Currant Shed Restaurant
Ingoldby Road
McLaren Flat South Australia 5171
w www.hoffmannswine.com.au
e hoffmannswine@bigpond.com
t +61 8 8383 0232
f +61 8 8383 0232
open Lunch Thursday to Tuesday 12 noon till 3.00 pm, closed Wednesdays
FOOD Anthea and Peter Hoffman might have been accidental restaurateurs and winemakers but they have managed to carve a niche for themselves in both premium bottled wine production and running a busy regional restaurant. Running a restaurant has to be one of the most difficult business ventures in today’s market. Intimately knowing the sums it is possible to wonder why anyone would bother with margins so tight even the slightest dip in income can spell disaster.
Anthea Hoffman is a tall slim straight–backed handsome woman with a mane of striking white hair and her immaculate personal appearance makes immediately clear she is a woman who understands attention to detail. The light dining room, formerly a currant drying shed, is always immaculate, the paintings always quality (and straight on the walls) and the flowers fresh and water in the vases clean. Small and obvious things one would think for a restaurant, however each year we see countless half dead flowers sitting in filthy water, dirty windows, blinds at odds with each other, all the small relevant details that make the difference between acceptance and damnation. Between their intimate cellar door (again graced with decent works of art) is a beautiful vine covered outside eating area that is wonderful on sunny days. In front of the restaurant is a grove of lime trees that leads up the hill to the deep gold of autumn vineyards ending finally a stand of trees. It is a gorgeous aspect made even more delightful by the dancing willie wagtails and little native wrens that to the delight of diners, often come out to dance. If you are very lucky you may even see the exquisitely coloured males in their blue finery. It is a lovely tasteful environment without a hint of stuffiness.
It is important to put the food at The Currant Shed Restaurant in context. Portions are generous and can be equated to really good nicely presented home cooking. Sometimess it is hard for a single reviewing diner to gauge the real strength of a restaurant but the table of four just in front of me kindly provided a window to a large proportion of the menu. Two locals and two English tourists they had rapturous praise for everything they ate. They start with ’nibbles to share’ their chefs selection of 4 dips with hot breads and seasonal crudities $16.50. Prettily presented for the price the plate is incredibly generous and nicely portioned for an interim snack for four people. With the first hint of cooler weather and the glorious rain, The Currant Shed dining room was perfumed with the divine smell of slow cooking, a wafting comforting aroma that was saltbush lamb shanks slow cooked with quince and verjuice on a roasted Autumn vegetable cous cous $28. Again rapturous acclaim!
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Deciding to choose two entrees and dessert I have to say I wished I had chosen the Murray Valley ’porkerhouse’ with black pudding, roasted parsnips and pears with a Madeira jus $29. A similar dish on a previous visit was quite wonderful and better than my choice of smoked chicken and fig tart $15 and brains wrapped in prosciutto apple, celeriac and hazelnut remoulade $15. Despite the delicious pastry the smoked chicken was very salty and the accompanying frise salad was limp and lacked the acidity that the richness of the tart required. It was tasty but not memorable. The brains were not peeled and poached (I think) in court bouillon they needed a couple of seconds more in their poaching liquid which also needed a good handful of salt. Peeling brains takes seconds and is the difference between and astounding and an average dish. Peeled brains, fatty pancetta from a traditional Italian butcher instead of prosciutto would have drawn this potentially great dish together. The rendered fat would have flavoured and seasoned the brains and the crispiness would have added a good texture contrast to the softness of the brains. The salad component was excellent but had not been properly seasoned. Once seasoned (yes, praise the lord, pepper and salt on the table) it was delicious. Small criticisms perhaps undeserved especially for the very small plate price but they seemed disparate to other dishes we have enjoyed at The Currant Shed. Perhaps I was just envious of the oohing and aahing from the table next to me who had stuck to nibbles, mains and dessert.
Desserts are just $14.50 and have always been a highlight at the Currant Shed. When reviewing seasonality is important to us and the inclusion of quince and apple is immediate evidence that chef Kerryn Oates is on the ball. Ginger and rhubarb crème brûlée with a sweet oat biscuit, honey panacotta with orange jelly, pineapple and passionfruit coulis, chocolate hazelnut and caramel tart, sticky date and walnut pudding, caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream. See what I mean pudding heaven! The pies of my childhood, stuffed with fruit from our gardens, lardy pastry, gritty sugar crusts are elusive memories for me that usually end in disappointment but, risking disappointment their new apple and quince pie, crème anglaise and rich cream was ordered. It was blissful! Not quite a lardy pastry and nor did it have a gritty sugar crust but it was fresh and hot with a luscious filling of apple and quince that was full of fruit flavour but unburdened with excessive amounts of sugar. The look was plain, but I have come to appreciate the unadorned plate that looks simple and delivers the unexpected. Delicious it was a real grand finale!
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There is a German saying “Schweinchen frisst fällt um und schläft” loosely translated “piggy eats, falls down and sleeps” and on a better day one might be tempted to lie on the grass immediately in front of the dining room and after such generosity and have a siesta. Instead it was picking limes for just $4 per kilo. The difference between commercial waxed fruit and just picked is palpable. The perfume from the lime blossom and the sweet sharp scented oil on the skins was utterly tantalising. We’d just done a lot of salted limes, the secret ingredient in many of our Middle Eastern dishes, but without the wax well, it’s more pickled limes. To that we’ll add a stack of lime curd into the freezer for lime and violet soufflés in spring, salted limes to dry and vac to be put into mango chutney when the mangoes are cheap again. And, well its obvious a gin or tonic or three while putting them down.
WINE One of the great things about winery restaurants is their enthusiasm and generosity. Peter Hoffman doesn’t make a wide range of wines but what he makes is quality. My particular favourite is his steely elegant Chardonnay, which oddly does not have a specified vintage on their wine list, but their reds are also excellent and get this $7 for a generous pour in a decent glass. What’s not to like about the Currant Shed and Hoffman’s wines? Nothing!
CHEF — Kerryn Oakes
RESTAURANT MANAGER — Anthea Hoffmann
OWNERS — Anthea and Peter Hoffmann
April 16, 2010
