Yes! This evening will be the first installment, of what I hope will be many installments, of Red Wine Friday. If you read my post yesterday, you’ll know that I was going to try to get organised and buy a bottle of red wine, let you know what it was, so that if you wanted to, you got get the same one and taste it with me. I managed to get organised, (amazing!) so, tonight’s wine is: (drumroll please!)
Stormhoek Pinotage (Dido) 2008.
It cost me R45 in Pick’n'Pay. I can’t find much info on this particular range of wine so I haven’t got much to go on, but as far as I can tell, Platters gives it 2.5-3/5 stars. The cellar’s website (here) doesn’t give much in the way of actual info about the actual wines. I hope that you will able to drink along with me. We’re going to have it with chicken Kiev (recipe below), mashed potatoes, and probably a salad. (yes, red wine with chicken…I know that that’s not supposed to be how it g
If you can’t find that exact wine, I encourage you to get out there, choose a cheapish bottle (we’ve limited ourselves to R50/bottle. That’s about US$7.00 or € 4.50) that you haven’t tried before and go for it! Share what you thought in the comments section. Let us know what bottle you bought, what year it was and how much it was, and of course, why you liked it (or not).
Anyway, back to yesterday/today. I had coffee with Carol and she shared all her stories about the exchange to Scotland. It sounds like it was a fantastic experience! This was a work exchange, not a student one, so she got to meet other social workers in Scotland and the UK. The idea being to share knowledge, methods and learning experiences. Its run by Rotary all over the world. She and I have made a standing date to go ‘power’ walking on a Thursday evening. Which will be great. I have felt very unfit and blah recently. Nothing to do with the 3 tops and pair of jeans I tried on, none of which fit! I’m claiming that Woolies sizes are odd. We’re also going to force ourselves to go for cocktails this evening. J’s playing field hockey so she and I will just have to pass the time somehow!
This weekend is another round of cricket, against Port Alfred this time. I hope they show up-there have been all sorts of rumours that the Club has folded so we will see. I’m going to spend some of Saturday morning at the Grahamstown Flower Festival (clicky!) where I hope to get some nice indigenous flowers and bulbs to tart up the garden a little. I am not sure what our plans for Sunday are-probably something lazy and easy. Probably planting out my purchases!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend! Check back Monday for wine notes
Chicken Kiev
Ingredients (for 2 people)
1 or 2 de-boned, skinless chicken breasts per person
1 egg
50g butter
Bunch fresh parsley, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Breadcrumbs (for coating)
Corn starch (for coating)
Salt & pepper to taste
Toothpicks
Method
1. I usually serve 1 breast per person, but if you have hungry men, you can serve more.
2. Put the breasts in a plastic bag, bash them with a rolling pin or a sturdy bottle until they are thinner and flattened. Not too thin, but about half their original thickness. Put aside
3. In a small bowl, mix the softened butter, parsley and garlic. Toss in some salt and pepper to taste.
4. Take the breasts and put about 1 tsp of the butter mixture into the middle of each breast. Fold the meat up and around the butter and secure it with toothpicks. You’ll have a little parcel of chicken with butter in the middle. Pop these in the fridge/freezer for about 30 mins to help the butter harden up.
5. Beat the egg in a shallow dish. Put just enough cornstarch and breadcrumbs on separate plates for coating the parcels.
6. Dip each parcel into the egg, then into the cornstarch, then into the egg again, and finally into the breadcrumbs. The cornstarch makes the coating lovely and crispy.
7. Arrange on an oven-proof dish and pop into the oven (middle shelf) for 25mins at 180C (350F).
8. Serve hot with your choice of veggies and either rice or mashed potatoes. As you cut into the parcels, the lovely garlic-parsley butter will spill out and smell divine! Warn your guests about the toothpicks!
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