This week's MENU from Main Ingredient
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Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
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A seagull taking off, Sea Point beachfront
The perfect Birthday Lynne caught up with the Beatles song on Sunday and confirms that she is not yet getting older, losing her hair(!) or mind. Where to go for our usual celebration dinner? As it was Sunday, it was a lunch date - so she chose to visit one of her favourite restaurants in the winelands: Jardine on Jordan wine estate in Stellenbosch. And where else could one possibly imagine a more perfect meal, view, or day – just look at the pictures. We sat on the front of the terrace, the weather was damn near perfect for a winter’s day (although Lynne always says she knows Spring is on the way on her birthday) and, indeed, the countryside was a lovely shade of spring green after the recent welcome rains. We were welcomed by a celebratory glass of Villiera Cap Classique and we were started off with a plate of two super breads, a creamy garlicky aioli and a black olive tapenade, both of which were so good on the bread. We could not make up our minds about the starters, so we did what we usually do, ordered two and swapped half-way through. The delicately smoked (by the Chef himself in a Jordan oak barrel) Gurnard with a chick pea puree and sage butter was a nice gentle start to the meal, the “awesome” roasted Rabbit Terrine was very, very moreish, small whole pieces of rabbit held together tightly in a lovely herby jelly, on a base of Puy lentils with a smoked garlic sauce and a wonderful gooey Kumquat jam. Nice to see rabbit on a menu – it’s a rare sight, but is suddenly making an appearance in more places. Europe is overrun by rampant bunnies, so it’s a normal thing to eat there. Here they are seen more as pets, which you don’t eat. It does resemble chicken in texture but the flavour is more gamey. John drank a glass of Jordan’s beautiful Chardonnay and Lynne had an enormous glass of their Sauvignon Blanc which lasted her for two courses. While admiring the stunning view and both of us taking lots and lots of photographs from our table, we were served a lovely amuse of a crisp deep fried rice Suppli ball (imagine a spoonful of cheesy risotto covered in a crisp batter) on a beetroot cream and a very interesting Nasturtium sauce. It was inspiring if them to use Nasturtiums in dishes, our garden jungle is suddenly full of them. Hmmmm – watch this space.
The menu is not vast, but all the dishes sound delicious, so choosing a main course was again not easy. John opted for the herb crusted Chalmar ribeye beef with pumpkin, butter poached turnip and “bourguignon” sauce which was slightly bitter, we think affected by the herb crust… Lynne had a honey and soy glazed pork loin chop with tiny roasted baby beets, wilted bok choi and apple. Very tender, and perfectly cooked, this was a triumph.
John had spotted the Valrhona chocolate torte, with vanilla chantilly and poached pear when he first looked at the menu, so that was a given for our chocoholic but Lynne wasn’t tempted by the desserts until she saw someone eating one of George’s soufflés. We both have very good memories of his Grand Marnier Soufflé at his Cape Town restaurant, so she succumbed. It was a light apple soufflé and did remind her of that 50’s dessert Apple Snow which every hotel served as a standard back in the day. It was served with a vanilla crème and a tiny Confit apple tart. It was rather more eggy than apply and the soufflé dish had been lined by rather course brown sugar which gave it rather a crunch. John had a coffee, we stayed for another hour in the beautiful gardens taking even more photos and then it was time to go home. Our bill was R720 including a 10%+ tip, so this is definitely a celebration meal.
A highlight of our last week was the Cape Winemakers’ Guild tasting, last Thursday. This is the run-up event to the annual auction. We tasted 39 wonderful wines during the afternoon, with the winemakers (or, occasionally, their colleagues) telling us about each wine. With a selection like this, it would be invidious to single any one out from the others, but one is bound to have personal favourites, and ours were Nitida’s Decorous sauvignon blanc 2010, Edgebaston “Tete du Ciel” chardonnay 2009, Haskell The Patriot cabernet sauvignon/shiraz blend, Le Riche cabernet sauvignon reserve 2008, Luddite Reserve shiraz 2008, Cederberg Teen die Hoog shiraz 2009 and De Trafford Sijnn Touriga Nacional 2009, the latter from a 5 year old bush vine vineyard at Malgas, near Cape Infanta in the southern Cape. After a tasting of predominantly young red wines, one’s mouth is always dominated by the heavy tannins round one’s gums, so the public tasting afterwards was more notable for the conversations we had than for the small sampling of wines we tasted, but to experience such a collection of superb wines in one afternoon is a privilege for which we will always be grateful. You will find the auction details in our events list.
BE BRAVE Soufflés are regarded as something terribly difficult to make and they just are not. If you have been watching Masterchef you would have seen a good Masterclass on them and learnt the tip of properly greasing the dish: how to carefully fold in the egg whites so you don’t knock the stuffing out of them. What you need is a thick flavoured sauce into which you stir egg yolks while the sauce is warm (not hot) and then gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. They do need to go into a hot oven and they must not be disturbed until they are nearly finished. And – you can reheat the cheese variety the next day for what is known as a twice baked soufflé, to be served with a cheese sauce. You can make savoury or sweet soufflés. Do be brave and have a go – you will be surprised how easy they are. Two tips – use eggs that are slightly old and that have been taken out of the fridge to get to room temperature
COURGETTE SOUFFLÉ
6 medium courgettes – 4 eggs, separated – 175g grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg – a dash of Tabasco - sea salt -
a grinding or two of black pepper – a little vegetable oil
Roughly grate the courgettes, put them in a sieve and plunge it into boiling salted water for 1 minute, then plunge into ice cold water to refresh. Drain well and pat dry. Stir into the egg yolks, add the cheese, nutmeg, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Grease a small soufflé dish with the oil or use individual ramekins. Stiffly whip the egg whites then fold them carefully into the courgette mixture. Bake in a moderate oven 180ºC until they are puffed up and golden on the outside. As a variation you could add some flaked cooked fish or some slivers of cooked meat or chicken.
Our products. The Italian anchovy paste continues to fly out and we keep upping our replenishment orders and the same applies to Carnaroli rice and the perennially popular Prego sauce. We have increased the stock level of Protea Hill Farm’s fabulous balsamic raspberry vinegar because we struggle to keep up with demand. It makes a wonderful salad dressing when used with hazelnut oil. We also have more of their delicious basil, thyme, dill and raspberry merlot vinegars. The French patés are also deservedly popular and we received more this morning, including the delicious duck rillette. Chou farci, haricot beans in goose fat, Cassoulet and Confit of Duck appeal to the more adventurous gourmets who come to see us. We have added dried lime powder and Baharat to our interesting range of unusual spice mixtures such as Ras al Hanout, Za’atar, Chinese Five Spice, Shichimi Togarashi, Yemeni Zhoug, Garam masala and Sumac as well as more common spices like Mace, Nutmeg, Cardamom and seriously pungent, unwashed Black pepper. We also have lovely moist vanilla pods, sealed in glass tubes to keep them in good condition, leaf gelatine, Belgian 70% couverture chocolate and the excellent, real Nielsen Massey extracts. Our Italian truffles, truffle oils and truffle salt continue to gain fans.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. If you are following Masterchef Australia we have Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.
Our market activities We had expected to be at the Long Beach Mall market tomorrow, splitting ourselves between there and Cavendish, but we have had no information from the organisers, so we hope that you will not be too disappointed at our absence. You will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square), today, 19th August, from 10h00 to 17h00, and we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients there for you. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, on Saturday between 9am and 2pm. Next Wednesday, we will be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands from 09h30 to 14h30.
Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.
Our list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.
19th August 2011
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these newsletters are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.
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