Notes on a couple of wines with dinner recently:
2003 Stag's Hollow Sauvignon Blanc - not many wineries are making this varietal in BC, but this is a good example - at 12.9% it is not overdone, and has an interesting melon nose with some ginger. It is clean on palate with good length and finishes crisply. It would be a hard one to guess blind as a Sauv blanc, but I can't mark it down for that - it was a nice wine, friendly with food and one of the most interesting local SBs I've tasted.2001 Albert Mann Riesling - this is the basic wine for Mann. It had only a hint of petrol in the nose, and featured more mineral and a bit oddly, vinyl. Fair balance, but it could use a bit of lift in the middle, as it was skirting blandness.
These were served with my secret mushroom recipe which I shall now disclose.
Take about a half kilo of fresh chanterelles, clean and slice them and put them in a pot. Add whipping cream - about a half litre, to almost cover. Add some chopped herbs - the original recipe calls for sage, but rosemary is also great and a creditable job can be done with thyme (please report any other variations that work).
Simmer on low heat until the cream takes on the colour of the mushrooms, and starts to thicken. Add some more chopped herbs to finish, and some Sherry - you could use other things to flavour it, as you don't use much, but I favour Los Arcos dry Amontillado. Serve in pastry shells (just to add some texture) or on toast, toasted brioche, or on it's own, though it looks a bit forlorn that way. On the other hand, it never hangs around long enough to look too forlorn, as it is scarfed up with alacrity every time I have served it.
You can use morels, of other mushrooms, and if you don't have much of the 'prime' mushrooms, you can use a base of the morels or chanterelles and top up with regular mushrooms - you will still get most of the flavour.