Food and wine review by James Hill

Marquee chef Kham Signavong was our guest chef of the day for our last mixed lunch of the year.

Kham is known to many members as the chef and owner of Arun Thai restaurants both in Sydney and Hong Kong and the author of two books on cooking Thai food.

Canapés

Betel leaves with smoked trout

Snowy mountains smoked rainbow trout was mixed and marinated with Thai salad and sauce. It was spooned onto betel leaf and then topped with fried shallots.

Spicy prawn salad

The prawns were marinated in the same salad and sauce this time adding some finely chopped lychee to enhance and sweeten the flavour.

All the elements we expect to see in Thai cooking are represented here sweet, salty, and sour, and the fried shallots give a nice crunchy texture to the smoked trout.

The salad was made up of coriander, shallots, lemongrass, mint, finely julienned kaffir lime leaves and red chilli. The sauce had equal quantities of fish sauce and lime juice mixed with palm sugar.

Main course

Kham only arrived back in town from Bangkok the night before our lunch so we had to improvise with some of the ingredients for lunch today.

The main course was a red curry of twice-cooked duck, pork and lychee served with some al dente Jasmine Thai rice.

Kham had sent the recipes and REX Head Chef Rob Doll cooked 2.5kg of pork belly for us. It was cooked with star anis, cinnamon sticks, bay leaf and whole black pepper. The pork was perfectly cooked, moist with crispy crackling on top.

We sourced some ready-cooked, deboned ducks from Tai Wong butcher in Haymarket. Kham made his sauce of coconut milk, red curry paste, fish sauce, long red and green chilli, birds eye chilli and Thai basil. An alchemist at work.

The duck was poached in the red curry sauce and then served in bowls with a generous ladle of sauce over the duck and pork.

The red curry sauce had an amazing depth of flavour and lingered long on the palate. There was heat evident but not enough to overwhelm the integrated flavours of the dish.

The dish went very well with wine matches today.

There was a lot of comment and praise for lunch today highlighting the authentic taste and quality of the food presented.

Thank you, Kham.

Cheese

Cheesemaster James Healey Presented a washed-rind cow's milk cheese from Italy. It was the Mauri Taleggio almost in theme with lunch today, it had a creamy, salty flavour. It was served at the right temperature and came to the table melting on the cheeseboard. Accompanying the cheese was a bowl of dried apricots and fresh walnuts.

The microclimate in the natural caves where these cheeses are matured, high in the Alps, encourages the development of a unique flora on the outer rind. Washed and brushed several times over a month, the cheese develops a thin bloom flecked with blue penicillium moulds.

Beneath the rind, the ivory-chalky texture of the cheese begins to change slowly as it ripens, becoming buttery and soft. The creamy texture, when balanced with the delicious yeasty taste provided by the rind, is one of Italy’s best kept secrets.

Mauri Taleggio is considered one of the finest DOP cheeses made in Italy.

Wines

Canapé  wines

• 2013 Leo Buring Léopold Riesling Tasmania

Made in Germanic/Alsatian style high acidity showing. Some residual sugar complemented the wine, drinking at its best.

• 2014 Tyrrell’s Belford Sémillon Hunter Valley

Showing texture, and a good flavour profile.

Main course wines

• 2015 Tyrrell’s Belford Chardonnay Hunter Valley

Bedecked with a lot of gold showing a lot of barrel ferment characters. Secondary notes came through on the wine but lacked a little structure and mouthfeel. Promised quite a bit on the nose but fell away a little.

• 2012 Freycinet Vineyards Pinot Noir Tasmania

At 10 years of age, quite old for an Australian Pinot Noi, but thought it hung on and got better within the main course. An oaky style. Good mouthfeel.

Cheese wines

• 2008 Bowen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra

Big rich, jammy style of wine, lost Cabernet fruit. Gone more into overdeveloped character. 2008 was a hot year and not enough fruit to show through tannins.

• 2002 Majella Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra

Very interesting vintage in Coonawarra and it was lovely showing red currant and cassis notes and a bit of mint. Massive amount of oak, and a lot of vanilla. Showed to be the better of the two wines.