Bloodwood Brains Trust

News, gossip, but no scandal

News

Harvest 2023 has started

Stephen is busy with harvest, yes, our Chardonnay, Riesling, Schubert and Pinot Noir are safely in the winery, and the new wines look very encouraging. The mysterious art and science of coaxing the best out of grape juice now begins.

As La Nina has apparently exited, we hope the weather continues the usual dry Orange autumn which is so important in ripening cool-climate grapes.

Gos-

Invent a one to two bite morsel - savoury or sweet - that is named in honour of a woman who has influenced you.

See further below for recipes.

-Sip

From F.O.O.D week to Easter 2023 (Friday 24th March to Monday 10th April) we will be tasting wines that we usually do not present. These include the magnificent 2010 Chirac (sparkling), the gorgeous 2017 Pinot Noir, and the stunning 2019 Maurice. Book your appointment for a cellar door tasting. .

Bloodwood Brainery trial event

“Take the Cake” on International Women’s Day 8.3.23 @ Birdies Nosherie & Drinking Establishment

A fun idea from our dear friend Carol Yuen had this event organised with a savoury start and a very long sweet finish honouring women, in that all morsels offered had women’s names. See Menu here.

What I wanted to show was that Bloodwood‘s white wines can age just as well as our reds. We started with our just released 2010 Chirac sparkling and local Frieda (suitably ripened 2nd Mouse washed rind cheese.)

Simonn Hawke is now chef at Birdies and is doing her usual fabulous job. Sim excelled with her Charlotte; not too sweet apple filling encased in just warmed and toasty brioche. The lightest of light Victoria sponge, it was like eating a cloud and showed the Silk Purse off to great advantage.

By comparison Joyce’s lemon syrup cake was more intense and richer which tested our 2015 Silk Purse but in terms of palate weight was almost equal. Madeleine (chocolate hazelnut) followed accompanied by a 10 year old Silk Purse dessert wine.

We finished with a sip of twenty year old Silk Purse (the 4th from the left in the line-up). Sometimes you need the wine to shine on its own. Notice the four wines on the left have oxidised a lot more dramatically under cork closures.

This event has encouraged me to ask you to enter a quick competition for you or someone you know.

What would your “respite” morsel be?

A cup of tea, coffee, or glass of wine with a savoury or sweet 1-2 bite morsel? How about we name that morsel after a woman who has influenced you? Enough of the Royal and French nomenclature for biscuits and cakes.

Please send your recipe and a photo to jamtarts@bloodwood.biz by 31st March 2023. It could be a local woman (or not). Additional points will be given for originality and the use of local produce in your recipe. The winner will receive a $120.00 gift voucher for Birdies Nosherie and a complementary bottle of Bloodwood wine.

Judges are Simonn Hawke (chef Birdies), Cathy Snowball (ex-food editor), Rhonda Doyle (Bloodwood Wines).

Here are examples that illustrate what comes to my mind.

Local example - the “Irene”

Our dear friend Irene Finneran loves music, having played drums and sung with Donna Riles on piano in a duo called the Jam Tarts.

(Irene insists “she’s the jam.” Stephen reckons Orange was named after Irene’s hair.)

Irene influenced me to champion local produce and create Food Of Orange District (ie F.O.O. D. Week) when she flew kites for the Orange Agricultural College’s Open Day promoting agricultural courses to parents of prospective students. She organised serving them warmed cinnamon apple juice (it was always a cold day even though it was spring,) berry jams from the local Berry Farm, honey from a local apiarist and some nourishing broth featuring local ingredients.

Irene is not really a lover of sweets but loves lemon curd, a bit of caramel and chocolate and adores raspberries. So the “Irene” would be a raspberry “jam tart” with a thin caramel underlay, and a splodge of lemon butter on top with a fresh raspberry. Now the addition of drumsticks or musical notes fashioned out of chocolate would attract extra points. Is best served small in one bite as it is very rich.

Who knows, “The Irene” or one of your creations could be the next most Instagrammable cake in the world since founder of Black Star Pastry Christopher The’s Watermelon and Strawberry cake.

Non-local example - Ronnie Kahn (AO) of OzHarvest

F.O.O.D week is upon us. Instead of keeping the competition to a local Orange identity, we can extend it to any woman who has influenced us and give a recipe for them, in their name.

Ronnie Kahn AO, Founder of OzHarvest, has done so much to feed the poor in Australia. She managed to get the laws changed in relation to waste with caterers and restaurants and particularly supermarkets (I am sure she would say there is more to be done.) What she has achieved is phenomenal.

Ronnie has visited our Bloodwood cellar door twice. She doesn’t drink much but enjoys our Shiraz the most and recommended it in the SMH a number of years ago. We have talked about the Orange Community Kitchen project in which for over thirteen years we shared cooking skills with people in our community. Ronnie was heartened by that. The last 5 years, Rowan, Sheelagh and I worked with Aboriginal families in Orange with the Bush Babies programme which was started by Orange City Council and handed over to Aboriginal Lands Council Management in our final years. COVID put a stop to this in 2020.

Food banks have been established through Ronnie's example. People now have a distribution point obviously for those who need access to cheaper produce but locals also drop off excess veggies and fruit they have grown. The supermarket food items that are just past their best-by dates like staples of bread and milk etc. I know locally that people generously donate their time to assist those who feel in need of necessities and also advise on how to cook produce windfalls that maybe they haven't tried before or help suggest a variation on what they usually cook.

Now, what would a “Ronnie Kahn” morsel of Oz Harvest consist of? …

Savoury Bread Pudding for Ronnie

This is mostly made from staples that should be available in all households. Given Ronnie's overriding message of not wasting food, I have used a number of items that probably would normally be thrown out. And it has to be YELLOW. That is Ronnie's marketing identifier for OzHarvest. If I had some eggplant peel, I would have baked an OZ into the top of the pudding to represent the yellow with black lettering Ronnie uses.

Ingredients

• cheeses (small ends of cheeses chopped finely or grated),

• bread slices, including bread ends (buttered or oiled each side) to line individual moulds

• carrot peelings, (other veg like tops of capsicum, parsnip or potato peelings, celery )

• silverbeet (small leaves left after it has gone to seed in our garden but you could use dandelion greens or even carrot or celery tops, herbs etc)

• onion (small amounts or spring onions chopped)

• 6-8 eggs

• 1/2 cup milk

• salt and pepper

• turmeric to emphasize that yellow colour (optional)

Makes 4 generous large muffin-sized puddings.

Line moulds with buttered bread. Add vegetables to each and then pour over the eggs (mixed with milk) custard and let it sink in (you may need to top up again.) Cover with topping.

Then bake in the oven for at least 20 mins at 200 degrees C.

Yellow Topping

• 1/2 cup frozen corn (defrosted, smashed or pureed or use creamed corn)

• grated cheese (mixed through)

Could be frozen for later use..

Hope this helps

Make cakes without relying on a recipe

If at 3pm I am looking for a quick pick me up, I’ll throw a few ingredients into the kitchen whiz and make these with icing (Mark who works with us especially loves icing.)

Basic cake recipe you can remember

Weigh the eggs (usually 2 or 3) then use the same weight of butter, sugar and Self Raising flour. Always add a splash of milk or buttermilk to relax the mixture to a dropping consistency.

Method

Cream the butter and sugar (brown sugar makes the cakes more fudgy.)

Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly

Add SR flour. If you want a chocolate cake with nuts say, use cocoa powder and walnuts, by deducting their weight from the weight of the flour.

Milk/buttermilk -add a splash to loosen the consistency of the mix so it can drop from the spoon.

Fill greased muffin tins ¾ full and then bake at 180 degrees C until they smell done or 20mins depending on size. Wait for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Icing

2 to 1 ratio of fine icing sugar to butter. Add a splash of cream and cocoa powder for a rich butter cream. See photo. I’ve used Thompson seedless grapes here as they are just ripe but try muscat grapes with milk chocolate, ganache even. It really is a wonderful combination.

Bloodwood vintage pre-release offer

“This is a nice place, although the oak bridling will meld with a little more age. Finely tuned scents of mulch, Cuban cigar, graphite, currant and a whisper of menthol. Mid weighted, immensely savoury and sleek, but for the bristle of oak around the seams. Shapely tannins make this. Finishes with a waft of sage and green olive. Sophisticated cool-climate Cabernet, here. Excellent drinking now and onwards for close to a decade. 95 points. Halliday Wine Companion 2023”

What else is there to say? As a Bloodwood Devotee you need a case of this delicious 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon this winter.

Normal Price $480

Pre-Release Offer $450