1235 Great Northern Hwy, Upper Swan
Ph: (08) 9296 6966
www.brookleigh.com.au
Grazing in the Valley
Stewart’s at Brookleigh sits on the Brookleigh estate, just off the Great Northern Highway. It boasts both a serene restaurant as well as a wine bar, where you can pop in and have a few small dishes and enjoy some good wine or beer. Stewart’s is operated by Neil Reveler (with the help of Chef Jamie Skinner), and I must say, the combo are doing a great job! The menu is extensive, interesting and will leave you deliberating for hours, so why not choose several items from the ‘small plate menu’ and share with your friends?
The first dish to try was the ‘Steak tartare, hamburger flavours, fried egg, sesame seed toast, tomato relish, hot mustard and crispy onion rings’ – a beautifully presented combination of flavours on a gorgeous slate slab. I encourage you to try this one, a real feast for the eyes and such a clever idea from Jamie!
Next came the ‘Marinated beetroot salad, Persian feta, toasted pine nuts’ – a simple yet gorgeous combination of flavours (you really can’t go wrong with good ingredients cooked and served simply).
The wine match for this one was the Brookleigh Classic White, made by John Griffiths from the estate grapes. This was the perfect match for this dish and a great wine to accompany most of the menu, as it is soft, clean and easy to drink.
Now for my favourite dish this year, ‘Reverse cauliflower cheese’. What is this you ask? A piece of Gorgonzola, Sao Miguel and Fromager d’Affinois; each crumbed, deep fried and served with a dish of creamed cauliflower. They say cheese makes you dream, well I am still dreaming about this dish! This was really well matched with Castel Rock Shiraz 09 from Porongurup, a rich red that really complimented the gooey cheese.
The ‘South Australian Clams, crispy Jamon, white wine, garlic and parsley with mopping up bread’ was also very good. Juicy clams and the crispy Jamon went down well, while the bread soaked up all that gorgeous juice and satisfied the soul!
The ‘Egyptian lamb shiskas, grilled haloumi, honey yoghurt and tabbouleh’ were packed with flavour with lots of spice. The Brookleigh Classic White was once again a great match for this dish.
All these dishes I am mentioning are small but not ridiculously small like many of the ‘tapas’ places these days! The plates are well sized, the venue is peaceful and there is a huge selection of wines and beers – Stewart’s is a must next time you go to the valley!
To finish our meal we had ‘Cinnamon sugared churros and molten chocolate dippy eggs’, Jamie’s take on the breakfast dish ‘eggs and soldiers’.
The churros are delicious and the chocolate dip is thick and luscious – it’s a great one to share, and when I come back I will definitely be ordering a selection of the homemade macarons.
I have to say the two wine matches they gave us for dessert were the best I have ever experienced! The Talijancich Liqueur Verdelho on ice and also the Talijancich Julian James Reserve Muscat 1961 Solera were both amazing; so hard to sip slowly and terribly moreish!
I will be returning to Stewarts very soon with a big group of friends to sit and graze our way through this amazing menu.
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By Chef Sophie Budd
