Irish delicacies

Monica Hennessy, the wife of the Irish Ambassador Jim Hennessy, last week donned her pinny and spatula and appeared on TV cooking programme Aroma Kitchen to help promote St Patrick’s Day.

She gave viewers a lot of information on many of Ireland’s culinary delicacies that are available locally such as Irish butter, the best Irish beef, Irish smoked salmon, mature Irish cheddar and, last but not least, the country’s world famous stout, Guinness.

Ms Hennessy then assisted host Manuel Xuereb in cooking an Irish rump beef and Guinness stew with carrots, shallots and fresh herbs with creamy buttered mashed potatoes served with traditional Irish soda bread.

Ms Hennessy, Mr Xuereb and myself then tasted the dish and paired it with a compatible Maltese wine.

We tasted two full-bodied barrel-matured red wines, a Gran Cavalier Syrah and a Gran Cavalier Merlot.

Both were from Delicata’s 2010 vintage, were DOK Malta classified and had spent 10 to12 months maturing in 225-litre French oak barrels in the company’s wine cellars.

The Gran Cavalier Merlot went perfectly with the succulent beef and fully-flavoured stout dish and was the preferred option.

The Syrah was a little bit too strong, somewhat overpowering the ingredients of this particular dish.

The ambassador’s wife also helped prepare a frittata with Irish smoked salmon.

She tasted two oak-aged white wines chosen to accompany it − a 2011 vintage Victoria Heights DOK Chardonnay from Gozo and a more mature barrel fermented 2010 Gran Cavalier Chardonnay DOK Malta.

The lighter of the two wines, Victoria Heights, was preferred as an accompaniment to the food, as once again the oakier second wine was a little bit too strong for this delicate-flavoured dish.

Towards the end of the programme, Ms Hennessy received a wooden presentation box containing a three-litre double magnum, limited edition, 2010 vintage Gran Cavalier barrel-matured Merlot with the compliments of Delicata.