Accommodation
Barossa's Table: Sausage Making Workshop and The Long Lunch at Moorooroo Park
8/02/2011 09:59:00 PM
And we finally come to the last post on my fabulous week in the Barossa! This post is about the super-fun sausage making workshop and indulgent long lunch we enjoyed at Moorooroo Park on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.
How gorgeous is this table! Entering the gardens of Moorooroo Park felt like walking into the pages of a glossy food magazine! This idyllic setting is where we enjoyed the famous Moorooroo Park long lunch.
Jacobs Creek Retreat at Moorooroo Park
Nitschke Road, Off Krondorf Road
Tanunda, Barossa Valley SA
Website
The Jacobs Creek Retreat (as distinct from the Jacobs Creek winery!) in Moorooroo Park is an absolutely stunning spot - just seven suites dotted through their beautiful French-inspired gardens. Such luxury! Of course, there's a cellar door too.
We were here for their long lunch, but there was work to be done before we could eat. As you can see in the title of this post, there was also a sausage making workshop! We were hosted by Wyndam House: owner, chef and winemaker.
How gorgeous is this table! Entering the gardens of Moorooroo Park felt like walking into the pages of a glossy food magazine! This idyllic setting is where we enjoyed the famous Moorooroo Park long lunch.
Jacobs Creek Retreat at Moorooroo Park
Nitschke Road, Off Krondorf Road
Tanunda, Barossa Valley SA
Website
The Jacobs Creek Retreat (as distinct from the Jacobs Creek winery!) in Moorooroo Park is an absolutely stunning spot - just seven suites dotted through their beautiful French-inspired gardens. Such luxury! Of course, there's a cellar door too.
We were here for their long lunch, but there was work to be done before we could eat. As you can see in the title of this post, there was also a sausage making workshop! We were hosted by Wyndam House: owner, chef and winemaker.
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| Wyndam House: chef, owner and winemaker at Moorooroo Park |
A glass of sparkling shiraz to kick the day off! (I'm pretty sure it was midday by this stage... or pretty close anyway... eep!)
But there wasn't much time to sit back, as I was put to work too! Wyndam and I were each making sausages: Wyndam made Moorooroo Park's house breakfast sausages, while I was meant to create my own version using whatever different ingredients took my fancy. Jaci from Tourism Barossa diligently wrote down all the ingredients and quantities I used, just in case I came up with a masterpiece, hehe!
On our work table were various herbs, spices and condiments, as well as a very swish Fabio Leonardi sausage maker from Bologna. Wyndam obviously loved the machine - he looked at it with the same loving eyes I reserve for my KitchenAid mixer.
The condiments included pepper, salt, tomato paste, chilli flakes, mustards, sauteed onions and leeks and red wine.
There were fresh herbs too!
Here I am, mixing the meat and flavourings for my batch of sausages. The meat was coarsely ground pork: 80% shoulder and 20% belly.
Before putting the meat into their sausagey casings, we did a bit of a fry-off to compare our sausages (minds out of the gutter, kids!)
So guess what - my sausages were actually super tasty! A combo of beginner's luck and using all the ingredients I like, I guess! I'm glad Jaci was writing the recipe down! I'll definitely be making these again at home - but without a sausage-making machine I'll be making them in cevapcici or Frikadellen form. (And just quietly... with some soaked bread rolls added for that bouncy sausagey texture I love).
And here we are forming the sausages, using a natural casing.
First up, we got to taste the sausages I'd made.
But there wasn't much time to sit back, as I was put to work too! Wyndam and I were each making sausages: Wyndam made Moorooroo Park's house breakfast sausages, while I was meant to create my own version using whatever different ingredients took my fancy. Jaci from Tourism Barossa diligently wrote down all the ingredients and quantities I used, just in case I came up with a masterpiece, hehe!
On our work table were various herbs, spices and condiments, as well as a very swish Fabio Leonardi sausage maker from Bologna. Wyndam obviously loved the machine - he looked at it with the same loving eyes I reserve for my KitchenAid mixer.
The condiments included pepper, salt, tomato paste, chilli flakes, mustards, sauteed onions and leeks and red wine.
There were fresh herbs too!
Here I am, mixing the meat and flavourings for my batch of sausages. The meat was coarsely ground pork: 80% shoulder and 20% belly.
Before putting the meat into their sausagey casings, we did a bit of a fry-off to compare our sausages (minds out of the gutter, kids!)
So guess what - my sausages were actually super tasty! A combo of beginner's luck and using all the ingredients I like, I guess! I'm glad Jaci was writing the recipe down! I'll definitely be making these again at home - but without a sausage-making machine I'll be making them in cevapcici or Frikadellen form. (And just quietly... with some soaked bread rolls added for that bouncy sausagey texture I love).
Sarah's S.S.S.S. (Super-Spicy-Salty-Sausage)
Ingredients
2kg pork mince (mixture of coarsely ground pork shoulder and belly)
36g sea salt
8g mild paprika
4g dried chilli flakes
86g sauteed leeks and onions
3g pepper
1 stalk fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2g mixed herbs
Method
Mix everything together thoroughly and form into whatever shape pleases you before cooking. Enjoy!
And here we are forming the sausages, using a natural casing.
I learned that you have to twist the successive sausages in alternating directions, i.e. clockwise for the first sausage, anti-clockwise for the second one. This helps them keep their shape.
With the sausage-making portion of the day complete, we adjourned to the garden for lunch!
First up, we got to taste the sausages I'd made.
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| My sausages! |
There seemed to be less sausages on the plate than there were in the bowl: I have a sneaking suspicion that Wyndam kept the remaining sausages to eat and/or sell, hehe!
We had 6 courses over the afternoon, served at a leisurely pace, with more than a few top-ups of our wine glasses!
It was well past four o'clock by the time we'd finished lunch - what a lovely way to while away an afternoon!
Sarah and Sandra enjoyed the Sausage Making Workshop and Long Lunch at Moorooroo Park as guests of Tourism Barossa, as part of the prize for winning the Barossa's Table Competition.
We had 6 courses over the afternoon, served at a leisurely pace, with more than a few top-ups of our wine glasses!
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| Olives |
First Course
La Dame cheese with anchovy and olive tapenade
Second Course
Kingfish carpaccio with peanut and chilli dressing
Peanuts, chilli, and spanking fresh fish! Fabulous.
Non-seafood option
Wafer-thin slices of fried potato, stacked with labne
Third Course
Prawns with marinated eggplant and sorrel
Non-seafood option
Marinated eggplant with semi-dried tomatoes
Fourth Course
Quail with figs and couverture chocolate
I loved the hint of chocolate in this dish. It wasn't cloyingly sweet or overpowering at all. Rather, it gave a note of smoky complexity to the quail.
Fifth Course
Lamb chops with braised leek, wafer-thin fried potato slices and pumpkin
Sixth Course
Roasted white peach, bluegum honey ice-cream, miniature lemon-curd tart
The honey ice-cream on the dessert platter was a huge hit: creamy and with a pure honey flavour - delicious. Does anyone have a good recipe for honey ice-cream? I'd love to recreate it at home!
It was well past four o'clock by the time we'd finished lunch - what a lovely way to while away an afternoon!
Sarah and Sandra enjoyed the Sausage Making Workshop and Long Lunch at Moorooroo Park as guests of Tourism Barossa, as part of the prize for winning the Barossa's Table Competition.
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