11th
New Zealand Symposium of Gastronomy Dinner
Saturday
25 November 2017 Local / Riccarton House
Max
Dingle
Riccarton
House, set in magnificent gardens and bordered by the River Avon and
built in three stages, 1856, 1874 and 1910, was the setting for the
11th Symposium dinner. The in-house restaurant is headed by Sam
Marchant who also runs a regular Farmers Market held in the grounds
of Riccarton House, which is the source of fresh produce used in the
restaurant, hence the name Local.
The menu for the evening was inspired by Colonial
Everyday Cookery
(1907), the inspiration ranging from 2 different recipes being
combined in both the soup course and the terrine to the pickled pork
recipe for the main and "Mother's pudding" as dessert.
 |
| Riccarton House foyer |
Symposiasts,
gathering in the oak lined foyer, continued the discussions, debates
and idle chat of the day with a glass of sparkling wine and hor
d'oeuvres, before attending the Drawing Room and a brief history of
the house and its current use. The dinner started with Asparagus,
spring pea & créme fraiche soup with "Two Thumbs"Oatmeal
stout bread.
Spring in a bowl and great bread.
 |
| Rabbit, Pork Hock & Chicken Liver Terrine |
Before
the next course someone took on the role of Symposiarch and decided
that a glass of sparkling with the hor d'oeuvres and a glass of
riesling with the main, was a bit too modest, and taking up Dionysos'
advice*, it was arranged that, rather than be unaccompanied the
Rabbit,
pork hock & chicken liver terrine with pinot poached cherries and
sourdough crostini
be
served with a glass of either Circuit Chardonnay 2016, Black Estate,
North Canterbury or The Bone Line White Label Pinot Noir 2016 Waipara
Valley
*Greek
playwright, Eubulus (c.
375 BC ),
had
the god of wine, Dionysos,
describe proper and improper drinking:
For
sensible men I prepare only three kraters: one for health (which they
drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for
sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.
Dionysos
continues: The
fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the
fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the
seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the
ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and
unconsciousness.
 |
| Pickled Pork Cutlet |
So
to the Pickled
pork cutlet, piquant cream sauce, pease pudding & baby carrots
and
our third glass, either Stoke
IPA beer
or Crater
Rim Riesling,
though, through not paying attention during the pour and then
forgetting to ask, I am unsure as to whether it was Crater Rim's
Waipara Valley or its Canterbury Riesling, various sources have
described both as "in the German style", either way a
number of people remarked on the initial sweetness on the palette and
the dryish finish.
While
this dinner could be thought of as a festive celebration, during
which, historically, the focus tends to be on meats of various sorts,
I personally find the practice of a lot of our restaurants, in
Australia and it seems New Zealand, serving large portions of meat
and virtually no vegetable, is a bit odd, given the emphasis today on
healthy eating and environmental issues. In the case of our meal
here, considering the ingredients are all sourced at a Farmers market
featuring stall after colourful stall of freshest vegetables, to be
served a large slice of terrine with two poached cherries followed by
an extremely large pork chop with one baby carrot, one snow pea and
one small spinach leaf, seemed to show contempt for fruit and
vegetables as anything other than decoration, even with the shared
side of Mignonette lettuce leaves.
With
our third glass of wine drained, some of our Symposiasts, feeling the
strain of a long day, a large and excellent Persian themed lunch and
no doubt Dionysos's
advice, started a slow but steady movement to home. So the
Mothers
pudding, vanilla mascarpone, strawberry & port wine jelly,
raspberry crumbs
did not have a full compliment of diners and the Tea,
Coffee with Almond Biscuits, Shortbread with passionfruit icing
were passed by nearly all.
 |
| Mother's Pudding |
A
memorable meal even though the execution of the various "
Everyday Cookery" inspired courses was not always totally
successful. In particular with the main, I felt that a strong caper
flavour, presumably the "piquant cream sauce", overwhelmed
other strands within the composition but I may be entertaining an old
prejudice acquired in the 90's, when, for a brief moment, every
restaurant plate seemed to feature a few caper berries.
The
central component of the dessert, "Mothers pudding" seemed
to misplace an "s" from dessert and was a bit arid; it was
not saved by the oasis of vanilla mascarpone. I was later told, at
2nd hand, that the original recipe for "Mother's pudding"
consisted of a scant list of ingredients and as we all know, turning
a word of mouth recipe to the written can involve some "translation"
errors especially in the process of re-converting to an end product.
Generating the thought that the recipes were possibly given their
only outing for this particular evening.
The
owner / chef Sam Marchant, dressed in 'civvies', did make an
appearance toward the end of the evening and gave a gracious short
talk and in the process explained that because of prior commitments,
another chef was in the kitchen.
The
evening was enjoyed by all, as is usually the case when sharing with
friends and collegues.
