Can't find that special recipe element or product? Come to Main Ingredient's Online Shop! Today's feature: extracts

Finding that Main Ingredient

South African supermarkets seldom stock unusual or exotic ingredients, especially if you live outside a major centre like Cape Town or Johannesburg. 

If you love good food, and follow author chefs like these* or programmes like Masterchef or Top Chef, you will often find that sourcing products that they call for in a recipe can be a challenge in South Africa.

We have access to many of the exciting ingredients and products that we all see in their recipe books or on the food channel programmes.

Main Ingredient has been filling that need since 2002 - we find the best and most unusual ingredients you are looking for and you can find them in our online shop. 

Our product of the day:

Extracts

  

Do you bake? It seems a no-brainer when the cakes and biscuits available in the supermarket are very expensive and really not always terribly good and often taste of fake vanilla or other ersatz flavours. You may not be aware that we carry a very good range of real extracts for baking and dessert making from the United States. We stock 11 Nielsen Massey extracts which have real flavours and are world famous. Do not confuse fake “essences” with real extracts; they are chemical concoctions whose flavour can never compare with the real thing. If you watch the Food channels you will often see the professional chefs using them. They are strong and true to the flavours and last very well. Check our online shop to see more details and prices

Go to our Online Shop to see these and the  rest of our range of products

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Some Famous chef/ authors:

*Bill Granger, Elizabeth David, Ferran Adria, Jamie Oliver, Julia Child, Katie Stewart, Marco Pierre White, Nigella Lawson, Ottolenghi, Prue Leith, Raymond Blanc, René Redzepi (Noma), Rick Stein, River Café, Robert Carrier, the Roux Brothers and Sam & Sam Clark (Moro)

If you’re on holiday in the Cape, or if you’re lucky enough to live here, have a look at our list of ongoing attractions – picnics, special restaurant menus, fun ideas for sundowners and things like that

See it here

Our Events Calendar lists food and wine related events in the Western Cape in date order

See it here

We can take you on a tour to some of the best wine farms and restaurants in the Cape. Tell us what you like and we'll design the tour for you around your preferences. 
Our website tells you more 

Our old Product List became obsolete, so we deleted it. Rather look at our shop for Argan oil, Asafoetida, Chipotles, Confit de canard, Duck fat, Extracts (Nielsen Massey), French patés, Goose fat, Grains of Paradise, Hazelnut oil, Mirin, Preserved lemons, Puy lentils, Ras el hanout, Raspberry vinegar, Rillette, Rose Water, Sherry vinegar, Sumac, Tarragon vinegar, Truffle products, Vanilla, Walnut oil, Za’atar 

140123 Main Ingredient's MENU - Lanzerac and Constantia Glen tasting rooms, Rice Pilaff, Last week’s Competition winners

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Late evening over the Twelve Apostles as a South Easter gathers force

In this week’s MENU:

 LANZERAC in Stellenbosch opens its tasting room

 CONSTANTIA GLEN tasting venue

 This week’s recipe: Rice Pilaff

 Last week’s Competition winners

Follow this link to see our Main Ingredient blogs, because to tell our whole story here would take too much space. Click on Bold words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or more information.

This week’s Product menu - Do you bake? It seems a no-brainer when the cakes and biscuits available in the supermarket are very expensive and really not always terribly good and often taste of fake vanilla or other ersatz flavours. You may not be aware that we carry a very good range of real extracts for baking and dessert making from the United States. We stock 11 Nielsen Massey extracts which have real flavours and are world famous. Do not confuse fake “essences” with real extracts; they are chemical concoctions whose flavour can never compare with the real thing. If you watch the Food channels you will often see the professional chefs using them. They are strong and true to the flavours and last very well. Check our online shop to see more details and prices.

It is strange how two similar events can come up in the same week, it doesn’t happen that often and this week we were asked to review two new tasting rooms on wine farms which have recently opened.

LANZERAC in Stellenbosch     We began at Lanzerac on Tuesday. They have done a complete revamp and rebuild and made the tasting room larger and more user-friendly. They have also added a Deli/restaurant and there now are also picnics available in a new location on the farm. Click here to see pictures and to read about the event and what is now on offer

CONSTANTIA GLEN     On Wednesday, having been invited, we visited the new tasting room at Constantia Glen. It has been open for a while over the Christmas season, but this was the first chance we had to visit. It is another great place to aim for when visiting wine farms in Constantia and a platter lunch with wine tasting on the terrace is certainly worth doing. Click here to learn more and see the photographs.

Next week is going to be very busy and we will be reviewing a new restaurant, attending the Riesling Rocks festival at Hartenberg on this Saturday, going aboard the Queen Mary 2 for lunch and attending a fairly formal dinner in town showcasing the Breedekloof area wines. Watch this space next week for reports.

Last week’s Competition winners     We are delighted to announce that Bryan Pearson and Barbara Swanepoel are the winners of a pair of tickets each to Franschhoek Summer Wines festival being held at Leopards Leap Estate in Franschhoek on Saturday 8th February. Tickets are still available if you were not successful. The correct answer was Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg and Hein Koegelenberg

This week’s recipe came about because Lynne was watching Michel Roux’s programme and she was intrigued to see him make a simple rice pilaff. This recipe comes from Larousse. We had cooked a duck on Sunday which came from Woolworths at Christmas. It was on special offer after Christmas – “Buy two and get a huge reduction”, partially deboned and stuffed with apricots and spices. She followed the cooking instructions to a T and, as usual, we found the duck to be flavourful but as tough as old boots. So, on Monday night, she removed most of the remaining flesh and slowly cooked the rest of the duck in some wine and good chicken stock, long and slow till it tenderised and fell apart. We have another of these ducks in the freezer and it will be cooked in a similar way in a closed casserole until it is tender. The rice Pilaff was very easy to make and absolutely delicious with the duck, soaking up all the juices. She loves recipes that you can bury in the oven while you cook something else.

It has a very different texture and flavour, being quite moist and creamy, but not sticky like a risotto, and the grains are separate. It will now be a regular way for us to cook rice for special dinners and definitely to go with Middle Eastern or Indian food. You can of course make this into a vegetarian/vegan pilaff by using vegetable stock and substituting the butter for more olive oil. And you can go on to add meat, chicken, seafood, vegetables and spices to add bulk and interest and turn this into a main course.

This is made in an oven proof dish with a tightly fitting lid that can also go on the hob. A Pyrex casserole or a le Creuset works very well indeed.

Rice Pilaff

2 shallots or one onion, very finely chopped – ½ t olive oil – 1 T butter - 2 cups of rice - 5 cups of chicken stock – 100 ml dry white wine - sprig of thyme – half a bay leaf – a pinch of saffron – salt – white pepper – a piece of baking parchment to cover the dish

Fry the onion gently in the oil and butter with a pinch of salt, until they are transparent. Do not brown. When it is soft, add the rice and stir till all the grains are transparent. Add the white wine and let it bubble away. You can also use verjuice, which has no alcohol, as an alternative to wine. Add the stock, a good shake of white pepper and the herbs and saffron. (At this stage you could add all sorts of different herbs and spices). Stir, then cover the pot with the paper, then its lid and put into a 170°C oven for 30 minutes or until the liquid has almost all gone and the rice is very moist and glossy. Do not overcook or let the rice get dry. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Serve with any suitable meat dish.

Buying from us On Line We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our on line shop. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. Please do not pay until we have confirmed availability and invoiced you, then you pay and then we deliver or post. When you make an eft payment, make sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.

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.

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who made our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking classes in Fish Hoek 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. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now being run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite Groote Schuur hospital). Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking classes for small groups on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here

24th January 2014

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! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

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. We own our mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. 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.

The new tasting room at Constantia Glen

We were invited to visit the new Tasting room and restaurant at Constantia Glen.  We went on a beautiful hot Summer day. 

The tasting room is in a Cape Dutch style building and the restaurant is in an old terraced building with many different areas inside and out. The views from the terrace are sensational. You look out over the vineyards and can look up at the mountain or down across the Constantia Valley and beyond

Lots of umbrellas to shelter you from the sun

Inside the cool tasting room, which has glass doors which will close when the weather is not so warm

The restaurant terrace has comfortable cane furniture and such marvellous views of the Constantiaberg

Tables go all along the terrace to a larger area at the end which has glass walls. There are roll-down blinds along the terrace should the weather change

Looking down the valley at the mountains beyond

The vines are nearly ready to harvest, there is lots of activity in the vineyards and we saw lots of swooping birds

There are some good hiking trails on the mountain. This would be a very good place to start or finish a good walk.

The wine list

and the six wines we tasted. This generous tasting costs R40 and is cleverly served while you enjoy your lunch

On offer for lunch on the menu are various platters for one and there is one salad if you don’t want cheese or meat. We think they might need a couple more, possibly one with smoked trout, as there are many people who don’t eat either lactose or meat.

We chose the cheese and charcuterie platters. 

You do get a very good helping of both and the bread comes hot and crisp from the oven. The grapes, olives, apple slices, pickles and caper berries all add lots of variation. There is an interesting and delightful rose jelly on the platter, but we couldn't find anything on the platter that we thought went with it, as it is very sweet. You may completely disagree, so do give it a try. Perhaps an onion jam, preserved fig or chutney might be a better choice? 

The cheeses seemed to differ from the menu and three were very nice indeed. Lynne found the Roquefort quite salty and sharp and would have preferred a  softer blue cheese. John enjoyed it. The ham was lovely, but perhaps a third meat might add some variation.

This is the glassed in area at the end of the terrace. Lovely if the wind is blowing or it’s a bit wet. There is a lovely relaxed atmosphere and we will certainly be bringing lots of friends here for a visit.

Lots of room inside for a larger group, a dinner or a formal tasting.

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Opening of the Lanzerac tasting Room in Stellenbosch

The historic Lanzerac Manor House

We were invited this week to the launch of the new Lanzerac tasting room, which has been completely changed and now has outside access on the rear as well as on the front facing the werf

There are lots of tables for the tasting and a counter, where you can buy wine to take home

Some good canapés were on offer. A caprese salad topped with Parma ham

Small jars of duck liver paté, topped with sticky orange and onion jam and a rather large grissini

They make a range of onion marmalades for sale in the new Deli

The list of the canapés we enjoyed

The deli has a bakery

and also stocks charcuterie and cheeses

The Deli menu, which also shows the picnic baskets which you can select on the day and pay the per kilo prices, or you can pre-order one for R595 which comes with a bottle of Lanzerac wine. They require a R400 deposit for the picnic basket. How does this compare with other picnics on offer? Check out our other picnic blogs

 Lots of comfortable chairs in the tasting room and they have air conditioning, which is very necessary in a hot Stellenbosch summer

Here the media listen to Aylinda Booysen talk about the Tasting room and its history 

or you can sit up at the tasting bar

The tasting menu offers several options. Some are rather expensive, but two of the tastings do come with handmade chocolates, also on sale in the tasting room

The Deli Menu  with drinks

Duimpie Bayly, who worked at Lanzerac in the early days, makes the opening speech

Great memories for Michael Olivier, who started as a young 20 year old and ended up as the Restaurant Manager

Winemaker Wynand Lategan tells us of the history of the teardrop bottle, which Lanzerac has now reintroduced for its Alma Mater range

We heard some lovely stories from the past about Lanzerac,  its owners and customers from Michael Olivier, Manager of Lanzerac for 1975 to 77,  and Hermanus (Oom Manie) Anthony, who is now the head waiter and has worked at Lanzerac for over 40 years. 

They reminisced about the cheese lunches which cost 75c per person when they first started (currently an 8 cheese platter costs R140) and became iconic part of Lanzerac’s history – everyone has a story of them. Then there was the famous Sunday Buffet for only R1.75 and, just as with Luke Dale Roberts' Test Kitchen these days, you sometimes had to book up to six months in advance. And one of the journalists reminded us that it was the only restaurant for which you could book a table through the South African embassy in London! We loved the story of Chef David Broughton putting the famous restaurant manageress, Mrs Green’s, white cat into cochineal dye.

Executive Chef Steven Fraser, who is also in charge of the Deli

Some of the open sandwiches offered to us for lunch

and some of the filled mini rolls

We could help ourselves from a board with local cheeses, fruit and onion jams

or from a charcuterie selection

Chef Steven Fraser, Marketing manager Jo-Anna Looms and Pippa Pringle, PRO for Lanzerac

One of the cakes available for purchase in the Deli

Three historic personages involved with Lanzerac in the 70s: Duimpie Bayly, Oom Manie and Michael Olivier

We had dessert with sweet wine on the lawn of the new picnic area, which is on the top of the cellar. Winemaker Herman Lategan pouring us glasses of the Special Late Harvest dessert wine

On offer were chocolate éclairs

Mini cheesecakes

Strawberry tartlets

Cup cakes

and mini lemon meringue tarts

Maryna Strachan, editor of Wine Extra, with Duimpie Bayly

Lanzerac has a wonderful view of Table Mountain over the Bottelary Hills

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014