.: 2019

and on Pinterest

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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

If you are not already a subscriber, and wish to subscribe to this email reminder which we send out each week, please go to the "Contact us" page and send us the request. If you have a problem with the link, please mail us at Please subscribe me to MENU

MENU has appeared nearly every week since March 2003, initially as a free newsletter from our shop, Main Ingredient, and is sent to our subscribers by email. Many of our subscribing readers have followed us from our earliest days and we appreciate your support
It is also published on our website, as a blog, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and gives our personal view of events relating to food, wine, accommodation and travel in photo stories, as well as weekly recipes and wine reviews
We have never charged a subscription fee, and MENU has never made us any money. But our expenses are putting pressure on our pensions, so we are taking a bold step and asking our readers for a voluntary subscription to help us to cover our expenses. MENU is produced, on average, 45 weeks per year. We leave it to you to decide the amount of your subscription. We suggest a voluntary annual subscription of R100 (roughly the price of a mid range bottle of wine), which is less than R2.50 per week. In International currencies R100 is approximately £5.80/€6.30/$7.10. Links to our PayFast and PayPal accounts are on our website

We'd love it if you'd follow us on Twitter, Facebook and check out our photographs on Instagram and Pinterest

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 our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often 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

Wednesday, December 04, 2019

MENU’s Wine of the Week. Boet Erasmus 2015 red blend, from Vrede en Lust

A perfect wine to have with your Christmas dinner, so full of life and good fruit; their top wine, an oh, so elegant classic;

a new world Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc

The Boet Erasmus has incense wood and posies of violets on the nose, so pretty. Then ripe cassis berries shine through. On the palate, pure cassis fruit-driven at first, then the other varietals show their characteristics. What a lovely wine, with character and depth; so easy to drink and to enjoy with good food, a classic expression of the blend; a wine for celebrations. R225 from the farm

on YouPic and on Pinterest

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

On the MENU this week. Soba Noodle Salad with Spiced Steak

This week’s recipe is something calming and easy for the holidays. Soba are buckwheat noodles and are usually served cold as a salad. Sriracha Chilli sauce is hot stuff; cut the quantity in half if you don’t like too much heat. And if you have any left overs of turkey or ham or from a braai you can use them instead of the steak. We had some left over deboned leg of lamb from the braai which worked very well. Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

125 ml /1/2 cup light soy sauce - 3 T sesame oil, divided in two portions – 60 ml/ 1/4 cup rice vinegar - 2 T Sriracha chilli sauce – 2 T honey – 2 cloves garlic, grated - 2 T grated fresh ginger – 60 ml/ 1/4 cup canola oil – 500g steak - 225g soba noodles - 1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced into batons - 1 l cucumber, peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced (or 3 courgettes thinly sliced) - 4 spring onions, thinly sliced, divided in two portions - 2 T sesame seeds - kosher salt - Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, whisk together soy sauce, 2 T sesame oil, rice vinegar, Sriracha, honey, garlic, and ginger, then slowly whisk in 2 T of the canola oil until combined.

Place steak in a shallow baking dish and pour 1/3 of soy mixture over steak, then leave to marinade for 10 minutes

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the soba noodles and cook till al dente, then drain and rinse with cold water. In a large bowl, add the noodles with the carrot, cucumber or courgette, half the green onions, and half the sesame seeds. Pour remaining soy mixture over noodles and toss gently to combine.

Heat and lightly oil a frying or ridged pan. Remove steak from marinade and season with salt and pepper (discard marinade). Grill steak 5 minutes per side for medium, then let rest 5 minutes before thinly slicing on the diagonal. (If using left over cooked meat, just thinly slice and marinade in the sauce for a few minutes before adding it)

Serve steak over soba noodle salad; drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil and garnish with remaining spring onions

and on Pinterest

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

A celebration of three Anniversaries at Jordan Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

How could we refuse an invitation like this, to celebrate important Anniversaries with friends?

The lovely, crisp Jordan Blanc de Blancs MCC as a welcoming drink

Served outside the new Tasting room on its deck. A perfect early summer evening;

GM Jacques Steyn was trying to keep up with demand

Gary Jordan, chatting to Lynne, and to Annareth Bolton and Mariette du Toit-Helmbold of marketing agency Destinate

The new tasting room is next to the deck used for al fresco customers of the Jordan Bakery, spacious and cool

Sue and Neil Proudfoot of Wine Concepts

Wine Distributor Andrew Baker of Vinimark, waiting for a recharge

Inside the new tasting room, the doors open up to those famous Jordan views

over the lake and down across Stellenbosch to the far Paarl mountains

Looking from the other end

Alastair Rellenberg, Khoisan tour guide, with Amanda Bosch and John Collins,

who markets Jordan's wines to the restaurant and wine retail trades

Chef George Jardine was busy in his kitchen preparing the food for later

Several vintages of Cobbler's Hill, available for tasting and as accompaniment to the food, in bottles and magnums

Time for the speeches, hearing about the reasons for the party, congratulations for the anniversaries and celebrating, introduced by Jordan's General Manager, Jacques Steyn CWM

Great to see Allan Mullins and many other friends from the wine industry

Kathy Jordan told us about winemaker Sjaak and his 20 years with the farm, how he has changed in that time,

how hard he works to produce their great wines and how particular he is about the work in the vineyard and the cellar

She confessed that they change things a lot, not always with Sjaak’s approval. They have always been full of innovative ideas

And, even when they are in the United Kingdom, they have daily contact with the farm and its running

Gary Jordan also lauded Sjaak and spoke about how they had come from five staff to now employing nearly 125 people

We then watched a very funny video filmed in the last few days by Thea van der Merwe, the Marketing Manager.

You can watch it on Jordan's YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2cQ-_r7Jk0

Sjaak then spoke briefly about his time on the farm

Chef George Jardine has had his popular, award winning restaurant on Jordan for 10 years

and has opened two others, in Stellenbosch and Somerset West

Gary told us how they found him at his restaurant, which was then in Bree Street, and managed to persuade him to join them

at Jordan. It has been a very successful partnership. Gary spoke about how passionate Chef George is

about training his staff properly and of how so many of them are now respected chefs with their own restaurants

Chef George spoke about his time at Jordan, running the restaurant with his wife Louise

It is most certainly our favourite place to bring friends, tourists and to have important family celebrations. It never disappoints

Great food, well priced; great wines and a view to savour as well. It is very popular, so you do need to book

The map of where to find the wines which we could taste and which dishes would be paired with them

Paired with the Inspector Peringuey 2014 Chenin blanc, the barrel smoked salmon, topped with sauce Gribiche and cucumber

Chef George Jardine does his own hot and cold smoking in old Jordan barrels

On each stand there was a menu showing that day’s lunch menu at the restaurant

In 2014, the smoked salmon dish was on this menu

The Inspector Peringuey 2014 Chenin blanc, which is quite superb and a wine we often order when dining here

Mini vetkoek was to go with…

…the Saldanha mussel dish. It was superb; the coconut, lemongrass and chilli seafood bisque

served with the mussels was really memorable; such depth of delicious flavours

Chopped pan fried mushrooms for the risotto

and, making the excellent mushroom risotto the proper way was this young chef's task

Tasting portions of the finished dish

The risotto was paired with Jordan’s award winning Chardonnay, the Nine Yards 2013

Jordan Sophia 2009 was paired with the Chalmar beef. It had aged very well

The vetkoek was served with the Mussel bisque, which was paired with Jordan 'The Real McCoy' crisp Riesling 2015

There was only one magnum of the Sophia, which they had put aside just for this anniversary;

you had to be quick to get a taste of this

being poured here by Jordan winemaker Wade Roger-Lund for Mariette du Toit-Helmbold

Wade was Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year in 2017

The aged Chalmar beef was perfectly pink, herb crusted and very tender

topped with broccoli, endive and Gorgonzola

Enjoying their dishes were Tim and Vanessa Hoek. Tim is winemaker at Haute Cabrière

and Vanessa, also a qualified winemaker, distributes barrels for a French cooperage

As the sun begins to set, the mountains turn purple and pink in the distance over the vineyards;

it is a wonderful view from Jordan

Riaan Mol, who was restaurant manager here for several years, with former colleagues

Winemaker Teddy Hall with his wife Denise, chatting to Chef Pete Goffe-Wood, who is now at Grande Roche in Paarl

A winning team; Louise and George Jardine. Both their charming teenage boys were helping to serve on the night

Celebrating the Anniversaries, Kathy and Gary Jordan

and with Sjaak Nelson. It was a really fantastic evening and a great party

Restaurant manager ?

and on Pinterest