Blogger's lunch at Roast with Chapel Down Wines

If you were on Twitter yesterday at lunchtime...and for much of the afternoon...you'll have noticed that four food and wine bloggers and I were furiously live-tweeting a lunch from Roast in London's Borough Market, where wi-fi had been laid on to encourage us to look like total nerds as we ate. It's a restaurant perfectly placed to make the most of the fresh produce from the market - the emphasis here is on seasonality and wonderfully British things like haggis, pork belly and black pudding. Matching wines were provided, at a rate of two with each of the five courses along with a beer and a welcoming glass of fizz, by Chapel Down Winery. I'll recap my tweets and pictures from the meal below for those not on Twitter - as noted on the day, I'm afraid the quality of prose and photography drops as I work my way through the wine. And read down to the bottom, because the restaurant is offering blog readers a special menu with wines if you can make it to Roast on November 24, and Chapel Down have very generously provided a special offer on a case of wine for you as well.

Something of an experimental post, this - it's the first meal I've live-tweeted. Let me know what you think. (It's likely to remain a rare event: eating with a laptop on my knee is something I'd only do at a restaurant's request or suggestion, 'cos it made me feel geek-tacular.) You can read more of my daily ramblings on food if you follow me @liz_upton.

• Ensconced at Roast, gargling Chapel Down fizz. Expect quality of tweets to worsten as the lunch progresses - 2 pairings/course. 1:14pm, Nov 10
• See @wine_scribbler, @foodguardian, @thewinesleuth, @eatlikeagirl and @msgourmetchick for more on this lunch 1:16pm, Nov 10
• Smoked, dry-cured Loch Etive trout w crab cakes at Roast - trout outstanding. @wine_scribbler says shallots overpowering the wine - I like 'em! 1:33pm, Nov 10
  
  
• @wine_scribbler I'm actually preferring the Pinot Reserve - and I'm not sure why I'm tweeting this, given we're sitting next to each other. 1.36pm, Nov 10
• The smoked trout *was* a tricky thing to match wines with - next up, some haggis. 1:41pm, Nov 10
• A bottle of Chapel Down porter has just appeared in front of me - currently 5 glasses on table...getting confused. 1:42pm, Nov 10
• Bloody hell, this porter is good. Oak chips in barrel apparently - a winemaking tech and very splendidly spicy and tannic. 1:44pm, Nov 10
• We're all making Black Velvets with the Chapel Down Vint Res Brut and the CD Porter. Delicious and also slightly shaming. 1:53pm, Nov 10
• Haggis and oxtail on celeriac/spud mash. Heaven, especially w a Black Velvet!
  
  
• Just been given an obscenely good slice of grilled black pud to sample. Ramsey of Carluke in Lanarkshire - superb. 1:58pm, Nov 10
• Leaving the red undrunk. This is *highly* unusual for me. 1:59pm, Nov 10
• ...and we pause briefly while we collect ourselves. Jealously guarding my glass of Black Velvet from the v attentive wine waiters. 2:02pm, Nov 10
• @foodguardian is having trouble liveblogging because of his "Fisher Price phone". I have no sympathy. 2:04pm, Nov 10
• A wine made with the Bacchus grape (English) has just arrived. Rather excited. 2:09pm, Nov 10
• I'm getting tuberose and rubber off this wine - Bacchus not a grape I know well, but v intriguing. 2:10pm, Nov 10
• I lie - that was an 06 Pinot Blanc in an ident. glass. The Bacchus is actually weirdly sweet and unacidic - and v nice. 2:12pm, Nov 10
• BTW, I think we should open a book on precisely when we are all going to be too pissed to continue tweeting. I say by course 4. 2:13pm, Nov 10
• Roast's signature dish - pork belly w mash spuds and apple sauce. Hubba - look at that crackling. 2:23pm, Nov 10
  
• Pork belly outstanding - soft, tender meat, killer crackling. And there's almost as much butter in this mash as at Robuchon. 2:25pm, Nov 10
• Chatting to restaurant owner about these spuds, which I could happily *live* in. King Eds at the mo, but only because seasonal. 2:33pm, Nov 10 (On speaking to the chef later, I discovered that actually they're Maris Piper year round. Damn good, anyway.)
• Christ almighty. Apparently, portions usually x2 this size - that pic was just the *tasting* portion (of which I ate ½). 2:36pm, Nov 10
• Winemaker a bit unconfident about what's up next - UK dessert wines a bit difficult. This is pretty good, but more aperitif-y. 2:45pm, Nov 10
• Spiced clementine custard w anise biscuits - pud like Grandma used to make. Chapel D Nectar gorgeous, but questionable match! 2:51pm, Nov 10
  
  
• So I *really* like this Chapel Down Nectar, but not necessarily with food. The pannacotta underneath is fabboo. 2:54pm, Nov 10
• You might notice that at this point in proceedings the quality of writing and photography is descending *fast*. Sorry. :) 3:01pm, Nov 10
• And an 08 varietal English Pinot Noir. Chocolatey, dry, unoaked. Prolly my favourite of the Chapel Down wines so far. 3:07pm, Nov 10
• Warm chestnut & pear cake w hot choc sauce. Melting, so excuse me while I eat. 3:18pm, Nov 10
• Chef has emerged, with a light coating of sauce. 3:25pm, Nov 10
• Chef's belly tips - Stanley knife, rub salt & lemon, C230 for 30 mins, then down to 165 for 3 hours. 3:31pm, Nov 10
• ...And I'm shutting the computer down now. Feedback's very welcome - how do you lot feel about live-tweeted lunches?

Roast and Chapel Down are offering a special menu with wine pairings for blog readers on November 24. They asked for our help in selecting three of these courses to point you at, and we ended up going for the menu below (with pairings selected by the folks at Chapel Down).

• On arrival, a glass of Chapel Down Brut Rose
• Ramsey of Carluke haggis with celeriac and oxtail sauce, with a glass of Chapel Down Rondo Regent Pinot Noir NV
• Slow-roast Wicks Manor pork belly with mashed potatoes and Bramley apple sauce, served with a glass of Roast Bacchus Reserve 2007 (NB this will be the full sized portion, not the tasting portion from the pics above)
• Spiced clementine custard with anise biscuits, served with a glass of Chapel Down Nectar 2007
• Tea or coffee

With the wines, the menu will cost £44.50. If you want to book, call the restaurant on 0845 034 7300 and mention that you are booking for the Chapel Down Roast Bloggers’ Dinner on November 24.

Chapel Down are also offering readers a case of their Pinot Reserve 2004 for £99 for a case of six, including delivery to any UK mainland adddress. (A case usually retails at £150 plus delivery.) All you need to do is call the vineyard on 01580 763033, ask for Lizzie or Wendy and quote Blogger Offer.

Crème de mures - blackberry liqueur

A reader from France emailed me a few weeks ago with her own recipe for Crème de Cassis: blackcurrant liqueur for making Kir with. Kir is one of my favourite apèritifs - use one measure of Crème de Cassis or Crème de Mures (the same liqueur made with blackberries rather than blackcurrants) in a glass of five measures of chilled white wine. A Kir prepared with sparkling wine is a Kir Royale, and is also blimmin' brilliant. Thank you very much, Jacqueline - and if you email me again to let me know what your surname is, I can give you a full credit for the recipe!

In this part of the world, blackcurrants are hard to find and very expensive when you do get your hands on them. Blackberries, however, quite literally grow on trees at the moment, and the method and amounts you'll need for a crème de mures will be exactly the same. So if you want to make the most of this year's surprisingly good blackberry harvest, get gathering at the weekend and produce a couple of home-made bottles of crème de mures (or crème de cassis if you have a handy currant bush) to impress people with.

Jacqueline says you'll need:

1.5 kg ripe blackcurrants
2 litres of red wine (NOT the absolutely cheapest plonk)
Sugar

Wash the blackcurrants or blackberries, place in an earthenware pot or pyrex bowl and crush with a wooden spoon. Add the red wine and leave to macerate for 48 hours.

Filter, weigh the juice and add the same weight of sugar. Pour into an enamel or stainless steel saucepan (Jacqueline and I both used a Le Creuset pot) and heat to just boiling. Let it boil gently for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time. Leave to cool to about 40°C, filter and bottle.

If filtered well, and bottled into sterilised bottles and well corked this will keep indefinitely. Jacqueline says that for a filter, she makes bags out of calico with loops for suspending from the legs of an upturned stool, making sure the bowl can be lifted out from between the stool legs when full! I have a Lakeland jam stand - I'm not awfully fond of it, given that these days it's a bit peely, but it does the job. Don't be tempted to hurry up the filtering process - just leave gravity to do its job.

Oxtail casserole

With the collapse of the global financial system, I notice my local butcher is displaying some less expensive cuts, like lamb shanks, oxtail and pork hock, more prominently than usual. The meat in this dish, which would have comfortably served four, cost £3. (That pork hock is in the freezer, and it cost £2.30 - I think I'll cook it in a Chinese style later this week.)

Oxtail has a very distinctive, rich, dense flavour, unlike other cuts of beef. It's well worth making good friends with in winter - slow-cooked, it's one of the most warming dishes I can think of. A casserole made with oxtail will be pleasingly dense without adding any thickening agents; the gelatin in the meat thickens the sauce with no need for flour.

Cooking on a budget needn't mean a life of porridge and baked beans. I cooked this delicious oxtail until its meat became meltingly soft in a red wine and beef stock sauce (cheap red wine, home-made stock - buy a tub from the supermarket chiller section if you don't have your own), with some new potatoes I'd walloped with the side of the rolling pin and roasted with some whole, unpeeled garlic cloves and plenty of salt and pepper. There was sauce left over, gelatinous and rich, and studded with vegetables and butter beans. I warmed it through and spooned what was left over a baked potato for lunch the next day.

To serve four, you'll need:

1kg oxtail, joints separated
150g smoked lardons
2 medium carrots
1 large onion
4 stalks celery
5 cloves garlic
1 bouquet garni
1 bottle red wine
150ml beef stock
2 generous tablespoons tomato purée
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 can butter beans
Salt and pepper
Parsley to garnish
Olive oil


Dice the onion, carrot and celery into small, even cubes, and slice the garlic finely. Set aside. Heat some olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan, and brown the oxtail carefully all over. Remove the oxtail to a plate. Fry the lardons in the pan until they start to crisp and release their fat. Lower the heat to low/medium and add the diced vegetables and garlic to the pan. Sauté, moving around vigorously, until the onions and celery are softening and have turned translucent. Return the oxtail and any juices to the pan, stir well to mix, and pour over the wine and stock with a teaspoon of salt and a generous amount of pepper. (You are allowed to subtract a glass of wine from the bottle before you add it to the pan if you really want: cook's privilege.) Add the bouquet garni, tomato purée, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar to the pan and bring to a gentle simmer, turn the heat right down, pop the lid on and leave to cook gently for four hours, stirring every now and again.

At the end of the cooking time, reduce the sauce with the lid off a little if you'd like it even thicker and richer. Drain the can of beans, and add them to the casserole, simmering for fifteen minutes. The meat will be falling away from the bone easily. Serve with plenty of starchy potatoes to soak up all the delicious sauce.

Mulled wine

A quick post today - it's Christmas Eve, and the house is bulging at the seams with family, all of whom want something to eat. The Great She Elephant is also spending Christmas with us. Those readers of her blog who would like me to take photographs of her when asleep or looking otherwise ungainly should send bribes to the usual address.

I'm cooking a ham today (the recipe is here). Everybody else seems to be too, it being a Christmas recipe; lots of friends have been asking for the recipe, and my Mum's doing one at their house tonight. It's a Christmassy dish, but it's made all the more Christmassy (Christmasic? Christmasular?) by a good, large glass of mulled wine on the side.

I have spent years perfecting this recipe. If you leave out any of the spices I will set the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come on you, so don't.

You'll need:

1 bottle Merlot (I got a cheap one from Waitrose, which was discounted because it was a bin end)
1 wine-bottle of water
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 oranges
1 lime
1 lemon
20 cloves
2 stars of anise
3 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 grating of nutmeg

Stud one orange with the cloves, and slice the other one. Slice the lemon and the lime, and put all the fruit, the spices, the wine and the water in a large, thick-bottomed pan with the honey and maple syrup. Bring up to the lowest possible simmer, and simmer very, very gently for twenty minutes. Strain through a sieve to get rid of the bits, and serve.

You might want to add a couple of shots of cherry brandy, but I think you'll find you don't need to. It's not that strong, but for some reason it's dreadfully warming and potent, so don't give any to the cat.

Merry Christmas!