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FOOD 12 | SUNDAY • 3 FEBRUARY 2019 maltatoday Ingredients For the choux pastry • 120g butter • 120g water • 120ml milk • 145g flour • 6 eggs For the filling • 100g butter • 200g biscuits • 30g candied peel • 30g hazelnuts • 50g sugar For the meringue • 300g egg whites • 300g sugar For decoration • chocolate • cherries • pine nuts Serves 6 Method 1. For the pastry, combine the butter, water, milk and flour and bring them to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until flour is completely incorporated and a thick dough clumps into a ball. 2. Remove from heat, transfer dough into a bow and allow to cool.. 3. Stir in 6 eggs, one at a time one until the desired texture is achieved; shiny, thick and smooth. 4. Place the mixture in a piping bag. 5. Drop the thick batter onto a baking sheet, forming sepa- rate blobs. 6. Preheat oven to 205 degrees. Bake the pastries for 20 minutes, then keeping the pastries in the oven, reduce oven to 177 degrees and continue to bake for 10-15 min utes until a golden brown colour is achieved. 7. Do not open the oven as the pastries cook, as this will prevent them from properly puffing up. Remove pastries from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack before filling. 8. Split open the pastries to fill. 9. For the filling, mix all the ingredients by hand and spoon the filling into the pastries. 10. For the meringue, whisk egg whites until doubled in size, then add the sugar, until a stiff consistency is achieved. Top the pastry with the whipped meringue. 11. To decorate, top meringue with melted chocolate, cher- ries and pine nuts. CHARLES GRECH Bin 2 Shiraz Mataro 2014 Penfolds, Australia Bin 2 Shiraz Mataro is a classic Penfolds wine, steeped in nineteenth-century tradition. Typically it is a generous medium-bodied wine based on shiraz, but shot with the aromatics and muscular strength of mataro. It's best to drink early, but like many of Penfolds reds can last the distance in the cellar. Bouquet: Scents of black olive and dark black cherry laced with mixed spices/herbs, Dark chocolate notes and a skerrick of liquorice. Palate: Mataro's green tea-leaf characters immediately apparent, as is Mataro's inky/ rubbly palate imprint. Grainy/particulate/powdery tannins throughout. Ditto, barely perceptible oak (some vanillin, crushed biscotti f lavours). Evocative Shiraz fruits and savouriness dominate the mid-palate. Refreshingly medium-bodied, enticingly textured. Food Affinities: veal, roast chicken, planked salmon. Exclusively imported by Charles Grech & Co Ltd Valley Road, Birkikara T: 21 444 400 Fine quality Italian wines of tradition Irpina. Donnachiara, winery located in Montefalcione (Avellino), with its vineyards that stretch along the hills typical of the Irpinia, produces white wines and red wines of high quality including Greco di Tufo, Fiano di Avellino, Taurasi DOCG but also sparkling like Santè Falanghina. Soft crushing of the selected grapes and after that cold decanting of the must fermentation at 57-60°F in steel vats for 15 days. Malolatic fermentation is not done. Full expression of it's territory, the heart of Greco di tufo, with a specific attention to all the factors of maturation of it's aroma's. Nose: Offers fruity flavours of pear, apricot, pineapple and citrus Palate: Smooth, elegant and structured, with good freshness and a great persistence that confirms and amplifies the olfactory sensations. Food Affinities: Perfect with all seafood, pasta with light sauces , white meats and herb cheeses Exclusively imported by Charles Grech & Co. Ltd, Valley Road, Birkirkara T: 2144 4400 Donnachiara Greco di Tufo: DONNACHIARA Robert Cassar Chef at Gourmet Today and Chef Patron at Root 81 Deconstructed prinjolata Deconstructed food is pretty big right now. Robert Cassar takes all the f lavours and textures of our favourite carnival dessert and interprets his own version of a prinjolata This recipe first appeared on Gourmet Today TV January 2019. Catch Gourmet Today TV on Thursday at 6.30pm on TVM