Someting Different: Mavrodaphne Wine

Greetings, fellow guzzlers!

This week, I want to try something a little different - literally. On the Something Different part of my blog, I want to highlight unusual or niche food products. I will tend to pick items which are not too far off mainstream, so that everyone should have a pretty easy job of finding the item I highlight, but strange enough that hopefully you can make the odd real discovery.

My first product is Mavrodaphne wine. Wine may not be the first thing one thinks of with Greece, especially when such excellent products as Greek olives and feta have to be considered, but then again Mavrodaphne is not a typical wine.

The exact bottle I am choosing for this feature is Kourtaki's Mavrodaphne of Patras Cameo which I bought in Waitrose for £6.69.

Classified as a fortified dessert wine, Mavrodaphne (according to Fringe Wine¹) mostly hails from the north of the Peloponnese in the area around the city of Patras.

As a brand and process, Mavrodaphne wine was established by the Bavarian Gustav Clauss in the second half of the nineteenth century. He used Port production techniques to produce a dessert wine rather than the over-sweet table wines then made with the grape.

Upon pouring, the wine is like deep red velvet - crimson in hue and slightly opaque. Held up to the light, the liquid shines but in a far more gently, diffuse way than the sharp, clear manner of normal table reds.

On the nose, the wine is sweet and fruity, bringing to mind rich dried fruits such as dates and (perhaps not surprisingly) raisins.

This theme very much transfers to the flavour. It is heady and sweat, like a sultry summer evening, but with just enough sour undertones to prevent it from being sickly.

It is a delight as an aperitif and goes extremely well with chocolate. However, despite being a dessert wine, I also very much enjoyed drinking it with meat main dishes. The effect is very similar to the way Middle Eastern stews often pair meat and dried fruit and indeed I feel it is with rich stews that it pairs best.

In terms of price, my bottle at least seemed very reasonable. For £6.69 one can buy some truly indifferent wines, lacking in any number of areas from top and bottom notes to body to simply vanishing off the palate as soon as swallowed. However, the Mavrodaphne of Patras Cameo's fully rounded flavour hung around the mouth long after swallowing.

Overall, Mavrodaphne wine is a hidden treat. Sweet, rich and fruity, it is a versatile drink that can be enjoyed equally in its intended purpose as a dessert wine or aperitif or as an exciting accompaniment to a stew.

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¹ Fringe Wine: Mavrodaphne - Patras, Greece

Book Review - The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook by Amy and Julie Zhang

Greetings, fellow guzzlers!

So, I know that I have been absent for a few weeks, days, I don't know any more but I promise it was a temporary glitch. I now have a job, and a very exciting one at that, and am moving into a new and hopefully more stable period of my life which will allow me to blog to a regular pattern.

In other news, I am teaching myself HTML and CSS and you are reading the first blog post I'm punching out all by myself in code.

Anyway, this is all very well and self-congratulatory but I have business to attend to, the tasty business of reviewing The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook!

The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook is written by, surprise, surprise The Dumplings Sisters, or Amy and Julie Zhang to be precise.

The Zhang sisters are food bloggers and vloggers with a focus on the Chinese food of their roots. While growing up in New Zealand, their parents ran a food cart it is was here that they learned to cook. After completing formidably impress Oxbridge degrees, the sisters set up their blog and here we are today with their first book.

I'm a sucker for real Chinese food so I was very excited about this book, especially as only Gok Wan's Gok Cooks Chinese had so far provided me with what I was looking for.

Fortunately, this book does not disappoint! It is stuffed with recipes, ranging from classics like Sweet and Sour Pork (wookie bellows of delight)to less familiar treats such as pork stuffed aubergines and rainbow peppers.

There is even a section on Chinese baking which, coming from a tradition of believing the Chinese don't bake, was a revelation and one I am keen to pursue - sweet and salty walnut cookies, anyone?

Another really nice touch in the book is that it provides, as a side note, the option with many of the recipes to explore a more exotic side of Chinese cookery such as dried scallops or pickled mustard greens. The great thing about this approach is that you can explore using these ingredients if you can find them or, if like me you struggle to get your hands on even Shaoxing rice wine (100 brands of soy sauce but hardly any of this vital ingredient - why, supermarkets, why?!?!?), then you can omit them without any fear of degrading the recipe.

However, before floating off on a cloud of praise, I had serious recipe testing to do and so I picked out three recipes to try.

• Eggy Fried Rice
• Lacquered Honey Hoisin Pork Spare Ribs
• Spring Onion Pancakes

The Eggy Fried Rice (egg fried rice) was very nice indeed. The flavourings were unusual, inasmuch as they were very delicate and almost aromatic. Very little soy was used and the addition of fresh ginger root made the fried rice different than any I have tasted before

How the rice was cooked was also different than the method I was accustomed to. Previously, I would scramble all the egg before setting it aside to add back in once the rice was cooked. However, the Dumpling Sisters cook half the egg in this way but add the other half during the cooking of the rice. The great advantage of this method is that the rice becomes coated in eggy goodness and truly becomes egg fried rice.

Next, I tried the Lacquered Honey Hoisin Pork Spare Ribs with a little less success. There was nothing wrong with the method, it produced beautifully cooked ribs made with enormous love and attention. Nor was the sauce at fault directly. It was a lovely tasting sauce, sweet with just enough savoury to enhance the pork. For me, however, there simply was not enough of it. Half dribbled off the ribs and stuck to the pan and I was left wishing for a bit more flavour. Perhaps I missed the point and sticky ribs were really not the idea but I think in future I will double up on the quantity of sauce to create a true meaty nirvana!

Finally, I came to the Spring Onion Pancakes. I struggle to find words to describe these delights. Intensely savoury but not in a drying, salty way, the pancakes had a complex layer structure which fell apart on eating. They are an absolute perfect accompaniment to soup and were, for me, the star recipe I tried.

Turning away from the food, the presentation of the book is stunning. The recipes are well spaced out for easy reading and the vast majority of the recipes are accompany by beautiful photographs. All through the book are evocative, Chinese-style illustrations which look like these where made by a brush and the tone the Dumpling Sisters take in their prose is friendly and conversational.

The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook is a terrific guide to all that authentic Chinese food has to offer. The recipes often have quite a delicate flavour, on occasion maybe a shade too delicate, but this is still a great book well worth having in the collection.

Overall * * * * * - An extremely thorough examination of Chinese cooking from a pair of sisters who really know what they are talking about.

Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely stunning visual presentation combines with friendly prose to produce a delightful cookbook.

Quality of Information * * * * - Generally fantastic. The sisters take the trouble to explain what they are doing and or what ingredients they are using. However, it might be argued that one or two recipes could do with a little more flavour.

Range of Information * * * * * - Simply comprehensive. Everything from snacks to feasts, meat dishes to deserts is covered.

Price * * * * * - For £20, this is a well priced book.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf For Reference? - Yes.

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I have been reviewing The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook by Amy and Julie Zhang, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2015), ISBN-13: 978-0297609063

Interview Time - Ozgur Tuncay of Sultans Delights

This week is my first video feature for The Hungry Seagull, an interview with Middle Eastern street food chef Ozgur Tuncay!

Ozgur runs Sultans Delights and serves vegetarian and vegan food inspired by her native Turkey and the surrounding regions. She pitches up every week at Brighton's Street Diner as well as many other events including Brighton's Brunswick Festival 2015.

Street Diner is located in Brighthelm Community Garden, on Queens Road between Brighton Station and the Churchill Square Shopping Centre. It runs every Friday between 11am and 3pm.

Recipe Time - Mexican Inspired Spicy Pasta Bake

This week I want to share with you a hearty dish inspired by the flavours of Mexico! If you make this, I can promise a spicy, flavoursome delight which will fill you up and leave you feeling nourished.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

300g Tubular Pasta, such as Penne or Rigatoni

1 Onion

1 Clove of Garlic

2 Green Jalapeno Chillies

50g Butter

50g Plain Flour

500g Whole Milk

150g Mature Cheddar Cheese, Coarsely Grated

1 x 400g Tin Red Kidney Beans, Drained and Rinsed

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/4 Cayenne Pepper

Black Pepper and Salt To Taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6) or 180°C for a fan oven.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and halve the chillies lengthwise. At this point, you can decide how hot or otherwise you want your dish. For full on fire, slice the chillies into strips and add them to the onion mix. For a milder dish, core and seed the chillies before slicing. They will still add a very gentle heat and fresh flavour to the dish, though the potency will be gone. Personally, I welcome the fire, it is good for you apart from anything else, but the choice is yours.

Heat some oil in a large pan and fry onions, garlic and chillies until soft and just showing a little colour. Set to one side.

Add butter to the pan and melt. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Combine with a wooden spoon to form a roux before returning to the heat for about 10 seconds.

Pour in the milk. Some people like to do this in stages, making sure the roux is thoroughly absorbed at each stage to prevent lumpiness. However, I have found if I use a whisk to stir the mixture the roux and milk still amalgamate well, even if I pour all the milk in at once.

That said, you may occasionally want to run a spoon around the outside of the pan to make sure none of the mixture gets caught in the corners.

Bring the sauce to the boil over a medium heat, whisking vigorously all the time. It should thicken noticeably just before starting to boil to provide a beautiful glossy sauce. Add the kidney beans, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, onions, garlic, chillies, salt, pepper and half the cheese and leave to bubble very gently, stirring occasionally.

Cook the pasta according to packet instructions.  Reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water and drain the pasta. Add water and pasta to the sauce and stir thoroughly to combine.

Pour the mix into an oven-proof dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the top has browned nicely.

Serve and make you have plenty of beer or water on hand if you are not used to spicy food!

Restaurant Review - The Breakfast Club, Brighton

Hello there! Welcome to another week on The Hungry Seagull and this week I'm doing a restaurant review. Or is it a cafe review? In this case it is a very fine line for reasons which will become obvious once you start reading.

On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to visit The Breakfast Club in Brighton, one of several Breakfast Clubs dotted about London and Brighton.

I went with a guest reviewer, my YouTuber brother Charles, because he was staying with me and double the reviewers, double the review.

The Breakfast Club serves a variety of breakfast, brunch and general out-and-about food, from pancakes to burgers. The theme is undeniably American, specifically Californian, with plenty of smoothies and Mexican-inspired dishes such as nachos and burritos on the menu.

The decor is the same as the food, with the green ceiling and American diner-style furniture bringing to mind a Californian beach-side eatery. Although a little dark inside, bright lights ensure you can see what you are doing and the place feels relaxed and welcoming.

The staff were exceptionally pleasant. All smiled and could not do enough for us, including serving us water without even asking.

I ordered a cappuccino and the posh sausage sandwich with an added egg while Charles chose the breakfast burrito and the big breakfast smoothie.

Starting with the drinks, they were exceptional. I always treat a cappuccino as the bench mark of anywhere that claims to serve coffee, as the skill needed to heat and stretch that milk properly is a real test of the barista's abilities.

My cappuccino was smooth as silk with plenty of body. The beans were perhaps not outstanding, only very good, but then I was not in an artisan coffee shop so it feels churlish to complain.

Charles loved his smoothie. A giant glass of purple juice came to him with a light sprinkling of granola on top. A mix of strawberry, banana, oats, honey, yoghurt and milk, I tried it as well and agreed it was a fresh delight.

The food arrived a short time after that. My sausage sandwich was wonderful. Savoury sausage was bound to a rich, brioche bun by smoky cheese. A thin but punchy layer of sweet red onion chutney served as a perfect flavour counterpoint while the egg added a fresh note to finish the whole.

Charles loved his burrito but did not find it quite as satisfying as I found my sandwich. The burrito was mostly scrambled egg and chorizo accompanied by sides of salad, guacamole, red sauce and some sort of sour cream. So far, so good. However, for his taste, the scrambled eggs were a little too milky and he would have preferred the two chorizos to have been chopped up rather than left whole.

Yes. I said two. Which brings me onto one problem with The Breakfast Club - the portions are HUGE! Delicious as the food is, quality as the food is, there is perhaps simply too much of it. Charles ate his burrito on an empty stomach and, despite spending the rest of the day walking, could only stomach a light meal in the evening.

My meal was much lighter though, as I watched a pile of about five washing-up sponge sized pancakes topped with lashings of bacon whizz past me, I think it may have been the smallest dish on the menu. Even then, it did me quite well for breakfast and lunch.

The size of the portions is reflected in the price with the burrito costing £9 and my sandwich £7.

This is not overpriced. As I say, the food was excellent quality and one would never complain about paying for that in a restaurant. However, a light breakfast to set you up for the day The Breakfast Club is not. I would say that if you go along, treat yourself to a fantastic brunch and skip a meal because you will not need to eat again until the evening.

The Breakfast Club is a great place to eat, with fun decor, lovely staff and fabulous food. But beware the portions sizes, you do not want to go in there if you are after a continental, coffee-and-pastry-style cafe.

Overall * * * * * - Fantastic food served with a smile.

Food and Drink * * * * - Superlative tasting food and drink is slightly let down by the sheer quantity of it, too much for just breakfast.

Atmosphere * * * * * - With a really fun Californian vibe, you know you've found somewhere to relax and enjoy a good meal.

Service * * * * * - Extremely friendly and attentive, could not ask for more.

Price * * * * - For breakfast, the prices do seem quite high. The reason for this is the size of the portions so, while expensive, it is good value for money.

Would I Go Here Again? - Yes.

Recipe Time - Romano Pepper, Olive and Garlic Pasta

So, I've been cooking and I have a new recipe! Actually, it's the first recipe I ever developed but I wanted to get it just right before sharing it with you. Super-healthy and packed with flavour, it is also extremely quick to knock together and is an ideal midweek meal.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

200g Large-piece Pasta (such as penne, conchiglie or, my personal favourite, elicoidali)

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Cloves of Garlic

2 Sweet Romano Peppers

24 Kalamata Olives (don't ask me why, this number just works beautifully!)

2 tsp Dried Oregano

Salt and Black Pepper

Method:

Pour the pasta into a pan of boiling, salted water. While it is cooking, finely chop the garlic. Halve and core the peppers before cutting into thickish strips.

Spoon the oil into a frying pan, heat and, when the pasta is four minutes away from being cooked according to packet instructions, throw in the garlic. Cook for two minutes, then add the peppers. The idea is to make the peppers release their flavour without causing them to lose their bite.

As soon as the pasta is cooked, set aside a few tablespoons of the cooking water, toss the olives into the frying pan and drain the pasta. Again the idea is just to coax the olives into a deliciously warm, flavoursome state without destroying their structure.

Quickly return the pasta to the saucepan and throw in the contents of the frying pan, the set-aside cooking water, the oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Stir vigorously and serve.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Let me know in the comments what you think, I'd love to hear from you!

Book Review - The Curious Barista's Guide To Coffee by Tristan Stephenson

Do you want to know about coffee? Then this book is for you.

Released in March this year, The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee does a very good job of informing the reader about the coffee making process.

Every stage from farm-to-cup is covered in copious detail. The reader is lead through how coffee is grown, processed, roasted and ground in such a way that Stephenson's expertise shines through.

The book fully explores the diverse, often confusing world of coffee drinks. Different brewing methods are demonstrated with step-by-step, illustrated tutorials and the pros and cons of each are discussed.

Milk-based espresso drinks, from latte to flat white, are also discussed and there is a really fun introduction to producing latte art which I wish I had had when I was a barista!

Coffee's history receives solid attention. The book starts with a general history of coffee and more specific information, such as the development of grinders, is included in the appropriate chapters.

Where the book is not so strong is the end chapters, focussing on coffee-based recipes, coffee varieties and coffee growing countries.

While the recipes are generally fun and it is an enjoyable addition to the book, some do make use of additive ingredients such as xanthan gum and carrageenan (lambda class). Scary titles aside, these chemicals admittedly seem fairly harmless.

However, I am personally against hurling unnecessary chemicals into things and there seems little need to include them in home cooking. For instance, I cannot see how espresso would be so destructive to the structure of a basic ice cream recipe as to require the inclusion of extra chemicals.

The chapters on coffee varieties and growing regions suffer due to brevity. Only the briefest of introductions can be given which, given the complexity of coffee, is of limited use. In fairness, these topics have huge scope and really are beyond the focus of this book, requiring one of their own to discuss properly. This being so, the chapters are a fun introduction to promote further study.

The tone and layout of the book are highly enjoyable. The tone of the prose is informal yet informed. It feels as though Stephenson is speaking directly to the reader and pertinent reminiscences from his life in coffee add to the enjoyment of the read.

Some might find annoying his insistence on the highest standards of coffee, including singing the praises of home grinders, and mildly snobbish disregard for lesser forms of the drink.

However, he goes into such details about coffee flavour and how it achieved that it is easy to understand his perspective and he is never shy of discussing the coffee he would clearly consider bilge-water, even detailing the various processes of producing instant coffee.

The layout of the book is great fun. It is exceedingly well illustrated and a blocky, cafe-style typeface printed on pages made to look like coffee bean sacking really puts one in the mood to read on.

The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee is thorough, highly readable guide to how coffee is produced and brewed and anyone who reads it will come away with a deep respect for this most complex of drinks.

However, for those looking for a guide to coffee varieties and the character of the different growing regions, they might do better to look elsewhere - always bearing in mind that the processes described in this book will have a huge impact on the final flavour of any raw bean.

Overall * * * * * - An extremely thorough, farm-to-cup guide to producing coffee, let down slightly by average chapters on coffee varieties and growing regions.

Presentation * * * * *  - Perfectly pitched design puts one in the mood for coffee while the prose style makes one feel as though one is having an informal chat with a coffee shop barista during a quiet period.

Quality of Information * * * * * - Extremely thorough, coming from a highly knowledgeable and enquiring source.

Range of Information * * * * - Other than a thorough examination of coffee varieties and growing regions, every conceivable aspect of coffee is covered.

Price * * * * * - For £16.99, this is an excellently priced book for such expertise.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf For Reference? - Yes.

I have been reviewing The Curious Barista's Guide To Coffee by Tristan Stephenson, published by Ryland Peters & Small (2015), ISBN-13: 978-1849755634