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In
this week’s MENU:
This week’s
products: Rose & Orange blossom water, Masa Harina Thali at Chandani A Generous
Celebration of Chardonnay Art in the Heart of
the Breedekloof Rhebokskloof – The
Evolution of an Icon Santa Shoe Box This week’s recipe:
Easy Aioli Tastings and
Festivals 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 Real
Rose water and Orange Blossom Water. Jenny Morris, the Giggling
Gourmet, said this afternoon on Cape Talk radio that she can’t find this in
Cape Town. We have stocked both of these real extracts from the flowers for
years. In fact, we have two different brands for both, the excellent Nielsen
Massey concentrates and ready to use local products from a good local spice
merchant. Wonderfully aromatic and flavourful, these are for culinary purposes,
they are not fake coloured essences, not aromatherapy extracts nor for putting
in your bath. Although you could... See them here
And a new
product We have been asked, mainly by American
expats, if we can find real masa harina corn flour for them. The answer has
always been in the negative, until now. We can now supply real Mexican masa
harina, but there is a caveat. It is a fresh product without preservatives and
MUST be refrigerated. It comes in 2 Kg packs. No other quantities are
available. You need to order and we will deliver locally or you can collect
from us. It is not suitable for posting or for delivery to destinations outside
Cape Town See it here
Thali at
Chandani This was the second restaurant we booked
for during Restaurant Week and, this time, we went with two friends who were
also fans of the restaurant. We didn’t know what we would be eating before hand
as they didn’t publish their Restaurant Week Menu on line, which was a pity as
it might have attracted more guests. The dinner cost R175 per person for 3
courses and what we got was not what we expected. Read On.....
A Generous
Celebration of Chardonnay Every two
years, De Wetshof in Robertson holds this very prestigious tasting. It is, to
quote Danie de Wet: “to pay homage to South African wine producers whose
passion for Chardonnay is displayed in the quality of their wines currently in
the market ... we believe that, as a wine nation, South Africa can now be
recognized as a global force in the production of site-specific wines
expressing their place of origin to the degree of excellence this variety
deserves”. Visiting wine journalist Andrew Jefford was the guest speaker and he
made an impassioned plea for growers to look more closely at growing site
specific wines. See his address here
Two marquees were erected, one
for the tasting of three Methode Cap Classique wines and 16 Chardonnays , two
each from different region of the Cape winelands selected by a panel lead by
David Hughes, British Wine Master Richard Kershaw and winemaker Hannes Storm. The
wines were tasted blind and they were magnificent.
The other was for lunch
prepared by Chef Garth Stroebel and his team. They have catered for this even
since its inception in 2004. Lunch was five courses and we were served the
wines that did not quite make it into the top 16 plus two Chardonnays from
France and the Laborie Alambic Brandy. All of them were superb, as was lunch.
What impressed us most was the
unstinting generosity of spirit shown by the De Wet family in promoting all South African Chardonnays in this
way. Read on.....
Art in the Heart
of the Breedekloof: an Art and Cultural Experience So it was up and at ‘em bright and early again
to get to this country function. We were in the area almost a year ago and
vowed to return so this was the perfect opportunity. It was a day packed full
of art, fun experiences, wine and some kids’ party food. We absolutely loved
the experience, tried not to drink too much, drooped with a little exhaustion
at the final 8th destination Slanghoek Cellar. Lynne bought a painting that really
spoke to her, which brought back memories of a past event. It is a lovely area
to visit, with so much more to offer than we ever believed and the wines have
improved by leaps and bounds. We should also mention that the prices are very
reasonable. Go and see for yourself. Read on.....
Rhebokskloof –
The Evolution of an Icon We just had
one and a half hours, after our day in Breedekloof, to change into something
more suited to an evening function (we did that in our car, as all the places
in Breedekloof had closed) and then drive via the magnificent Bain’s Kloof Pass
to get to this event held at the northern end of Paarl. Rhebokskloof has appointed
Executive chef Alicia Giliomee to run the restaurant and we were also
introduced to two new wines: Black Marble Hill Syrah and The Rhebok, a blend of
Syrah, Pinotage and Mourvedre, which has a new label. The evening was amusingly
and ably steered by Master of Ceremonies and Wine Manager Francois Naudé. Read On.....
Santa Shoe Box We are so delighted to hear that this
annual initiative received over 120,000 shoeboxes, filled with educational
goodies, toys, sweets and outfits of clothing, which will go to needy and
forgotten children all over the country. If you didn’t get involved this year,
do try to join next year. Check out their website here. We
downloaded the list of things to go in the box and bought the items through the
year, so it wasn’t such a huge outlay at the end.
This week’s
recipe: Easy Aioli (garlic mayonnaise-like sauce)
Most of us have stick blenders
nowadays and, with this marvellous piece of equipment, you can now whip up a
mayonnaise, rouille or aioli in seconds. You can adjust seasonings or
quantities, but this recipe works.
100 ml extra virgin
olive oil – 100 ml canola oil – 1 raw egg - 1 T Dijon mustard – 2 t white wine
vinegar – 1 clove of garlic, crushed – flake salt – ¼ t cayenne pepper
Put all the ingredients into a
narrow jug or container that will take your stick blender. Turn on and move it
up and down several times until you have thick cream. Vary the quantity of salt,
garlic and or cayenne or chilli according to your taste. You can also add fresh
herbs like basil or tarragon, or a mix of others to make a green mayonnaise.
Experiment and enjoy. Lovely with summer salads and seafood.
Tastings and Festivals Bosman Release Celebration on Lelienfontein estate on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th November.
Bosman Wine Club members each receive two complimentary tickets. Tickets can be
booked online through Webtickets. Additional tickets for family and friends can
also be booked at R150pp. Ticket includes access to both days, a wine glass and
a R50 voucher redeemable with your first purchase of six bottles of wine on the
day. Tasting journey through the 250 year old cellar. Children under 12 enter
free of charge. Food is sold at an additional cost of R50 per station. Live
entertainment.
Wine Concepts will celebrate their thirteenth year of staging their
“Finer Things in Life” Champagne Festival with the theme of Ebony & Ivory
on Friday 21st November. They will be offering more than 30 cuvees for tasting
from premium and boutique Champagne Houses to tantalize your taste buds. Expect
names like Taittinger, Piper Heidsieck, Drappier, Mumm, Ruinart, Montaudon,
Jacquart, Philipponat and many more. Tickets cost R380.00 if purchased from Wine Concepts stores or online on
www.webtickets.co.za Tickets will be on sale for R400 at the door on the evening.
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, has a variety of courses. 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.
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
7th November 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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