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Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
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A grey heron by
the dams at l’Avenir - so still for so
long that he could have been a statue
In
this week’s MENU:
Taste your way
around the World with Durbanville Hills Wines “We Luv Wine”
Festival at the Cape Gate Shopping Centre HOW TO POACH A
CHOOK Continued This week’s recipe:
Pot Roast Beef Food and wine (and
a few other) events for you to enjoy Learn about wine
and cooking
To get the whole of our story, please
click on READ ON..... at the end of each paragraph, which will
lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each
blog, click on RETURN
TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.
This week’s Product menu – If you struggle to find some difficult Asian
products we have Shao Xing rice wine, mirin, black rice, and sometimes rare
red rice See them all here
We’ve enjoyed three completely
different wine tastings this week, combined with three completely different
restaurant lunches
Taste your way around the World Durbanville Hills Wines are taking guests
on an eight-week journey to discover the foods and cultures of countries from
around the world - paired with Durbanville Hills wines and typical cuisine from
New Zealand, Spain and the other countries which their winemakers have visited,
while promoting the wines of Durbanville Hills. These culinary
journeys are happening on Wednesday evenings until September 3rd. Your tour
guide might be Cellarmaster Martin Moore, whose business travels inspired these
tastings, red winemaker Wilhelm Coetzee or white winemaker Gunther Kellerman –
all are avid cooks. The cost is R280 per person. Contact Simone Brown at sibrown@durbanvillehills.co.za or 021 558 1300 to book or visit the
website for more information
We had been invited to try
last night’s journey to the food of Peru and we had a ball. Recent food
fashions dictated that we have all had to discover Vietnamese food, then it was
Spain and el Bulli, then foraging with the Scandinavians. Now, according to
Martin, Peruvian food is going to be the next big thing world-wide. Many of the
ingredients we eat today originated in South and Central America, like
chillies, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, maize, avocados, quinoa (pronounced
keenwa) and chocolate. We quote: “Foods that were prepared by ancient
civilizations are still enjoyed today, while typical Peruvian dishes have also
benefited from European, African and Asian influences. Peru's geographic
characteristics yield diverse ingredients: abundant seafood from the Pacific, tropical
fruits from the jungle and unusual varieties of grains and potatoes from the
Andes”. We have eaten some Peruvian food
at Keenwa restaurant in town and enjoyed it very much, so it was with a keen
sense of anticipation that we sat down to dinner with Martin Moore, our able
guide … READ ON......
“We Luv Wine”
Festival at the Cape Gate Shopping Centre This will take place on Friday, 22nd August between
17h00 and 21h00 and Saturday, 23rd August between 12h00- and 18h00. See
details here. Today, we joined other members of the
fourth estate at a media prequel of the festival, which included a tasting of
some of SA’s best Pinotages, matched with a selection of biltong
and dried
wors (sausage). A light lunch which followed was a
biltong quiche from Joubert & Monty’s cook book . You can taste these wines
and more, together with Joubert & Monty’s range of biltongs and droë wors as
well as delicacies from other sources, at the festival. Pebbles Project will be the
beneficiary of the festival and their representatives will be present to spread
their message and raise funds and awareness. Today’s tasting was held in the
tasting room at L’Avenir in Stellenbosch.. READ ON......
HOW TO POACH
A CHOOK Continued Well, this was a success. It started badly, when
Lynne unwrapped the organic chicken from our local supermarket to discover that
she had been sold one that should have been eaten four days before. Teaches one to pay attention. We are not
neurotic about sell by dates, except on food that can make you ill - like raw
chicken and sea food. Luckily, she was alerted by the unsavoury smell. So we
had to go and exchange it for a very fresh one. This put dinner back a couple
of hours. Several expletives and an apology from the store manager later, we
were back home with our 1.5 kilo chook.
Having made the master stock and got it boiling, the
chicken was immersed, brought back up to the boil; lid slammed on and removed
from the heat. Exactly one hour later, she took it out. It was fully cooked
(that had been a concern) and we had the chicken breasts served with a
cauliflower purée and lots of vegetables. They were very tender, but could have
been more so - they were quite firm.
Several things occurred to Lynne and we hope that some
of these questions can be answered by experienced readers. Or by Heston
Blumenthal, who tests these minutia for every possible variation. He has the
time and is paid to do it. Is it essential to bring it back up to the boil? Was
that what made the meat a little less tender?
Does putting the breast side down make a difference? Should one remove
the skin from the chicken before cooking it? What difference would that make to
the tenderness? The chicken was quite bland, despite the tasty master stock.
Removing the skin would have put it into contact with the flavours. Or,
perhaps, the skin should have been pricked all over? The stock was still very
hot, even after an hour in our cool kitchen. Does one rest the chicken? It,
too, was very hot. We had the legs the next day and they were also very tender,
perhaps more so. They were served in a barbecue sauce with lots of vegetables.
And, on day three, the rest of the meat on the chicken went into a stir fry.
This, actually, was the best, as the chicken seemed more tender. And two litres
of master stock are now in our freezer for another time.
Several things occurred to Lynne and we hope that some
of these questions can be answered by experienced readers. Is it essential to
bring it back up to the boil? Was that what made the meat a little less tender?
Should one remove the skin from the chicken before cooking it? What difference
would that make to the tenderness. The chicken was quite bland, despite the
tasty master stock. Removing the skin would have put it into contact with the
flavours. Or, perhaps, the skin should have been pricked all over? The stock
was still very hot, even after an hour in our cool kitchen. Does one rest the
chicken? It, too, was very hot. We had the legs the next day and they were also
very tender, perhaps more so. They were served in a barbecue sauce with lots of
vegetables. And, on day three, the rest of the meat on the chicken went into a
stir fry. This, actually, was the best, as the chicken seemed more tender. And
two litres of master stock are now in our freezer for another time.
This week’s recipe: Pot Roast Beef Our next culinary adventure, this week, was cooking a
pot roast of beef for a dinner party. We love our beef pink, but we had such a
success with baking gammon recently that Lynne wondered what would happen if she
followed a similar process with a roast of beef. Our fore cuts tend to be
cheaper, but are often as tough as old boots, so this seemed a good method to
try. Here is the recipe she used: It was very, very flavourful and the stock it
produced made a good gravy, which we served poured over the rather grey falling-apart
sliced meat. The alarming thing is the shrinkage. Our 1.5 Kg shrank to half its
size, but was still enough to feed 6 people.
1.5 Kg silverside or brisket,
in one piece. Tie it up in string, if necessary, to make a neat roll – 2 T
canola oil - 1 large onion, chopped – 2 sticks of celery, chopped - 20 ml
brandy – 50 ml red wine - 3 carrots, peeled, and cut into four – 3 washed and
trimmed leeks – (optional) 1 or 2 turnips, cut into eighths – a bouquet garni
of rosemary, thyme and bay – 600 ml good beef stock – 6 to 8 cloves of garlic,
crushed
In a frying pan, brown the meat all over. Remove or
set aside. Add the onions to the same pan and fry until they are softening. Add
the celery and continue frying for another 5 minutes. Put them into the bottom
of a cast iron casserole with a lid, just big enough to hold the roast and the
vegetables. Deglaze the pan with the brandy and then the red wine. Pour the
result into the casserole. Arrange the vegetables on the base with the bouquet
garni and the garlic and then place the roast on top. Pour on the stock. Bring
to a simmer on top of the oven and then put into a 160°C oven for two plus
hours. Turn the beef after one hour and top up with more stock if it is looking
dry. You need to cook this long and slow, until the beef texture is soft and
can begin to shred at the edges; it took us nearly four hours. Take out the
beef and rest it under some foil. Remove the vegetables from the casserole and
drain off the stock, which you will use in your red wine gravy. Serve these
cooked vegetables with more fresh vegetables and new potatoes. Slice the beef
and serve with the gravy. Rich, satisfying and delicious.
The full menu, with accompaniments, was a glass each
of Laborie 2008 Brut MCC with some olives (pimento stuffed green and unstuffed
black). The starter was a French paté de campagne with Dewetshof Bon
Vallon chardonnay 2013 and a mackerel paté made by Lynne, served with
Springfield Special Cuvée 2011 sauvignon blanc. The pot roast beef was accompanied
by a 2006 Nitida Calligraphy Bordeaux-style blend, which was quite
nmagnificent. Dessert was an orange panna cotta, served with a 2002 Pierre
Jourdan Ratafia.
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 type of
event 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 list of wine and food
pairing dinners, list
of Special events with wine and/or food connections,
list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events.
All the events are listed in date order and we 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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become
professional chefs, will soon start a new series of short courses in baking.
Check the ad in our blog page or see the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
In addition to the
new Sense
of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details
here
Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek
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 Thursday evenings and she has decided to
introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus
on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught
over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team
building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a
professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
24th July 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
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.
This electronic
journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or
because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you
themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or
organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our
mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish
to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.
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 type of
event 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 list of wine and food
pairing dinners, list
of Special events with wine and/or food connections,
list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events.
All the events are listed in date order and we 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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become
professional chefs, will soon start a new series of short courses in baking.
Check the ad in our blog page or see the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
In addition to the
new Sense
of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details
here
Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek
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 Thursday evenings and she has decided to
introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus
on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught
over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team
building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a
professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
31st July 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
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.
This electronic
journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or
because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you
themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or
organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our
mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish
to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.
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