Nathan - and us inside the Hunter Resort winery, laboratory in background
Nice hats - but without one we could not enter the cellar floor - OH&S is in place
Mike Wilson - Production manager at Adina
The crusher at Adina Olives
Lunch consisted of five dishes and accompanying wines which feature as a special tasting menu of the "Blutongue Cafe" at Hunter Resort. The dishes were excellent!
Through the inner workings of Crowne Plaza led by Natalie Mcdonald
This is more like it - we could get used to this -
The foyer of Hunter Valley Crowne Plaza
Once again Cessnock TAFE Certificate 2 students set off on their Pokolbin excursion to provide some ideas of the potential available in the HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY in the HUNTER VALLEY.
Our thanks to our Teacher Chef, bus driver and now tour guide Tony Budden who organised the excursion to various establishments in the Hunter Valley. The tour was to show us “budding chefs” what was available to enhance our career , our dreams and aspirations to join this exciting industry.
For those students who desire to achieve what their roll models have done in reaching “Super Star” status such as Jamie Oliver and our own Luke Manion, a trip such as this opens up ideas in the minds of the young crop of students.
The TAFE and its teaching staff try to engender the basics of cooking and presenting dishes which are appetizing, pleasing to the eye and enjoyable to the customer. The student is encouraged to add artistic design and taste to the dish.
Our first stop was the information heart of the tourist industry. The Tourist Information Centre.
Peta Jackson the manager was a font of knowledge. She did explain that the tourist numbers were climbing and the benefit to the Hunter in dollar terms was a sign that prosperity will continue to grow to the benefit of the local population.
The Crowne Plaza, Hunter Valley was next as it is close to the Tourist Information Centre.
A magnificent complex of a 150 hotel rooms, 72 villas and more on the way, 18 hole golf course, swimming pool, gym, conference centre that can be increased or decreased in size depending on the quantity of guests attending.
Our guide Natalie McDonald, personnel manager at this resort was enthusiastic in taking us to the new Restaurant the “Star Anise” catering to clients partial to an Asian cuisine She did explain that the chain had a rigorous training programme for all their staff . I personally would love to sample some of their dishes.
All to soon we had to bid farewell to our host Natalie and dash off to our next appointment the “Hunter Resort”
At the Hunter Resort, the home of the “Bluetongue Brewery” and winery. Nathan our guide, took us on a tour of the vineyard , where it was obvious that they needed rain, Nathan described that dry weather usually brought on a better tasting but a smaller production of wine. The vineyard produces about 5% of the Hunter wines the types mentioned were Semillon, Chardonnay and Shiraz as their main wines.
Nathan also mentioned that the old type of cork used to cause about an 8% evaporation loss in the wines. Since the introduction of the metal screw cap (Stelvin) this has prevented the loss. We were taken through the wine production process and informed about the various woods used in making the wine kegs.
Nathan then handed us over to Tanya, a la'carte chef who gave us a tour and a variety of pasta making and rolling. This was then used for part of our lunch tasting plate . We were also introduced introduced to Kristen Hodge, Melissa and Jess who looked after us for lunch, where we were given a taste of the home wines to complement each tasty dish. The writer felt sorry for our teacher Chef Tony Budden, as he was the driver of the tour bus, he had to be satisfied with a sniff of the lovely wines that we sampled. Sorry Tony, next time we must hire a driver so that the tasting is open to our leader. After a delicious lunch we set off to the “Binnorie Dairy” .
As Simon Gough the cheese maker was called away, Pam Gully, put us through a taste test of the various types of cheese that the company produces.As the writer likes strong tasting cheese a second, no third taste of the “Labna” was welcome and purchases were made by a few of the students.
Once again we were on our way to the “Adina Vinyard” An olive farm and mill.
Mike Wilson the Production Manager instructed us on the fledgling olive industry in the Hunter. This industry commenced in 1993 with 110 growers. It battled to survive, as growers did not consider the extraction process in its infancy. Adina now has 30 growers and production is 2 tons per day during harvest.
He mentioned that Merriwa produces some 2 tons per hour. We were intrigued to be informed that production of olive oil at the factory they use a washing machine to extract the oil from the pulp, on the spin-dry cycle. The oil production is usually sold on a price basis; the company does not sell to large chain stores. The chain stores usually buy overseas olive oil as they want the lowest price oil in their stores. Adina sells their premium product to delicatessens and speciality stores.
Sadly our tour was coming to an end. Bidding good-bye to our host we boarded our bus and returned to Cessnock.
From Tony Budden: my thanks to Adrian Tatum who has kindly written this report
As the writer is partial to Indian cuisine here is a favourite recipe of his.
Recipe
Roghan Josh (a previous winner of the Melbourne Cup)
Serves 4-6 Kashmiri lamb curry.
750gr. Lean Lamb
3 dried chillies seeded
¼ cup of hot water
3 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut toasted
2 tablespoons blanched almonds
1-tablespoon ground coriander
1-teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon poppy seed
½ teaspoon ground fennel
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground cloves1/4 teaspoon ground mace
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon saffron strands or 2-teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons boiling water4
4 tablespoons ghee or oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
4 cardamom pods bruised
½ cup yoghurt
3 ripe tomatoes peeled and chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1-teaspoon gram masala
2 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
Cut the lamb into large cubes. Soak chillies in hot water for five minutes.Toast garlic,ginger,coconut .put almonds and chillies with 2 tablespoons into an electric blender.Toast ground coriander,cumin,poppy seed and fennel seed until spices give a aromatic smell, add to the ingredients in blender.Blend for a few minutes until smooth.Remove from blender container and add the ground cardamom, cloves mace and pepper.Pound saffron and dissolve in boiling water and add to spices. Set aside. Heat ghee or oil in a large heavy saucepan; fry the chopped onion until golden brown. Add bruised cardamoms tumeric and blended spice mixture and fry, stirring until well cooked and ghee starts to separate from the spices. Add yoghurt a spoonful at a time and stir it in.Add tomatoes and salt, stir and fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the cubed lamb and cook over high heat,stirring and turning meat so that each piece is coated with spices. Turn heat very low cover and cook for 1 hour till lamb is tender and liquid almost absorbed. Stir occasionally to insure spices don’t stick to the pan. Sprinkle in the Garam Masala and cook for 5 minutes longer.
Sprinkle with coriander leaves. Serve with boiled rice or pilau rice