The Turk

A culinary journey with Dutch Boy sharing two of his classic recipes.

Last week I was at a wine tasting. Now, as is usually the case with wine tastings, it’s all about the wine. Hence the name. Great wine this time from Turkey Flat, a not so big vineyard and winemaker in Barossa Valley with truly great wines. Good thing that they did not have a lot of stock, or else I would have hopelessly overspent again.

I do want to emphasize in this episode of Dutch Boy the importance of good pairing. It’s okay if you think the wine is more important than the food. I also enjoy to first of all pick my wine in a restaurant, and only then worry about the menu. But being a foody and enthusiastic amateur cook, I will share some of the things that I did with my Turkey Flat purchases.

The usual disclaimers: no animals were hurt in the process, except those that were eaten. Oh, and of course end results may vary, that all depends on your creativity, taste, and skills, as well as on the appreciation of your audience.

Moules Marinières

Ingredients for 2 persons

- Mussels; you can use the halve shell Australian or New Zealand green mussels, excellent taste, use about 1 kg for 2 persons. In case of Dutch mussels, nice small juicy tender ones from Zeeland, use about 1.5 kg for 2.

- White wine; don’t use crap, please. It will ruin your evening. Use the best wine you can reasonably afford. A good chardonnay, or if you happen to find a few bottles, use Turkey Flat’s Butcher’s Block White 2008, a blend of Marsanne (57%), Viognier (32%) and Roussanne (11%). For the 2 of you, make sure you have 2 bottles. One for cooking, one for dinner.

- Tomatoes, a few nice ripe plum tomatoes

- Tomato puree

- 1 chili padi

- 1 big yellow onion

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 spring onion

- A handful of parsley

- A nice crusty rustic country bread

Preparation doesn’t take long, so have your date in gear by the time you really start cooking. Set her on the customer side of your kitchen bar and give her some simple task like tasting the wine and maybe folding some napkins. Don’t let her cross that thin line that involves handling utensils or ingredients. It will ruin your date. Now then, all set? Let’s get started.

First of all, pre-heat the oven to 100 degrees Celcius. The cut half of the bread into big chunks. Put the bread pieces in an oven tray, and chuck it in the oven. The purpose of this is to make your nice fresh country bread go stale a bit. That way it will absorb better all the juices.

Taste the wine. And do not forget to keep it chilled! When using the Turkey Flat, it doesn’t need to be that cold actually, about 10 degrees is great.

Next, start chopping. Bring out the big guns and show off your knife skills. Note that there’s little more upsetting for a hot date then you cutting a finger, so please practice a bit, ok? Don’t go sissy on the onion, garlic and chili, if you show tears the evening is over. But do make sure to wash your hands, preferably with some lemon juice, to get rid of the smell and especially the chili juices. If you don’t believe that is critical, then just for the fun of it, rub your eyes or any other sensitive body part (yeah, the little fella down there for example).

Taste the wine, to make sure the temp is still okay. This also might be a good moment to top up the lady and change your play list from ghetto rap to something smooher.

Stage 3, put up a big pan something like in the picture below. Make sure that it actually does fit all the mussels comfortably. But don’t put in the mussels yet. Start with some olive oil, and on low fire, soften the onions, garlic and chili. Add some salt from the mill, and likewise pepper. Let it soften for a few minutes, while tasting the wine.

Almost there, buddy. Once the onions are nice and soft (not brown!), top up your wineglass to the rim, taste it carefully, and dunk the rest of the glass in the pan. This will smell absolutely fabulous, and the lady will be impressed. Pour yourself another glass of wine, and check the progress on hers. Make sure her glass is not too full, she hates that. Girls are just different in that, don’t ask why. Now put in the tomatoes, and a teaspoon or two of your tomato paste. Be careful with the tomato paste, better too little than too much! The purpose is not to make a bolognaise sauce, but just to help the fresh tomatoes a bit, and create a little bit more structure in your jus. The consistency should be very, very soupy. Taste it! This is the last opportunity to adjust your seasoning, better make sure it’s right. Under-seasoned food just tastes awful, do not make that mistake. Also taste the wine.

Last part, add the mussels! The mussels will cook very quickly, and overcooking mussels is really not nice, because they will get very chewy. Stir the whole thing while it’s cooking, so that the soup will go over all the mussels and the tomatoes and onions stick to each mussel. At the last moment, when the mussels are almost done, add the parsley and stir it in. Taste the wine for a last time, because we’re done!

Get the bread out of the oven, and just before serving the mussels, sprinkle the spring onions on top. Just put the pan on the table, it’s a rustic dish and after all, your pans are nice things to look at, right? Use deep plates (not bowls, you’re not a farmer) to serve.

Now ease the lady in her seat, open your second bottle (I would advice a slightly more chilled one), dim the lights, and let her admire you.

Sausage pasta

Ingredients for 2 persons

- Two bottles of The Turk 2006

- 6 fresh lamb sausages

- Fresh thyme

- About 10 black Kalamata olives

- A few plum tomatoes, 3 or so should be enough

- 1 big onion

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 5 chili padi

- Tomato paste

- Pasta of your choice

Okay, this is a super fast super simple super tasty dinner, typically perfect for a Monday evening, when you come home late from an intense day at the office. You don’t want to go out for dinner, you just want to stay in. Your feelings require comfort food. And wine. Now, the great thing about the wine selection for this recipe is that it’s completely non-pretentious. So don’t drink it with your foie gras d’ois filled filet mignon. It would be slightly underwhelming. But drink it with this Dutch Boy classic recipe, and you will be so happy. And at just under 60 dollars per bottle, even two won’t break the bank.

Step 1: open the first bottle, and pour yourself a generous glass. Yeah, you can taste it already, this is going to be one great evening. Who says Monday sucks?

Let’s get this show on the road. Chop your onion the lazy way, so no neat cubes, just chop it in half then cut it length wise, not half-rings. Crush the garlic with the big knife. The chili padi should be a stinging surprise each time you bite in one, so just get rid of the green part, then half them lengthwise. If you’re lazy (and chances are that you will be), then don’t bother pitting the olives. To prevent lawsuits and dental claims from your guests, just warn them there’s a stone in the olives. Cut the tomatoes in 8th’s. That’s that for the prepping. By now your glass should be empty. If not, drain it, then refill.

Put pot with salted water on the fire to boil your pasta. At the same time, heat a bit of olive oil in a large sauté pan to slowly fry the sausages. Once the sausages are nice and brown, lower the heat and add the onions, garlic, and chilies, all at the same time. Use moderate flames, you don’t want to brown these extra ingredients too much, especially not the garlic. Soft is the result your looking for. After a few minutes, refill your glass, take a slurp or two, and add the rest to the sausages. Smell the Turk. Let the alcohol disappear, and after about two minutes, add a few teaspoons of tomato paste. Don’t make the sauce too concentrated, that’s not nice. Add the thyme and the olives, and taste before seasoning with salt and pepper. Be careful, your sausage and olives may have already salted the dish quite a bit, so taste it, and taste it again. Then taste the wine again, and note the perfect companionship growing between the 3 of you.

The water should be boiling in the other pot now, so put in your pasta and cook it. During the cooking time of the pasta the flavours in the sauce can develop nicely. About 4 minutes before the pasta is done, add the tomato chunks to the sauce. Don’t do this too early, or else they will boil to mush. Just a few minutes will get rid of the acidity while adding their natural flavours to the sauce. Taste the sauce, drink some Turk. Can you still remember what happened in the office? It wasn’t that bad a day after all, was it?

Ok, we’re done! Drain the pasta, remove the thyme from the sauce, and put it all in a deep plate (again, bowls are for farmers, not you and your friend). Serve with a side salad if you must, crusty bread if you have it, and plenty more Turk in generous glasses.

Dinner done? Finish the rest of the Turk with a strong espresso, and hope you don’t have an early meeting. Cheers.