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In
this week’s MENU:
The International
Wine and Spirit Competition Franschhoek
Summer Wines Elgin Tweet up Saronsberg Lunch at the Cape Grace This week’s recipe:
Szechuan stir fry
Change
in the way we present MENU Thank
you to all who gave us feedback about the way we are presenting MENU. One pertinent comment was that it was not easy to go back
to MENU after reading one of the blogs. We have inserted a "Return to
MENU" link at the bottom of each of the related story blogs and it will
take you back to the blog version of MENU
This week’s Product menu - Just
to remind you that we carry a huge range of unusual spices from all over the
world. Lynne has used Szechuan pepper in this week's MENU. We
have whole nutmegs, cardamom pods, great Spanish saffron, Za'atar and Sumac
from the middle east; pink peppercorns, grains of paradise and many other hard
to find spices. If you can find it in the supermarket, we don't usually
stock it, just the ones you would struggle to find... Check our online shop to see more details and prices.
The
International Wine and Spirit Competition is held in London once a year
and wines from all over the world are entered. First, a contingent of local
judges in each country meets to judge the local wines entered into the
competition. Their best wines are then sent to London for the large
competition. Some of these same judges also go to London to judge international
wines. So it was with great enthusiasm that we accepted an invitation to taste
the South African wines which won Gold and Silver awards last year and some of
the International trophy winners. Click here to see what we tasted and read our feedback.
Franschhoek
Summer Wines Sunday was a lovely day to
drive through to Franschhoek for the Franschhoek Summer Wines festival held on
the lawns at Leopards Leap The festival started at midday and was extremely
well attended. Click here to see our photographs and read about this
successful summery festival, the wines and the good food.
Elgin Tweet up On Tuesday afternoon we took part in a "Tweet
up” at Caroline's Fine Wines in central Cape Town. This was done in conjunction
with the Elgin Winemakers who were in Elgin, watching the tweets of the media
in town and adding their own spin. Iona winemaker Werner Muller was with us in
Cape Town to give us local information about soils and climate. Elgin is not
especially known for Chardonnay; that needs to change. We all know they produce
great Sauvignon Blancs and really superb Pinot Noir. Now the Chardonnays and
Shirazes being produced are showing that this area has length and depth with
different varietals. We tasted some very, very good Chardonnays from the area,
some of which are prize winning wines every year and others you have probably
not yet discovered. Yes, the Paul Cluver, Iona, Richard Kershaw and Oak Valley
are chardonnays about which we have written enthusiastically in the last year
and thoroughly recommended. But have you discovered Almenkerk, Corder, Elgin
Vintners, Lothian, Oneiric, Sutherland and Winter's Drift, all of which are
worth a look. Click here to see some photos. If
you would like to follow us on Twitter, our handle is @mainingmenu. We will be doing
more Elgin Tweet Ups in the future and we do regularly tweet at wine and food
events we attend.
Saronsberg Lunch
at the Cape Grace On Wednesday we
were invited to the Cape Grace Hotel for the first media tasting ever of all of
Saronsberg’s wines. Saronsberg’s owner Nick van Huysteen, his wife Mariette and
their very skilful, informative and likeable winemaker Dewaldt Heyns have been
working successfully together for the last 10 years on the two farms in Tulbagh
that make up Saronsberg and they are producing some really exceptional wines. It
is a good partnership that works. Dewaldt guided us through a tasting of all
the wines and then we sat down to lunch. The hotel also came to the party and,
as we have said in the recent past, is producing some great food and is
artfully matching that food with the wines. Some of these matches were spot on
and it is so exciting to see both complimenting each other in this way. Click here to see what we drank and what we ate.
This week’s
recipe
is something we eat regularly. This version is quite spicy but not too hot. We
use an unsweetened commercial chilli sauce, quite a mild one. We just vary the
protein, the vegetables and some of the sauce ingredients. Stir fries are
fairly quick to make, but there is a bit of preparation time on the vegetables.
If pushed for time, you can buy a pack of prepared stir fry vegetable,
sometimes with cooked noodles, from good supermarkets. All you need is some
good protein, a little marinating time and a hot wok. You can serve this with
noodles or rice or if you are avoiding carbs, this is a very filling dish on
its own.
Lynne has noticed that many
Chinese recipes add a little corn flour (maizena) to their sauces. She thought
it was there to thicken the sauce, but now is convinced that it seems to
tenderize meat or chicken. Try the recipe with the corn flour and try it
without and see if you think the meat is more tender with it. She is convinced.
Szechuan
stir fry
200 to 300g lean
pork , beef or chicken breast, sliced thinly across the grain into bite sized strips
– 2 T honey – 2 T soya sauce – 1 T medium chilli sauce – 1 T fish sauce – 1 t
sesame oil - 2 t corn flour – 1 t Szechuan pepper
Crush the Szechuan pepper in a
pestle and mortar and add to the other sauce ingredients. Marinade the meat in
this sauce for half an hour while you prepare the vegetable.
You can use a selection of any
of these vegetables. The choice is up to you. We often have them in our fridge.
Fill a large salad bowl with the selection and you will have enough for four
people.
2 carrots, peeled and cut into
batons – 2 courgettes, ditto –a cup of bean sprouts – 2 cups of sliced cabbage
or bok
choi –a red pepper, sliced – mange tout or sugar snap
peas – baby corn – spring onions – chopped leeks – broccoli and or cauliflower
broken into small ‘trees’ – green beans - a roughly chopped sweet onion –
spinach or chard – celery – asparagus – your favourite crisp vegetable
A thumb sized piece
of fresh ginger, finely chopped – 2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped – 1
T peanut or canola oil
Add the oil to your wok and
heat till it is almost smoking . Throw in the ginger and garlic and quickly
stir fry for one minute. Add the meat and stir fry till browned on all sides
and then add all the vegetables and the rest of the marinating sauce. Stir fry until they
are just cooked but still crisp, then serve. This all takes less than five to
10 minutes. The sauce will coat everything.
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. 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
13th February 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! ®
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