Two couples and two singles, ‘seniors’, we formed up when locked down. Back then, we took turns to cook and do distanced doorstep deliveries. Now we can properly celebrate.
The so-called ‘Old’ do impressive things:
Barbara has prepared ‘Okroshka’ Ukrainian cold soup taught her by our guest Granny Tetiana. Chives, ham, potatoes, cucumbers and hard-boiled eggs all finely chopped into sour cream, vinegar, dill and water. For hot days.
With that I plan Pontfract, the Provence rosé from the only surviving winemaker from World War 2 (he was 15) Old Monsieur Paul. It’s fabulous. The Miraval lot next door have tried to buy him out. But after 77 years …?
To follow, was Barbara’s fish pie as perfected by her, over the years. Basically masses of fish of all kinds in cream, under mashed potato. I will serve the Clos de La Vierge, 2019 Jurancon Sec from our two seventy-something growers and their mother, down near Pau. These ladies and their bright yellow, hugely-flavoured dry marvel are my current passion.
My own contribution is the ice cream. Obsessed with ice-cream long before I got on to wine, thanks to the Ferretti’s a little Italian family doing heavenly ice cream in our town of Horwich (where I spent my short-trouser years). Vanilla only. But the real thing. My mother managed to make our own version when we moved south and found only industrial stuff on offer… and I’ve maintained that tradition. Milk, cream, sugar, merest touch of vanilla … to accompany Caroline’s contribution of nectarines poached in white wine.
I opened a treasured half-bottle of old Mosel Auslese … which, sadly, we no longer stock. But my new daughter-in-law will be learning winemaking in that valley next month, so … I live in hope.
