Food and Wine

Tue, 01 May 2012 8:54AM

Here at Isle of Wight Radio, we like our food - from Sue in the office who cooks a mean banana cake to our very own 'Come Dine With Me' entrant Michael Coombes - and we'd like to share that with you!

On this page you can view recipes or listen again to interviews with some of the greatest chefs, producers and afficianados in the food and wine world!

Recipe from The Black Sheep Bar

Five spice prawns

Serve this dish as a sharing platter with bread.

Ingredients

10 raw shelled tiger prawns

1 finely sliced spring onion

Garlic mayonnaise (optional)

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp garlic salt

1tsp white pepper

1tsp caster sugar

Half tsp five spice

Preparation Method

Mix spices together in a bowl and set aside. Heat a wok or pan and add a drizzle of vegetable oil. When oil begins to smoke carefully add prawns and cook quickly on both sides until they turn pink. Add a pinch of the spice blend and cook for a further 30 seconds being careful not to burn the spice mix.

Prepare a bowl of fresh hand picked summer salad leaves. Place prawns on top of leaves & top with the spring onions. This dish also works perfectly on top of noodles or rice.

The spice blend keeps well, covered and stored in a cool place, and can be used for chicken and fish as well.

Perfect with the recommended wine or for a longer drink a Birra Moretti beer!

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Matt Whishaw from The Island Wine Company recommends wines to accompany the Black Sheep Bar’s Five Spiced Tiger Prawns:

When I first read that the dish was five spiced prawns, I imagined chillies and garlic and strong oriental flavours. This recipe is however far more straightforward and uncomplicated, allowing the prawns to show off their succulent pleasures with the spices supporting not dominating. The right wine choice for this dish should work in the same way, balancing rather than over-powering.

With this in mind I rejected more the ‘full throttle’ choices for Asian cuisine, such as Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc or Argentine Torrontes. Instead I am recommending a couple of wonderful Rieslings: The delicacy of an off-dry Mosel Riesling from Germany would really compliment these prawns. For those who prefer dry wines, a perky, lime scented and mouth-watering Australian Riesling would also work wonderfully.

So many people write off this amazing grape, often due to negative associations with the most commercial German wines of the 1970s, but they are missing out on a Pandora’s box of delights. It is a grape that winemakers cannot mess with and its flavours reflect the soils it is grown in. Riesling can age spectacularly well and is made styles which are dry, sweet and every shade in between. It really should be enjoyed by all rather than remaining the best kept secret of just a few!

RECOMMENDED WINES:

• ‘Zeppelin’ Mulheimer Sonnenlay Mosel Riesling, Max Ferdinand Richter 2011.

This wine was served on the luxurious airship Zeppelin, hence the funky label!
• Mount Crawford Riesling, Eden Valley,
Australia 2010