Welcome to the EGGhead Forum - a great place to visit and packed with tips and EGGspert advice! You can also join the conversation and get more information and amazing kamado recipes by following Big Green Egg to Experience our World of Flavor™ at:
Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Pinterest  |  Youtube  |  Vimeo
Share your photos by tagging us and using the hashtag #BigGreenEgg.

Want to see how the EGG is made? Click to Watch

Ice Wine Festival Report

chocdoc
chocdoc Posts: 461
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
As alluded to in earlier posts - I've been preparing for the Ice Wine Festival in Niagara for the past couple of weeks. I was asked by Nick - my BGE dealer from Lakeshore Living - to join him and do a couple of chocolate things that linked the Ice Wine and the BGE themes.

The festival was held on the street in the town of Jordon - Saturday and Sunday - Saturday was a miserable snowy day - it took us about 2 hours to get there - Sunday clear and sunny - but damn cold (both days). I've been for 24 hours - and I'm not warm yet.

Nick and his wife Anna made batch after batch of wings and roasted chestnuts on the Egg - a big hit! Their son in law Rocco manned the Saeco espresso machine and a pair of Paul's helped out with the cooking and serving. Primeggester also helped out and showcased his wonderful rub.

I cold smoked some chocolate - and used it to make smoked chocolate ice wine shots. I used a really excellent Cabernet Franc ice wine from Hernder Estates (where the NiEggara Fest was held in 2010), the smoked dark chocolate, some regular dark chocolate, a bit of milk chocolate, water and cream. It was a big hit! The chocolate shots were paired with an ice wine truffle in a cup made with Hernder Estates Vidal icewine.

I also used the ice wine cured bacon that I had made a couple of weeks ago for a bacon and smoked salt bark.

Finally I took some nice new crop dried turkish figs, stuffed with dark chocolate and a toasted walnut half - roasted on the egg until the chocolate was all squishy.

5365653500_945000f522.jpg
DSCN2379 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

When we arrived of course nothing was set up - and the games began.

5365653578_27f78066ba.jpg
DSCN2381 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

The chocolate shot machine was the only thing keeping my hands warm for the weekend - there were times when I couldn't even feel them to use them to pull apart the little paper cups for the chocolates and the figs.


5365653638_6fb762ba70.jpg
DSCN2382 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Note the lucky folks with wine glasses in their hands.

5365039275_a785ed8a9d.jpg
DSCN2388 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Primeggesters Cluck and Squeal - the original! I was the fortunate recipient of a large bag of the low salt version - which I used this evening on some chicken leg quarters and boneless breast that I egged - wonderful! I'm going to play with this in the next few weeks and see if I can come up with some sort of original cook for it.

5365039319_e0ecc513a3.jpg
DSCN2385 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

The boys portioning out wings - all done with the original Cluck and Squeal. Marc (Primeggester) did up a few batches of wings with some varied formulations - we were brutally honest! They were all good - but #2 was eggcellant.

5365653786_2d847314bd.jpg
DSCN2389 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Chestnuts roasting on an open egg!

5365039437_026b6974b2.jpg
DSCN2391 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Most of the wings were cooked in this pizza oven - huge quantities required to feed the drunken crowds.

5365653898_bde2f0c205.jpg
DSCN2393 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

The figs pre bake.

5365653970_b17713b0b0.jpg
DSCN2395 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

The figs post bake - look at that lovely melty chocolate. I am personally responsible for stains on quite a number of coats and scarves - I tried to warn everyone (after the first)!

5365654040_3f50fe8955.jpg
DSCN2392 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

By day 2 we realized we had better bring along a little warmer to keep the figs squishy - saved the back and forth on the egg.

5365654090_da092d5838.jpg
DSCN2398 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

Tim (Grand Oeuf Vert) on the right - starting up his demo on the festival stage.

5365039681_64e9f6aa19.jpg
DSCN2400 by ChocDoc1, on Flickr

A last look at the booth - that's Nick in the blue hat.

I offloaded only a small percentage of the stuff I'd prepared - hope I can find homes for it. Nothing says Valentines like bacon bark right?

Comments