The end of summer
on the beach as gulls tell us the weather is about to change
In
this week’s MENU:
WTM (World Travel Market) at the CTICC Long Weekends Salted Caramel Learn about wine and cooking
We write about
our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to
visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try
to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what
is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit.
To get the whole story with photographs,
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.
Taste of Cape
Town We went on the first evening this year and
found it to be a lot more fun than last year, but with less impressive food. And
on chatting to some of our hotel, restaurant, wine and cheffie friends, it
seems that they want things back the way they were to start with or their
presence might be missed next year. We can’t put our finger on what made it so
much fun, perhaps seeing so many friends in the wine and food world as well as
people attending whom we knew, but it was fun.
We ate and really enjoyed food
from two venues, the rest was OK but not terribly exciting to us. It seems that
the top restaurants won’t come and do this as a purely PR exercise –would they
need to? They don’t make money, but we think they are missing out on
introducing new people to their excellent food. Read on…
Harvest Party at
Creation An invitation we were delighted to accept,
this turned into a rockingly good evening with DJ Tess playing all the numbers
that get you up dancing, lots of food, excellent wine and fun. But there was
also a purpose to the evening and for every bottle of wine the guests ordered,
30% was being donated to the local primary school for very necessary supplies,
improvements and upliftment. And a lot of wine was drunk. They introduced their
new Special Reserve Merlot and it is one to rush off and buy. Intensely fruity
but very elegant and layered, this classic merlot shows no green stalkiness and
is beautifully made. Yes, we bought some and yes, we stayed in the valley. Read on…
Bouchard
Finlayson Vertical Tasting in Town We
were invited to taste some of these great Hemel and Aarde wines at Hildebrand
in the Waterfront this week. We do go there a lot but don’t always have time to
visit all the wine farms we like and respect. This is one of them and if you find
yourselves in the area, do go and do a tasting of these wines. You will find a
warm welcome and some superb Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and elegant red blends,
as well as their Blanc de Mer white blend of Riesling, Viognier and Chenin
Blanc Read on…
Authentic
experience, great food and passionate people at Solms Delta As Klink judges we are always looking at
what else wine farms do to attract customers. Solms Delta in Franschhoek has so
much to offer it rather puts the rest to shame. This week we were invited to
experience the whole gamut of things on offer and we had a very good day,
despite power cuts and rain. John does take his tour customers there for the
cultural experiences and wine. Yesterday we discovered how good the restaurant
is and the people we met, who so love what they do. We had a wine tasting with
the assistant winemaker, Joan Heatlie, a walk through the Dik Delta fynbos food
garden with gardener Johan O’Rayn, lunch in Fyndraai restaurant cooked by chef
Shaun Schoeman and visit to The Music van de Caab museum with Wanna
Malgas. You too can enjoy similar experiences when you visit. Read on…
WTM (World
Travel Market) at the CTICC We managed
a brief visit to this international and local travel Market at the Conference
Centre on our way back from Franschhoek and have managed to sort out a few
interesting things with Turkish Airlines and The Turkish Tourism board as well
as making new contacts and networks in the travel trade. It is a vast and very
mixed show, with a huge array of travel opportunities, large, down to very
small indeed. It is more for the trade than the public however.
Long Weekends There will be lots of things happening
this coming weekend – we will be at the Pinotage & Biltong festival at
L’Avenir and hope to see some of you there. We have also been invited to a
couple of very exciting places which you will read about next week – dinner on
The Queen Mary while she is in port and a night at Bartholomeus Klip. The
following long weekend brings the Cheese Festival, the last Market at Groote
Post and many more events – check out our What’s On list if you are looking for
something to excite you.
Salted Caramel We have been enjoying chocolate and caramel
tarts and desserts so much recently Lynne though you needed this recipe so you
can make your own. It is delicious on ice cream, puddings or on a pastry base,
then covered with a good dark chocolate ganache. You can also pour it on
shortbread to make a millionaires version, topped with the chocolate.
330g white sugar (1½ cups) -
125ml water - 50g butter, cubed – 250 ml cream (1 cup) - 1 tsp vanilla extract
– 1 tsp flaked sea salt
Have the butter and the cream
to hand. Put the sugar and the water In a heavy bottomed pan and heat until the
sugar caramelises. Keep an eye on it as you don’t want the sugar to burn. When
it has reached a lovely amber caramel colour, remove from the heat and quickly
but carefully add the butter and cream, stirring well. It will be very hot. Add
the vanilla extract and then add some of the salt. Taste when cooler and add
more till it is to your liking.
You can pour this into a jar
and keep in the fridge in a sealed container, just warm to pour. You can add
more cream or milk if it is a little thick. You could pour this into a prepared
pie crust, or individual ones and then top with a good chocolate ganache made with
150g chopped dark chocolate and 125 ml cream. Heat the cream to scalding but do
not boil. Pour over the chocolate pieces and whip together till you have a good
thick ganache. Use immediately and enjoy.
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
In addition to his
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
Nicolette van
Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague
Gardens
George Jardine
will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at
Jordan. Details here
16th April 2015
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.
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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.
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