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Gourmet
Foods & Ingredients
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In Guide’s Five time Outstanding Outlet Award Winner
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An owl surveys the werf at
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In
this week’s MENU:
Gentleman
Spirits and the Spirit of the fruit The
Best of Jordan at Woolworths Dornier
Bodega Seafood Platter special Chicken
Cacciatore Age and wine
Follow this link to see our Main Ingredient blogs, because to tell our
whole story here would take too much space. Click on Bold words in the
text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent
websites or more information. Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu
This week’s Product menu: We have been without the wonderful Protea Hill
Farm raspberry balsamic vinegars for a couple of weeks, but we visited the farm
yesterday and have new stock of the youthful tank-matured and the aged, barrel-matured
version, which costs a little more but its depth and richness justify the
investment. Listening to Jenny Morris on Cape Talk in the car this afternoon,
driving to the Convention Centre, we were very pleased to hear one of our
customers call in to say that an earlier caller to Cape Talk would be able to
find chestnut purée on our shelf. Thank you, Michael. We also have whole
chestnuts and various other variations on that theme. Another caller mentioned
that he could only find synthetic almond “essence”. Look no further, we have
Nielsen Massey’s superb, real almond extract and their whole range of other
real extracts like vanilla, coffee, chocolate, lemon, orange (blossom and
juice) and rose water. Our online shop shows our range of rare and exciting
products which you are unlikely to find elsewhere in South Africa. See it here
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.
Gentleman Spirits and the Spirit of the
fruit Do you like Grappa, or Schnapps or Eau de Vie? Do you
like a spirited aperitif before a meal or a digestif after dinner with your
coffee? Then the passion of the people behind Gentleman Spirits will excite you
as will their bright, clear and sophisticated products.
We studied distilling when we took the Cape Wine
Academy diploma so, when we were invited to the launch of Gentleman Spirit
distillery on Blaauwklippen, we were interested to see this very neat and clean
installation and of course to taste the impressive results. Briefly, if you
ferment ripe macerated fruit and then cook it, you can distil out the alcohol
that fermentation produces, giving you a clear spirit which still shows the
character of the original fruit or grain. It doesn’t have to be fruit, you can
do nuts, herbs, spices and other substances that ferment. What do they taste
like? Intense flavours of the fruit and other complex nuances, followed by a lovely
warming kick of hot alcohol. You don’t drink much, just a small glass is
enough.
Gentleman Spirit
is an association of three talented men. Rolf Zeitvogel the Managing Director
and cellar master of Blaauwklippen, Hubertus Vallendar, a renowned master distiller
in his home country, Germany, where he has won the world championship in
distilling in two of three categories at the World Spirits Awards 2011 and
2012. Urs Gmür from Switzerland is the strategist of the three gentlemen
partners. Why are they doing this here? Because our sunshine and soil produces
a wonderful selection of good ripe fruit and grapes from excellent terroir.
And they want to set the bar in distilling in South
Africa higher than ever before. To quote Hubertus “We cannot lower our standards,
because all the space below is already occupied”. This week, we were invited to
see the sparkling clean and well organised distillery and to taste some of
their spirits. This was followed by a lunch at the Blaauwklippen restaurant. Click here to see the experience.
The Best of Jordan at Woolworths On Tuesday, we were invited to lunch at Jordan by Woolworths to
celebrate their long association with Jordan wines. The Exclusive Selection of
Jordan wines bottled for Woolworths is so accessible and such a pleasure to
drink. CWM Alan Mullins started doing this special selection of wines for
Woolworth 25 years ago and they now have 250 cycled products on their list.
It is no secret that George Jardine is one of our
favourite chefs in the Cape and he produced a meal of quite extraordinarily
delicious food, designed to match and highlight these beautiful wines. Not
every chef gets this right, he is really skilled at it. He tells us he has been
foraging for years and the plates were beautifully presented and packed full of
flavour and interesting combinations and George’s signature sauces. Photographs of the people, the wines and the food here.
Dornier Bodega Seafood Platter for two
on special in August You have one more week to get yourself to
Bodega on Dornier for their August Wednesday special: half price seafood
platter. We could not resist the temptation when we learned of this and booked
three weeks ago for the first possible Wednesday. It did not disappoint. Despite
the really awful cold and wet weather, we had a lovely lunch, drank some good
Dornier wine with the seafood, bought some of their current special, a box of
Cocoa Hill red for R242 and then went on to see Hempies du Toit at Annandale,
just a few kilometres down the road from Dornier, to taste his great wines and
port. Click here to see the photographs of Dornier
and here to see Hempies at his historic farm.
Giving Credit where credit is due Totally
uninspired on Monday night, all cooked out from the weekend but needing a quick
and easy supper using what we have in the fridge or freezer, Lynn adapted this
really quick Nigella recipe which she thinks you will like and enjoy. We added
extra vegetables like carrot batons, celery, slices of courgette and patty pans
to bulk it up with more goodness but they are not essential. Just assemble all
the ingredients and off you go. This is a one pot dish cooked on the top of the
stove. You could use fish if you don’t eat meat but just add it to the sauce at
the last minute so you don’t overcook it.
Chicken Cacciatore
1 tablespoon olive oil - 1/2 cup pancetta
cubes or bacon - 6 large spring onions, finely sliced – 1 clove of garlic - 1
teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves - 500g chicken thigh fillets,
each cut into 4 pieces - 1/2 teaspoon celery salt -1/2 cup white wine – 1 x 400g
can chopped tomatoes - 2 bay leaves - 1/2 teaspoon sugar – 1 x 400g can
cannellini beans, optional
Put the oil into a pan with the pancetta, sliced
spring onions, garlic and chopped rosemary and fry for a couple of minutes. Add
the bite-sized chicken pieces, stirring well, and sprinkle in the celery salt.
Pour in the wine and let it come to a bubble before adding the tomatoes, bay
leaves and sugar. Put the lid on and let the pan simmer for 20 minutes or until
the chicken is done. Drain and add a tin of cannellini beans and when they have
warmed through too, you are ready to eat. Serve this with rice or tagliatelli
if you need a starch. Serves 4.
Age and wine We are
sometimes asked why we have a cellar with a fairly large amount of wine. The
justification comes when one wants something for a special meal and can select
a well-aged, beautiful wine. We did this last Sunday when daughter Clare came
to celebrate Lynne’s birthday. Lynne prepared a lamb casserole and asked for a
merlot to go with it. We selected a 1998 Overgaauw merlot (sadly, we don’t have
many bottles of similar age). What a treat! Age had not dimmed its favours. It
was supple and elegant, with beautiful red cherry/plum fruit and a mineral
backbone to keep it from being flabby. We enjoyed half the bottle on Sunday and
finished it on Monday evening and it had not suffered from being open for 24
hours. In similar vein, Bruce Jack’s 2006 Weather Girl white blend tasted
recently and Cape Point 2006 Isliedh were both delicious, with the youthful
fruit and acidity tempered by complex flavours of maturity. Just as a beautiful
woman can mature and become more interesting, so can a wine and many of our
best wines become so much better when they are allowed to spend a few years
resting peacefully in a quiet place. It might be in a
cupboard under the stairs or any other quiet cool corner, but building a
collection of wines which can be allowed to age gracefully will pay huge
rewards.
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 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, then you pay and then we
deliver or post. 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. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.
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
22nd August 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 online shop 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! ®
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