Mokos Wine Kitchen

29 November - 20 December 2020.

4-course Christmas menu for the festive table

With the approach of the holidays, the real Christmas spirit has begun in our Winery. As we are not able to share the experience of the #mokosadvent with you at our beloved Advent fairs or at our winery in Palkonya, we thought we would move back to cyberspace for a short while. So we decided to surprise you with another miniseries, and not just any miniseries!

In our 4-part video series we will prepare 1-1 dishes with the collaboration of our chef Balázs Mokos and Attila Kurucsai, during which Attila will be responsible for the most delicious dishes, while Balázs will be responsible for the Mokos wines that are essential for the dishes. The episodes will be released on Advent Sundays, so by the end of the series we will have a four-course festive menu with a starter, a soup, a main course and a dessert. So, if you fancy it in the meantime, you can easily prepare the whole meal yourself for Christmas, and of course you can get the accompanying Mokos wines from our webshop in the meantime.

Join us and let's get ready for Christmas together!

Appetizer

Salmon tartare with fried calabash, dill and horseradish mascarpone, marinated cucumber

Ingredients for our starter:

• smoked salmon 200 g
• olive oil 1 tbsp
• plaited loaf 1 piece
• mascarpone 100 g
• dill, chopped 1 tbsp
• grated horseradish 1 tk
• snake cucumber 1 pc
• apple cider vinegar 2 eq
• brown sugar 1 pinch
• lemon 1 piece
• salt 1 pinch
• pepper 1 pinch

A glass with our salmon tartare starter Villány Rye The new 2020 vintage, with its typical freshness, fruity aromas and sumptuous colours, is a great match for our dishes.

Preparation:

1. The first step is to chop the smoked salmon. Aim to cut it into nice, small cubes so that the texture of the fish is still enjoyable, as it is a tartare.
2. Then add the coarsely ground pepper and olive oil to the salmon and season lightly with salt. It is advisable to salt the smoked salmon carefully, as in most cases it is basically given a salty flavour. Once this is done, add the grated zest of half a lemon, mix well and leave to rest in the fridge.
3. While the salmon is resting, we prepare the delicious dill and horseradish mascarpone: we take another bowl and add the mascarpone cheese, the washed and chopped dill (dried dill is fine if you don't have it), but the real pleasure is the fresh spice. Then we add the finely grated horseradish root and set the cream aside to rest in the fridge.
4. While the flavours are melding in the ingredients you've prepared so far, prepare the marinated cucumber: peel the cucumber, cut in half lengthways and remove the seeds with a small spoon, then slice into strips about 1 cm thick. Season the strips with salt and pepper, add 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar and a large pinch of brown sugar. This is also left to rest while you prepare the scones.
5. Cut the loaf into finger-sized slices and toast in the oven until golden.
6. Once all the steps are done, all you have to do is serve your gourmet appetizer: place the toasted scones on a plate, then use two spoons to pile medium dumplings from the salmon tartare onto the scones. Using a meringue bag, press the dill and horseradish mascarpone into a small rose shape next to the loaf, place the marinated cucumber strips around them, drizzle a little lemon juice over the tartare and garnish with dill leaves.

Levies

prune cream soup with lime meringue

Ingredients for the soup:

• prunes 200 g
• Butter 50 g
• honey 20 g
• cinnamon 2 pinches
• eggs 1 piece
• icing sugar 70 g
• lime 1 piece
• cooking cream 50 ml
• dried flowers 2 pinches

Our prune cream soup is paired with a real Christmas wine, a limited, festive edition Cinnamon Plum Cider our speciality. This fruit wine speciality is a real Christmas treat, as the cheerful flavours of our sweet plum wine are transformed into a truly festive experience by ageing in cinnamon-lined oak barrels, making it the perfect companion to our cream soup!

Preparation:

Lime meringues

For this dish, you need to work a little ahead, as the meringues should be prepared at least 1-1.5 days before serving the soup, so that they are sufficiently firm.

1. First, line a small baking pan with baking paper.
2. Next, separate the 1 egg and whisk the whites in a metal bowl until foamy, then slowly add the icing sugar, one teaspoon at a time. When half of the icing sugar is gone, place the bowl over a steam. Still slowly adding the remaining icing sugar and the grated zest of the lime and half of its juice.
3. Then beat until stiff, taking care not to let it stick to the bottom or sides of the hot pan. When the perfect stiff foam consistency is reached, remove from the steam and pour into a foam bag. Then form small meringues 1.5-2 cm in diameter in the prepared baking tray lined with baking paper and place the tray in a warm, dry place for 1-1.5 days to allow the meringues to dry.

Cream of prune soup 

1. In a small saucepan, melt half the butter and add the honey, then stir to combine.
2. Cut the prunes into quarters and place them in the melted buttered honey. Simmer for a few minutes, then add the white, add water and simmer for a quarter of an hour, blending until smooth.
3. To the resulting homogeneous, blended soup, add the remaining butter and cream, and cook again for a few minutes to further blend the flavours. Once this is done, all that's left to do is to serve this soup with a truly Christmas flavour.
4. Ladle the prune cream soup onto the plate, place 2-3 meringues on top to taste and drizzle with a little lime juice. Finally, garnish with dried flowers and voila! The Christmas soup for our festive menu is ready.

Main course

Roast duck breast with thyme, brown butter sweet potato dumplings, caramelized root vegetables and cranberry sauce with cranberries

Ingredients for the main course:

• duck breast 2 pieces
• thyme half a bunch
• butter 100g
• sweet potatoes 250 g
• eggs 1 egg
• 6-8 baby carrots
• orange 1 piece
• ground Roman cumin 1 pinch
• parsnips 1 pc
• honey 2 tbsp
• dried cranberries 100 g
• Mokos Villányi REDy 2 dl
• cornstarch 1 tbsp
• flour 150 g
• salt, pepper

For the perfect gastronomic experience, a Mokos Villányi REDy to accompany our main course, which will pair perfectly with our cranberry flavours and roasted duck breast. REDy, a collaborative wine from the Villány wine region, is a light, fruity red wine from our winery, based on Portugieser, with the pleasant spiciness of kékfrankos and the typical aromas of zweigelt and cabernet franc.

Preparation:

1. The first step is to wash the sweet potatoes and put them whole and peeled in a pot to cook.
2. Then, while the potatoes are cooking, we prepare the duck breast: clean it, cut the skin on the skin side, taking care to trim only the skin and the fat underneath, not the meat itself, which can easily dry out during cooking. Then sprinkle with a little salt and coarsely ground pepper, and when this is done, set aside to marinate until ready to cook.
3. Next, clean the carrots and parsnips and cut them into centimetre-thick strips (baby carrots do not need to be cut). Place two pans on the hob and add a little oil to each. In one of the hot pans, start to fry the carrots in the oil, add salt, pepper and Roman cumin, and the grated zest and juice of an orange.
4. In the other pan, fry the parsnips in a little hot oil, season with salt and pepper, add 2 tablespoons of honey and add a little water, about 0.5 dl. Simmer both vegetables until soft and caramelise them.
5. The next step is to make our sweet potato dumplings: remove the cooked sweet potatoes from the water and allow them to cool in their skins. When it is cool, peel it and mash it with a fork. Add a little salt, flour and the yolks of one egg. Then knead the whole into a dough. If the dough is very soft, add as much flour as it can take. Then put 2L of salted water on to boil and shape the potato dumplings into balls about 2-3 cm in diameter. When they are ready and the water has boiled sufficiently, place the dumplings in boiling water and cook over a medium heat until the dumplings come to the surface.
6. While the dumplings are cooking, put the butter in a pan on the stove and heat until it starts to brown, taking care not to burn it or it will turn bitter. If done right, you will get a slightly nutty buttery flavour. Once your dumplings are cooked, drain them, then roll them in and fry them a little in the brown butter. In the meantime, wash the thyme, peel off the leaves and add it to our roasting potato dumplings. When the dumplings are sufficiently browned, set aside from the pan until ready to serve.
7. Now comes one of our most important processes! We prepare our kamcha breast. Meanwhile, brown the skin of the duck breast in the pan until golden brown, making sure that enough fat is rendered, but taking care not to burn it. While frying, baste it with its own fat using a tablespoon to make it even tastier. When this is done, turn the breasts over and fry for about 1,5-2 minutes more. Then place them on a baking tray, add a little more fat and put them in the oven for 15 minutes. While our delicious duck breasts are cooking, we make our cranberry sauce with cranberries.
8. Put the 2 dl REDy red wine in a pressure cooker on the stove to heat. Add the dried cranberries, salt, a little pepper and wait for the cranberries to cook in the wine. Meanwhile, mix a tablespoon of cornflour with two tablespoons of water and add this to your sauce. Mix until smooth, let it boil and your sauce is ready.
9. In the meantime, our ducks are ready: we take them out of the oven, cover them with aluminium foil while they are still in the pan and put a tea towel over them. Leave to rest for 6-8 minutes while you prepare to serve.
10. To serve: place 3-4 of the potato dumplings on the plate, place the caramelised vegetables on top, place the rested duck breast, cut diagonally across, with the nicely browned skin on top and pour the sauce over and alongside, and garnish with fresh thyme. Voila!

dessert

chocolate soufflé with mandarin jelly

Ingredients for the dessert:

• dark chocolate 200 g
• flour 50 g
• unsweetened cocoa powder 50 g
• Butter 50 g
• eggs 5 pieces
• salt 1 pinch
• mandarin 600 g
• gelatine sheet 3 pieces
• sugar 100 g
• mint leaves for decoration

Golden with our chocolate dessert Cajibor our speciality, which is a perfect match for our heavenly dessert, both in colour and flavour. Our sun-kissed apricot fruit wine speciality is also an excellent choice to accompany marzipan, cheesecake and almond sweets.

Preparation:

1. For this dish, you also need to work a little in advance: cut the mandarins in half and squeeze the juice through a sieve into a pot and heat. Add 1 tbsp sugar and the gelatine sheets, previously soaked in cold water, making sure that the juice is not boiling. Wait until the gelatine sheets have melted and you can pour them into a mould of your choice. Chill in the fridge until serving. It is a good idea to prepare the mandarin jellies a day before the dessert so that they are sufficiently frozen before serving.
2. Break the dark chocolate into large pieces, melt over steam with the butter and a pinch of salt.
3. While the chocolate is melting, separate the eggs. Add half of the sugar to the yolks and the other half to the whites. Beat the whites with a whisk until stiff peaks form, then beat the sugary yolks until stiff.
4. Once you have these, you can start preparing the baking tins: grease them, sprinkle them with cocoa powder and preheat the oven to 170°C.
5. In a large bowl, mix the flour and cocoa powder, add the melted butter and chocolate cream, then whisk in the sugared egg yolks, stir and gently add the egg white whisk. Mix into an even dough and pour into greased, cocoa-coated cake tins. Fill the soufflé moulds about three quarters full, then place them in a deeper baking dish, place the dish in the oven and pour water into the dish. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes, until cooked on the outside and deliciously runny on the inside.
6. To serve: remove the soufflés from the oven, hold the bottom of the soufflé moulds with a tea towel and with your other hand, using a butter knife, gently try to separate the edge of the soufflé from the mould. Then carefully tip the soufflé onto the plate. Next, place the tangerine jelly mould in warm water for a short time so that you can tip it out of the mould. We also place one of each of our jellies on the plate, garnish with whipped cream and mint leaves. Enjoy your meal!

And as we come to the end of our online mini-series, all we can do is thank you for joining us. If you're in the mood to make the recipes, share your Christmas #mokos experience with us on social media: use our hashtags or tag our Winery so we can celebrate with you!

On behalf of the mokos team, we wish you a Merry Christmas!