Match Point: Cider and Food
Tom Norrington-Davies, food writer and chef at restaurant Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, has devised some recipes which make perfect partners to Gaymer Cider Company's Addlestones cider.
Recipe: Orecchiette with pumpkin, chillies, sage and pine nuts
Dish description: A slightly inauthentic, but kind of pretty pasta dish. The sweet notes in the pumpkin are a great foil for similar flavours hidden in the cider. This is one of those pasta dishes where you may omit the Parmesan if you like.
Ingredients:
• 300g pumpkin (or butternut squash)
• 1 red pepper
• 2 red onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 chilli (deseeded if you don't want the heat)
• 2 tbs light olive oil for cooking
• Half tsp salt
• 50g pine nuts
• 8 to 10 leaves of sage
• 50g fresh parmesan (optional)
• 300g orecchiette pasta
Method:
Peel and finely dice the pumpkin or squash. De seed and dice the pepper. Peel and finely dice the onions. Chop the garlic and chilli as finely as possible. Heat the oil in a wide frying or sautéing pan and when it is hot, add the oil then fry the garlic and chilli for a minute or so, before adding the pepper, onions, pumpkin and salt. Lower the heat and add the slat. Stir it through and cover, allowing the vegetables to sweat gently for ten to fifteen minutes or until the onions are beginning to brown and the pumpkin is soft. Stir in the pine nuts and sage leaves, then fry them for just two more minutes. Rest the vegetables off the heat, in the pan. Meanwhile, boil the pasta in plenty of salted water until it is al dente. Drain briefly then return it to the pan. Add the pumpkin mix and stir it thorough gently. Season to your liking with the salt and loosen it all up with a splash of extra virgin olive oil. Serve the pasta with the Parmesan at the table for people to add a little if they like.
Recipe: Grilled pork chop with apple and celeriac mash
Dish description: This combo is perfect for late summer evenings. You could actually serve the mash with roast pork, game or duck. It's incredibly easy but tastes fantastically rich. It's good at Christmas time as well and of course the apple (which is a very subtle presence here) resonates with the cider. One more great thing about this mash is that it reheats well, unlike most potato dishes.
Ingredients:
• 4 large pork chops, cut a good 2cm (1 inch) thick.
• 2 medium sized, floury potatoes (approx weight 400g)
• 250 ml double cream
• 100 ml milk
• 50g unsalted butter
• smallish celeriac (approx 500g)
• 2 eating apples (my favourite for cooking are Cox or Jonagold)
• Salt to taste
Method:
This method for the mash may seem a little odd but it really works. Peel, quarter and boil the potatoes in plenty of salted water until they are tender enough to mash. Meanwhile, bring the cream, milk and butter to a simmer in a pot large enough for the apples and celeriac, when the butter has melted peel and roughly dice the celeriac. Pop it into the pot. Peel, core and dice the apple and add it to the celeriac and simmer very gently until they are both very tender. Once cooked, puree the mixture, cream and all, before mashing the potatoes and folding the celeriac through them.
Cover the mash and let it rest while you cook the chops. If using a barbecue, hold the crackle down on the bars for just a minute per chop, before cooking them for about 8 minutes per side and resting for ten minutes before serving. Serve the chops and mash with a simple garnish like watercress.
Recipe: Grilled scallops with chilli, fennel and olive oil
Dish description: The dry notes in Addlestone's are perfect for seafood. They know this in the Basque region of Spain where tapas (or Pinxos as it is locally known) is often served with very dry, young white wine or a cider. Try very chilled glasses of Addelstones with this tapa of succulent scallops. You could barbecue the scallops over coals if you like but don't turn your back on them for a second. It's easy to over cook a scallop.
Ingredients:
• 1 largeish red chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small bunch flat leafed parsley
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 12 diver caught scallops, out of the shell.
• 2 bulbs fennel
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Half tsp salt
Method:
Char the chilli over a gas flame or under a hot grill until the skin has blistered and blackened slightly. Pop it in a bowl and cover it for a good ten minutes to let it sit in the steam. This will help loosen the skin. When the chilli is cool enough to handle (that's temperature - wise!) carefully pull off the skin and remove the seed cavity. You might want to wear rubber gloves for this task. Chop the roasted chilli with the garlic and parsley, as finely or as roughly as you like. Add two thirds of the olive oil. This is now your dressing.
Slice the fennel as thinly as is humanly possible. Use a mooli or a blade on a food processor if you have one. Toss the slices in the lemon juice and salt then leave this to sit for a good half hour before cooking the scallops. The fennel will cure slightly in the juice. Once this is done, spread it over a serving dish.
Heat a heavy bottomed pan or griddle over a high heat. Toss the scallops in the remaining oil and sear them for no more than a minute on either side. Place them onto the fennel and anoint them with the parsley and chilli sauce. Season with a little sea salt if you wish and serve immediately. Some small slices of toast or bruschetta would be ideal with this dish.
Recipe: Grilled seabass with tomatoes and olives
Dish description: This is a very Mediterranean dish; and not something you might expect to enjoy with a dry cider. Oily fish like bass, tuna and mackerel are, however, perfect with Addlestones, as it cuts through their richness very naturally.
Ingredients:
• 1 red onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 plum tomatoes
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 2 fillets anchovies
• 6 large green olives, pitted
• 2 tbs cider or red wine vinegar
• Half tsp sugar
• 3 tbs water
• 8 to 10 whole basil leaves
• 4 fillets sea bass (approx 200g each)
• 1 tbs olive oil for cooking
• 1 level tsp flaky sea salt
Method:
Peel and finely dice the onion with the garlic. Score the top of the tomatoes with a small 'x' and plunge them into boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove them and plunge them into cold water. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, pull off the loosened skins and de seed them before dicing them roughly.
Heat the olive oil very, very gently in a wide bottomed pan and start to sweat the onions and garlic. Don't let them brown at all; they should barely fizz against the pan. Add the anchovies and let them melt into the onions. Add the tomatoes, olives, vinegar, sugar and water and literally simmer for a couple of minutes, or until you have a fairly glossy looking sauce. Set aside to rest while you deal with the bass. Pat the fish dry all over and rub it with the oil and salt. Dry heat a heavy-duty frying pan and when it is very hot add the fish fillets skin side down. Cook them for four minutes before turning them
