Tyrrell's Vat 1 2009

So for Christmas at our place, everyone has to bring a dish and this year I was booked in for the first course of the day.  What to cook? Well I love Seafood and Thai style cooking so I put this little number forward.  The dish itself doesn't take too long but the prep work takes a while.  The good thing is that the sweet chilli and ginger sauce you can keep in the fridge for another dish.

Sweet Chilli and Ginger Sauce.

5 Red Chillies finely chopped
2 Garlic cloves
4 Coriander roots washed and scraped


pound together all the above ingredients in a motor and pestle until a paste is formed.

4 tblspns finely grated ginger
1 Cup coconut vinegar
1 Cup caster sugar
2 tblspns fish sauce

heat paste in pan and add in ginger, vinegar, sugar and bring to boil.  Turn heat down and simmer for 4 min and then add fish sauce.  The sauce should start to thicken up and then pour into glass jar and refrigerate.

Ruby Grapefruit and Mint Salad

2 Ruby Grapefruit's sliced into segments
1 red chilli
1 handful mint shredded
1 handful of coriander leaves
2 tsp palm sugar
2 tsp fish sauce
juice from 1 lime

Mix palm sugar and fish sauce into paste and then add lime juice. Mix chilli, mint and coriander together and then mix in with other ingredients except ruby grapefruit. Lay ruby grapefruit and mixture on plate.

Deep Fried Coconut Prawn with Pork Stuffing

21 U8 uncooked prawns, peeled, deveined and slit down the back.

2 Garlic cloves
3 tblspns coriander root washed and chopped
10 White pepper corns
1 tsp palm sugar
2 tsp fish sauce
200 g good quality pork mince

Batter

1 Cup rice flour
1/2 cup cold water
pinch of salt

3 Cups shredded coconut

Pound the garlic, roots and pepper corns in a mortar and pestle to make a paste. Blend in palm sugar and fish sauce and mix with pork. Line prawn opening with pork mixture.
Mix batter together and heat a wok with 2 L canola oil to 180 c.  The oil has to be very hot! Dip prawn in batter and then in coconut and then place in oil. Be very careful as oil may spit!

Once the coconut is golden take prawns out of oil and place on paper.  Serve the prawns hot with a rudy grapefruit salad and some sweet chilli and ginger sauce.

This is the prawns minus the salad as I ate this again the next day as I catered for too many people. 

So I decided to pair this meal with a semillon and it worked perfectly. Give it a go at home or do it for a party.

Tyrrell's Vat 1 2009

This worked perfectly with the dish! Actually they are better as a team than as an individualcomponant.  The length and breadth of this wine is brilliant. As a young wine it feels complete which makes it ok to drink now.  Well the acidity might not be too friendly but it is counter balanced by the flavours of the prawn. At the moment the main stay of the flavours are in the lemon/lime end of the spectrum and this should drink perfectly as a teenager.

Alcohol: 11%
Price: $35
Rated: 94++
Drink: 2020 - 2034