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Nicoise tuna dip. Photo / Nick Tresidder Photography
We were tasting wine in a little co-operative in the northwest of France, late one Friday afternoon. It was getting on to closing time and I could see the sommelier was less than impressed with having to deal with three ill-kempt foreigners (we were dressed for a day of car travel in shorts, T-shirts and sandals), when a wild-looking man blustered through the door. Small in stature, he managed to fill the room with his presence. Wearing a worker-style shirt and shorts, his skin worn to deep mahogany by the sun and with a mane of windswept hair, he could have been taken for a traveller.
He walked over to greet us, offering the widest of smiles. There were bonjours and handshakes all around. On discovering that we were from New Zealand, he did a little haka, his face beaming with joy. "Ahhh, les All Blacks, quelle merveille!" (What a marvel.) He patted us all on the back and then disappeared into the back room with the proprietor. "A bientot, Angel," said the sommelier reverentially. Obviously this man was someone special. Within minutes, two opened jeroboams, each bearing nothing more than a date –one 1993, the other 1995, marked on the bottle with a crayon, appeared for us to taste. Our sommelier gasped, his eyebrows disappearing behind this hairline. He looked like he had just won the lottery. These, he told us were Puligny-Montrachet grand cru wines, the creme de la creme of white burgundy.
If you think red wines can be expensive, try white burgundy. A single bottle of the world's best white burgundy will set you back the mind-boggling sum of 26,000 euros. I very much doubt that these were wines of that astronomical price ranking, but they were astonishing good. And, even more amazingly, here we were, not a rugby player among us, drinking them, purely on the coat-tails of our national rugby team. Such is the cachet of the All Blacks. Quelle chance!
The French are crazy for rugby, they treat it like religion. Rugby is seen as the sport of the people and the bon vivant. Whenever there's a rugby match, there's always a party. Whether New Zealand wins or loses the match against Argentina tonight, we can take a cue from the French and get together to celebrate with food and wine and lashings of bonhomie.
When you need a speedy snack for guests, make use of a can of good-quality tuna. This mixture is also delicious tossed through cooked potatoes or through pasta. You can also make it very successfully with canned sardines instead of tuna
Ready in 10 minutes Makes about 1¼ cups
185g can tuna, drained, or 2 cans sardines, drained ¼ cup cream or sour cream 3 Tbsp finely chopped gherkins 1 tsp capers, chopped 1 tsp thyme leaves ½ tsp grainy mustard ¼ tsp salt & grinds of pepper Rind of ½ lemon, finely zested
Blitz or puree all ingredients together until smooth.
Serve as a dip for fresh vegetables or on crostini or toast.
Dip will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Baking these tasty meatballs in the oven eliminates a lot of mess and keeps them nice and light. Bulk them out by serving with noodles if you like or just serve in a bowl with dipping sauce to the side.
Ready in 25 minutes Serves 6-8, makes about 40
1 spring onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely minced 5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated Rind of 1 lime or lemon, finely zested ¼ cup fresh coriander, chopped 2 Tbsp fish sauce ½ tsp salt 1kg fresh lean pork or beef mince 1 egg white 1 large green apple, peeled and grated ¼ cup Thai sweet chilli sauce, plus extra for serving Preheat oven to 220C. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon (or pulse in a food processor until just combined, taking care not to overmix).
Cook a little of the mixture in a pan or microwave and adjust seasonings to taste.
Use wet hands to form mixture into walnut-sized balls. Place on a lined shallow baking tray and cook until lightly browned and cooked through, 10-12 minutes.
Serve with pan juices mixed with reserved chilli sauce or on a bed of noodles with juices and reserved chilli sauce.
The apple in these sausage rolls keeps them nice and light, you could also use a grated pear.
Ready in 45 mins Makes 6 big rolls or 12-18 small rolls
250g lean lamb or beef mince 400g coarse sausages, e.g. pork and fennel, skins removed 1 small apple or pear, unpeeled, coarsely grated 1 egg, white and yolk separated 1 small onion, coarsely grated 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 Tbsp Moroccan spice mix 1 tsp fennel seeds, finely chopped ½ tsp chilli flakes ¼ cup finely chopped coriander 1 tsp salt Ground black pepper, to taste 1 Tbsp water 2 sheets of flaky pastry
Preheat oven to 200C and line an oven tray with baking paper.
Place the mince and sausage meat in a large bowl with the grated apple or pear, egg white, onion, garlic, spice mix, fennel seeds, chilli flakes, coriander, salt and pepper. Mix with a large spoon or wet hands until evenly incorporated.
Place the two pastry sheets on a work surface. Place half the meat mixture on each pastry sheet, forming a mound the length of the pastry about 6cm in from one edge. Roll up the pastry to fully enclose the filling. Cut each roll into 3 slices (or up to 6 if you want small sausage rolls), and place on the lined baking tray, seam side down.
Use a sharp knife to slash 2 or 3 lines across the top of each sausage roll to allow the steam to escape. Make a glaze by mixing the egg yolk with the water. Brush over the pastry.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Check in the last 10 minutes of cooking and if any liquids have come out of the rolls, soak them up with a paper towel so the pastry stays crisp.
Te Mata Elston Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2020 ($38) Pair the piquancy (love that word) of the tuna, capers and gherkins with a chardonnay that cuddles and soothes them with rich, creamy tropical tones, freshens them with elegant citrus layers and compliments them with caramelised, toasty oak before leaving the longest, loveliest impression possible. That's what the Elston 2020 does. That year was a dream vintage for this aristocrat among chardonnays. Elegant and generous, like that lovely, rich and single aunt who sends you $50 every birthday and started giving you sage investment advice from the moment you turned 17. finewinedelivery.co.nz
Liberty Brewing Firestarter WCIPA 440ml 7% ($11.50) Firestarter is classic Liberty and it fangs with these meatballs. It's like one of those scenes from Mad Max Fury Road where an army of mutant warriors are racing across the desert in a dusty convoy of high-speed punk-trucks, but those scary battlevans are actually hops and the desert is your tongue. It's a West Coast IPA boosted with Cryopop hop hybrids, alongside Citra and Mosaic hops that will send you sideways into a moshpit of flavour. Its herbaceousness heaves with the aromatic lift of the fresh ginger, the sweet chilli and all that excellent coriander. libertybrewing.co.nz
The Hunting Lodge Seasonal Collection Marlborough Albarino 2021 ($26) A crisp, crunchy white wine will catapult these sausage rolls skyward, so I suggest launching into this energetic albarino immediately. Clean and roaring with apple, lemon, nashi and white peach punchiness, here's a beautifully balanced, refreshingly generous style that has "pastry-clad spiced meat" written all over it. It also screams precision, unlike the digital clock I bought from a garage sale that has no alarm and is telling me the time is 9.77pm. Anyhoo, this albarino offers all the accuracy you need, especially when biting into these rather spesh sausage rolls. thehuntinglodge.com