In
this week’s MENU:
This
week’s product: Verjuice This week’s recipe: Ponzu Seared Tuna with Sesame Learn about wine
and cooking
We write about
our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to
visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try
to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what
is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit.
To get the whole of our story, please click on
“READ
ON.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will
lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each
blog, click on RETURN
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This week’s Product menu Verjuice is the juice of unripe
grapes, which is used in cooking or as a non-alcoholic drink. The Romans
wrote about it; it is as old as history and has been around as long as vines
have been grown. Vines need thinning out and, usually, the excess
grapes are wasted. But they can be used to make Verjuice, which is
wonderful in soups, stews, gravies, emulsions, sauces, mayonnaise and, mixed
with soda water, makes really refreshing crisp summer drink. It is
unsweetened. Find it here
Dombeya An
invitation last week to Dombeya vineyards to take part in a blending
competition with members of the other media was quite a draw card, so we were
rather disappointed to discover on arrival that this had been cancelled. It
seems it was difficult to organise in the middle of harvest, which is
understandable. So instead we did vertical tasting of five of the Dombeya
Chardonnays and then five Dombeya Shirazes. This was followed by lunch at their
Long Table. Read on
Harvest at Cape Point
We needed to call in at Cape Point to book a tour and winemaker Duncan
Savage VERY kindly took time out of his busy day to show us some of the new
tank samples. Read On
Rotolabel Wine Label Design Award Wine
Magazine has come up with this novel annual competition conducted on line. On Tuesday
night at Beau Constantia, we were present at the awards ceremony. There
certainly were some controversial, some new and innovative, and some well
deserved and long awaited choices amongst the winners. You can see them here for yourself.
There was lots of discussion about what a wine label
should contain and there were a couple that had very little information on the
label. Is it enough to put just three random words that do not seem to relate
to the wine and not inform the buyer what they are buying? As ex-wine retailers
we know that customers need to know what is in the bottle, as they will move swiftly on to something with clear
information. We would like to see a retail sponsor fund a Retailers Award next
year where the retailers can pick the labels they think will (or do), sell the
best, one’s that jump out at the buyer.
BlankBottle, the overall winner’s labels were self
designed with no input from professional designers. There did seem to be a few
noses out of joint about that! And one award winner’s bottles looked as though
they were mock-ups with cardboard labels. Read On
Bistro 13 on Stellenbosch Vineyards
The R310 road from the N2 through to Stellenbosch is nearly completed
and this will be a huge relief to Nic van Wyk and Roxy Laker as the chaos has
lost them and other places along the route customers. This bistro opened last
Spring and we were invited to come and see what exciting things Nic and his
staff are cooking up. We also managed to taste some of the Stellenbosch
Vineyards wines with lunch and a couple in the tasting room afterwards. Read On
To Longridge for the release of their
Clos du Ciel (Heavenly vineyard) Single Vineyard Chardonnay Later that afternoon, we drove to
Longridge for the release celebration of this very elegant organic and biodynamic
Chardonnay from a nearly 30 year old vineyard originally planted by John and
Erica Platter. Longridge have revived the vineyard which contains not one but 9
different clones of Chardonnay – something the French do in Burgundy. 5000
vines were planted incredibly close together so there can be no mechanical
farming and everything has to be done by hand. An enormous amount of lime was
added to the soil by the Platters to mimic the French growing conditions. John
Platter spoke about why they did it and winemaker Jasper Raats told us how he
resurrected the vines and made the wine. The vineyard was rented out for
several years by the owner after the Platters left the farm and Longridge were then
able to hire it. They have taken over the management of the vineyard to restore
it to its former glory and to produce this lovely wine in the Burgundian style.
Read on
This week’s recipe
We have so enjoyed the fresh tuna this season and wanted to give you an
easy way to cook it. Do make sure that the tuna you buy is pink, not dark black
in colour – that is old and mistreated tuna and is not worth eating. Sadly,
that is what we have seen in some large supermarkets.
Fillets should be 2.5 to 3cm thick. Ponzu sauce is a
Japanese citrus flavoured soya sauce, it’s amazing with sashimi. You can use
sushi soy and add a good squeeze of lemon juice, if you cannot find it.
We like a mix of black and white sesame seeds, they
look very attractive, but white on its own works well.
Ponzu Seared Tuna with Sesame
4 Fresh Tuna fillets – 3 T Ponzu soya sauce
- 3 T sesame seeds – a few drops of sesame oil – 1 T canola oil – lemon wedges
About 15 minutes before you cook the tuna, pour over
the Ponzu sauce and allow it to marinade for a few minutes. Heat your frying or
griddle pan till nice and hot. Remove the fish from the Ponzu and sprinkle some
sesame oil on one side. Pat on a thick coating of sesame seeds to that side. Put
the canola oil in the pan and then put the tuna, sesame side down into the pan
and sear for a few moments. Turn once and sear on the other side. We like it
just seared, you might like it done a bit more, but if you cook it through it
will be tough and dry. Serve with more Ponzu, a slice of lemon or lime, a good
green salad and an avocado salsa.
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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become
professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
In addition to the
new Sense
of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details
here
Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek
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.
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.
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