Friday 30 January 2015

Marsala - the colour and taste of 2015

The colour gods at Pantone have declared that the colour of the year for 2015 is Marsala.  They describe it as a "naturally robust and earthy wine red, Marsala enriches our minds, bodies and souls."  I'd like to add that it also tastes delicious, so I'm going to accord it flavour of the year.

Dad and I regularly visit his local bowls club for a weekend lunch and one of their most delicious lunch staples (in addition to Oysters Kilpatrick which we almost always share) is Veal Marsala.  After several delicious lunches I started to get intrigued by the taste and did a little digging into its origins.

Marsala is a fortified wine, originally from the city of Marsala in Sicily.  It's in the same family as port and sherry and was traditionally served between the first and second courses of a meal - but its real power comes when you use it to make a sauce that has the most amazing depth and flavour punch.

I came home from a lunch one day with the flavour on my mind and opened up my blog reader to see that Smitten Kitchen - one of my favourite cooking blogs - had posted a recipe for mushroom marsala pasta bake.  Obviously it was meant to be and I went out and bought a bottle straight away!

Since then I've tried a couple of different sauces and the most successful has been a creamy version that I served with a roasted chicken dinner. It was a popular change from the usual gravy and was even better the next day when drizzled over the leftovers.

Here's how I made it:

Cut up a mountain of mushrooms of different varieties (I used Swiss brown and button but you can use whatever is at hand) and a leek and toss them into a big pan with two crushed garlic cloves and a good glug of olive oil. 

Once they are par cooked and the pan is nice and hot, stir in half a cup of Marsala and let it simmer and reduce, infusing the mushrooms with its heavenly flavours.  When the liquid has reduced, slowly stir in about half a cup of chicken stock and again let the flavours develop while the liquid reduces.  I throw in a good grind of black pepper and a small pinch of salt too.

To finish, add a glug of cream (not too much, you don't want to diminish the flavour) and warm through. You can thicken with some cornflower if you like.  Drench over some chicken, baked potato and steamed broccoli and enjoy.  Delicious!

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