I really don’t mean to draw summer to a close too early, but there has been a little nip in the air the last week or so. Autumn is just around the corner, but there’s no need to put a dampener on it. If Autumn is good for anything, it’s an excuse to get back to warm, hearty, rustic food that we didn’t seem to miss during the summer months. Maybe now though, we’re starting to get a craving for it all over again.

For the beef stock, try to get beef bones from the butcher and boil the heck out of them for a good few hours.

French onion soup (serves 4-5)

What you’ll need

3 tbsp butter
500g onions, thinly sliced
250ml dry white wine
125ml water
1.25L beef stock
French baguette sliced and toasted
freshly grated gruyère for serving
salt and pepper

How to cook it

Melt the butter in a large, heavy pan and then add the onions, wine and water. Heat gently, stirring regularly until the onions soften up (30-35 minutes). Add stock and season before bringing to the boil, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, with a generous layer of gruyère cheese on top, grill the toasted sliced baguette until golden brown. Serve the soup and set the grilled bread on top.

The wine match

I dare not deviate from France. Get your hands on a good Red Burgundy, a Côtes du Rhône or even a Beaujolais and you can’t go wrong here. A great all round food wine, Moillard’s Bourgogne Pinot Noir is my first choice. The less expensive Cuvée Richette Côtes du Rhône and the excellently priced La Reine de l’Arenite Fleurie would certainly not disappoint either.

For white wine drinkers, Chardonnay is a must in my humble opinion. Check out another one of our recent additions, Cuvée à l’Ancienne Mâcon Charnay.

I cooked this last weekend for the first time myself, but it’s been a favourite of Curious Mike’s for years. It really is very simple, but there’s at least a couple of hours cooking time after an afternoon of marinating (5-6 hours).

It’s the perfect treat for a Saturday night in, and it’s actually quite healthy if you go easy on the cream and the ghee butter. That’s a big ‘if’. Mike usually goes all the way, but I find subbing half of the cream for low fat yogurt doesn’t take away from the pleasure. Be warned, this is seriously good food. If you get it right first time, it’ll be one of your top recipes for years to come.

What you’ll need

6 free range chicken breasts chopped to bite size
3 tbsp vegetable oil

For the marinade
2 red chillies
3-4 garlic cloves chopped or crushed
2 tsp toasted cumin seeds
1 tsp garam marsala
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
juice of half a lemon
150 ml natural yoghurt

For the sauce
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
50g ghee butter
75 ml double cream
75 ml natural yogurt
pinch of salt

How to cook it

First thing’s first. To make the marinade blend the chillies, garlic and cumin seeds before adding the rest of the marinade ingredients. Add the chopped chicken into the mixture and pop it into a non-metallic bowl, cover it in cling film and place in the fridge for the afternoon.

For the sauce, blend the tomatoes and cook on a medium heat for about 30-45 minutes until reduced. Stir in the butter and a pinch of salt. Cook for a further 20-30 minutes and then add the cream and the yogurt. Heat through and add more salt if necessary. Set aside.

Separately, heat the vegetable oil in a large pan. Remove the chicken from the marinade and add to the pan, keeping the rest of the marinade in the bowl. Fry the chicken for around 5 minutes to seal and then add the remaining marinade. On a higher heat, cook until the chicken is cooked through (don’t be tempted to overcook - nothing worse than dry chicken).

Pour the tomato sauce over the chicken and simmer for another 5 minutes before plating up. Finish with a little coriander and serve with rice.

The wine match

We have a rich, creamy tomato sauce here, so Italian reds spring to mind. Our new Bricco dei Guazzi Barbera, with its cutting acidity and rich concentrated berry fruit, is just fabulous, and although there will be some heat from the chillies in the Makhani, I think the two will marry well. Another suggestion is our Californian Syrah rosé, Winston Hill. A simple, fruity pink with a lick of spice on the finish. Purrrfect.

For those who aren’t in the know, I introduced Curious Davide, aka ‘the incredible sleeping man’, here. This is what he has to say about his second Curious Food post: “This is my own Stroganoff recipe, thrown together while I was watching Neighbours instead of going to Uni one day - it could be responsible for my 2.2, but it was worth it, cause it’s the nuts…”

Beef Stroganoff (Serves 4)

450g sirloin or rump steak, cut into strips
1 tbsp plain flour, seasoned
1 tbsp paprika
olive oil, for frying
2 onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
250g closed cup mushrooms, quartered
1 tbsp brandy
2 tsp tomato purée
1 tsp Dijon mustard
300ml sour cream
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest, or to taste
salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Buttered tagliatelle noodles or plain boiled rice, to serve

-  Toss the beef strips with the flour and paprika until evenly coated.
-  Heat the oil to high and fry the onions, garlic and mushrooms for 3 minutes.
-  Add the dusted beef strips and sauté until browned and nearly cooked through.
-  Add the brandy, light the pan and shake until the flames subside.
-  Turn down the heat a little and add the tomato purée, mustard and sour cream.
-  Heat through gently, check that the beef is cooked through and remove from the heat.
-  Stir in the lemon zest and season to taste.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of the parsley and scatter the rest on top.
-  Serve with tagliatelle or rice.

Tip – this can be done with pork fillet or chicken breast rather than beef if you prefer.

The wine match

Lager lout, Davide, used to enjoy nursing a cold beer while scoffing his Beef Straganoff in front of Dr. Karl Kennedy and co. Now, however, he is a reformed man (stag weekends apart), enjoying a glass of red or white with his evening meal.

I think Côtes du Rhône is a lovely suit for this type of food. They generally wouldn’t be too strong for something like this and most of the time they are well made, well balanced reds with pleasant red and black fruit flavours, sometimes even with a touch spice, complimenting this dish perfectly.

Our Darriaud Réserve Côtes du Rhône Villages is a lovely choice, and one of the wines included in our deluxe case of the month. Another Côtes du Rhône is from a man held in very high regard by Robert Parker. Patrick Lesec is one of the greats in Rhône winemaking. His Cuvée Richette is just a taste of what he can do at the higher end.

If you really want to treat yourself, move to Crozes-Hermitage AC and you’re in with the big boys. The Roland Betton Crozes-Hermitage 2005 is magnificent with or without food, but it’s not going to last forever as stocks are slowly dwindling.

With the success of Triona O’Sullivan’s recipes (and we certainly haven’t seen the last of her!), we introduce another Cork foodie - Margaret Smith of Umnumnum.ie

Like Triona, our obsession with Margaret’s food started when we received a few samples after she came in to check out the range in our shop. With years of experience, Margaret runs a cookery school for all ages in Ballincollig, where she has acquired a loyal following.

This recipe is from her own locker, so it’s absolutely original.

Buccatini A l’ Amatriciana (serves 2)

•    1 small onion
•    1 clove of garlic
•    Some pancetta
•    Tin of tomatoes
•    Small jar tomato Passata
•    Teaspoon of Sugar
•    Half teaspoon chilli (chopped finely)
•    Salt and Pepper
•    50g Grated Parmesan
•    Handful of Fresh Basil
•    Handful Fresh Oregano if available

•    Buccatini pasta or substitute with spaghetti or linguine or even tagliatelle.

How to cook it

Chop onion very finely and fry gently with the garlic (which should also be finely chopped). Wait till the onion is soft and translucent then add the pancetta also chopped into small pieces. Wait till the pancetta is a little bit brown and crispy then add the tin of tomatoes and the sugar to bring out the natural flavour of the tomatoes. You can add the Chilli at this stage also.

Season with salt and pepper. Simmer the sauce on a low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes or until you feel the tomatoes are cooked through. Chop the herbs roughly and put into the sauce. Cook for another minute. Add the grated Parmesan at this stage and stir through.

Meanwhile boil some pasta as per instructions on packet – strain and add to your pasta sauce.

The wine match

Over the next week or so, we’ll be introducing a number of new wines to the Curious range. This is the perfect opportunity to show off a new entrant that will match Margaret’s Buccatini A l’ Amatriciana beautifully. Gregorina Sangiovese Superiore, sourced from the province of Forli’ and Cesena, has got the balance of acidity, tannins and fruit to go perfectly hand-in-hand with this delicious Italian themed dish.

Sincere thanks to Margaret Smith - web: www.umnumnum.ie - facebook: UmNumNum - twitter: umnumnum_cork

Shortly after finishing university my girlfriend and I bought two round-the-world airline tickets, with the first stop being Thailand. After a few days we flew north from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, where we attended a one day cookery course at the Thai Farm Cooking School. This is where I picked up one of my most treasured cookery books - a 31 page Thai recipe book with the cookery school’s most popular dishes. Every student gets a free one.

And so that’s where I got a taste for Thai food. My favourite main course is the yellow curry (Kaeng Ka Ri Gai), and for dessert I got a serious taste for mango with sticky rice. One that always goes down well at lunch time, or even for a starter or light meal, is the Somtam papaya salad.

Somtam papaya salad - from the Thai Farm cook book (serves 1-2)

Peel the papaya and rinse under running water before removing the seeds. Shred the flesh with a grater until you have one cup-full. In addition, you’ll need:

1-2 Thai hot chilli
2-3  peeled cloves of garlic
1 tbsp. of lemon juice
2 tsp. of sugar
1/3 cup of chopped long beans (chop about 3 cm long)
1 tomato, cut into 6 pieces
2 tbsp. of peanuts
1 tbsp. of fish sauce or soya sauce
1/4 tsp. of salt

Put the garlic, long beans and chillies into a mortar and crush with a pestle. Then add the lemon juice, sugar, fish sauce, tomato and salt and mix together. Finally add shredded papaya and mix together well with the pestle and a spoon. Enjoy with some lettuce and boiled rice.

The wine match

Thai food is hot. Often *very* hot, but I can certainly think of a rosé that might help put out the fire. Chateau Bauduc’s Bordeaux rosé is still a favourite of Ronan Sayburn, the sommelier of Gordon Ramsay.

For whites wines, I’m heading to Australia. The dry, low-alcohol Woodstock Semillon Sauvignon blend from buddies Scott Collett and Ben Glaetzer, and the citrus loaded Cascabel Riesling from Eden Valley. If there’s any wine that can handle this, it’s them.

David, also known as Curious Davide (from his time living in Italy) is the youngest member of our family and is famed for his ability to sleep 16 hours a day. He is unknowingly filling the slot for this weekend’s recipe, but fear not as he is a bit of a master-chef in his own right. I hope to make him more of a regular for Curious Food if he is still friends with me after seeing this post.

His journey in the world of cookery started during his three years spent at Liverpool University, where after a month of takeaway pizzas and doner kebabs he felt a need to learn the ropes of cookery in the home.

His true speciality in my opinion is Indian curry, although his range of skills and knowledge only grew further with 6 months spent in southern Italy where he quickly picked up the language and a taste for Nero d’Avola, as well as learning the cuisine inside and out, and importantly, the value of fresh local produce.

With all the sleeping, he had plenty of time to dream up chicken in lager. Neither Italian nor Indian, it is nonetheless fantastically warm and comforting. The kind of food that’s easy to cook on mass and you can just let people dive in.

Chicken in Lager (serves 4)

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 large chicken, separated into portions (or 6-8 portions, thighs, drumsticks etc.)
1 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp ground cumin
300ml lager
200ml chicken stock (from a cube is fine)
2 bay leaves
Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce
large handful frozen peas (optional)
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
sea salt & freshly cracked black pepper, to season
plain boiled rice & sour cream (optional), to serve

How to cook it (preferably when you’re awake)

Heat the olive oil over a medium-heat in a large pan. Put in the fennel seeds and stir around for 1 minute. Add the onions and garlic and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato purée and the chicken thighs, continue to cook for another 5 minutes until the chicken starts to brown.  Make sure to add a little extra olive oil if the mixture is too dry. Add the flour and cumin and cook for a further 1 minute, stirring constantly to avoid catching. Pour in the beer and chicken stock along with the bay leaves & a few good shakes (to taste) of worcestershire & tabasco and stir thoroughly.

Bring the pan to a gentle simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through, adding the peas (if using) 5 minutes from the end. If the sauce isn’t of desired consistency, you can set the chicken aside from the pan in a clean bowl and boil the sauce rapidly if it’s too thin, or add a little more lager and/or stock if it’s too thick. Then return the chicken to the pan and make sure it’s heated through. Mix the parsley into the pan and season generously with salt & pepper (remembering to adjust the seasoning accordingly if a stock cube was used).

Serve with plain boiled rice & a big dollop of sour cream per portion if you fancy.

The wine match

If you’re like David or myself, you’ll have cracked into the beer during the cooking, so what should we be drinking with the meal itself? Whatever you want, although having made this myself I would go with a New World Chardonnay. There’s nothing massively prominent. It’s not a hot dish, but it’s got plenty of body and texture that our lightly-oaked Waipara Springs Chardonnay will handle beautifully.

And there’s 20% off until the end of August as part of our New Zealand wine sale (indicated prices discounted at checkout).

Although Curious Mike thinks he makes the world’s best bolognese, I would like to challenge that with the omission of soup in a can and the addition of the stuff you either love or hate. No doubt those lovers of Marmite will side with mine, but even if you don’t spread the veggie extract on your toast every morning, there isn’t enough in this to put anyone off.

What you’ll need for about 4 portions

1½ lbs minced beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ pint chicken stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
6-8 sun-dried tomatoes
1 tbsp Marmite
1 tbsp crème fraiche
Dried mixed herbs
Parmesan cheese
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and lots of black pepper

How it’s done

Pour a little olive oil in a large pot or casserole dish, then add and break-up the mince over a medium heat, stirring as needed. Separately in a wok, over a high heat, add some oil, then the onions, and cook for a minute or two. Then add the mushrooms and the garlic, and cook for 4-5 minutes, no more.

Now add the cooked onions, mushrooms and garlic, along with the chicken stock and the tin of tomatoes. Mix the whole lot up, adding the Marmite and sun-dried tomatoes, and season with the plenty of black pepper, a little salt and a couple of teaspoons of dried herbs.

Bring up to the point where the sauce starts bubbling, add the crème fraiche then simmer over a low heat for 20-25 mins, stirring regularly. Serve up with spaghetti, a good sprinkle of parmesan and garlic bread on the side.

The wine match

Mike matched this with Sangiovese, but since then we’ve had a couple of new additions worth looking at. Naturally, we’ll stick to Italy, but we’ll move from Tuscany to the boot of Italy which has its very own amazing local varieties. Sicily is well known for its Nero d’Avola, and Doricum’s Nero d’Avola is an absolute winner at the price. For a step up, and this is no lie, Dievole’s Pinocchio is the perfect example of an artisan wine built for food.

Our Italian range will have 20% off until the end of August.

Another little favourite of mine, the creamy orange chicken is great for freezing if you want to save some for another day. I tend to make four at a time, freezing two for those days I want something tasty extra fast. Saying that, if you’re cooking from scratch, this won’t take you any longer than one hour.

Creamy Orange Chicken (serves 4)

20 g butter
4 chicken breasts
1 onion chopped
2 tbsp flour
300ml pure orange juice
150ml soured cream
2 tbsp marmalade

Melt butter in a non-stick frying pan and brown chicken on both sides. Set aside in a casserole dish. Fry onion in the same pan until soft and stir in flour. After a minute, slowly blend in orange juice, bringing to the boil and stirring until it has thickened. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and pour over the chicken before covering casserole dish and baking in the oven for 45 minutes at 180 degrees C. Serve with green beans and spuds.

Wines to match

This dish is like a citrus explosion. There’s a real cutting edge ‘zing’ making it the perfect partner to white wines with everything on show that also possess that sharp, almost tart fruit. The Cascabel Riesling is my first choice, bursting with lemon fruit flavours, it will work well with the orange sauce. Alternatively, a no-nonsense Semillon Sauvignon Bordeaux blend, such as Gordon Ramsay’s house white from Gavin Quinney’s Chateau Bauduc, will go down wonderfully.

In my humble opinion of course. If you haven’t yet tried Coq au Vin, you don’t know what your missing (just to clarify, Coq is the French word for rooster). This is quintessential French cuisine at its best and it begs to be partnered with a rustic red Burgundy.

The only way to have it is with the chicken left on the bone, so if you’re not keen to cut a whole chicken to pieces (thighs, legs & all) your butcher should be able to give you what you need already prepared. There are a number of ways to do this, but this way always works well for me.

Coq au Vin (Serves 6)

• olive oil (about 3 tbsp)
• 80 g of butter
• chicken cut into pieces (left on the bone)
• 150 g of shallots
• sprinkle of flour (about 40 g)
• 50 ml cognac
• 500 ml red wine (best stick with French)
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 200 g button mushrooms
• bacon lardons
• bouquet garni
• salt and pepper

Season the chicken pieces. Heat the oil in a large pan and throw in the garlic for 20 seconds or so. Add all of the chicken and half the butter and brown on all sides. Whilst stirring sprinkle in the flour before transferring to a separate dish.

Add the rest of the butter and throw in the shallots, cooking for a few minutes before adding the bacon lardons and button mushrooms. Cook until the bacon is cooked and the mushrooms start to turn a golden brown.

Pour in the cognac allowing some of the alcohol to burn off, then return the chicken to the pan before adding the wine and the bouquet garni.

Simmer for 1-2 hours and serve with mash and green beans. If you really want to indulge, omit the mash for Dauphinoise potatoes. Another one of my favourites.

The wine match

I always find it interesting to match national or regional dishes with national/regional wines. Red Burgundy (pinot noir) ticks all the right boxes for me, but if you prefer the more robust Bordeaux style, or even the lighter Beaujolais, go for it. I had the Woodstock Shiraz-Cabernet with it last time. Hardly local, but I was still revelling in culinary heaven.

Moillard Bourgogne Rouge (Burgundy)

Chateau d’Argadens Rouge (Bordeaux)

Moillard Domaine Fort Michon Brouilly (Beaujolais)

Charles Thomas Beaune-Greves 1er Cru (splash out Burgundy)

Some of you might have a stigma for meatballs. The canned meatballs from the school canteens have scarred many people, but if you have been to an authentic Italian restaurant or have taken your hand to homemade meatballs, you’ll know just how much of a great comfort food this is.

Meatballs (for 4)
1 chopped onion
1 chopped garlic clove
12 ozs minced lamb
1 egg yolk
1 teasp dried mixed herbs
olive oil
salt and pepper

Sauce
1/2 pt passata (or tins of toms)
2 tablesp Chopped fresh basil
1 chopped garlic clove
salt and pepper
12 ozs spaghetti
parmesan to garnish

Mix onion, garlic, lamb, egg yolk, herbs and seasoning together and make into balls. Chill for about 30 mins. Fry for about 10 mins until brown. Add sauce ingredients to pan, bring to boil and cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until tender. Serve with pasta and sprinkle on a little parmesan.

Traditionally, you can’t go wrong with a robust Chianti or a full-bodied Malbec, but my choice from the Curious range is the silky Farina Valpolicella, which is just made for this kind of food.