.: 02/13/20

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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

On the MENU This Week. Boerewors and Broccoli Carbonara Pasta

We had some family over on Sunday for a braai and lots of good food and wine were enjoyed. Lynne’s sister brought an enormous pack of Boerewors from Woolie's and quite a bit was left over. Now, what to do with left over barbecued sausage? Lynne found a recipe on the BBC, which she adapted, and it was so successful, we thought you might like to give it a go. You don’t HAVE to use left-over sausage, you could just cook some fresh and then use it. Cumberland sausage is the closest to Boerewors. But pork sausage might work just as well. If using fresh, you could press the meat out of the sausage skins and make into small meatballs. If so, do cook through properly.

Ingredients

2 T olive oil – plus/minus 20 cm cooked boerewors, cut into slices - 3 eggs - 50g parmesan grated, plus extra to serve (optional) – 25 g blue cheese - 300g dry spaghetti or pasta of your choice - 1 head of broccoli, broken into small florets - 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Method
Put a pan of well salted water on to boil for the pasta. Mix together the eggs, cheese and some seasoning with a fork, in a jug.

Cook the pasta following pack instructions. Add the broccoli for the final 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, heat the oil and fry the cooked sausage gently till it is hot but not drying out, adding the sliced garlic near the end. Do not let the garlic burn or it will be bitter. Just keep it warm while the pasta is cooking.

When the pasta and broccoli are cooked, drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water. Then add the pasta to the sausage pan. Take the pan off the heat. Toss everything together, then add the egg mixture. Stir the sauce through the pasta for 1-2 minutes. The heat from the pan will cook the sauce – if the sauce is too thick, use a little of the reserved cooking water to thin it. Divide between pasta bowls and serve with extra Parmesan, if you like. Enjoy! Good with a robust red wine like our wine of the week.
Serves 3 or 4

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MENU's Wine of the Week. Doolhof Single Vineyard 2017 Malbec.

This is deservedly Doolhof’s top selling wine. Savoury and smoky on the nose,

it has soft meaty and umami flavours melded with dark cassis and sweet cherry fruit

Chewy with slightly chalky tannins, and more savoury flavours on the end. A great wine with food. R195 from the farm

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All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

Harvest Celebration at Jordan wine estate, Stellenbosch

We were invited to this week's Jordan Harvest Lunch for trade customers and media

A very welcome drink was their Chameleon Rosé, made from Merlot and Shiraz; beautifully cool on a hot summer’s day

So nice to see Kathy Jordan here for the harvest. Gary will be arriving from their English property soon

Next to Kathy is Jacques Steyn CWM, the MD of Jordan Wines

Robert and Cathy Badela, owners of Just Badela restaurant in Soweto, Johannesburg

When everyone had arrived, Kathy told us a little about the harvest and what we would be tasting in the cellar

Apparently the Assyrtiko vines planted last year are doing very well. Lunch would follow outside the new Tasting Room

She also told us how their Chardonnay and Pinot (noir & meunier) vines were doing at their Mousehall vineyard in East Sussex;

they have grown well but slowly - the climate is very different from Stellenbosch

They will be returning to prune them soon and it will be a few years before they get their first crop

Some just harvested Chardonnay grapes for visitors to taste

Into the spotless wine cellar

Jacques explains that we will be tasting juice from just pressed grapes, juice that has just begun fermenting

and juice that has been fermenting for a while, including some newly released 2019 wine that is about to be bottled

We really like this sort of tasting; it is extremely educational and also gives one a view

of what the harvest has been like and what it will produce

Winemaker Sjaak Nelson takes us through the juices and the wine

We began with a tasting of the new 2019 Outlier Sauvignon blanc. 60% has been in barrel. Lots of pepper and green pyrazines

on the nose, clean crisp citrus and green pepper notes on the palate; very refreshing

The yield of Jordan grapes this year will be lower because of the climate, but are of very good quality

Time to taste the juices and wine. First, a Sauvignon Blanc base wine from filtered lees showed just what we expected to see

It needs time but will be a classic Sauvignon Blanc. Then some sweet fizzy juice, just beginning to ferment. This was lovely

Pouring out some tastings of the fermenting juice

Then a Fermenting Sauvignon Blanc from the tank. 2020 grapes harvested two weeks ago. Showing beautiful flavours of grape,

citrus and green pepper. It has a residual sugar level of 170 gm/l and has just begun fermenting

grapey, with grey notes and some cherry flavours! Everyone had lots of questions for Jacques and Sjaak

The fermenting juice is very yeasty, of course, and you must not swallow or you will also start fermenting

Buckets were provided for spitting out the fermenting juice

A happy winemaker. Sjaak Nelson has been with Jordan for 20 years

They use Vin 13 and Vin 7 yeast which has a nose of sweaty feet

Some retort vessels were passed around so we could smell it

Christian Eedes, editor of Winemag.co.za, has a go

Marketing Manager Thea van der Merwe

The different juices in various stages of fermentation. We tasted the 2020 Chenin Blanc which has Vin 7 yeast

It has sherbet on the nose, orange lolly, granadilla and real lemonade flavours in layers, and an r/s of 250. Exciting

Then some Sauvignon blanc grape juice which was racked that morning. Yeast had not yet been added

This was from the highest vineyard on the farm. It was redolent with fresh ripe figs on both the nose and the palate,

lovely flavours and very sweet juice with a residual sugar of 220, so it will ferment well

Um ... are you in the right place? Trinity Brits and Sebastian Phiri of Gorgeous George restaurant in Cape Town

And we met this year’s Interns. L to R:

Winemaker Hendrik is the only local and he is from Somerset West; he is the son of Bertus van Niekerk of Osbloed wines

and has done harvests in Oregon in the USA, Eikendal & Lourensford

Then Hugh, from Leicester in England, has done harvests there and quit his job to come and do the harvest here

Libby, sommelier and winemaker from Brno in the Czech Republic where her parents own a vineyard and a restaurant

and finally Sarah and Pete from Lancashire, who have been travelling and have worked in Oregon and then New Zealand

Winemaker Wade Roger-Lund introduced them to us

and told some funny stories of what happens during harvest and power cuts

Then it was time to head down to the Tasting Room for lunch

Two long tables set in the shade of the trees and a couple of umbrellas. It was warm but not too hot

Like the T shirt!

The menu. The food was served family style on the tables for us to share

Freshly baked vegetable focaccia and a good Cape seed loaf with a compound butter in the centre

Excellent bread and very moreish

Italian Coppa ham and Salami Napoli. The menu said biltong, but we think it must have been in a dip?

The cheeses were local Camembert, Brie, Stanford and Boerenkaas, served with dried fruit and a beetroot & orange chutney

Kathy Jordan's own black olives, tiny jars of garlic aioli, and a picante pepper spread

Didn’t see the Thai chicken paté at our end of the table

The fire-charred fresh pineapple slices in a honey and lime dressing were superb

Smoked sliced chicken on top of a 'jewelled' Tabbouleh salad with roasted nuts and a citrus dressing

And with coffee, and a pot of mint tea for Lynne, came some irresistible petit fours. Slices of pecan pie, fresh fudge,

a very good sharp lemon curd tart and an astoundingly good salted caramel tart topped with chocolate

We drank a selection of good Jordan wines, the Real McCoy Riesling, Outlier Sauvignon, Inspector Péringuey Chenin blanc

and two red wines. Just a lovely relaxing summer selection of food and wine

Customers of The Bakery restaurant were enjoying their food and wine from that restaurant’s menu on the deck

Or you can treat yourselves to a gourmet meal at top chef George Jardine at Jordan

booking is essential at this time of year. https://www.jordanwines.com/dine-with-us/

Thank you, everyone at Jordan, for a great Harvest experience

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