Inspired by the delicious sherry-compatible and – for Heston – user-friendly recipes of the other week, I decided to give a few a whirl myself and invited some friends round to experience the DKP action. It was brilliant; for once I had a whole afternoon to prepare a supper so I was really able to enjoy getting it all ready. I headed off to Borough Market on Saturday on my slightly rickety bike (must get it to the mender’s) armed with my shopping list of items that would help me pull off this exciting feast. I bought stilton from Neal’s Yard, pata negra and marcona almonds from Brindisa, gouda from Mons and crab meat from Applebees – a fine booty of gourmandese if ever there was one!
I had imagined that if Heston said something was easy then this meant it was probably on a par with one of Nigella’s more verbose recipes, so I approached the info with caution…but there, staring me in the face was recipe after recipe of perfectly achievable sounding dishes. I decided to start with the gruyere and fino fondue. I’d never made a fondue before but was so inspired by the deliciousness of the one we had at Shoreditch House the other day that it was a must. The lovely Bridget from Franco Manca in Brixton lent me her fondue set and, just to be on the safe side, I had Heston right there in the room with me talking me through the whole process. It bubbled away in that pale yellow, glossy way it has. My guests started to arrive – Ruth, Sam, Will and Vee – all consumate food fanatics and all keen on discovering the symphony created by putting together certain foods with certain sherry styles.
Fino, super-chilled accompanied the fondue. We drank, we dunked, we moaned in delight. Next up I thought a salad may be in order – speciafically a pata negra, peach, almond, balsamic and rocket salad. I had already roasted the marcona almonds a little with some salt and pepper and the pata negra was nestling nicely into an acorn-aromatic room temperature; a bit of slicing and tossing and suddenly there was a salad of lip-smacking complexity. We ate it with my favourite sherry of all – amontillado. Oh my! How those nutty, buttery, fruity flavours dwelt together. Sam hadn’t had many dealings with amontillado before but was very vocal about how successful (and how surprising) was the pairing.
Onto the fish course. I have always been a fan of crab on toast since first trying it at the Anchor & Hope years ago and liked the way Heston wanted to harness the compatibility fish has with a manzanilla. The toast was warm, the crab unctuous and redolent with coriander and paprika and the sherry came alongside this voluptuousness like a sea spray on a baking day. Everyone loved it.
Finally came the star of the show: eccles cakes with stilton sherry butter and to be served with a cooled cream sherry. I had picked a bottle up at Somerfield’s having heard that the supermarket white labels are amongst the best sherries on the market. The eccles cakes smelled amazing as they came out of the oven – the aroma of butter, sugar and spices made us all feel better about the imposition of winter – and when served with the stilton butter; cool blue butter on warm, sweet buttery cakes – and washed down with the best cream I’ve found yet, life felt pretty well-rounded for all concerned. Thank you Heston for bringing us further into the DKP circle!
