Meaty secret from Spain: Secreto de Iberico with pineapple salsa and Villa Maria Cellar Selection Riesling

Whoah. WHOAH. Have I got a secret for you. With an "o". Yep, secret-o. Secreto de Iberico, to be precise. Sounds immediately so enticing, right? That's Spanish for you. You'll get away with just  about anything in it. Just imagine whispering "tengo la sífilis y voy a morir mañana" - the listener would just melt. That is, if they didn't understand Spanish and know you've just told them you have syphilis that will kill you tomorrow, of course. But hey, I can promise this is probably just about the most succulent piece of meat you'll come across. 

Secreto comes from somewhere around the shoulder region, lurking under the belly fat. Juicy and tender beyond belief. It's heavy on the muscular fat (visible on the surface of the slab of meat, creamy and white) which keeps the meat moist, yet giving it a glorious crust.

In case you don't have a bunch of Iberico piggies roaming at the back of your hacienda, source yours frozen or at a good butcher.

Prepping this baby takes no special skills. Heavy on the salt and pepper, off to the hot BBQ or a griddle pan it goes for about 3 minutes per side, followed by a couple of minutes rest. It's next to impossible to mess it up.

In Spain the traditional way to serve it is to cut it into strips and drizzle with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Another equally delish way would be to serve it with romesco (or romesco mayo!). Ooh, and with some roasties!

This time I served mine with pineapple salsa, which, too, comes together in mere minutes. No need to wrap up the BBQ season just yet!

Serves 2

Grilled Iberico's secreto with pineapple salsa

1 slab (about 370 g) Iberico pork's secreto

salt, pepper

Pineapple salsa:

1 small red onion, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

1 tlsp fresh ginger, finely chopped

the juice of 1,5 lime

1/2 pineapple (or 2 cans of pineapple slices in its own juice)

1/2 green pepper

1 - 1,5 jalapeño (depending on your taste), finely chopped

1 tomato

1/2 bunch of coriander

1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

pinch of white pepper

Take the meat into room temperature about half an hour prior to grilling. In the meanwhle make the salsa. 

Combine garlic, red onion, ginger and lime juice in a bowl and leave to marianate (this helps soften the onion). Then prep rest of the ingredients.

Cut pinapple, pepper and tomato into 1 cm cubes. Combine with jalapeño and chopped coriander leaves. Combine with the onion mixture. Check the taste and season. 

Wipe the meat dry and season generously. Grill over hot grill (or griddle pan) for 3 minutes per side and leave to rest for a couple of minutes before serving.

Cut to strips, drizzle with remaining lime juice and serve with pineapple salsa.

Spicy, sweet notes? Richness of the pork? You guessed it - the wine pairing is Riesling. What you might have not guessed it is the fact that this time it comes from New World.

Another wine I've introduced from the same producer is Private Bin Organic Sauvignon Blanc I paired with the Asian-inspired sesame encrusted tuna salad. 

Villa Maria Cellar Selection Riesling is a dry wine with fruitiness so typical for Riesling without excessive sweetness, however. It has floral notes and, after breathing a bit, also hints of petroliness. Dry as an aperitif or with Asian inspired dishes with fish, seafood and white meat.

The recipe has acidic, spicy, fruity and rich elements, so you might also try it with Whole Bunch Grenache Blanc Viognier from Bellingham The Bernard Series that went so well with this chicken and pineapple pasta salad or even Biohof Pratsch Grüner Veltliner, that I paired with this chicken and avocado salad.

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Fruity chicken and pineapple pasta salad

Finland is currently trying to get over May Day mayhem. The 1st of May (which this year fell for Friday) is a national holiday. It started as the celebration of the workers and was later adopted by the students as well. It turns the country into one massive picnic and Kaivopuisto park for instance annually hosts a good 30 000 picnic-goers! The weather, obviously, is never quire ideal for kicking off the picnic season... but that never seems to stop us!

Instead of a potato salad (a Finnish May Day picnic staple) I made this wonderfully sunny and comfortingly creamy chicken salad which gets lovely fruitiness from mango and curry dressing and pineapple chunks.

Another salad that is already shaping up to be a picnic classic was this spicy chickpea salad, which was an immediate hit the first time I made it. 

Because of it's impossible-to-ruin-juiciness, I prefer chicken cooked on the bone, but using breast fillets is obviously quicker. For easiest and quickest option use shop-bought rotisserie chicken. You'll get the amount of meat required for this recipe from either two good sized breasts or out of 3 thigh leg quarters.

For gluten-free version, use gluten-free pasta. For kosher (or dairy-free) diets, substitute Greek yogurt with coconut cream (the thick part on top of the tin of coconut milk)

Serves 4 or, as part of a buffet, 8

Fruity chicken and pineapple pasta salad:

350 g cooked chicken
200 g fusilli pasta 
200 g pineapple

Mango and curry dressing:

100 g mayo
200 g Greek yogurt or crème fraîche
1 small baby food jar (125 g) of mango puré
1 generous tsp curry powder
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp mustard (not Dijon, something sweeter)
1 bunch of chives, finely chopped
salt, white pepper

Cook pasta and drain. Combine with chicken and pineapple, both cut into similar sized chunks. 

Combine the ingredients for the dressing and fold into the salad. 

Serve. Either warm, at room temperature or cold.

Our wine pairing for this was something we'd probably never tried before: A South African white that wasn't Chenin Blanc!

Bellingham The Bernard Series Whole Bunch Grenache Blanc Viognier is a blend of white version of soft-on-the-palate and full of berry-notes Grenache, popular in Spain (where it's called Garnacha) and Viognier.

You can smell the 6 months of French oak barrels in the bouquet, which has even cinnamon-like warm spiciness and promises of a dry wine. The taste is (surprisingly) fresh and balanced mix of mineral acidity and variety of fruity tones. The oakiness and acidity both balance the creaminess of the pasta salad while the fruity elements compliment the sweetness of mango and fruitiness of the pineapple.

The Bernard series is a tribute to the crazy creative spirit of the winery's founder, Bernard Podlashuk and comprises of interesting, more complex wines. Definitely worth a try!

And of course we had some fizz, too. Though this year we skipped Champagne and donated the money to Nepal Earthquake Relief Fund.

Instead we went for Jaume Serra; excellent value for money. It has a special place in our hearts already because it was the bubbly we celebrated our first kiss with ♥

This cava is made with the traditional Champagne method with 12 months fermentation in the bottle. It's made using the three grapes most commonly used for cava in Catalonia, where majority of the cavas are made: Xarel.lo, Parellada and Macabeo.

It's got body, balanced acidity, charming toastiness and bright citrus notes that make this an easy bubbly to combine with food, too.  Try with seafood and salads with fish.

Tomorrow we'll continue our tour of Latvia, so meet you back here in the morning, ok?

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Sunny jam from mango, pineapple, lime and star anise

My duties back when I was working in Betlehem weren't terribly pleasant. Betlehem itself didn't make much of an impression on me either. But the mangos the vendors around Checkpoint 300 sold were nothing short of phenomenal. So juicy; so unbelievably sweet! Even their Indian counterparts had nothing on them and in India they take that fruit so seriously I once actually visited a mango exhibition. Here's a tip that will help one of us save the air fare: they all look the same. 

Since then I haven't come across mangos that would come anywhere close. So, when the craving hits, the frozen cubes are often the best bet. Those were what I used this time as well and came up with this tropical jam. With pineapple. And lime. Star anise gives the jam wonderful, liquorice-like pepperiness and continuing cooking after pureing it gives it lovely toastiness which, together with lime and star anise, makes sure the final product isn't as sickly sweet as you might fear. Carrots would work in this too, though you'd have to steam them before you get cracking with jamming. Instead of star anise you could also use vanilla or ginger - or both! Feel free to get your own creative juices flowing too!

In case you're a jam-making novice, this is a great time to learn the trade - packed in beautiful jars with hand-made labels these make pretty and unique foodie gifts! That on the other hand is a great way to recycle those glass jars that any sun dried tomato-, piquillo pepper-, exotic honey- loving, deli-scouring foodie is bound to have no shortage of. For everything you need to know about jam-making, please see here.

This makes about 8-9 dl of jam

900 g mango cubes (the fruit from about 3 large mangos)

600 g pineapple (that's the content of about 1 large fruit)

750 g jamming sugar

the juice and zest of 1 lime

5 star anise

Measure the ingredients in a pan. Bring to boil and let simmer under a lid for a bout 15 minutes. Remove star anises and blend (in batches if needed) carefully as this is hot. Then pour back into the pan and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes. Keep stirring as you probably have better things to do with your time than scrape burnt bits off the bottom of your pan... Pour into clean jars while still hot, close and let the jars cool in the room temperature before storing them in cold.

And in case you find jams are right up your alley, you might want to try insanely easy and wonderfully toffee-like oven-baked apple jam with ginger and vanilla. If you're into cheeses, vanilla and rosemary infused damson jam just might be for you!


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