best with white meats, shellfish, fish. and veal; red wines should accompany red meats and game. Drink sherry with your soup, And Chablis with your fish. Take claret if the ent-ee is red. What more could palate wish? Or if the entree should be white, Then Chablis once again. With poultry you have sparkling hock Or possibly champagne. With game and meat comes Burgundy, And i/ou'U feel fine and dandy. When port you’ve taken with your sweets, And, with your coffee, brandy. Vintage Yean What does the average diner have to know to enjoy good wine with his food? First, there is no need to worry unduly over vintage yeans unless you can afford to be a real connoisseur. Remember that any French wine bearing the dates 19451947 is safe. That the climate has not been good to the champagne producers is shown by the fact that their last great year was 1928.

Above all, select the wine you fancy. A few tips will help you to obtain the full flavour and savour of the wine.

Don’t gulp; don’t gargle. Gently sip the wine, savouring it as though it were a sorbet or an ice cream. Smell the wine before tasting it; then capture the full flavour in your palate by running it over your tongue and concentrating on it. Try drinking the wine with food, then drinking it alone. Ask yourself: does the combination marry or does one overpower the other? Initiation Never drink wine with salads or acidulated hors d’oeuvres. partiicutarly at the beginning. Try wine with bread or water biscuits. Here are a series of trials which are guaranteed to initiate you into wining: (1> Drink the wine at room temperature. (2> Drink the same wine slightly chilled.

<3> Drink it frankly warm. (4) Eat a sponge biscuit previously dipped in wine at normal temperature. Repeat this every day for a week. Forget the wine for a fortnight; then pour out two glasses of wine, one the same as you previously have tried, and one the same but a different year. Blindfolded, see if you can detect the difference.

Always start the meal with a dry wine. Then, with fried meat or poultry, a red claret should be served. Entrees with white or egg sauees should be accompanied by white Burgundy, entrees with brown sauces by red Burgundy. Contrary to popular belief, a dry Burgundy or hock is very nice with the sweet, the contrast bringing out the best in both sweet and wine

I have been asked if I could give a recipe using martini. Here are two: APPLE MARTINI FRITTERS Ingredients: Peel, core lib apples } cup martini Pinch of salt loz melted butter 2 stiffly beaten egg whites Oil to fry A little sugar 4oz flour 1 egg yolk 1 gill warm water

Method: Allow the peeled and cored apples to soak in martini. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, add the egg yolk, sugar, butter and warm water, stirring until a smooth paste, allowing to stand for 15 minutes. Beat in egg whites, dip the apples into mixture and fry off in hot oil. Drain and serve srinkled with icing sugar or castor sugar.

BAKED BANANA PUDDING Ingredients: 4oz butter 2 mashed bananas . 4oz sugar 4oz self raising flour 1 well beaten egg 4oz white breadcrumbs Pinch of baking powder Sweet martini to taste

Method: Cream together butter and sugar, blend in mashed banana and egg, fold in flour, breadcrumbs and baking powder, lastly flavour with the sweet martini. Line a cake tin with greaseproof paper and fill it two-thirds full. Cover the top with flaked almonds and a piece of greaseproof paper and bake in an oven at 325 deg. for 1 hour. Serve with a martiniflavoured egg custard. ★ Pineapple Rings With Bacon Using a pastry cutter, cui four rounds of bread the size of pineapple rings. Cut rind off four rashers of bacon and skewer them to make them wavy. Brush four pineapple rings with melted oil and grill with bacon until brown. Fry bread rounds in fat from bacon rinds. Put pineapple rings on the fried bread, garnish with parsley and arrange bacon round the dish. From “Good Housekeeping ’’

Pineapple, Bacon Macaroni On Chilly days and nights something hot is called for, whether it is for luncheon or a cosy ■upper by the fire on Sunday night. Something quick to make, er able to be set ready ahead for cooking at the required moment is easiest on the cook. Savoury Macaroni custard with pineapple and bacon topping is the week’s top special. Ingredients: 1 cup macaroni pieces Boiling salted water 1 tin evaporated milk 1 tin fresh milk 2 eggs 1 cup grated tasty cheese 1 teaspoon Worcester sauce 5 rashers bacon 1 small tin pineapple rings 1 teaspoon paprika Salt Extra grated Cheese Method: Drop macaroni into rapidly boiling salted water and cook until completely tender. Drain. Whisk 2 eggs with 1 tin evaporated milk and one tinful of fresh milk. Add grated cheese, salt and Worcester sauce and the macaroni. Mix well and turn into a buttered ovenware dish. Cut three of the bacon rashers in halves and roll into sik tight little rolls. Cut remaining bacon into postage stamp pieces. Drain pineapple rings. Leave one whole, cut three into-halves and cut the rest into small pieces. Cut whole ring into small segments but arrange back as complete ring on top of the macaroni with paprika sprinkled into the centre. Radiate bacon rolls from it. Place halved rings round the dish evenly. Sprinkle remaining chopped pineapple round, with bacon postage stamps over. Sprinkle the whole top with additional grated cheese. Set in a pan of water and bake slowly, at 300 degrees, until set and the top well browned. Brown a little under the grill if necessary. ★ Burgundy Stew (Picture on left) Ingredients: 11b stewing steak Seasoned flour loz dripping 41b small onions Jib small carrots Jib small potatoes 1 small tin mushrooms 2-3 apples 1 pint stock or water Salt and pepper J teaspoon allspice J a head of celery J pint Burgundy 8 thin rashers of bacon Method: Cut the steak into medium-sized pieces and coat in seasoned flour. Fry in the fat on both sides until brown, then remove. Peel the onions, carrot and potatoes, leaving them whole. (Choose potatoes and onions of about the same size.) Peel the apples and cut into large pieces. Toss all these in the dripping for a few minutes, without letting any of them brown, then add the stock, seasonings and celery, cut into 1-inch pieces. Return the meat to the pan and mushrooms, bring to the boil and simmer slowly for H-2 hours. Add the Burgundy and eook for a further 10 minutes. Meanwhile, roll and grill the bacon. Serve the stew in a casserole, garnished with the hot bacnn .rolls. -—---•*"<7 -Hr:

Fillet Of Veal In Milk When * piece of fillet of veal is on the menu for Sunday dinner, give it a new look and a new taste by cooking it in milk- this way. Ingredients: 1 piece of fillet of veal 4 whole onions 8 whole carrots 2pz butter 2 cups milk Pinch mixed herbs Salt and pepper Method: Heat 2oz butter in a pan and place in the fillet, browning a little on both sides. Add whole onions and carrots round the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mixed herbs. Pour milk round and roast very slowly in the oven, spooning some of the liquid over the meat from time to time. Cover with a lid or aluminium foil after the meat is well browned. Allow 2-3 hours in a very low oven and cook until the meat is very tender. Lift on to a hot dish and surround with the carrots and onion. Serve mashed potatoes, green peas and a separate brown gravy made with beef cubes and the strained liquor from the meat thickening as usual with flour.