Stuffed Courgettes

This is such a simple recipe but so full of flavour it makes a meal in itself.

2 courgettes - cut in half length wise and the seeds scooped out

4 sun dried tomatoes

12 pitted black olives

1/4 red onion

Feta (about 50 g or more if you like it)

Chop everything except the courgettes into small pieces and mix together in a bowl with one tiny bulb of crushed garlic.

Put the courgettes in a baking dish and drizzle with a small amount of virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt (fleur de sel is best)

Fill each courgette half with as much of the chopped mixture as you can and top with parmesan cheese.

Put in the preheated oven at 180° for about 20 minutes or until the courgettes are soft.

I added small cherry tomatoes in the baking dish and some fennel.

This went extremely well with Les Perles de Jones Carignan Gris 2016.

Bon appétit!!

New Year Resolutions 2018

This is the week that most people give up their New Year Resolutions so I thought it would be a good time to actually make mine.

I only have one.

I have been in a complete quandary for the last couple of months trying to decide which diet to follow to feel healthier and to shed a few kilos.  All this time it has been staring me in the face - the Mediterranean diet.  As I live more or less on the Mediterranean I don't know why I haven't thought about this before.  I have tried other styles of cooking where it has been almost impossible to source the ingredients but surely I have everything I need for the Mediterranean diet on my doorstep?  I only need to step out of my front door to find wild rosemary and thyme growing in profusion.

And you can drink wine (in moderation).  As my wines are definitely from traditional grape varieties of the Mediterranean they will fit in perfectly with my good intention.

So far we have had fresh mackerel off the bbq with Les Perles de Jones Carignan Gris 2016 and Domaine Jones Grenache 2014 with stuffed peppers.  Both pretty delicious combinations.  I did try to capture the moment on photo but food photography is definitely not my forté.

So in 2018 I will be waving au revoir to desserts, butter and red meats and saying bonjour to fruit, olive oil and fish.  Doesn't sound too bad to me!

Bon appétit !!!

Harvest Diary 2016 - The extremely rare Carignan Gris

We have a very small vineyard of 60 year old Carignan Gris at Domaine Jones and I always look forward to harvesting it.  The Carignan gris is a bit temperamental and takes its time to ripen so this is always the last white grape to be picked. Well it's not officially white but gris.

Carignan blanc on the left, Carignan Gris on the right -multi coloured vine!

Its late ripening is probably why Carignan Gris isn't so popular down here and most has been ripped up.

Wikipedia and Wine Searcher both say that there is less than 1 hectare planted in Languedoc Roussillon so if that is really the case I must be one of the world's largest producers with a total production of 800 bottles per year.

AND I LOVE IT!!

Here I am checking to see if the grapes are ripe the evening before harvest.

They tasted delicious so we picked and then pressed and out third vintage of the rare Carignan Gris 2016 is bubbling away happily in a tiny 500 litre vat.