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The Forager: Winter warmers, zero waste

Jul 23, 2014
Head to the Hills for the Winter Reds festival this weekend.

Head to the Hills for the Winter Reds festival this weekend.

This week: wine and food celebrations to take the chill off winter; creating a sustainable food culture, industry winners and more.

Warm up at winter wine festivals

If open fires, slow cooking and fine cool-climate red wines are your thing, grab your gumboots, pull on a woolly jumper and head to the Adelaide Hills this weekend for the fourth annual Winter Reds weekend.

This year’s program is the largest on record, with more than 40 wineries offering a diverse range of cellar-door, cluster and ticketed events.

Highlights include Howard Vineyard’s Franc and Shank by the Fire,  a four-course menu featuring their premium Clover and Amos wines, salt bush lamb shanks, organic vegetables and local cheeses (tickets include a place in the Cabernet Franc master-class), and Lobethal Road’s Fire and Spice lunches matching their award-winning 2012 Shiraz with slow-cooked lamb shoulder and black-pepper chicken curry. The Sunday Funday with Golding Wines and BK Wines is a family-friendly day of food, wine and live music in the Golding Wines’ barn at Lobethal, while for the conservationists and more adventurous foodies, Ngeringa’s Feral Feast features wood-oven-roasted goat, wild boar, rabbit and prickly pears to match biodynamic red wines.

Download the full Winter Reds program here.

Next on the festival calendar is the Barossa Gourmet Weekend on August 15 to 17 (full program here). It includes the Barossa Bushgardens and Barossa Farmers’ Market Zero Waste Long Lunch, where two of the region’s most dynamic community organisations put sustainability centre-stage on August 17 at an innovative three-course lunch. The zero-waste philosophy is central to the menu, décor and set-up – guests will be asked to bring their own plates, cutlery and glasses, and there will be no food or other waste sent to landfill following the lunch. Tickets are $65 per person. More information can be found here.

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MasterChef 2013 grand finalist Lynton Tapp will present a “food tour” of the region in
three courses as part of Barossa Gourmet Weekend.

Another event to plan for is the food tour of the Barossa Valley cooked up by MasterChef 2013 finalist Lynton Tapp at the Novotel Barossa Valley Resort on August 16. At Lunch with Lynton, guests will enjoy three inspired courses matched with premium Bethany Wines. Cost is $90 per person. Tickets and further information can be found here.

A newcomer to the food and wine festival scene is the National Wine Centre Winter Food & Wine Festival on August 24, offering 30 different wines, ciders and beers from McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills and the Barossa. On the terrace, overlooking the Adelaide Botanic Gardens wetlands, executive chef Philip Pope will cook up some decadent winter treats using seasonal ingredients, and several Adelaide Hills Farmers’ Market providores will showcase their produce. While you’re there, check out the new Wined Bar, where you can pour yourself a taste or a glass from a choice of 120 different wines from Grange to Gemtree from the state-of-the-art Enomatic wine-preservation and dispensing machines.

The National Wine Centre is also beginning a winter Wine Dinner series next week highlighting different food and wine regions – July 30 puts the spotlight on Kangaroo Island, while August 27 is all about alternative meat dishes and showcases the Barossa’s Torbreck Wines. More information about Wine Centre events can be found here.

Waste not, want not

More than 1000 people turned out for an OzHarvest Think.Eat.Save event this week at Adelaide University, where a free lunch was prepared from food waste that would normally end up in the bin.

Chefs Philip Pope (National Wine Centre), Tze Khaw (Adelaide Convention Centre), Dennis Leslie (Adelaide Oval), Tania Tauakume (The Playford) and Rebecca Sullivan (Dirty Girl Kitchen) prepared a menu of carrot and potato soup, vegetarian curry, dhal, ratatouille, muffins and trifle from excess end-of-season produce donated by local market gardens and other food donors.

“We got a fantastic crowd,” says Hayley Everuss, OzHarvest state manager. “There was so much goodwill, with people coming along wanting to learn about food waste – we actually ran out of food!”

OzHarvest ambassador Keith Conlon hosted the event, which saw local food personalities, identities and politicians rolling up their sleeves to help serve food and participating in a panel addressing sustainable food systems.

“It’s a pretty striking paradox that we produce enough food on this planet to feed all seven billion of us yet so much goes to waste while so many go hungry,” explains Everuss. “All of us have the power to help create a more sustainable food culture; one where we simply waste less.”

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Food industry accolades

Local designer cum food producer Tom Twopeny has received a gold medal for his Duck Rillette by Mr Twopeny at the Royal Melbourne Fine Food awards.

duck rillette - cropped“Rillette is like a coarse paté but using more refined cuts of meat,” he explains. “It’s made from a process called confit, where the duck leg and thigh is cured for 12 hours in herbs and spices, slow cooked for 10 hours in duck fat, shredded and processed with more spices and brandy, and then hand bottled. It’s a traditional French method of preserving game meats.”

Twopeny also produces a pork terrine, beetroot and horseradish relish, zucchini pickle, lemon curd and a quinoa walnut terrine under his TownLife brand. The duck rillettes, his latest offering, was released only six weeks ago. “I started making it at the request of Peel Street bar Clever Little Tailor – and voila!”

He also holds a stall each Sunday at the Holland Street Market.

Meanwhile, SA-based blogger and local food advocate Amanda McInerney has been named in Catablog’s Top Ten Food Blogs in Australia and New Zealand for her immensely popular Lambs Ears and Honey culinary travel blog.

McInerney began blogging just over four years ago after completing a Master of Gastronomy at Adelaide University.

Lambs Ears and Honey was a good opportunity for me to explore the stories behind food – the producers, the traditions and the history,” she explains . “Lambs Ears and Honey has inspired comments and big followings on Facebook and Twitter from Australia to the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and parts of Asia.

“Certainly, the Canadian Tourism Commission has noticed me; I’m going there in September as a guest for the second time running.

“I write about food producers wherever I happen to be in the world. It’s taken me places I would never have dreamed and it’s given me opportunities that I never imagined. But what really inspires me are the people who produce food, the dedicated South Australians particularly.”

Sips and bites

Coming up at the Salopian Inn are two educational and entertaining whisky dinners hosted by Graham Wright, who we’re told “retains an incredible amount of information for someone who drinks so much whisky”! Scottish Extremism will be held on July 25 and Whiskies from Around the World on August 29. And following the success of Corinna vs Karena, on August 28 the Salopian is placing two more stars of gastronomy, Gemtree winemaker Mike Brown and Salopian gin master Michael Armstrong, head to head in Dinner with a Punch. Tickets are $95 per person. For more information and bookings phone the Salopian Inn on 8323 8769.

McLaren Vale Beer Company will be part of an Australia vs Germany beer dinner at The Haus in Hahndorf this Friday. Hosted by Belgian beer master Rob Briers and McLaren Vale Brewing’s Jeff Wright, it will see German and local brews matched to a three-course dinner. Tickets are $50 per person. For bookings, phone 8388 7555

Republic Norwood’s rustic meat-driven menu now features signature dish Pork, Cork & Fork – suckling pig cooked on the charcoal rotisserie each Wednesday. Priced at priced at $32 for one person, $59 for two people and $99 for four people, all including sides, we think it represents good value for such a unique offering. More information can be found here.

 

 

 

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