Monday, June 30, 2008

My weekend

Gosh, what a weekend. I might need a vacation after this one. As I told you already, I went to Augustine's on Friday which was fantastic. When I came home, I had to marinate the ox cheeks in port and red wine. The recipe stated 700ml port and 3 litres of red wine. I really prefer drinking the wine so I reduced the quantity and it covered the cheeks perfectly. I then chopped celery, carrots and onions. Mixed it together with bay leaf and fresh rosemary and stirred it into the wine mixture.The cheeks are very big actually. They had to marinate overnight.

Saturday I went to the Taste of Cork and had a great day. Tasted some great food and wine, met Valerie from Bubble Brothers who is a lovely girl. Entered the draw for a Magnum of Bordeaux Superieur which I really would like to win. I tried a La Fortuna Malbec 2005 from Chile which I will have to buy in the shop soon as it is simply a wine I need to explore a bit more. The Wine Buff offered me a Pierre Henri Gringliner Riesling 2005 Vin d'Alsace which was one of the better Rieslings I had in a long time. Fresh, green apple and zingy.....perfect for a warm summer day. I was home by 6 and started then to cook the cheeks and start preparing for the big BBQ on Sunday.....(note to myself......do NOT try to cook ox cheeks and prepare food for the next day - you won't get to bed before midnight).

The marinade of the ox cheeks was the base for the sauce and the port and the wine made it a rich and deep coloured gravy. Steve liked the cheeks but they are too big as part of a main course where the beef fillet is suppose to be the star of the plate. Will have to cook 1 per 2 people and slice it rather than giving each guest a full cheek. Anyway, the meat was tender (as it cooked 4 hours) and it is easier than I thought.

Yesterday was the big BBQ and we had about 30 people coming and going. Apart from the meat I made lentil dhal, hummous, tomato chutney, mushroom ketchup. Sofie who came early was forced to stuff little peppers with my homemade cheese. And seriously, I can't remember what else I made as I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown.....oh yes, made also a sun dried tomato bread....and I just saw it disappear....chocolate brownies and bannoffi pie were reduced to crumbs....The last people left around 11:15 and by then I was ready to hit the pillow.....

So it was just a normal weekend. Sorry for not having pics this time but I completely forgot what the camera was sitting on the counter for ;-)

Hope you all had a great weekend yourselves....

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