Nuriootpa, South Australia - Maggie Beers Farm Shop

We are now in the beautiful Barossa Valley and staying at a Big 4 Caravan Park at Nuriootpa (pronounced Nuri-ooot-pa).  This is undoubtably Queen Maggie Beer country as she is the person who brought notoriety to the area with the ABC cooking show "The Cook and The Chef".  It's probably a little unfair to say that Maggie gave the place notoriety as this area has always been well known for its excellent red wines, notably the Penfolds range that includes the famous "Grange Heritage".

Today we were booked into an "all inclusive" package at Maggie Beers Farm Shop.  It included a hour long cooking demonstration where our chef prepared mushrooms with Verjuice served on bruschetta, strawberries with seville vino cotta alongside coffee vino cotta meringue, homemade labneh served on chickpea Farinata.  It was a terrific demonstration and we (15) have all come away with a little cooking secret.  My secret is to cook mushrooms with a splash of verjuice and fry onions with vino cotto.  We did of course get to eat what our chef demonstrated and it was the first course of many that we enjoyed over the next three hours.

After our cooking demo we were shown the way to another section where we enjoyed a wine tasting.  We sampled Maggie Beer Pinot Gris, Riesling, Rosé, Grenache and Muscadelle Liquer.  They were all quite good but we refrained from any purchases.  We will head to the Eden Valley area tomorrow to sample a few of the whites from that area.

After our wine tasting we were taken to the "Eatery" restaurant where we sat down to a four course meal.  This is the meal that just kept giving.  As soon as we had placed our drinks order we had sourdough bread with homemade butter, marinated olives, beetroot relish and pickles brought to our table.  This was a very large serve and it stayed on the table for the duration of our meal.

The next course was then brought to the table.  One was kingfish served with daikon radish and a most delicious sauce, and the other was finely sliced cauliflower with capers and currants in another tasty sauce topped with crunchy breadcrumbs.

The main course was brought to the table after some of the dishes were removed. I ordered Ricotta Gnudi and Philip the beef with seasonal vegetables.  The Gnudi (ricotta dumplings) were so soft and light and the sauce surrounding them was to die for and full of tiny diced vegetables with a crunchy topping.  Philip loved his beef and once again the sauce is what made the dish so special.  There was also a bowl of super crispy baked potatoes for us to enjoy as a side dish but, I was so full from all the food we had eaten I hardly touched them and we still had dessert to come!  All of the food that we ate today was seasonal and locally grown.  A credit to the management.

The two desserts were just as good as the rest of the meal.  A kaffir lime cream with granita topping was one of the desserts and the other was a silky smooth orange Panna Cotta.  

I literally could not move after all this food so after we had paid for our drinks we decided to take a walk around the lake that is in front of Maggies Farm Shop.  It was not far but it felt good.  Once we were back inside the farm shop Philip took a photo of me in the "Cook and The Chef" kitchen and I imagined Maggie and Simon standing beside me.  It was a wonderful day and worth every single cent.  The food was outstanding and I don't think I will be eating another thing for the next twenty-four hours......