Food and wine pairing with Monis and Weekend Post (Part 1)

By Louise Liebenberg

WEEKEND Post and Monis hosted a fortified wine tasting for 14 subscribers and their partners who had all won tickets to the event, which was held at Leo’s in Walmer, Port Elizabeth, on Thursday night. It was a fun and fascinating evening in the company of "the man from Monis” Chris de Klerk, who took us through the tasting and shared plenty of interesting facts about fortified wines like sherry, port and muscadel.

See some social pics from the evening below – there will be more pics to come next Saturday along with a full report-back on the night’s proceedings both on the blog and on the back page of MyWeekend.

In the meantime you can also scroll down for a recipe incorporating fortified wines, which really are a lot more versatile than most people know! More tips, tricks and recipes with fortified wines will follow next Saturday April 21.

Monis' Chris de Klerk with De Kock Communications' Linda Christensen (centre) and Louise Liebenberg from Weekend Post.

Esme van Niekerk (left) with Doodie and Kruven Candasamy.

Guests (from left) Nev du Plessis, Kathy Garde and Craig and Cindi Bester.

Recipe: Mushroom and sherry soup with almond love bite

This recipe is best made and served with Monis Pale Dry, the South African equivalent to a beautiful fino or dry sherry. Guests at this week’s Monis event tasted how the pale dry absolutely loves salty, earthy foods like biltong; I imagine the combination below is going to be a winner now that we are starting to move towards the colder months!

This mushroom appetiser is best served with a pale dry like Monis' finest. Picture: Supplied

How to make the soup

Ingredients

1 shot of pale dry sherry; 1 cup of rich chicken stock; 2 sprigs of thyme; ½ tsp golden sugar; 200g shitake mushrooms, sliced (or whole shimejis); 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil; 1 tsp garlic;½ cup cream

Method

Get the olive oil smoking hot in a small pot and add the mushrooms. Sauté them quickly to avoid burning them. Add the garlic and stir for a minute. Then quickly deglaze with the sherry. Simmer for a minute and add the stock, sugar and thyme. Simmer until all the flavours are infused (about 5 min). Now add the cream and simmer until nice and thick.

How to make the almond love bite

Ingredients

110g butter;55g castor sugar; 150g flour; 50g ground almonds

Method

Rub all the ingredients together until a dough is formed. Roll out the dough while dusting lightly with flour and cut into heart shapes. Bake at 180 for 10 min.

Serve the mushroom soup in espresso cups with a love bite on the side for dunking or nibbling.

Don’t miss the blog next Saturday for more social pics, feedback on the food and wine pairing and other great recipes and ideas on how to use and serve fortified wines when next you’re entertaining!