Clifton sunset
In
this week’s MENU:
Oesfees
at Solms Delta Nitida
Cellarbake Cape
Wine Asparagus Tart 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 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.
At last, we thought, an easy
week... and then the lurgy struck. We watched our friend Anne, here from
Australia, come down with a nasty bout of coughing, a cold and fever, then
Lynne’s goddaughter Nicolette from Holland got it and now Lynne has it. It seems
to be avoiding the men in the family, but we suspect that it was brought here
from the European winter, as we hear it is laying waste there. We hope you manage
to avoid it. Get the flu jab soon, as this might be doing the rounds for a
while; it does seem to linger on, and on, and on.
Groenberg Wynstok
Talmfees On Saturday, three of us drove to
Wellington for the Groenberg Fees, held on Schalk Burger’s farm, Welbedacht. The
main event was always going to be music and the crowds were expected in the
late afternoon and evening. When we arrived at 12, the temperature was already
at 38°C and we had a rush around the stalls for a quick taste, to see who was
there and sample what was on offer. Then we were invited into the cool inner
sanctum for a guided tasting of Groenberg wines and that is where we remained
for much of the very pleasant afternoon. Read on
Rocking the
taste buds at Jordan Great food is the most
important thing you want from a good restaurant. Throw in friendly and
efficient staff, a warm welcome and views to charm and relax and you are
getting close to perfection. Sunday saw us at one of our favourite restaurants,
Jardine at Jordan, for a birthday lunch of one of our visitors. He requested Jardine,
as it has also become one of their favourite places when visiting. We had a
table right at the front of the deck with those superb views and the lunch did
not disappoint. Read on
Two unmissable
events this weekend; we will be at both. On Saturday, at Solms Delta in Franschhoek, the Oesfees,
the most real harvest festival of them all, where vineyard workers get to
mingle with the public, while celebrating the harvest with local traditional
food and listening all day to great local music. 10 to 8 Elvis Blue is the
headliner. See here for our story about last
year’s event.
And on Sunday, on Nitida in
Durbanville, Cellarbake: “Celebrate decadence
with the Western Cape’s best artisanal bakers showcasing their signature bakes,
paired perfectly with Nitida wines and MCCs”, 11am to 6pm. Something different,
lots of cakes to sample. Last year’s story shows the sort of
delicacies which will be on offer.
Cape Wine is the flagship
business showcase of the South African wine industry. Presented every three
years at the Cape Town International Convention Centre by Wines of South Africa
(WOSA), it is the most successful international wine trade show in the southern
hemisphere. It has been almost fully subscribed by exhibitors, six months ahead
of the event, which will be held in the CTICC from the 15th to the 17th
September. South African wine has seen a huge growth in quality since 1994 and
this is our best opportunity to show our wine industry, its products and our
beautiful wine country to the world. See details here
Finding South
Africa's Best Steakhouse in 2015 – Voting Begins In April! The Wolftrap Steakhouse Championship is
hunting down South Africa's greatest steakhouse again to find our national
champion for 2015! The first round is a public voting phase and it starts on
the 1st April – this is when anyone can go to www.steakhunter.co.za and vote for
their favourite – there are cases of the Wolftrap wine to be won just for
voting. You can also vote by texting the name of your favourite steakhouse and
where it is situated, with your name, to “32845”.
This week’s
recipe
is a good supper dish, or it works well as part of a buffet. It is one of
Lynne’s standard store cupboard recipes. You can also make individual tartlets.
Asparagus
Tart
Pastry: 250g flour (2 cups) - a good
pinch of salt – 2 t baking soda – 250 g butter – 1 egg – 125 ml iced water
Put all the dry ingredients
with the butter into a food processor and then blitz a few times until it has
the texture of breadcrumbs. Add the egg and enough of the water to make a firm
dough. You probably won’t need all the water. Wrap in cling film and put into
the fridge for 20 minutes to rest. Grease a 23 cm pie dish. Roll out the pastry
to fit, leaving some overlapping the edges to be trimmed when cooked. Turn the
oven on to 190°C
Filling: 1 tin of asparagus tips
(410g) – 60g butter – 125ml cream – 3 T flour – 1 beaten egg – 100g grated
cheddar or gruyere cheese – salt and pepper
Drain the asparagus and set
aside, but do reserve the liquid. Melt the butter and add the flour and mix
well to make a roux. Add the asparagus juice, the cream and then the cheese to
make a thick sauce. Season to taste. Stir in the beaten egg, and then fold in
the asparagus. Put into the prepared, pastried pie dish and put into the hot oven.
Cook for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 160°C and bake for another 20
minutes or until setting and the pastry is crisp. Trim off the edges and serve.
Optional: You can garnish with toasted caraway seeds and anchovy fillets.
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 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.
George Jardine
will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at
Jordan. Details here
19th March 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.
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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