A last look at
ancient Greece. A temple being restored in Corinth
In
this week’s MENU:
Spicy
Moroccan Cous Cous
Learn about wine and cooking
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We conclude our Greek Odyssey this week with our last days in Greece, where we
tasted some wines in Nemea, the area which, we were told, is exciting major
wine writers worldwide and then the mini marathon back to Cape Town.
This has been a very busy and very
social week, with lots of good
food and mostly good wine. The weather has been so mixed that it's hard to
remember sometimes that it’s mid winter. when you get a sunny and warm day like
Friday, when the temperature reached 24ºC, and then we get one of our huge
storms on Sunday and the temperature dropped so low (5.5 degrees early this am)
and we have snow on the high mountains today. But, at last, we have some of the
rain that the farms have been so desperate for. Not enough yet, but hopefully
this el Nino year will provide more.
Sampling Swiss Wines Lynne belongs to a group called Women in
Wine and, through their Facebook site, we learned of the visit of a group of
Oenology students from Changins – Haute Ecole de viticulture et œnologie, in
Geneva who are here on an exchange visit. They had brought some wines from the
different cantons and wine wards in Switzerland and were keen to share them at
a tasting with people in the wine industry. Lynne, having skied in Switzerland
a few times in the past, is familiar with some of these wines but was very
keen, as was John, to see what they are producing now. We took along two
bottles of good SA wine for the students to taste and an evening of exchanging
wine culture and fun ensued. Read on....
John goes off with a big bang on Safari in Durbanville We were invited this week to visit one of
the Durbanville farms, Signal Gun, which we were not at all familiar with, so
we jumped at the opportunity. They have a small game farm with some very
unusual animals - we saw emu on the way in, wildebeest at the top of the hill -
and we have been invited back to do a game drive, as it was too muddy on the
day we were there. They have a new craft brewery, so we tasted two of their new
beers, had a wine tasting and ate some pizza from their restaurant Ke-Monate (seSotho
for "That’s nice"). But the highlight of the day was the firing of
the cannon. And John drew the lucky straw... Read on....
Lovely lunch at Hartenberg wine estate We go to Hartenberg several times during
the year for their Shiraz and their Riesling Rocks festivals and for their
summer picnics but, this time, we were asked to come and sample their winter
menu at their restaurant. We arrived at 11, had a marvellously long and chatty
wine tasting and then an excellent lunch and left at nearly 4! We can say
unreservedly that you should go and try it out. It's a small menu but has
something for everyone. There is also a good tasting menu. We were lucky and
sat outside in the sunshine but, should the weather change, you can move inside
to the restaurant/tasting room and sit by the roaring fire. Read on....
Vive la France at the Bastille Festival in Franschhoek This is one of the unmissable festivals
and, despite heavy rain and a chilly winter day, we donned our blue, white and
red clothing on Sunday and went to enjoy the festival in the tent at the
Huguenot Monument. Read on....
Raath Trade Wine Tasting at The Village
Idiot On Monday afternoon, we attended the
Raath Promotions trade tasting at a venue new to us, The Village Idiot in Loop
Street. The Raaths act for some great and good wine farms like Bouchard
Finlayson, Teddy Hall, Beaumont, Sterhuis, Van Loveren and Boland Kelder
amongst others and we could taste several of them, including some exciting new
releases. Read On....
Japanese taste sensations at Kyoto Garden After these trade tastings which usually
end at 8 pm we need supper so when we were asked by Scott Wood to come and
taste some of his delicious Japanese food at Kyoto Gardens this seemed like the
perfect time to go. We have been there recently for the Japanese Whisky tasting
and a year or so ago we reviewed the restaurant but he has changed the menu and
wanted us to sample some of the new and old offerings. We love good Japanese
food, and this is where you get it. And we didn't eat any sushi, although they
do make good sushi. We had sweet scallops, huge tender prawns, wild Japanese mushrooms,
seaweed, seared tuna, hibachi grilled octopus and many other delicious
ingredients and dishes Read on....
This week's recipe We love Moroccan food with its different
spice profiles and, this week, Lynne made some Moroccan chicken, covered in a
Ras al Hanout spice mix and roasted in the oven. To go with this, she made some
spicy cous cous. This recipe is for 2, but you can double it up for four or
more people and it goes quite a long way. The recipe takes quite a lot of
pre-preparation, but cooking it takes only a few minutes. And, as a meal, it
can be served without the chicken to vegetarians, as it is quite substantial.
Spicy Moroccan Cous Cous
1 onion,
finely chopped - 1 clove of garlic, chopped - 1 T olive or canola oil - 1
aubergine, in small cubes - 1 courgette, in small cubes - 1 red pepper or some
jarred roasted red peppers (pepperoni) in small cubes - 1 cup of butternut , in
small cubes - 1 T pine nuts or flaked almonds or a mixture of both - 2 t Ras al
Hanout - 500 ml stock (vegetable or chicken) - 5 dates, stoned and chopped -
half a tin of chick peas, drained - 1 cup of cous cous - salt and freshly
ground black pepper - 3 spring onions, chopped - 1 T fresh coriander or mint,
roughly chopped. Optional: preserved lemon and/or rose water
Do
all the preparation of the vegetables and have them ready and waiting in small
bowls. Salt the aubergine and leave it to sweat for about 15 minutes, then wash
off the salt and dry it off. Dry roast the nuts in a small pan and set aside.
In
a large table-ready casserole, fry the onions and the garlic for a few minutes
until transparent, then add the aubergine and continue to fry until it and the
onions are beginning to colour. Then add the courgette, red pepper and butternut
and fry together for five minutes. Then add the Ras al Hanout spice and temper
it in the pan with the vegetables. Pour on the stock and bring the pot to the
boil. Add the dates and the chickpeas, and then the cous cous. Bring it back to
the boil, let it simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and cover and
leave it until the cous cous has absorbed all the liquid and swelled. Fluff
with a fork, taste and adjust the seasoning. As you serve it, sprinkle on the
nuts, the coriander or mint and the spring onions. You can serve this with
chopped preserved lemon and a small sprinkle of rose water.
COMING EVENTS:
Friday, 24th July at
19h00 Italian
Dinner at Ottimo Cibo. Nikki Booth
spends many weeks a year at her home in Orvieto, understands Italian cooking
deeply and passionately, and put Caroline Rillema and her together at one table
and you have a veritable feast of food and wine. One long table in Nikki’s
magnificent home setting in Bishopscourt sets the scene for a 4-course meal
served with (all top end single-vineyard) Gavi, Barbaresco, Barolo; then Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino and the most
sublime Moscato d’Asti you can imagine. R900 p/p all included. At 15 Winchester
Avenue, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town. To book, please fill in the booking form.
Saturday 25th July Winelands Chocolate Festival at Lourensford Wine Estate. A culinary
celebration of the best in the South African Chocolate Industry. The Winelands
Chocolate Festival exhibitors list is growing daily, check back regularly to
find out who’s exhibiting and what confections and cocoa concoctions will be on
display. Book your tickets. View
detailed flyer HERE (PDF)
Saturday, 25th July, 10h30
until 16h00
Mini Port
Festival at Muratie Estate, in conjunction with Juvenal Corks. Cost:
R100 per person including a tasting glass. Due to limited space, visitors are
advised to book in advance. Telephone: 021
865 2330 or Email: info@muratie.co.za
Thursday, 30th and Friday, 31st July, 17h00 to 21h00 FNB Free State Wine Show at Emoya Hotel and Conference Centre, 7
Kleynhans Avenue, Groenvlei, Bloemfontein. www.freestatewineshow.co.za for a full list of exhibitors from end of
June. Ticket Price: R150 (includes unlimited tastings and wine tasting
glass); no under 18s, nor babies and prams. A complimentary show
guide includes producer information and informative notes on wine variety
characteristics, food matching and serving temperatures. Tickets can be
purchased via www.computicket.com, Money Market counters in Shoprite
Checkers stores and at the door, subject to availability.
Enquiries: 011 482
5936/5/4
Friday, 31st July, 18h30 for
19h00. Avondale’s
“Once in a Blue Moon” La Luna Dinner with Bertus Basson. A superb
6-course meal paired with Avondale’s wines. Dress: Smart. Cost: R950 per
person. RSVP to Caelli on wine@avondalewine.co.za or 021 863 1976 best before 10th July
In addition to his
Sense
of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details
here
Emma Freddi runs
the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her
home in Constantia
George Jardine
will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at
Jordan. Details 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.
If you like the photographs you see in our publications,
please look at our Adamastor
Photo website for our
rate card and samples from our portfolio
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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
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