Thursday, September 11, 2014

20140911 Main Ingredient's MENU - New World Wine Show, Truth Coffee, Taj Chilli Festival, IWSC Results

MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods & Ingredients
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The old prison boat Susan Kruger ferrying visitors to Robben Island
In this week’s MENU:
* New World Wine Agency trade tasting
* Truth Coffee. Doing the Right Thing
* Taj Chilli festival
* IWSC announces Beautiful South Wine results
* Sunday bloody Sunday
* Recipe - Cauliflower Keema curry
* Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy
* Learn about wine and cooking
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 TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.
This week’s Product menu    Our Indian feast at The Taj and this week’s recipe are a reminder that we have a range of Indian and other spices which you will not easily find anywhere else, like Garam masala, Fenugreek, Five Spice, Mace, Shichimi togarashi, Ras el Hanout, Za’atar, Baharat, smoked Spanish paprika, superb Spanish saffron and Sumac  See them here
New World Wine Agency trade tasting     Each of the Trade Wine tastings we go to has a different location and also a completely different character. It depends very much on the personality of the people involved, both organisers and winemakers; and on the wines, on the warmth of the welcome and on the venue. Monday night saw us happily enjoying all of the above at the Vineyard for this fun tasting of some very good wines. Read On
Truth Coffee. Doing the Right Thing     We received a mysterious invitation from Coffee entrepreneur David Donde, asking us to arrive at Truth at 3pm on Tuesday for something exciting, and some free coffee. It was headed “Truth Coffee Roasts on left overs”. We arrived to see his newly refurbished behemoth of a coffee roaster, circa 1947, which had been adapted to work on Bio-fuel instead of diesel. We applaud this green initiative. He is currently installing solar on the roof of his building. David says that Truth is the only roaster in Africa and probably the only one in the world roasting completely on waste fuel. Read On
Taj Chilli festival     We are great curry fans and we like curries of all types, meat, chicken and vegetarian. So we were excited to be invited to The Taj Hotel for the Chilli Festival currently being run in the Bombay Brasserie. They sent a car for us which meant John could really enjoy the wine and beer, paired with the food and not worry about driving home. This small but perfectly decorated restaurant seats, on average, only 40 people, and has lots of well trained staff of character and good manners.  We had a wonderful time. Read On
International Wine and Spirit Competition announces Beautiful South Wine results.     Bright and early and just a little bleary eyed after our Chilli Festival the night before, we arrived at a new venue for us, the Shimmy Beach Club, which is right on the edge of the breakwater area in Cape Town docks. We were promised, and were given coffee, then breakfast with a glass of one of the winning wines, the deliciously crisp and lean Graham Beck Blanc de Blanc Brut 2009, a wine that is scooping lots of international awards, while we heard about this year’s awards. Read On
Sunday bloody Sunday     Sometimes you have to turn a disaster into a positive. We were invited to lunch on a Helderberg wine farm but, when we got there, no one we spoke to knew about the invitation! A bit of a PR nightmare, but apologies have been received. After a long drive, huge expectations were dashed. So we decided to go down to the sea, where we had a lovely seafood platter at one of our favourites, Ocean  Basket on the Strand. Marvellous views. Read On
Recipe - Cauliflower Keema curry
1 T coconut oil - 2 large onions, very finely chopped or gated – 1 T grated ginger – 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped – 1 t turmeric - 1 t ground coriander – 1 t white mustard seeds – t 1 cumin seeds – 1 t fennel seeds – 1  green chopped Jalapeno chilli  - 500 g beef or lamb mince – tin of chopped tomatoes –salt and freshly ground black pepper – 1 small cauliflower, broken into large pieces – 1 onion, thinly sliced – peanut oil – 200 ml thick plain yoghurt
Fry the onion gently in the oil till very soft, but not coloured. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for a minute or two.  Add the dry spices and temper for a moment. Stir in the mince and brown. Then add the tomatoes and season with salt and black pepper. Simmer for half an hour then add the cauliflower. Finely slice the third onion and cook until crisp and brown, then drain on kitchen paper. Cook the curry until the cauliflower is getting soft. Stir in yoghurt and top with fried onions. You can use half and half broccoli and cauliflower.
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 type of event 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 list of wine and food pairing dinners, list of Special events with wine and/or food connections, list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events. All the events are listed in date order and we 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
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, will soon start a new series of short courses in baking. Check the ad in our blog page or 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.
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 Thursday evenings and she has decided to introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here
11th September 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.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

IWSC wine competition results announced

Bright and early and just a little bleary eyed after our Chilli Festival the night before, we arrived at a new venue for us, the Shimmy Beach Club, which is right on the edge of the breakwater area in Cape Town harbour. We were promised and were given coffee and breakfast with a glass of one of the winning wines, the deliciously crisp and lean Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs 2009, a wine that is scooping lots of international awards, while we heard about this year’s awards
Bright and early and just a little bleary eyed after our Chilli Festival dinner the night before, we arrived at a new venue for us, the Shimmy Beach Club, which is right on the edge of the breakwater area in Cape Town harbour. We were promised and were given coffee and breakfast with a glass of one of the winning wines, the deliciously crisp and lean Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs 2009, a wine that is scooping lots of international awards, while we heard about this year’s awards
Shimmy with its man-made “beach” and cube pool, early on a chilly weekday morning
Inside the main restaurant
Our meeting was held upstairs, inside the Bunnahabhain Whisky Bar. Sadly, these bottles of Bunnahabhain are empty
Maryna Strachan of Wine Extra and IWSC Judge Dave Hughes get the room ready
Maryna pours us a glass of the 2009 Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs
She announces the winners of the Gold medals. The Trophies will only be announced in London at the Guildhall on the 23rd of November. If you'd like to see the link to all the medal winners, go to the IWSC web site www.iwsc.net/
Dave Hughes tells us how the awards work. This year 632 South African wines were entered. They are judged by a panel of local judges with some visiting overseas judges. All the judges must have a formal wine qualification. The same happens in each of the Southern Hemisphere wine countries whose producers enter. In this competition, all the medal winning wines are scientifically tested. All the gold medal winning wines will then go to the UK to be judged for the trophies. They use a 100 point scoring system. IWSC is a privately owned-for-profit company. Judging might not take place here next year. Judges asked to go to London to judge do not have their fares paid. They are all volunteers and only have their local UK travel costs paid while they are there 
Taking lots of notes and asking lots of questions
The venerable David Hughes CWM
Mike Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts, Kalinka Lombard of Wine Style and Shante Hutton, Wine News editor of Wine.co.za listen attentively
The breakfast menu for the meeting
A huge double portion of eggs Benedict with smoked salmon was, sadly, very, very salty
Corn and thyme fritters with scrambled egg, small chipolata sausages and a sweet onion jam
The gold medal winning 2009 MCC Blanc de Blancs from Graham Beck
A young kelp gull takes to the air
It’s a busy harbour. This is the old prison boat Susan Kruger being used as a ferry to take tourists to Robben Island, passing a barge tug

The list of Gold Outstanding and Gold Medal winners is:
Gold Outstanding
Van Ryn's Distillers Reserve 12 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Oude Meester Souverein 18 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Van Ryn Collectors Reserve 20 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Richelieu 10 Year Old Vintage Brandy - Distell Ltd
Oude Meester Reserve 12 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Van Ryn's Fine Cask Reserve 15 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Jordan Cobblers Hill 2010 - Jordan Wine Estate
Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 - Jordan Wine Estate
KWV Grape Brandy 12 Year Old - KWV SA
KWV Grape Brandy 15 Year Old - KWV SA
KWV Grape Brandy 20 Year Old - KWV SA
Abraham Perold Tributum 2010 - KWV SA
Kika 2013 - Miles Mossop
Nederburg Winemaster's Reserve Noble Late Harvest 2012 - Nederburg Wines (Pty) Ltd
Nederburg Private Bin Edelkeur 2011 - Nederburg Wines (Pty) Ltd
Nederburg Private Bin Eminence 2010 - Nederburg Wines (Pty) Ltd

Gold
Lyngrove Platinum Shiraz 2011 - Baarsma  (Pty) Ltd
Beau Belle Geneesbos 2012 - Beau Belle Farm (Pty) Ltd
The Bernard Series Small Barrel SMV 2012 - Bellingham
Beyerskloof Field Blend 2009 - Beyerskloof
Suider Terras Sauvignon Blanc 2013 - Bloemendal Estate
Boschkloof Syrah 2012 - Boschkloof Wines
Constantia Glen FIVE 2010 - Constantia Glen Winery (Pty) Ltd
DMZ Syrah 2012 - De Morgenzon
Delheim Edelspatz Noble Late Harvest 2013 - Delheim Wines
Diemersfontein Carpe Diem Pinotage 2012 - Diemersfontein Wines
Klipdrift - Distell Ltd
Three Ships Single Malt 10 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Amarula - Distell Ltd
Mainstay Island Fusion - Distell Ltd
Bain's Cape Mountain Whisky 5 Year Old - Distell Ltd
Driehoek Shiraz 2012 - Driehoek Wines
Graham Beck Blanc de Blancs 2009 - Graham Beck Wines
Graham Beck Pheasants' Run 2013 - Graham Beck Wines
Hartenberg The Eleanor 2012 - Hartenberg Estate
Hartenberg Shiraz 2010 - Hartenberg Estate
JC Le Roux Scintilla 2008 - JC Le Roux
Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 - Kleine Zalze Wines
KWV The Mentors Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2013 - KWV SA
KWV The Mentors Noble Late Harvest 2012 - KWV SA
Le Bonheur Prima 2009 - Le Bonheur Estate
Nederburg Private Bin Eminence 2009 - Nederburg Wines (Pty) Ltd
Nederburg Private Bin Edelkeur 2009 - Nederburg Wines (Pty) Ltd
Neethlingshof The Six Flowers 2013 - Neethlingshof Estate
Oldenburg Vineyards Chenin Blanc 2013 - Oldenburg Vineyards
Stellenzicht Rhapsody 2007 - Stellenzicht Vineyards
Vergelegen Estate Red 2003 - Vergelegen Wines (Pty) Ltd
Warwick Estate Trilogy 2007 - Warwick Wine Estate
Wildekrans Chenin Blanc Barrel Select Reserve 2013 - Wildekrans Wine Estate
Wildekrans Shiraz Barrel Select Reserve 2012 - Wildekrans Wine Estate

You can see the other awards by drilling through all 6110 winners at http://www.iwsc.net/search2014/wine

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

The Bombay Brasserie Chilli Festival at The Taj

We are great curry fans and we like curries of all types, meat, chicken and vegetarian. So we were excited to be invited to The Taj Hotel for the Chilli Festival currently being run in the Bombay Brasserie. They sent a car for us, which meant that John could really enjoy the wine and beer paired with the food and not worry about driving home.  This small but perfectly decorated restaurant seats, on average, only 40 people, and has lots of well trained staff of character and good manners. We had a wonderful time
Mountaineering up our steep street to ‘mount’ the huge Range Rover sent by the Taj to fetch us. Royal treatment indeed
The glamorous Bombay Brasserie
A choice of cocktails
or some interesting Craft beers which do match curry very well
We decided to taste and share a Robson’s Durban Pale Ale as our aperitif. It was excellent
First a Tazza platter of crisp Indian nibbles, poppadoms and crackers and crudités served with a tomato dipping sauce
Then an Amuse. This is a Chaat, a popular street food in India - a dumpling filled with finely ground lentils and covered in sweet yoghurt and a mango chutney
The Chilli Festival menu
And the  Vegetarian options. Many are the same. We each ordered one version and shared the dishes that were different on each menu.
Seeing the rather extensive menu, and you do get all the courses, we were relieved that the soup is, thankfully, a small portion in a cup. It has a tomato and lentil base with tempered spices and pink peppercorns which add a lovely flavour. We were served small wine samples in ISO glasses and with the soup came the Sterhuis Astra white blend 2009
We meet Harpreet Longani, the Executive sous chef, who is married to the Executive chef. They have been at Bombay Brasserie since it opened in Cape Town and both are from the Punjab
The restaurant has some lovely touches, like the decorations on the back of the comfortable chairs, the huge glass chandeliers and the marvellous Indian mirrors
Restaurant manager Stephen Petersen
The starter platters. On the right is the vegetarian option: Tikka paneer tossed in warm Jwala chilli powder, a salsa of corn, pineapple and Degi chilli, topped with popped sago and spicy fried broccoli. On the left a prawn coated in yellow chilli, a moist and tender piece of fried butterfish with birds eye chilli and a spicy chicken ‘ stick’ kebab. This was served with a rather oxidised Nederburg Viognier 2004 which had a sweet perfumed peach nose, but was more like a dry sherry than a table wine
The non Vegetarian selection of starters
The Vegetarian platter of starters
Tatiana Marcetteau, Sommelier at The Taj, talking to us about the wine pairings
What steaming delight is heading our way?
It's a beautiful refreshing palate cleanser of lemon and lime sorbet on a bed of dry ice.
Main course is a selection of three curries, pilau rice and a butter nan.  The vegetarian options were a delicious and very warm mushroom and water chestnut curry, a soft and gentle yellow dhal spiced with patti chillies and Bhindi (ladies fingers) served with fenugreek leaves and Byodgi chilli.
The non vegetarian options were a mutton and lentil dalcha with Taddapolly chillies – taste resembled a good Rogan Josh, Chicken morsels in a creamy red pepper curry with Red peppers that were really smoky like Spanish smoked paprika and the Bhindi. The pulao rice had peppered dumplings and potato in it. The Naan was really delicious and so difficult to resist. We had this course with two wines: The Goose 2008 Expression red blend, which was very fruity and smooth and a Nederburg entry level Winemaster's Reserve 2012 white blend.
A special treat was served with dessert, the Double Gold Nederburg 2012 Noble Late Harvest, based on Chenin Blanc with a touch of Muscat de Frontignac
Dessert was a soft and squidgy fried pancake spiced with fennel and black pepper with a vanilla custard, a chilli kulfi ice cream and a fruity chilli ‘splash’. Two coffees and our chauffeur was waiting outside to take us home
A lovely evening, thank you all at the Taj
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014