Tasting WineWritten by admin
Wine Tasting Component I: LookThe first step you have to undertake in wine tasting is visual. 1. Fill up glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never fill it more than half; 2. Hold glass by stem. Initially you may find this too pretentious but there are good reasons for it: а) by doing it this way you can actually observe wine in it; b) this will keep your fingerprints off bowl; в) heat from your palm will not change temperature of wine. There’s a good saying by one of greatest French wine lovers, Emil Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine and you can immediately tell whether he/she is a connoisseur by way they hold glass.” Even though you may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could still learn how to hold wine glass. 3. Focus on color intensity and transparency of liquid. a) color of wine, and more specifically its nuances, are best observed on a white background. б) wine’s intensity is best judged by holding glass without slanting it and looking at liquid from above; 4. Next comes swirling of glass. This can also seem too pretentious or even dangerous if you have a full glass or a white top. But this movement is important since it prepares you for next step in wine tasting – Taste. The easiest way to swirl glass is to place it on a table or other even surface, and to swirl your hand while holding glass by stem. Swirl hard and have wine almost touch rim of glass. Then stop. The wine leaves tiny traces with irregular shapes on inside of glass. Some “experts” then read them with as much zeal as coffee-tellers. The truth is however, that they are just an indicator for quality of wine – more alcohol a wine has, more wine traces it forms. What does color of wine tell us? The wine’s color tells us many things about its character. First, color shows grape variety. Let’s take two popular varieties as examples – cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. Cabernet’s grapes are smaller, with a thicker and darker skin than those of pinot noir. As a result, color of wines made from cabernet sauvignon is usually described as violet to dark while color of wines made from pinot noir is associated with ruby.
| | Helen's Pan Fried SeabassWritten by Helen Porter
Fish is, as they say, good for you. It contains a wealth of 'good' fats and protein, not to mention vitamins. Most people, however, seem a little restricted in their choice of fish, sticking with trout and salmon mostly. So why not experiment a little with some of other wonderful fish out there? like sea-bass, or example! Sea-bass is a light white fish with a very mild flavor, and this easy-to-make dish is perfect for a dinner party since vegetables can be pre-prepared and then heated at last moment. The ingredients you need are:-2 Fillet Sea-bass 2 Peppers - Yellow & Red work for colour Spring Onions x 4 cut into 2 pieces Asparagus x8 tips 1 Large Courgette Olive Oil Balsamic Oil Garlive clove - crushed Butter 75g Whole Lemon cut into quarters Salt & Pepper First you need to prepare your Pepper Butter with which you will fry fish later. Char-grill one half of a pepper (rub in a little oil oil). Once soft and cooked leave to cool. Mix in with lightly salted butter, grind in a little pepper and squeeze one quarter of lemon over it. Put mixture into a large piece of clingfilm in middle in a long sausauge shape. Roll cling-film so you have butter in middle in a sausage shape but covered over (this is a style preferred by www.HelensRecipes.com staff, by way!). Put in freezer - this will give you nice 'circle' shapes for cooking and presentation Now slice peppers into 4 pieces and half pepper into 2 pieces. Cut your large courgette in half and then chop each half into 4 slices length ways so you get long slices rather than little round chunks. Rub all over with a little olive oil and chargrill. These should take around 25 minutes - take off heat once cooked.
|
