A Southern
Double-collared Sunbird on a pink hibiscus flower, Van Loveren winery, Robertson
A look at Heritage Square, Cape Town-
Anniversary lunch at the Chefs Warehouse
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A day in Durbanville
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Robertson Wine Valley's Hands on Harvest - Saturday
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Robertson Wine Valley's Hands on Harvest - Sunday
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Robertson ramblings
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MENU's Recipe of the Week: Granadilla and Raspberry Charlotte
Russe
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MENU's Wine of the Week: Ilse Schutte's Bemind Cinsault
2016
A look at Heritage Square, Cape Town On our wedding anniversary last
Wednesday, I had an hour to kill between doing my bit at a casting in Loop St
and meeting Lynne at The Chef's Warehouse for a celebratory lunch. It had been
a while since we had visited any of the fine collection of food and wine venues
in this historic square complex, so I stuck my lens into a few corners. It is a
collection of eighteenth century buildings which came frighteningly close to
being demolished to make way for a freeway in the 1990s. The quadrangle in the middle of the square is the home of
what is believed to be the oldest grape vine in the country, possibly planted
in the 1770s
Anniversary lunch at the Chefs Warehouse Last Wednesday was our Wedding
Anniversary. We are rather surprised to find we have been married for 14 years,
it has gone so quickly and been so much fun. We like to celebrate with a good
meal out, somewhere we have heard about before but not yet been to. Liam Tomlin
opened this store/restaurant in 2014 when they moved from their old site in
Bree Street and we have been trying to go for a very long time. Quite difficult
as we are invited out to restaurants and wine farms, often several times in a
week. It is on the corner of Heritage Square with the entrance
in Bree Street, Number 92
A day in Durbanville
We wanted to take our Dutch friends on a local wine tour and Durbanville
is very close to town. The weather was perfect and we began at Bloemendal, had
lunch at Diemersdal (Lynne had heard very good things about the restaurant and
we knew the wine was superb) and finished the day with at last sigh at the view
from De Grendel. We began at Bloemendal, which we haven't visited for a
while....
Robertson Wine Valley's Hands on Harvest - Saturday
Robertson beckoned and we responded. We saw details of the
festival on the internet and, as we haven't been to their Harvest Festival for
many years, we decided to take our Dutch friends. Lynne managed to find
reasonable accommodation on Bookings.com. Each farm does its own thing during
this festival and some need booking so we made some, helped by Mira Weiner of
Hot Oven Marketing and had a great weekend with our friends
Robertson Wine Valley's Hands on Harvest - Sunday
What
a contrast! After Saturday's blistering heat, we woke to wonderful soaking rain
in our valley on Sunday. We had bacon and eggs and hot cross buns to soak
up the intended wine, tidied up, packed and set off to return the keys in
Robertson, all by 10 o'clock. We then headed for the Festival market at Viljoensdrift
Robertson ramblings
John woke to the welcome sound of rain on the roof and took a solo walk
in the soft rain while the others slept; he was joined by an enthusiastic companion.....
Granadilla and Raspberry Charlotte
Russe This classic dessert was
invented by Antoinin Carème, a master of French Cuisine who cooked for kings during
his stay in St Petersburg, cooking for the Tsar in the early 19th century. A
lovely summer dessert, this is fiddly but not at all difficult to make. You
will have seen it on Great British Baker if you have been watching; they did
make it look very complicated. You do need to make it in the morning to allow
time to set, or the day before. You can use seedless pulp, but a few seeds tell
what the fruit is. If it is not sharp enough, add a little lemon juice to
taste. You can also use all sorts of different fruit. Bananas (use 5, mashed) make
a lovely Charlotte, so do puréed berries
1 packet of lime or
lemon jelly - 450 ml double or whipping cream - 50 ml granadilla pulp or
freshly squeezed juice - 125 g fresh raspberries (or other berries) - a packet
of finger (boudoir) biscuits - optional, juice of half a lemon
You need a deep dish with straight sides so that the finger
biscuits can stand up. Lynne uses a 17 cm soufflé dish
Boil a kettle. Melt the jelly in 150 ml of boiling water;
stir till the jelly is clear. Then add 300 ml cold water. Put a little jelly into
the base of your dish, about 1 cm deep. Put the dish into the fridge until set.
Keep the rest of the jelly mixture out of the fridge. While it is setting, trim
the edges of the sponge fingers so that they will fit closely together. Shake
off and discard the crumbs. Arrange some of the raspberries around the edges on
the set jelly, use about 10 or 12 evenly spaced, and one in the middle. Add a
little more jelly and return the dish to the fridge to set. Whip the cream until
stiff, stir in the granadilla pulp and the raspberries. When the base jelly is
nearly set, start dipping the finger biscuits briefly into the remaining jelly
and line the sides of the dish with the fingers, sugary side outward. Make sure
that they fit closely together; you don’t want leaks. Then add the remaining
nearly set jelly to the cream mixture and spoon it into the dish. Chill till firm.
Just before serving, trim off the tops of the biscuits so that they are level
with the filling. Dip the base of the dish into hot water for a moment and put
a round serving dish over the dish, invert it and lift it away. The charlotte
should stand up on its own and show its beautiful jelly 'face'.
See the photograph.
TIP: If it looks like collapsing, tie a ribbon around it
before serving
14th March 2017
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
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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. 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. This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
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