I’ve always had a soft spot for Delheim wines (I am so behind on blog posts, but I do have one pending about our visit to this wine estate a while ago – I will share more then).
So every time we have the opportunity to sip some Delheim wines and try some food and wine pairings, we are delighted!
Delheim recently released the new vintage of their Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon blend (read more here: https://itsagautengthing.co.za/2019/02/27/delheim-releases-its-ever-popular-daily-staple-shiraz-cab-blend/)
This Stellenbosch Wine Estate is renowned for their ‘winter warmer’ events, including its annual mushroom forage event (as mentioned in the link above).
I am sure you can see where I’m going with this, angling for a Shiraz/Cab Sauv and mushroom dish pairing! Seeing that we can’t get to the wine estate to try out some of their winter mushroom inspired dishes, let’s just try one of their recipes at home.
Delheim kindly provided us with recipes and ingredients (like the most gorgeous dried mushrooms), so we decided to go with this one, created by the lovely Elmarie Berry: “Homemade Gnocchi with Porcini Mushroom Sauce”.
We decided to tweak the recipe a little bit though. So I will post the original recipe, and note our ‘add-ons’. We recently bought a Philips Pasta Maker, and it is so quick and easy to make your own pasta. So yes, we did cheat a bit on a lazy Sunday afternoon and made pasta in the pasta maker instead of making the gnocchi, but it worked just as well in the dish and still maintained the essence of this lovely dish. I will definitely keep the gnocchi recipe for future reference (see below in italics). I must try it!
Recipe serves 2-4
Gnocchi ingredients:
2 cups of mashed potatoes
1 cup flour
1 egg yolk
salt and pepper
15ml olive oil and 15ml butter for frying
Method for the Gnocchi
Mix the mashed potato, egg, flour and salt until a dough is formed. Sprinkle some flour on your working surface. Place the mixture onto the working surface and roll into a long sausage 3cm thick. Cut into 2cm pieces and press them slightly with the back of a fork. Bring a pot of water to the boil and place the gnocchi gently into the boiling water. Let them boil until they float to the top. Strain.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a pan and fry the gnocchi until golden brown.
Sauce ingredients:
80g dried Porcini mushrooms
250g mixed mushrooms ( whatever is available )
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cream
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
pepper to taste
fresh basil
(we added: 4 strips of bacon and 2 chicken breast fillets)
Method for the sauce:
Place the Porcini mushrooms in a medium bowl.
Pour the hot stock over the mushrooms and soak for 15 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the water.
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion, mushrooms and Porcini mushrooms. (We added the onion, chicken strips and bacon bits first, fried it up a bit and then added the mushrooms). Cook until the mushrooms are soft, but not brown, for about five minutes. Add the garlic. Cook for another two minutes.
Add the cream and reserved stock to the sauté pan and increase the heat until the mixture begins to boil. Simmer until thickened, about 5-10 minutes. Season to taste. Add the Parmesan cheese and serve with fresh basil.
This was SO good! We’re definitely making this recipe again! The umami of the beautifully fragrant mushrooms complimented the slight smokiness of the Shiraz Cab Sauv blend so well. Comfort food with comfort wine! Thank you Delheim!
Here is another #winterwarmer recipe I’m keen to try, maybe you guys will like it as well! https://www.delheim.com/news-events/blog/chicken-pie-with-porcini-and-espresso-sauce
For more about Delheim, check out their website and follow them on social media: https://www.delheim.com/
