Thursday, December 05, 2019

This Week’s MENU. Jordan Anniversaries, UK Adventure. Leonardslee, Mannings Heath, London, Dim Sum in London, Wine & Recipe of the Week

 Sunset over the Atlantic

The year is rushing to its end, too fast as usual. We have done a lot, seen many wonderful things, visited beautiful and interesting places, but we have to admit that it is tiring and we need to take a break. This evening, we will be at a quiet place by the sea, looking at the sunset and contemplating very little other than the glass of wine in hand and the beauty around us. Unless something spectacular needs to be communicated, this is the last issue of MENU for 2019. Thank you for following us, for communicating with us and for contributing to our expenses. We hope that you will have marvellous, delicious festivities and that 2020 will see an end to all the uncertainties and political stupidity (some hope..) and that it will be a year of growth, achievement and, above all, fun for us all. See you in the New Year…

How could we refuse an invitation like this, to celebrate Anniversaries with friends. The lovely, crisp Jordan Blanc de Blanc MCC as a welcome drink, served outside the new Tasting room on its deck. A perfect early summer evening. Read on…

Penny Streeter OBE, who owns Benguela Cove winery in Hermanus, also owns two properties in England, both in Sussex, where she also grows grapes and is planting new vines. When she heard we were going to be in the area, she invited us to visit both. First we went to Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens, which has suddenly become very famous as her talented chef Jean Delport, who is South African, has just been awarded a coveted Michelin Star for their Interlude restaurant. Read on…

After our visit to Leonardslee, we were invited by the Streeter family to spend the night at their other property, Mannings Heath Golf and Wine Estate near Horsham in West Sussex, a few miles away. The vineyard was established about four years ago. Read on…

The last week of our trip was in London. It still feels like home to Lynne, who was born there. Her family emigrated to South African in 1948 but she returned and lived there for 27 years from 1967 to 1993. But it has changed a lot, so many new buildings. Apologies to all friends we didn't manage to see; our time in London was very short. Read on…

On our last Sunday in London, we had made an appointment with friends to have some Dim Sum in Chinatown. It is something we have done together since the early 1970s. Old friend Chris Hutton is half Burmese (we call him Buddha! you can see the resemblance) and we have him to thank for introducing us all to the panoply of good Asian food over the years; we are all quite adventurous. Read on…

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. Read on…

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. Read on…


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Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
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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
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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 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 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

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 ?
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