LEFTOVERS BUT LOVED

Getting spirited, one did a bit of cleaning, sorting and sprucing up the spirits storage (Okay I know a really bad pun). And chanced upon a bottle of sherry that sported Spanish all over! Naturally it was a trip down the nostalgia path to the Grupo Estevez Vineyards (and a stud farm too!) at Cadiz,  Spain a couple of years ago. It was July and the weather was hot, almost like back home in Delhi. The vineyard was huge, rolling over acres and we were taken through the whole process of  wine making, storing and so on. What was impressive was the art gallery that had some stunning works, overlooking the spacious restaurant. It goes without saying that there was a store and I remember that what attracted me to the sherry bottle was that it came with a tiny lock and key. Yep it did. Before that we had binged upon a delicious spread and the accompanying sherries had  left me feeling warm and happy with life. Being the philistine that I am when it comes to 'spirits' the bottle with the lock swayed me completely. On getting back home and sampling it, even I found it ultra sweet and that's how it found itself on the back bench. 

 

 

 

The Giant Sherry Silos  

 

Difficult to wean your eyes away from it! 

   

 It was also there when I saw the pure Spanish horse for the first time, majestic looking studs and for once literally! The Real Tesoro Stud  abuts the vineyards and it was indeed breathtaking to see the tall, good looking horses running around unfettered. 

The sherry was however another story, at least once back home. So what do you do with a three-fourth bottle of extra sweet dense sherry? Desserts? Not exactly exciting. It was then I also found another plastic bottle (you read right, plastic it is) of port wine from Goa claiming to have been made from the 'choicest grape juice'. Like how true! The port wine looked somewhat forlorn desperately trying to stand up to the sherry bottle. So poured some of both into a saucepan, put the saucepan on the gas and sliced a couple of firm pears into it - tra la la, wine poached pears.

Salad it had to be. Greens like purple lettuce and rocket, a bit of diced chives, the sherry-port wine poached pears and .........damn no cheese or anything like that.  Hang on, recently in a moment of thrift and trying to be truly Indian I had picked up La Cremella  natural cream cheese with no preservatives made in our own Gurgaon. And it was Rs 180 only! Instead of using the imported variety for a dessert I had tried the cream cheese and come up with a disaster. It was not exactly cream cheese and certainly not the whipping variety either. It was slightly salty and more on the paneer (cottage cheese) side. Would it do? It would because wasn't it all about using left overs. Only damn cheese at room temperature seemed to be going soft and well, creamy. So shoved them into the chilling tray and added the diced cheese at the last moment just before serving - it worked!  The dressing was olive oil, the scraping (caramelised sherry and port wine) from the poached pears, salt, pepper, a dash of dry mustard, pinch of red chilli powder, pinch of sugar, lemon juice and generous addition of malta juice and zest. It tasted good.  

  

The left over saga continues. There was some chicken mine which turned into burger patties, the Indian way with addition of minced ginger, garlic, green chili, coriander leaves. Tada! To steal the McDonalds line, it was a happy meal! 

Talking of salads, though some called it relish, the one I like is purple cabbage, green apple and onions coming together with apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, pinch of salt and some coarsely ground black pepper to make a yummy cold dish. The cabbage is thinly shredded and the onion really finely sliced. In a pan on gas, in goes some olive oil and then the onion slices, which when slightly wilted is an indication to add the brown sugar and stir continuously till the onions turn a rich dark brown colour, more like chocolate like. The shredded purple cabbage goes in as does the salt and pepper. More stirrings and time to throw in the tarty green Granny Smiths. More stirrings and finally apple cider vinegar.  What I love about it is that it keeps in the fridge for a week and more and goes with everything- from Indian dishes to fillings for sandwiches and burgers to what have you.

But what I love my green apple- purple cabbage best with a main dish of pork. Sigh, thar I blow again! This time the husband is to be blamed. He happened to walk into Yamato(B-6/9,Local Commercial Complex, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi), the best place for any and every Japanese food items and ingredients and came home with quite a load of pork- ribs to belly. These were tender ribs and after marination (grated garlic, ginger, light soy sauce,  kecap manis, some brown sugar, dry mustard powder, salt, dash of red chili powder, salt to taste) and a hour or so in the oven, it was happy meal again!