110819 Lunch with George Jardine, CWG tasting, Soufflés, events list and restaurant specials

This week's MENU from Main Ingredient

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines

Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010

www.mainingredient.co.za

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Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

A seagull taking off, Sea Point beachfront

The perfect Birthday     Lynne caught up with the Beatles song on Sunday and confirms that she is not yet getting older, losing her hair(!) or mind. Where to go for our usual celebration dinner? As it was Sunday, it was a lunch date - so she chose to visit one of her favourite restaurants in the winelands: Jardine on Jordan wine estate in Stellenbosch. And where else could one possibly imagine a more perfect meal, view, or day – just look at the pictures. We sat on the front of the terrace, the weather was damn near perfect for a winter’s day (although Lynne always says she knows Spring is on the way on her birthday) and, indeed, the countryside was a lovely shade of spring green after the recent welcome rains. We were welcomed by a celebratory glass of Villiera Cap Classique and we were started off with a plate of two super breads, a creamy garlicky aioli and a black olive tapenade, both of which were so good on the bread. We could not make up our minds about the starters, so we did what we usually do, ordered two and swapped half-way through. The delicately smoked (by the Chef himself in a Jordan oak barrel) Gurnard with a chick pea puree and sage butter was a nice gentle start to the meal, the “awesome” roasted Rabbit Terrine was very, very moreish, small whole pieces of rabbit held together tightly in a lovely herby jelly, on a base of Puy lentils with a smoked garlic sauce and a wonderful gooey Kumquat jam. Nice to see rabbit on a menu – it’s a rare sight, but is suddenly making an appearance in more places. Europe is overrun by rampant bunnies, so it’s a normal thing to eat there. Here they are seen more as pets, which you don’t eat. It does resemble chicken in texture but the flavour is more gamey. John drank a glass of Jordan’s beautiful Chardonnay and Lynne had an enormous glass of their Sauvignon Blanc which lasted her for two courses. While admiring the stunning view and both of us taking lots and lots of photographs from our table, we were served a lovely amuse of a crisp deep fried rice Suppli ball (imagine a spoonful of cheesy risotto covered in a crisp batter) on a beetroot cream and a very interesting Nasturtium sauce. It was inspiring if them to use Nasturtiums in dishes, our garden jungle is suddenly full of them. Hmmmm – watch this space.

The menu is not vast, but all the dishes sound delicious, so choosing a main course was again not easy. John opted for the herb crusted Chalmar ribeye beef with pumpkin, butter poached turnip and “bourguignon” sauce which was slightly bitter, we think affected by the herb crust… Lynne had a honey and soy glazed pork loin chop with tiny roasted baby beets, wilted bok choi and apple. Very tender, and perfectly cooked, this was a triumph.

John had spotted the Valrhona chocolate torte, with vanilla chantilly and poached pear when he first looked at the menu, so that was a given for our chocoholic but Lynne wasn’t tempted by the desserts until she saw someone eating one of George’s soufflés. We both have very good memories of his Grand Marnier Soufflé at his Cape Town restaurant, so she succumbed. It was a light apple soufflé and did remind her of that 50’s dessert Apple Snow which every hotel served as a standard back in the day. It was served with a vanilla crème and a tiny Confit apple tart. It was rather more eggy than apply and the soufflé dish had been lined by rather course brown sugar which gave it rather a crunch. John had a coffee, we stayed for another hour in the beautiful gardens taking even more photos and then it was time to go home. Our bill was R720 including a 10%+ tip, so this is definitely a celebration meal.

A highlight of our last week was the Cape Winemakers’ Guild tasting, last Thursday. This is the run-up event to the annual auction. We tasted 39 wonderful wines during the afternoon, with the winemakers (or, occasionally, their colleagues) telling us about each wine. With a selection like this, it would be invidious to single any one out from the others, but one is bound to have personal favourites, and ours were Nitida’s Decorous sauvignon blanc 2010, Edgebaston “Tete du Ciel” chardonnay 2009, Haskell The Patriot cabernet sauvignon/shiraz blend, Le Riche cabernet sauvignon reserve 2008, Luddite Reserve shiraz 2008, Cederberg Teen die Hoog shiraz 2009 and De Trafford Sijnn Touriga Nacional 2009, the latter from a 5 year old bush vine vineyard at Malgas, near Cape Infanta in the southern Cape. After a tasting of predominantly young red wines, one’s mouth is always dominated by the heavy tannins round one’s gums, so the public tasting afterwards was more notable for the conversations we had than for the small sampling of wines we tasted, but to experience such a collection of superb wines in one afternoon is a privilege for which we will always be grateful. You will find the auction details in our events list.

BE BRAVE     Soufflés are regarded as something terribly difficult to make and they just are not. If you have been watching Masterchef you would have seen a good Masterclass on them and learnt the tip of properly greasing the dish: how to carefully fold in the egg whites so you don’t knock the stuffing out of them. What you need is a thick flavoured sauce into which you stir egg yolks while the sauce is warm (not hot) and then gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. They do need to go into a hot oven and they must not be disturbed until they are nearly finished. And – you can reheat the cheese variety the next day for what is known as a twice baked soufflé, to be served with a cheese sauce. You can make savoury or sweet soufflés. Do be brave and have a go – you will be surprised how easy they are. Two tips – use eggs that are slightly old and that have been taken out of the fridge to get to room temperature

COURGETTE SOUFFLÉ

6 medium courgettes – 4 eggs, separated – 175g grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg – a dash of Tabasco - sea salt -

a grinding or two of black pepper – a little vegetable oil

Roughly grate the courgettes, put them in a sieve and plunge it into boiling salted water for 1 minute, then plunge into ice cold water to refresh. Drain well and pat dry. Stir into the egg yolks, add the cheese, nutmeg, Tabasco, salt and pepper. Grease a small soufflé dish with the oil or use individual ramekins. Stiffly whip the egg whites then fold them carefully into the courgette mixture. Bake in a moderate oven 180ºC until they are puffed up and golden on the outside. As a variation you could add some flaked cooked fish or some slivers of cooked meat or chicken.

Our products. The Italian anchovy paste continues to fly out and we keep upping our replenishment orders and the same applies to Carnaroli rice and the perennially popular Prego sauce. We have increased the stock level of Protea Hill Farm’s fabulous balsamic raspberry vinegar because we struggle to keep up with demand. It makes a wonderful salad dressing when used with hazelnut oil. We also have more of their delicious basil, thyme, dill and raspberry merlot vinegars. The French patés are also deservedly popular and we received more this morning, including the delicious duck rillette. Chou farci, haricot beans in goose fat, Cassoulet and Confit of Duck appeal to the more adventurous gourmets who come to see us. We have added dried lime powder and Baharat to our interesting range of unusual spice mixtures such as Ras al Hanout, Za’atar, Chinese Five Spice, Shichimi Togarashi, Yemeni Zhoug, Garam masala and Sumac as well as more common spices like Mace, Nutmeg, Cardamom and seriously pungent, unwashed Black pepper. We also have lovely moist vanilla pods, sealed in glass tubes to keep them in good condition, leaf gelatine, Belgian 70% couverture chocolate and the excellent, real Nielsen Massey extracts. Our Italian truffles, truffle oils and truffle salt continue to gain fans.

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. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. If you are following Masterchef Australia we have Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.

Our market activities   We had expected to be at the Long Beach Mall market tomorrow, splitting ourselves between there and Cavendish, but we have had no information from the organisers, so we hope that you will not be too disappointed at our absence. You will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square), today, 19th August, from 10h00 to 17h00, and we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients there for you. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, on Saturday between 9am and 2pm. Next Wednesday, we will be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands from 09h30 to 14h30.

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

Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Our  list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

19^th August 2011

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 product list 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 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 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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "subscribe" in the subject line. If you wish to beremoved from our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "remove" in the subject li

Bistro menu at Dunes, Hout Bay

One challenge of taking photographs with a cell phone is that few, if any of them have any cover to protect their lenses, while cameras invariably do. John's phone has a very good camera in it and he used it to take photographs of the food, but a somewhat smeared lens meant that the quality of the pics doesn't do justice to the food. He cleaned it with his handkerchief, but it needed a proper chemical clean. Next time, he'll remember to bring his Nikon along.... 

The menu

Lynne with Quentin Spickernell, the owner

110810 Dombeya dinner at The Vineyard, Venison in Port, interesting events and restaurant special offers

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines

Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010

www.mainingredient.co.za

Click here to Subscribe to MENU or to contact us

Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

Enjoying the winter sun on Hout Bay beach

We had lots of replies to our question about the identity of the bird in last week’s MENU photograph. There were quite a few possibilities, but the majority opinion was that it was a female fiscal shrike. We are full of appreciation for all the replies. Thank you all very much.

On the first Friday of each month, there is a dinner where the chef matches dishes to wines from a specific wine producer. This, and the lead-up to it, was probably one of the most interesting and intriguing things we have done this year - to sit in on a pre-dinner planning session with a chef and a winemaker, come up with flavours we found in the wine and then make a few suggestions about what other flavours they might match. We also had a table full of different foods to taste with the wines, to see what matched or what absolutely clashed. They were not looking for specific dishes, just suggestions, e.g. that the butter tasted in the chardonnay might match well with butternut and the tomato nuances found in the rich red blend might match with fresh or cooked tomato. Then, last Friday, we were able to attend the dinner and see how the chef had interpreted the initial tasting session. What was even more interesting was that the Executive Chef Alex Docherty, who cooked the meal, did it from the notes of Chef JB Louw, who sat with us in the first tasting and, in our opinion, he got it very right.

The restaurant was The Square, at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands, with winemaker Rianie Strydom and her Dombeya wines. Our welcome drink was, unusually, a red: the Dombeya Shiraz. Lynne is fairly traditional about the order in which she likes to drink wine and would normally have preferred a dry white but, because this Shiraz is so soft, fruity and ready, it was lovely to drink through the meeting, greeting and speeches before dinner.

With our first course, we had the Dombeya Chardonnay. It is full of lime and apple flavours, with some buttery backing but lean and crisp, rather than flabby. The chef’s choice was, for us, a stroke of brilliance and it certainly echoed what we had found at the first tasting session. A rectangle of Norwegian salmon was wrapped in Parma ham, gently cooked till the ham crisped and the salmon just fell apart - with a lovely butternut puree, accompanied by lime and apple jelly cubes and some micro greens. The second course was an unctuously soft, almost jellied, long cooked neck of lamb, topped with a caramelised onion and black cherry chutney with a Nicoise style salad to accompany the very cherry flavoured 2008 Merlot. The main course was served with the Dombeya Samara 2006, a blend of traditional Bordeaux grapes, meaty full-flavoured and many layered. This was served with a traditional oven-roasted beef sirloin, served in 2 cm thick slices of perfect pinkness and tenderness. It was accompanied by a rich braised oxtail and bone marrow stuffed single ravioli, sitting on a wild mushroom and fennel fricassee with, for us, the absolute stroke of brilliance - the confit vine cherry tomato and liquorice cream. Who would have risked this combination in a reduction? And yet it worked amazingly, highlighting both flavours in the wine. Lynne had tasted and smelled forest floor aromas in this blend, as well as the tomato and liquorice, and there it was on the plate to match the wine. Dessert was matched to the Dombeya Sauvignon Blanc - not everyone’s idea of the perfect match but, for a wine so full of tropical litchi and passion fruit flavours, matching it with a passion fruit cheesecake, litchi cream and passion fruit custard was adventurous: a rather sweet and rich dessert matched with quite a dry white wine. An interesting and brave match indeed, you certainly could pick up the matches with the litchi and passion fruit. The wine had just been bottled when we tasted it at the planning session, where it came across as being more fruity and with lower acidity than we tasted at the dinner – perhaps this was a challenge associated with tasting a just-bottled wine. Coffee, and then carriages, saw us home to bed, not too late which was good as a bad cold was vengefully asserting itself. These food and wine pairing dinners are a monthly event and we hope to be at another one soon. You can see the details of each month’s dinner in our Events column and you can see a few pictures from the Dombeya evening here.

Both of us have had awful colds this week, Lynne requiring assistance from antibiotics and stronger chemicals on Monday because the ailment simply was not responding to a week of home remedies. Please try and avoid this one, it’s horrible and does seem to hang around. Steam helps. It starts with a very thick head and a headache and gets to a very painful sore throat and bronchitis. It is what we pay for hot weather with berg winds in winter, alternating with freezing cold storms. If only it would rain like mad and stay cold for a while as it should do, so that the dams can fill up again for the summer.

We have been eating lots of full flavoured and spicy food because of the colds. Sunday was beef curry, Monday was Indonesian pork Babi Ketchup, last night we had Spaghetti Marinara (seafood) and tonight it’s a quick Red Thai curry with chicken breasts.

Venison in Port

The supermarkets have lots of venison at the moment and this is one of our favourite ways to cook it. We know it is traditional to tenderise the venison in buttermilk, but we find that this softens it too much. The port works very well indeed to tenderise the meat; it does not taste too sweet when roasted and it isn’t necessary to use an expensive, old bottle. You do need to start this a day or two before you plan to cook it, because it does need to marinade for at least 24 hours or longer.

Small leg of venison (Springbok) 1.5-2 Kg – a bottle of red port - 1 tablespoon wine vinegar - 1 sliced onion - 1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds - 1 teaspoon crushed Juniper Berries - 2 crushed cloves of garlic - a large sprig of thyme or marjoram - ground black pepper – salt – strips of bacon or beef fat

Pour the port over the venison in a deep china or glass bowl and marinate with all the ingredients (except the bacon or fat) for at least 24–36 hours. Dry off the meat and roast, covering the roast with some strips of fat to protect it. Venison is a very lean meat and does need protecting or it will dry out. You can use the marinade (strained) to make delicious gravy to serve with the roast. Traditionally, it is served with matchstick potatoes, and good winter vegetables like roast parsnips, butternut and some green peas.

We do stock juniper berries if you have trouble finding them.

Our products. The first batch of tubes of anchovy paste flew out so fast that we hardly knew it was there. We’ll have more tomorrow. Carnaroli rice continues to fly (for the creamiest risottos and rice pudding) as does the Sense of Taste Chilli garlic paste, for those of you who want something hotter than the very popular Prego sauce. We have increased the stock level of Protea Hill Farm’s fabulous balsamic raspberry vinegar because we struggle to keep up with demand. It makes a wonderful salad dressing when used with hazelnut oil. We also have more of their delicious basil, thyme, dill and raspberry merlot vinegars. We have also obtained more stock of walnut oil, after a brief hiatus, in addition to the fabulous hazelnut oil. We have an interesting range of unusual spice mixtures like Ras al Hanout, Za’atar, Chinese Five Spice, Shichimi Togarashi, Zhoug, Garam masala and Sumac as well as more common spices like Mace, Nutmeg, Cardamom and seriously pungent, unwashed Black pepper. We are one of very few local sources of leaf gelatine, couverture chocolate and real extracts. Our Italian truffle salt continues to gain fans as does our range of French patés and preserved meat dishes like Cassoulet and Confit of Duck.

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. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. If you are following Masterchef Australia we have Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.

Our market activities   We expect to be at the Long Beach Mall market in two weeks time, splitting ourselves between there and Cavendish, but have not yet had confirmation from the organisers. This week, you will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square) this Friday, 12th August, from 10h00 to 17h00, and we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients there for you. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, on Saturday between 9am and 2pm. Next Wednesday, we will be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands from 09h30 to 14h30.

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

Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Our  list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

10^th August 2011

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 product list 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 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 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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "subscribe" in the subject line. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "remove" in the subject line

Cape Winemakers' Guild pre-Auction tasting

Chairman, Louis Strydom opening proceedings

Whisky magazine editor, Fiona MacDonald

Norman MacFarlane, concentrating hard while his chardonnay is poured

The effort of keeping ahead of the pourers

Boela Gerber, Groot Constantia, rescuing bottles for the public tasting

Adi Badenhorst

Jacques Borman, Boschkloof

Flagstone's Bruce Jack

Dawid Nieuwoudt, Cederberg, pouring for Dusan Jelic of Wine.co.za

Michael Pownall, GM of the Taj with Johan Joubert of Kleine Zalze

Cape Wine Master, Jeff Grier of Villiera

Sunday lunch with George Jardine at Jordan

The menu

Lunch on the terrace

The view, almost a Pierneef painting

Awesome braised rabbit terrine, lentil and smoked garlic dressing with kumquat 

Barrel smoked line caught gurnard, chick pea puree and sage butter

we were served a lovely amuse of a crisp deep fried rice Suppli ball

Herb crusted Chalmar ribeye, pumpkin, butter poached turnip and “bourguignon”

Honey and soy glazed pork loin rack, roasted baby beets, wilted bok choi and apple

Apple soufflé, confit apple tart and vanilla

Valrhona chocolate torte, vanilla chantilly, and poached pear

Lynne with Kathy Jordan

Vineyards and a bluegum tree

Lily, the farm sheepdog, who believes that her job is herding ducks

110804 Main Ingredient's MENU - Beer and Indian food at The Taj, High Constantia, Markets, restaurant specials and events to enjoy

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines

Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010

www.mainingredient.co.za

Subscribe to MENU or contact us

Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

A small bird, enjoying the last rays of the sun

We have searched our bird books, and can’t decide if he is a Cape sparrow, or if he is of another species. Perhaps one of you can help.

As many of you will know, we are having a most peculiar winter, with the temperature yo-yoing up and down the scale on the thermometer. Some days could pass for summer and then, as is happening while we write this, the temperature plummets and should hit a low single figure by tonight. It has been an exceptionally dry winter, so we are very happy to have a little rain this evening. One by-product of this strange weather is colds. We have had a particularly active few weeks, attending lots of dinners, tastings and events and meeting many interesting people. Great fun, indeed, but also a great way of being exposed to unwelcome microbes. Both of us have been afflicted this week, Lynne more than John, and she had to miss our wine club’s monthly meeting at High Constantia last night, more about which you can see here. David van Niekerk, the owner and winemaker, is a former banker who gave up the collar and the world of finance to make wine at the door of Groot Constantia, our oldest wine estate. He works in an immaculate small cellar, making wines with great depth and ability to mature, but which have soft tannins and can be enjoyed young. David and Karen, his wife, gave us a most informative tasting, with warm and enthusiastic hospitality. His Clos André Brut Nature 2008 Cap Classique sparkling wine is very clean, bone dry and bready. It is a blend of 70/30 chardonnay/pinot noir, with almost no sugar and no sulphur. He has two Sauvignons blanc, both less acidic than most, and a range of single varietal red wines made from the five Bordeaux grape varieties (Cabernets sauvignon and franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot) and Sebastiaan, a very elegant Cabernet franc dominated blend, made from the famous five. The High Constantia Sauvignon blanc is particularly clean and delicious.

We Love Real Beers at the Taj     Last Friday, we had a most enjoyable evening at The Taj, with a tasting of craft beers in the Twankey Bar, followed by dinner prepared by the head chef of the Bombay Brasserie. All the dishes were paired with craft beers from five independent brewing companies: Brewers & Union, Camel Thorn Brewery, Darling Brew, Jack Black Beers, Mitchell’s Brewery and Napier Brewery. Each brewer provided a selection of beers (sometimes we were presented with more than one beer per dish), so the tables were soon covered with an impressive array of glasses. There was far more beer than one person could decently drink, so we still had glasses with a generous amount of beer in them at the end of the meal, but it was most enlightening to be able to pair the flavours of the different beers with the dishes, all of which were spicy, but not all of which were hot.

Our favourite combinations were Spicy tempered prawns and Darling Bone Crusher Witte, Tender lamb kebabs and Mitchell’s 90 Shillings ale, Broccoli in pickle spices and Jack Black premium lager, Chicken Tikka with vinegar shallots and Brewers & Union Versus Goliath amber lager, Stir fried potatoes with Pickle Chilli spices and Jack Black premium lager, Spiced lamb curry and Napier Brewery Ale and Black lentils and kidney beans with Camelthorn Fresh weissbier. The meal ended with Spanish CSG Touro Tripel Blond ale accompanying cardamom scented ice cream and brandy snaps. A huge feast taken over several hours. It was not only a demonstration of excellent Indian food but showed how delightfully varied real beers are, especially compared with the boring sameness of most commercial lagers. Pictures can be seen here.

They are planning more of these tastings. There is an encouraging number of real brewers in the Western Cape. In addition to the names who were at this dinner, try some of the others, like Boston, Paulaner and Birkenhead. They are well worth trying. You can find some of them at the markets, like the Biscuit Mill and Hout Bay and at places like the Waterfront.

MOROCCAN LAMB KEBABS FLAVOURED WITH RAS AL HANOUT

We sell lots of unusual spices and spice mixes. One of our most popular is Ras al Hanout – the quintessential spice mix from Morocco which is used in tagines and many other dishes.  This is a rub for kebabs and is very easy to prepare.

25g Ras al Hanout Spice - 1 clove of garlic - 1 t grated fresh ginger - 1 shallot - 1 T chopped flat parsley - ½ teaspoon of flaked sea salt -  800g lean lamb cut into cubes

Warm the Ras al Hanout mix in a dry frying pan for a minute to release the flavours, then add them to a pestle and mortar in which you have put the garlic, parsley, finely chopped shallot and the ginger and salt. Crush well together then spread onto lamb cubes and put onto wooden skewers. Put them into a Pyrex dish in the fridge overnight and onto the barbeque the next day. This will allow the flavours to permeate the meat. You can also put this mixture onto chicken, beef or goat. When the kebabs come off the fire, slide the meat off the skewers and wrap it in warm pita bread or tortilla wraps - very good finger food! Serve with salads, harissa, plain yogurt and preserved lemons.

Our products. New this week is something we have not sold for about 5 years: anchovy paste in tubes. Carnaroli rice continues to fly (for the creamiest risottos and rice pudding) and we have more of the Sense of Taste Chilli garlic paste, for those of you who want something hotter than the very popular Prego sauce. We have also sourced some more Kewra (Pandanus) extract, for those of you who want to make jasmine scented rice. Protea Hill Farm’s fabulous balsamic raspberry vinegar continues to sell very well. It makes a wonderful salad dressing when used with hazelnut oil. We also have more stock of walnut oil, after a brief hiatus.

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 rare spices and other ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. If you are following Masterchef Australia we have Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.

Our market activities      The market at Long Beach will resume tomorrow. We won’t be there yet, but expect to be there in two weeks time, splitting ourselves between there and Cavendish. We visited the Bay Harbour Market, near Snoekies in Hout Bay, last Sunday. It looks very interesting, with a very good atmosphere and an interesting variety of crafts and food and drink to enjoy, but we don’t believe that it is ready yet for our sort of activity. There were not many people leaving the market with purchases. We believe that the organisers are interested in making a space for a produce/grocery market and we would be interested in that.

This week, you will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square) tomorrow, Friday 29th July, from 10h00 to 17h00, where we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients for you. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s Neighbourgoods Market, as always, on Saturday between 9am and 2pm. Next Wednesday, we will be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands from 09h30 to 14h30. We expect to be back at Long Beach on Friday 19^th August. We’ll confirm this nearer the time.

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

Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Our  list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

4^th August  2011

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 product list 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 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 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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "subscribe" in the subject line. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "remove" in the subject line

Dombeya wines dinner at The Vineyard's The Square

The Menu

The Square

Norwegian salmon wrapped in Parma ham, butternut puree, lime & apple jelly / Dombeya Chardonnay 2010

Oven roasted beef sirloin, braised oxtail & bone marrow ravioli, wild mushroom & fennel fricassee,confit vine cherry tomato, liquorice cream / Dombeya Samara 2006

Passion fruit cheesecake, litchi cream, passion fruit custard / Dombeya Sauvignon blanc 2011

Louis and Rianie Strydom, Vineyard GM Roy Davies

Francois de Sornay, Wendy & Craig Girdlestone, Maria Tierney

Restaurant manager, David Wibberley

Claire & Lee Wright, Lynne Ford