In
this week’s MENU:
Chenin Blanc
Association Winter Showcase
Easter weekend at
Britannia Bay
Paternoster
& St Helena Bay restaurants
Chicken
with green olives and artichokes
This week’s Product menu – Cooler weather is on the way,
which means more one-pot meals, including soups and casseroles. An essential
ingredient for any of these disshes is good stock. Most stock cubes in the
supermarkets are made of MSG with a suggestion of the flavour on the label. We
have a great range of stock cubes, imported from Italy and Portugal and made
with real ingredients. Have a look at them here and place an order.
CHENIN BLANC
ASSOCIATION WINTER It
is no secret that we are big fans of Chenin Blanc, South Africa’s best white
wine ambassador. The Winter Showcase was held last week at Delaire Graff and we
tasted some really interesting, quaffable, exotic and some really remarkable
Chenins. Presented by Jeff Grier, past president of the Association, we tasted
through six flights of wine (22 in all) and then paired many of them with an
excellent lunch at Indochine restaurant.
The Association is delighted to have been
awarded a Sponsorship from Standard Bank and their CEO, Ben Kruger, explained
how the sponsorship works. It is a very worthy prize. He announced the signing
of a three-year sponsorship agreement between the Chenin Blanc Association of
South Africa and Standard Bank, in support of a new competition to be known as
the Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Top Ten Challenge. The competition will be open
to all the ±100 Chenin Blanc Association members. Entries open on 1st July
2014. An awards ceremony announcing the winners will take place at Delaire
Graff Estate in Stellenbosch on Wednesday 27th August. Winners will receive R20
000 each and the money must be used for the economic and social upliftment of
the workforce.
What did we taste that we would love to drink,
buy or put away? In flight one, the KWV Mentors 2013 and the Beaumont 2013 Hope
Marguerite both shone and show huge future potential, as usual. In
Flight 2, Delaire Graff 2013, Jordan Barrel Fermented 2013 and the De Morgenzon
2013 all lit our fires – we do drink these regularly. Flight three was a great
flight – we’d buy them all - but Jean Daneel’s Signature 2012 rose just above
Raats Old Vine 2012, Opstal Carl Everson 2012 (no longer available) and
Stellenrust “48” barrel fermented. All had gentle but present wooding. Flight 4
was taken by our highest scoring wine of the session, Ken Forrester’s The FMC
(F...ing Marvellous Chenin, according to a respected British critic) 2012,
which has such depth and richness and it lights up the palate with fruit and
sophistication. At R359 it’s a luxury purchase for us. In flight 5, it was
Simonsig’s Chenin Avec Chène 2010 that nudged the rest out of the way with its
long deep and complex flavours. Flight 6 were the two dessert wines and it was
a close call with both these beauties with the Kanu Kia Ora 2012 just taking
the lead by a whisker from the Nederburg Edelkeur 2010 for Lynne, while John
marked them the other way round. As usual a stunning tasting of excellent
wines.
This was then followed by a really exceptional
lunch. Lynne is guessing that the
talented chef, Virgil Kahn,
someone to watch, might have been a
little influenced by sensational cooking at El Celler de Can Roca in Gerona,
Spain, voted the second best restaurant in the world last year. If you have
been watching Masterchef Professional UK, you will know the standard of food we
are talking about. Pictures here
RULE BRITANNIA This was a short
working week, but a long holiday weekend, so we decided that we deserved a
small holiday ENTIRELY away from work before the summer was over. We haven’t
been back to one of our favourite West Coast places, Britannia Bay for several
years and that was Lynne’s pick. The fact that there was not a wine farm
anywhere near was a big factor, as she thought we just needed to rest, sleep,
walk on a beach, read books and yes, eat some interesting food but not rush
around as we normally do.
On our way to the long Easter weekend at Britannia Bay, we side-tracked
to Paternoster to pick up some crayfish we had ordered and decided to have
something for lunch while we were there. Lynne had done all the research for
Britannia Bay, but not for Paternoster and
where we ended up was surprisingly good. MORE
We found our comfortable Bed
and Breakfast, Djuna,
on Bookings.com. We normally prefer
Self-catering, but there was none available in
the area when we booked. It is on Golden Mile and currently has a good sea view,
but there is a house being built in front of it now . Read on about our stay and our very
funny crayfish braai in the dark on Friday night.
John wanted to watch the
Stormers vs Lions rugby match on Saturday evening and, sadly, our B&B
didn’t have television, so we had to seek out a place where he could watch and
then, later, we could have supper together. Sunfish turned out to be the place,
just about 5 minutes drive from our B&B. MORE
In our extensive hunt for
restaurants in the Britannia Bay/Stompneus/St Helena Bay area, as we had to eat out, we
found there were approximately five. We thought we might like a good Sunday
Lunch on Easter Day and, having secured a reservation – with a bit of nice
talking, headed for Beira Mar, which is the first restaurant you come to as you
enter St Helena Bay from Vredenburg. MORE
This week’s recipe As we are following
the Banting life-style, you might wonder if life without carbohydrates in all
their complex forms is satisfying? We can honestly say we are a) not hungry and
b) enjoying what we eat and c) slowly losing weight. Do we miss things?
Probably more texture than carbs. If you have a great gammon, you do have to
think gammon and salad rather than gammon sandwich. Our diet is balanced and
enjoyable. We certainly do not miss bread.
Lynne has been using the cookbook, but has also been
inventing things using the permitted ingredients. So,
this week, we have had moussaka with no
potatoes, just aubergine and a topping of egg and milk, no flour. She figured
if it works for Bobotie, why not moussaka.... As long as you have lots of
vegetables with the main course, you are perfectly satisfied and stop noticing that there are no carbs.
There is a recipe in the book for seed crackers which you can use with
dips.. It needs a new ingredient to us, Psyllium husks,
which seem to be some sort of culinary glue. We didn’t have any, didn’t know
where to find any and needed crackers to take away on holiday for our French
pâté. Egg is a binding agent, so Lynne slightly changed the recipe by adding a
cup of almond flour and a cup of seed mix, seasoning, cayenne and added an egg.
The crackers worked amazingly well, didn’t need as long to cook and stayed
crisp throughout the week. Two top tips. Roll them out on baking paper and cover the mix in cling film while you roll, which you then remove. This
helps to get them nice and thin and keeps you from getting too sticky. If you
slice them into shape while still warm, you don’t have to deal with uneven
shapes.
It does make you very creative. Lynne tries to vary our proteins
throughout the week and we had a lovely courgette gratin on Monday night with
lots of cream and cheese. Then it was the turn of chicken and the following
recipe is what she came up with. You can use dried herbs, but fresh are always best.
Chicken with green olives and artichokes
8 chicken pieces, legs and
thighs, skin on – 2 T extra virgin olive oil – 1 onion, sliced - 3
large cloves of crushed garlic -
1 stick of celery, sliced into 1 cm slices – 300 ml dry white wine – 300 ml
good chicken stock – 2 T fresh thyme – 2 fresh bay leaves - freshly ground
black pepper – sea salt - 20 green olives – half a tin of artichoke hearts,
drained (freeze the rest or throw them all in)
Brown the chicken in the olive
oil, then remove and set aside. Add the onion and fry till soft and just
beginning to colour. Add the garlic and then the celery and stir fry for a
minute or two; do not let the garlic burn. Pour in the white wine and let it
reduce to half its volume. Put back the chicken and add the stock, thyme and
bay leaves and season. Put into a casserole, cover with a lid and put into a
170°C oven for three quarters of an hour or until the chicken is cooked and
falling off the bone. The wine, stock and olive oil will emulsify to make a
nice sauce. Put in the olives and artichokes and reheat for five minutes then
serve. Will feed 4 (or 2 or 3 twice)
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 and drives
the wheels that enable us to produce MENU possible. 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
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your order. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.
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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen 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
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! ®
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Sunrise on the Knysna Heads
A baby elephant, Addo
Arums and rape fields, near Darling
Fresh yellowtail, Kalk Bay
A gull battling a storm, Yzerfontein
Mouille Point sunset
Yacht race in Table Bay
2006
A blue seal in Kalk Bay
A Southern double-collared sunbird hen in the Clanwilliam nature reserve
2007
Mist on the Dordogne, near Bordeaux
Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse Delalande, Pauillac, France
The cottage in the lavender field, Franschhoek
Paddy Canavan in the gardens at Freshwoods, Elgin
2008
A baboon family, Cape Point Nature Reserve
A hadeda ibis, Rustenberg estate, Stellenbosch
A dassie (hyrax), with no acrophobia or vertigo, on Table Mountain
Sunset ship, Sea Point
Getting to know one of Morgenhof's peacocks
Seagulls in a Sea Point winter storm
Hartlaub's gull, Postberg, West Coast National Park
2009
Youthful fun, De Kelders
Lilac breasted roller, Kruger National Park
A bull elephant, having fun and breaking a few trees, Kruger National Park
Burchell's coucal, Kruger National Park
Gulls on a roof, Kalk Bay
Gum trees near Robertson
Noordhoek beach
2010
Late evening, Glenelly estate, Stellenbosch
Willows and vines, Delvera, Stellenbosch
Winter storm, Table Bay
The Hex River Valley
Southern Cape vista, Dassiesfontein
Strandfontein beach, north of Lambert's Bay
Gulls taking off, Sea Point
2011
Grey heron taking off, Botanical Gardens, Durban
A grey heron takes off from the Umgeni estuary, Durban
Albacore, Kalk Bay harbour
Trek fishers, Paternoster
Evening in the Hemel en Aarde
Night fishers in the new harbour, Hermanus
Bucolic scene at Ormonde, Darling
Malachite sunbird, Belfield, Elgin
Table Mountain and its tablecloth from Blouberg beach in a South Easter
A Cape White eye takes a bath and gives a Cape Canary a shower
