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Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet
Foods & Ingredients
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A pair of ducks
in a Hemel en Aarde pond
In
this week’s
MENU:
Bubbles with Bubbles Ferreira Classic lemon tart KLM postscript Sea Point flat to let
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This week’s Product menu: The exchange rate is biting. We have already had
some massive price increases, especially on French poultry products (we were
warned a while ago) and we are seeing rises on some of the more ordinary
products as well. The adage “buy while stocks last” was never more true. We are
also seeing the more slow-moving products being discontinued, and we have
started to remove some of these items, like aged balsamics, from our online
shop. We saw the increases on the shelves in France and the dip in the value of
our own currency amplifies the effect. One of the wine dealers who imports
wines from Europe has discontinued all imported labels for the present.
Buying from us on Line 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 which you are unlikely to find elsewhere
in South Africa. You can contact us by email or
phone, or through our
on line shop. We can
send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. Please do not pay until we have confirmed
availability and invoiced you.
When you make an eft payment, make sure that it says who you are. Use the form
on the website to email us your order and we will send you the final invoice
once we’ve made sure stock is available. Click
here to see the shop.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s
wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods
Market, as always, this
Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip:
Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you
know how. Click
here for a map which shows
where we park. Sadly, the market in Long Beach Mall, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek has not been working for us and the
expenses have outweighed the income, so we will not be there again until we see
better potential.
Making Bubbles with Pieter Ferreira at
Graham Beck Pieter (Bubbles) Ferreira makes some of
the best bubbly in South Africa, which gets a lot of international kudos and
recognition and more importantly, sales. Yesterday, at the Westin Grand Hotel,
we tasted seven of his best at a serious tasting for the media. All were made
by the Methode Cap Classique method – the same way Champagne is made - and one
thing that sets the Graham Beck wines apart from most local and French bubblies
is that they do not go through malolactic fermentation, a process which reduces
the fresh crispness of the wine, so all the GB bubblies show a very lively
freshness and, we find, added complexity.
We started the tasting with a slide show titled “In
Search of the Perfect Bubble” and Pieter led us through his methods from the
vineyard right through to bottling and marketing. They grow 85% of all their
grapes on the Graham Beck properties and source the rest from 12 different
geographical areas in the Western Cape. Pieter is very hands-on and believes that
the terroir, healthy soils, the right clones, the grape selection in the
vineyards and the health of the vines all contribute greatly to the final
quality of the wines. The juice forms the basis of the best bubbles. During
harvest, he travels over 3 to 4,000 kilometres every month visiting all the
properties that supply their grapes, and his challenge is to keep finding
better grapes.
Every vintage is an expression of the best production
of the year. Every block he uses is like a business unit. It must perform or be
declassified.
He then tries to get the whole bunches into the press
within 20 minutes of picking and the grapes are pressed very lightly. He told
us that from filling a press to emptying can take four hours as they are
looking for quality fresh juice. Where they do use barrels, they all come from
the Tonnelier
in Champagne who supplies Bollinger: Jean Prieur of Tonnelerie Artesanal.
Graham Beck has an allocation of only 15 barrels a year, which are given a very
light toast. They have a stock of 190 barrels used on only 8% of the wines and
the average age of the barrels is 9 years. Cuvée Clive gets more new oak and
for longer than any other wine. Pieter follows biodynamic processes and uses
wild or natural yeasts. Prestige cuvées are wines with no rules, they are made
by gut feel, specific to the conditions each year.
Their bottling line is very impressive and they have
specialist machines to freeze the caps. They also use giro
pallets for remuage. Pieter says he likes cork, it is a very
tight fit, as it is compressed from a diameter of 30mm to a tightly compressed
19 mm. He has not seen a better closure for MCC’s and he would also miss the
romance of popping them.
Pieter does have a wine that has been 10 years on the
lees and wants to release it as a cork matured wine which will be called RD
(recently disgorged) So: in their words “ The journey continues..... “
We then proceeded to taste their seven Methode Cap
Classiques and then on to lunch where the same wines were paired with the food.
Click here to see our tasting notes and
the photographs.
This week’s recipe is a
Classic Lemon Tart
Lynne has been searching for something new to make,
instead of our usual winter favourites and this was inspired by our visit to
France where it is a classic. Please
note, this is NOT a lemon meringue pie. As we are in the middle of the citrus
season, you can also use limes or other citrus to make this tart. Lynne does
not like zest in the custard but you can put it in if you like the rather
gritty texture. She prefers a silky smooth custard. DO NOT OVERCOOK or this
becomes like cheesecake. It should still have a good wobble in the centre when
it comes out of the oven.
Sweet shortcrust pastry
120g plain flour – a pinch of salt – 20 g icing sugar– 80g butter, cubed – zest of 2 lemons –1 egg yolk
– a little iced
water
Sieve the flour, salt and sugar into a food processor, add the cold butter and the lemon zest, and blitz
using short bursts until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolk and if
necessary a few drops of iced water
and blitz again until the
pastry starts to come away from the sides. Gather it gently together, wrap in
cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out and line a greased and floured,
loose-bottomed flan tin. Do
not trim the edges. Lightly prick the base with a fork and rest again in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
Line with baking paper or foil
and fill with baking beans to bake blind at 160°C for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and put the tin back into the oven to crisp
up the bottom for another 15 minutes or until biscuity and pale gold.
Brush the bottom of the tart with milk or beaten egg to seal it. Cool.
Lemon filling
5 eggs – 140g caster sugar -150ml double
cream – juice of 2 or 3 lemons (about 100ml)
Beat the eggs and the sugar together till the sugar
has dissolved then add the cream and the lemon juice. Heat the oven to 160°C.
Slowly pour the mixture into the pastry base (Lynne does this in the oven to
avoid spills) and bake for 30 minutes or until just set. Carefully trim off any
excess pastry. Cool and slice.
If you want a
traditional decoration, slice two lemons and poach the slices gently in a sugar
syrup (50% water to 50% sugar) till they are soft, then put them around the
edges of the tart with one in the centre).
A short postscript note about KLM. We went through merry hell booking our
tickets to France as the prices kept rising, so we checked KLM’s partner Air
France and were quoted a much cheaper price - in the same seats, on the same KLM
plane, on the same day. It definitely pays to shop around. The last quoted
(cattle class) KLM return fare for the two of us, Cape Town – Bordeaux, was R73
000 and Air France quoted R24 000. KLM told us no, that is our summer rate, we
are full, take it or leave it. So we left it and paid Air France. And, after we
booked, we found out that we could have gone through Pick ‘n Pay using our Blue
shoppers card and the fare would have been R20 000 plus the added points. The
airline food was horrible except that, on the way back, we actually had the
first edible airline pudding we have ever had. A light vanilla mousse topped
with profiteroles, stuffed with cream and covered in chocolate sauce. At last
we can say “Well Done” on one count! And they do keep you topped up with lots
of water, juice and snacks throughout the day or night. We love the daytime
flight back and would love to fly that way in both directions in future.
The Fourth of July
We hope all our American readers are having a wonderful holiday. We were
very pleased to welcome your President last week.
Flat to let We have a
small studio flat in Sea Point that will be available from August 1st. It is 54 square metres in size, with a large
main room, a good kitchen, a dressing room and a bathroom with shower over the
bath and loo, so it is quite spacious, has been kept immaculate by the
wonderful tenant we have had for four years and is in a very good block, right
behind the Winchester Mansions. We renovated it after we bought it. It is only
available for a 6 months or longer let (a condition set by the body corporate) and
we do require good references. Contact us quickly if you are interested or know
someone who is looking.
There is a huge and rapidly growing
variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western
Cape. There
are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have
made separate list for each month for which we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of
food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit
our Events Calendar. It
needs updating and we’ll do that tomorrow. All the events are listed in date
order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you
right through the year.
Learn about wine and cooking
We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine
education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see
details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here.
Chez
Gourmet in Claremont has a
programme of cooking classes. We plan to visit their French establishment after
Vinexpo. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his
catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed
his seafood course. Check
his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking
classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma
Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her
home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now being
run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite
Groote Schuur hospital). Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel
cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking
classes for small groups on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She trained with
Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
4th July 2013
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 and our blogs 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
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