Part 1 Sherry Vinegar

Pretty much like lemon or salt, Vinegar is a wonderful flavour enhancer adding brightness to the other ingredients in your dish and perhaps there is none better than Sherry Vinegar.

For the Home Chef it is a mighty "weapon" adding a rich taste and taking from it's sherry origins, a nutty freshness to recipes - plus, the essential acidity to sharpen each dish,

Further, if you feel the acidity is too strong it is easy to create a balance by adding a little brown sugar or if you can find it, a combination of natural brown sugar and palm sugar. Note: a little sugar should be all that's needed.

A typical dish with Sherry Vinegar adding it's magic would be chicken pieces browned in a good quality olive oil then set aside in a warm oven.

Then add to the pan whole Shallots, cook in oil until softened, Garlic, whole or ground as you prefer, fresh or dry Tarragon, Sea Salt and Black Pepper

Return the chicken pieces to the pan, add the Sherry Vinegar (about 2 teaspoons) and stir in creme fraiche to blend with the chicken juices and the Sherry Vinegar

This is a simple recipe idea for you to build your own definitive recipe format using Sherry Vinegar to add the flavour depth and sparkle to your dish.

Our next posting in this series of four will be Balsamic Vinegar