Eat, drink and be merry

Amarula sabayon with berries

6 egg yolks
1 cup Amarula liqueur
1/3 cup sugar
1 pint fresh strawberries, cleaned and halved
6 ladyfingers or wafers

In a large glass or stainless steel bowl, whisk all ingredients together. Create a double boiler by bringing a saucepan half full of water to simmer over medium heat. Place the bowl over top and whisk continuously until the mixture thickens and doubles in volume. Remove from heat and chill for an hour. Serve in martini glasses: Place a spoonful of sabayon in the bottom of the glass, fill with berries, then top with sabayon. Garnish with a ladyfinger.

Serves six.

Champagne seafood risotto

For this recipe I used Wolf Blass sparkling brut. It’s got great character and pairs fantastically with seafood.

1/4 cup butter
1 1/3 cups Arborio or Carnaroli rice
2 cups Champagne or sparkling wine
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1/2 (142g) can whole clams in juice, drained with juice reserved
2/3 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, shredded
12 large scallops
12 large shrimp

In a saucepan, over medium-high heat, melt butter and stir in rice until coated. Add Champagne and cook until absorbed, stirring occasionally. Add chicken broth and clam juice and cook until the liquid is absorbed—the mixture should be saucy, with the rice tender, but firm. Stir in ½ the can of clams, all the peas and the Parmigiano-Reggiano. Set aside. With a paper towel, pat dry scallops and shrimp. In a frying pan on high heat, sear scallops and shrimp in a thin layer of olive oil, about two minutes per side. Turn the shellfish when the first side is golden brown. Divide risotto among six bowls. Top each with two scallops and two shrimp. Serve with a glass of Champagne. Serves six.

Red wine gastrique

Try this with a glass of red wine, and you will not be disappointed. I like Rosemount Grenache Shiraz for its full flavour and blackberry notes. This sauce goes well with pork, beef or salmon.

1 cup red wine
1 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

Combine in a saucepan and heat over medium. Reduce until the sauce is syrupy.

Choosing kitchen knives

Does the knife make the chef? Certainly not. And in this case, bigger isn’t always better. But a good knife will make easy work of food prep and is an important part of your kitchen tool set.

Choose your knife depending on the job you need it to do. Professional chefs use a wide variety of knives: French (or chef’s), serrated, paring, utility, slicer, boning, filleting, santoku and cleavers, just to name a few. Fortunately for the home chef, this vast selection isn’t necessary.

Looking for a good knife can be confusing if you don’t know what you are looking for. Most knives fall into two categories: forged and stamped. Forged knives are a harder metal yet flexible, they have better balance. Stamped knives are cut out of a mould; the metal is softer and is usually of less quality than a forged.

To keep things simple, the home chef should focus on four knives:
• A chef’s knife – for most kitchen tasks, chopping and dicing (with an 8” to 10” blade)
• A paring knife – for smaller details, peeling vegetables and slicing small fruit (with a 2.5”to 4” blade)
• A utility knife – for peeling fruit and smaller vegetables (with a 5” to 6” blade)
• A serrated bread knife – for slicing bread, cakes and thin-skinned fruits like tomatoes (with an 8” to 10” blade)

For the best value, buy your knives in a set. A large knife set will have 6 to 8 knives while a very basic will consist of 3 or 4. A good set for the home kitchen will start around $200 depending on the brand, but remember—you get what you pay for. I’ve suggested four types. This is just a guide, so you will have to decide how many knives you need and how much you are willing to pay for them.