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Apostles as a South Easter gathers force
In
this week’s MENU:
LANZERAC in Stellenbosch opens its tasting room CONSTANTIA
GLEN tasting venue This week’s recipe: Rice Pilaff Last week’s Competition winners
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.
This week’s Product menu - Do you bake? It seems a no-brainer when the cakes and
biscuits available in the supermarket are very expensive and really not always
terribly good and often taste of fake vanilla or other ersatz flavours. You may
not be aware that we carry a very good range of real extracts for baking and
dessert making from the United States. We stock 11 Nielsen Massey extracts
which have real flavours and are world famous. Do not confuse fake “essences”
with real extracts; they are chemical concoctions whose flavour can never
compare with the real thing. If you watch the Food channels you will often see
the professional chefs using them. They are strong and true to the flavours and
last very well. Check our online shop to see more details and prices.
It is strange how two similar events can come up in
the same week, it doesn’t happen that often and this week we were asked to
review two new tasting rooms on wine farms which have recently opened.
LANZERAC in Stellenbosch We began at Lanzerac on Tuesday. They have done a complete revamp and
rebuild and made the tasting room larger and more user-friendly. They have also
added a Deli/restaurant and there now are also picnics available in a new
location on the farm. Click here to see pictures and to read about the event
and what is now on offer
CONSTANTIA GLEN On
Wednesday, having been invited, we visited the new tasting room at Constantia
Glen. It has been open for a while over the Christmas season, but this was the
first chance we had to visit. It is another great place to aim for when
visiting wine farms in Constantia and a platter lunch with wine tasting on the
terrace is certainly worth doing. Click here to learn more and see the photographs.
Next week is going to be very busy and we will be
reviewing a new restaurant, attending the Riesling Rocks festival at Hartenberg
on this Saturday, going aboard the Queen Mary 2 for lunch and attending a
fairly formal dinner in town showcasing the Breedekloof area wines. Watch this
space next week for reports.
Last week’s Competition winners We
are delighted to announce that Bryan Pearson and Barbara Swanepoel are the
winners of a pair of tickets each to Franschhoek Summer Wines festival being held at Leopards
Leap Estate in Franschhoek on Saturday 8th February. Tickets are
still available if you were not successful. The correct answer was Hanneli
Rupert-Koegelenberg and Hein
Koegelenberg
This week’s recipe came about because Lynne was watching
Michel Roux’s programme and she was intrigued to see him make a simple rice
pilaff. This recipe comes from Larousse. We had cooked a duck on Sunday which
came from Woolworths at Christmas. It was on special offer after Christmas –
“Buy two and get a huge reduction”, partially deboned and stuffed with apricots
and spices. She followed the cooking instructions to a T and, as usual, we
found the duck to be flavourful but as tough as old boots. So, on Monday night,
she removed most of the remaining flesh and slowly cooked the rest of the duck
in some wine and good chicken stock, long and slow till it tenderised and fell
apart. We have another of these ducks in the freezer and it will be cooked in a
similar way in a closed casserole until it is tender. The rice Pilaff was very
easy to make and absolutely delicious with the duck, soaking up all the juices.
She loves recipes that you can bury in the oven while you cook something else.
It has a very different texture and flavour, being
quite moist and creamy, but not sticky like a risotto, and the grains are
separate. It will now be a regular way for us to cook rice for special dinners
and definitely to go with Middle Eastern or Indian food. You can of course make
this into a vegetarian/vegan pilaff by using vegetable stock and substituting
the butter for more olive oil. And you can go on to add meat, chicken, seafood,
vegetables and spices to add bulk and interest and turn this into a main
course.
This is made in an oven proof dish with a tightly
fitting lid that can also go on the hob. A Pyrex casserole or a le Creuset
works very well indeed.
Rice Pilaff
2 shallots or one onion, very
finely chopped – ½ t olive oil – 1 T butter - 2 cups of rice - 5 cups of
chicken stock – 100 ml dry white wine - sprig of thyme – half a bay leaf – a
pinch of saffron – salt – white pepper – a piece of baking parchment to cover
the dish
Fry the onion gently in the oil and butter with a
pinch of salt, until they are transparent. Do not brown. When it is soft, add
the rice and stir till all the grains are transparent. Add the white wine and
let it bubble away. You can also use verjuice, which has no alcohol, as
an alternative to wine. Add the stock, a good shake of white pepper and the herbs
and saffron. (At this stage you could add all sorts of different herbs and
spices). Stir, then cover the pot with the paper, then its lid and put into a
170°C oven for 30 minutes or until the liquid has almost all gone and the rice
is very moist and glossy. Do not overcook or let the rice get dry. Taste and
adjust the seasoning as necessary. Serve with any suitable meat dish.
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.
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. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
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. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who made 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
24th January 2014
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 and standard 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
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