Kerr Farm Wine: Jaison's Recipes

Jaison's Porcini Bread by chef/owner Pete Brennan

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:01:00 +1200

This is a recipe given to me by my mate Pete Brennan chef/owner of the fabulous Porcini Restaurant at Helensville near Auckland.

Pete is very true to the concept of Local, pretty much all of his ingredients he sources locally, some he even grows himself. Watch out for when his black figs are in season, what a dessert they make!!

The Restaurant is intimate and informal with an Italian decor, white table cloths and sparkling glassware. All the staff, both front of house and in the kitchen are friendly and keen to make sure your evening and your meals are delightful

Pete has a very selective winelist, mostly local wines, and all of which he has tried. He is able to recommend the right wine for your meal selection. Cocktails, beers, ports and soft drinks are also available.

Diners come from far and wide, so if you are visiting or staying at Kumeu, Muriwai beach, Waimauku or Helensville, Porcini is not far away, about 50 minutes from Auckland central, and 20 minutes from Kumeu

Easy to find, over the railway bridge coming into the Helensville main street, on the right just before the road dips into the town shops. Call 09 420 8025 to book. Open Wednesday through Sunday.

I love this place so I might see you there. Jaison

Give this recipe a go, almost as quick as going to the bakery!

Our Daily Bread.

I have been making this bread for many years, first at home then for ten years at my Cafes on Auckland’s North shore, where “The Bread” was a staple. We had a policy of making everything ourselves, so a good bread was essential. Originally we produced a few loaves per day for use in sandwiches, toast for breakfasts and to accompany soup. Before long the bread became a product all of its own and we began producing dozens of loaves per day for sale direct to the public. The recipe was a closely guarded secret for all those years but now it is time to share.

This is a batter bread with high water content so it has a very long shelf life, great crust and lovely soft doughy centre. The best part is it is very fast to make, only proves once and can be ready to eat within 2 hours of deciding to make it.

You will need a large bowl, a wooden spoon, a loaf tin, a cup measure and a set of scales.

450mls warm water

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

¼ cup sunflower seeds

250g wholemeal flour

250g white flour, (standard or bakers)

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Pour the water into the bowl and add the salt, yeast, sugar, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. Stir and leave to stand for a few minutes while you weigh the flour.

Add the flours and stir together with the wooden spoon. The batter will form quickly and once all the flour is mixed in beat 100 times with the wooden spoon until it becomes slightly elastic. That’s it.

Scrape the dough into a greased loaf tin, until it is about 2/3rds full, tap on the bench to level. Sprinkle on the sesame seeds straight away before the surface begins to dry and loose its stickyness.

Place the tin in a warm place uncovered and allow to prove until it is slightly higher than the tin. It will take 30-40 mins to prove so preheat the oven to 190 degrees celceus. Once your bread is proved place in the middle of the oven and bake for 40 mins. Once cooked tap the tin on the bench and turn out the loaf onto a cake rack, allow to cool before cutting.

Note; do not try to make this bread with “surebake conditioned yeast” as this is designed to work in breadmakers and so will fail, just use plain dried yeast.

Source: Jaison's Porcini Bread by chef/owner Pete Brennan

Jaison's Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +1300

Jaison’s Steak and Blue Cheese Sauce

This is a great sauce to have with steak, very tasty and it is quite simple to make.

Ingredients for a 4 steak sauce

Steaks of your choice
200ml cream
100ml Beef stock
50gram blue cheese
2 medium potatoes
1 carrot
25grams butter or Duck fat
2 tablespoons of oil
1 Tablespoon dark soya sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Italian parsley for decoration

Technique

Peel and cut potato into thick flat chips
Peel carrot and slice thinly

Heat pan with oil and duck fat (or butter)till it is just below smoking, place in steaks and brown all over. Put steaks on a warmed dish and place in the oven at 125 deg C to rest, about 15 minutes for med rare.

Transfer oil and duck fat/butter to another fry pan and cook flat chips and when they are about half way cooked add carrot slices.
Turn the chips so both sides are cooked.

In the meat pan add cream, stock, Blue Cheese and soya sauce. Bring to the boil and then simmer to dissolve the blue cheese and reduce the sauce
A little flour mixed in cold water can be added to thicken if you like. Cook the flour out

Salt and pepper to taste.

To Serve

Pour the sauce onto warm plates, arrange the chips and carrot to make a nest for the steak to sit on, as in the image. Place the steak on top, sprinkle with cracked pepper and chopped Italian parsley
If you like Blue Cheese you will love this recipe.
Good with any Kerr Farm Red

Cheers Jaison

Source: Jaison's Steak with Blue Cheese Sauce

Jaison's Pizza Dough Recipe (for the home oven)

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Jaison’s Pizza Dough Recipe (for the home oven)

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 cups of High grade flour

• 1.5 teaspoons of salt

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 2 teaspoons of Active Dried Yeast

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

• 1 1/3 cup of body temp water

In a cup mix 1/3 cup of the warm water, the sugar and the active dried yeast, not surerise bread yeast.

Stir up and let sit for about 15 mins. The yeast will activate and start to fizz up a bit.

Into a large bowl sift the flour and salt together. Make a well in the centre and

when the yeast mixture is activated add it into the well. Add the rest of the warm water (1 cup) and the olive oil.

With a fork working from the edge of the water bring in the flour and mix.

Once it is too thick to use the fork mix and then knead with your hands.

Knead it for about 6 to 10 minutes, you will notice when you have done enough kneading, the dough become smooth and very elastic. All the flour and water will be picked up from the edges of the bowl as you roll the dough around. Make the dough into a ball and rub with a little olive oil. Put the dough in the bowl and cover the bowl with cling film. Put in a warm place for a couple of hours. The dough will rise to about double the size and is then ready to use. Pull off a ball of dough and roll out on a floured surface to make your pizza base. Lay the base on some baking paper. Put on your pizza topping

Crank your oven up to about 250 degrees C, or as hot as it will go. Transfer your pizza to a hot tray in your oven. Cook in the lower part of your oven so the bottom cooks.

You will love it.

Source: Jaison's Pizza Dough Recipe (for the home oven)

The Pruners Potato and Cheddar Soup

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +1200

The Pruners Potato and Cheddar Soup

This is a great recipe I picked up from Wilcox Potatoes at the Field Days. Just what you need to warm you up after pruning grapevines in the winter cold.

Ingredients.

500g potatoes, peeled, roughly chopped.
25g unsalted butter.
1 medium sized onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 Garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced.
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
500ml chicken stock.
500ml water.
100g tasty cheese
½ tsp salt.
100ml cream.

Technique

Melt butter in a large pot then add onions, garlic and cayenne pepper. Sweat on a low heat for about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and stir. Add stock and water and bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer until potatoes are cooked, about 25 minutes.

Stir in cheese, salt and cream. Bring back to simmer and then remove from the heat and allow to cool a bit. Blend in a food processor until smooth. You made need to do this in two lots, it makes quite a lot. To serve reheat, stirring to stop it catching.

Serve in a large bowl with a sprinkle of paprika and chopped parsley, and some crunchy bread.
Serves 6.

Source: The Pruners Potato and Cheddar Soup

Jaison's Chicken liver, red wine and walnut pate`

Sun, 06 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Jaison’s Chicken Liver, Red Wine and Walnut Pate`

Ingredients

· 350g or 2 x 200g pots of chicken livers.
· 150ml red wine, P’06 is great
· 1 sprig of thyme
· 1 bay leaf
· 25g unsalted butter
· 2 tablespoons of olive oil
· 1 large onion chopped
· 1 leek (optional) chopped thinly
· 1 large clove of garlic, swashed and chopped
· 1 tablespoon of brandy or cognac
· 125g unsalted butter (soft)
· 100ml cream
· ½ teaspoon of salt
· freshly ground pepper.
. 2 X 70grm packs of walnut pieces

Technique

Clean the chicken livers and put them in a bowl with the red wine, thyme and bay leaf for 4 hours (less if you like but not more)

Strain wine and herb mixture off and keep for later

In a large frying pan add olive oil and heat till very hot. Sear the chicken livers until brown on both sides (about 30 secs each side) remove from the pan

Turn the heat down and add 25g of butter, add the onions, garlic and leak and cook until they have softened and turned clear.

Return the chicken livers to the pan. Add the reserved red wine and herb mixture, and the 25ml of brandy. (if your pan is hot it will flame… so watch out!)

Cover and let cook for 4 minutes, remove the cover and reduce the liquid by half (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.)

Remove the bay leaf and the thyme sprig and put the mix into a low dish to cool, this is most important.
When the mixture is just warm, tip into a food processor or for a very smooth mix a blender.
Add the cream, butter and salt. Pulse until very smooth. Tip into a mixing bowl.
Fold in the walnut pieces and course grind in the pepper. This keeps these whole and give a great look to the pate` when cut.

Pour into a small loaf tin or individual ramekins, cover the top with baking paper and plastic wrap, refrigerate for at least 8 hours. In the ramekins instead of the paper you can once it has set a bit, say 2 hours, you can pour melted butter over the top. This will seal it and can be removed at serving time.

Taste is best after about 2 days

Serve with crusty bread or melba toast and some crunchy carrot and celery strips,
and of course a glass of Kerr Farm Pinotage.

Cheers Jaison

Source: Jaison's Chicken liver, red wine and walnut pate`

Jaison's Chardonnay Roast Chicken Recipe

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +1200

Jaison’s Chardonnay Roast Chicken. Very Easy, Never Fails. If you have never cooked, try this.

Get yourself an old time roasting dish, with a lid. You can pick them up at the Op Shop for a few bucks, or you can cover an ordinary roasting dish with some aluminum foil.

Put a couple of good slurps of olive oil in the bottom of the dish. Peel and roughly chop some hard vegetables and put in the dish. These keep the chicken off the bottom and act as a roasting rack.

Suggested hard vegetables are potato, kumara, onion, carrot and pumpkin. I like to add some red chili and red capsicum, as well as a good hand full of fresh Italian parsley, chopped. Include thyme leaves and rosemary (if you don’t have fresh, dried is ok, remember dried is much stronger so use less), plenty of fresh ground pepper and some sea salt. There is a secret ingredient I use, which is a couple of stalks of celery chopped into 10mm lengths or some celery salt. This, and a hand full of de-stoned and sliced black olives add some background complexity. Pour in a 440g can of chopped Italian tomatoes and mix all these ingredients together in the dish so they are coated with the oil, tomatoes and herbs. Down the side of the dish pour a cup of Kerr Farm Limited release Chardonnay for a golden sauce. Red wine will give a dark sauce. It should look a bit like this.

Before and after the tomato added.

Now for the Chicken

I use a size 18 , this is good for four or two greedy ones. For more people just add more vegetables.
Insert into the cavity a large peeled onion. Coat the outside of the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper and some Rosemary leaves and sit the chicken on the top of the vegetables.

Put the lid on, it does fit honest! Roast at about 170 to 180 degrees C for 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the speed of your oven. The lid keeps everything juicy; take the lid off for the last 10 to 15mins if you want for a nice crispy brown skin. Check the chicken is cooked by making sure the juices from the thickest parts are clear

When you take the chicken out to carve, give the vegetables a spoon over and you will find there is a lovely rich sauce at the bottom of the dish. Serve with spring peas.

Source: Jaison's Chardonnay Roast Chicken Recipe