A classic Greek
Island church on Ios
In
this week’s MENU:
Stuffed
Cabbage rolls in a lemon Sauce - Lahanodolmades Learn about wine and cooking
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Continuing the Aegean Odyssey
This week, we tell you about the first days of the Greek part of our Odyssey:
our three day stay in Santorini and our first day in Naxos, a much less
frenetically tourist island, which we loved. Lynne had so wanted John to see a
typical seaside Greek town and Naxos is it. Read On:
MENU's Aegean Odyssey. Day 9: Santorini and NaxosPerdeberg Winery launches its new Barrel Cellar We returned to work this week and were invited to Perdeberg for the launch of their new Barrel cellar, with lunch. We have always loved their wines, especially their Chenin Blancs and we sold cases of them when we had our shop, Main Ingredient, so we knew we were in for a good day. They had organised a bus to take us out to the farm from town, which we are always grateful for, as tasting wine all day and then driving home means John cannot enjoy the day as much as he would like. Read On
Old Mutual Trophy Public Tasting at the
CTICC Because we were away when these awards
were announced and we had to miss the awards lunch, this was an event not to
miss, as we could taste the Trophy wines and some of the other medal winners. It
was held last Friday at the CTICC and was a very special tasting of some lovely
wines especially, for us, the Museum class wines.. Read on
This week's recipe is, as promised, a classic Greek recipe: Stuffed Cabbage
rolls in a lemon Sauce - Lahanodolmades. We ate this at a small
taverna on our first night in Diakofto in the Peloponnese and they were
delicious.
1 whole 2 kg cabbage (if your cabbage is
not large enough, just use the outer leaves from two - 1kg beef or lamb mince -
2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped - whites of 2 eggs - 1 T chopped parsley
- 1 T chopped dill - 90 ml rice - 1/3 of a cup olive oil - salt and freshly
ground black pepper
Lemon sauce: 2 T butter - 1/2 T flour -
juice of 1 large lemon - 3/4 of a cup milk - the yolks of the two eggs, beaten -
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Carefully take all the leaves off the cabbage,
discarding the outer leaves. Wash them well. Blanch them quickly, in batches, in
a large pot of boiling water. This will soften them and make them more pliable
and easier to roll. Remove from the water and drain them. spoon and place on a
clean working surface. Allow to cool then remove the thick inner vein on the
leaves and set these aside for use later.
For the stuffing, mix the mince, onions, parsley,
dill, rice and egg whites together very well, preferably kneading with your
hands and then season, Fry a small piece of the mince to see if the flavour is
to your liking and adjust the seasoning.
Place one leaf on a flat board (if it is too big, cut
it in smaller pieces), add a dessert spoonful of the filling on the bottom
centre of the leaf, fold the bottom of the leaf upwards, bring in the two sides
and carefully roll up but not too tightly. Try not to overfill the rolls, as the rice will expand during cooking. continue
until you have used up all the filling. Layer the bottom of a large pot with
the removed thick inner vein of the leaves and any cabbage leaves that were too
small for rolling. Lay the stuffed cabbage rolls on top, fold side down, in
nicely packed layers. Season with salt and pepper and pour in the olive oil.
Place an inverted plate on top to hold them down when cooking and pour in
enough water to just cover them. Put the lid on and bring slowly to a simmer.
Turn the heat down and simmer over medium heat for about 1 hour, until the
cabbage is tender. Drain the remaining water, keep it and arrange the cabbage
in a serving dish; keep warm until the sauce is ready and you are about to
serve.
Make the lemon sauce. Make a roux by melting the
butter over medium heat, then add the flour and whisk to form a paste, cook for
a minute or two. Add the lemon juice and then slowly add the milk, a little at
a time whilst whisking to make the sauce. Then pour in 3/4 of a cup of the
drained liquid and whisk, until the sauce thickens a little bit. Then, off the
heat, stir in the two egg yolks which will thicken the sauce even more. Taste,
adjust the seasoning and add more lemon if you like. Pour the sauce over the
stuffed cabbage rolls and season well with freshly ground pepper.
COMING EVENTS:
Tuesday 23rd June at 17h45 for 18h00 (until approximately
19:30) Bouchard
Finlayson‘s Tutored Wine Tastings series will make a stop at home, on the Bouchard Finlayson
wine farm, R320 Hemel-en-Aarde Road in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley. The informal,
relaxed tasting for a maximum of 20 guests will take place in Bouchard
Finlayson’s Barrel Cellar and will be hosted by renowned winemaker and South
Africa’s ‘Pinot Pioneer’, Peter Finlayson, who looks forward to taking guests
on an inspiring wine journey of old and new vintages. Guests will be able to
taste 12 Bouchard Finlayson wines in total, paired with a selection of
delectable canapés. The first flight will consist of three vintages from a
small production of Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, followed by six vintages of Tête
de Cuvée Pinot Noir and the revered Cape Winemakers Guild Pinot Noir, while the
last flight will showcase three vintages from Bouchard Finlayson’s flagship
Missionvale Chardonnay. Cost: R250 per person (includes wine and canapés). Bookings
are essential: contact Bouchard Finlayson on 028 312 3515 or info@bouchardfinlayson.co.za
Wednesday, 24th June at 18h00 An intimate evening with Franck
Dangereux and Le Creuset at the Foodbarn in Noordhoek. Franck Dangereux demonstrates delicious dishes in the
latest Le Creuset cookware range, followed by a 3 course sit down dinner with a
special selection of wines from Miles Mossop Wines. Franck will share some of
his chef secrets with us and Le Creuset will spoil each guest with an exclusive
Le Creuset goodie bag. Cost: R495 per
person
Saturday, 27th June at 18h30 for 19h00 Le Franschhoek Hotel & Spa invites you to enjoy a gourmet meal paired with a
wide range of carefully selected wines from Quando Vineyards & Winery. R295
per person for Dinner only or R1995 per couple includes the dinner, room and
breakfast. ENQUIRE TO BOOK
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
18th June 2015
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.
If you like the photographs you see in our publications,
please look at our Adamastor
Photo website for our
rate card and samples from our portfolio
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