Thursday, March 29, 2018

On the MENU this Week. Honey Ice Cream


This is a fairly easy dessert if you are entertaining over the Easter holidays. Yes, you can use bought vanilla custard from Woollies or another supermarket. Just make it the day before
Image courtesy of Serious Eats
4 Tablespoons runny honey - 120g sugar - 1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon 300ml double cream 300ml thick vanilla custard - 2 egg whites
Put honey, sugar and cinnamon in a saucepan with 100 ml water. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then boil for 5 minutes or until it becomes syrupy. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the hot syrup in a thin stream, whisking all the time to keep the mixture stiff. Whisk till cool. It is easier in a mixer. It will look like soft meringue
Whip the cream until it just holds its shape, fold through the meringue mixture and then add the custard. Spoon into a freezer container and freeze overnight. Take out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving. Serve sprinkled with nuts and some good fresh berries. And if you can get some, broken up honeycomb
Note: there is a lot of rather dubious honey in the shops, much of which is imported from China, and much of which has been adulterated with other substances. Honey is expensive and dubious practices are used to bring prices down. As always, you get what you pay for. Read the label carefully. Preferably, it should be approved by the South African Bee Industry Organisation (SABIO). There is a simple test if you are in doubt: Fill a glass with water. Add one tablespoon of honey into the glass. Adulterated or artificial honey will dissolve in water and you will see it around the glass. Pure honey on the other hand will settle right at the bottom of your glass
Posted by MENU at 7:28 pm 1 comments

MENU's Wine of the Week. Chamonix Cabernet Franc 2015

We tasted this wine in our wonderful tasting at Chamonix with winemaker Thinus Neethling. Winter is on its way, somewhat earlier than usual, and we will soon be looking for robust, warm, sustaining dishes; comfort food

It will be a great partner to rich casseroles, made with duck, slow-cooked beef or lamb or, especially, venison. It is savoury with a dark berry nose, and perfume. Hot savouriness on the palate; smoky blueberries and cassis, delicious. It is drinking very well now but, as is so often the case, you are sure to be rewarded if you keep it for a few years. About R240 per bottle from the farm at the new 15% VAT rate.
Posted by MENU at 6:57 pm 0 comments

Lunch at The Long Table, Haskell Vineyards, Stellenbosch

We were invited to sample the new menu as Haskell have reopened the Long Table restaurant. They call it a small plate menu, with dishes that you can share; they say four per couple would be ample and we agree
Some beautifully carved furniture was discovered in the cellar, it has been brought up to the restaurant to display
And is currently being oiled to preserve the wood and the fine carving
Haskell wine
We began with a glass of the Dabar MCC, which was made by Haskell winemaker Rianie Strydom. It is 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir
Can't you just picture yourself having lunch in this lovely setting, under the trees with a Stellenbosch valley stretching out in front of you and the mountains behind
Lots of outdoor seating and also plenty inside for chillier days
The tasting room
The glass doors close in inclement weather
More indoor space
Vines turning to autumn colours as harvest comes to an end
High vineyards, blue mountains
In the kitchen, Head Chef Charles Joubert and his team work on lunch. He was previously at Terroir restaurant under acclaimed Chef Mike Broughton. He brings with him a passion for finely crafted food and a palate attuned to food and wine matching
The media table
Chef Charles comes to tell us about what we will have for lunch, which will be served family style for us to help ourselves. A good way to eat when trying out a restaurant’s food
Rianie Strydom, GM and Cellar master (should that be mistress?) for Haskell Wines. Haskell’s second label Dombeya wines are also served at the Long Table restaurant. Just back from ProWein in Germany, she took time off from harvest to be with us
The Chicken liver parfait, with a red wine marmalade and a fig tart tatin. The parfait was soft and velvety, not too set, with good iron rich flavours, the pastry on the tart was light flaky and crumbly and this is one to copy now as figs are in season at last
The ceviché of fishy thinly sliced Cape Salmon was in a light, slightly shy ginger shallot dressing, it was topped with crisp fish skin, sesame rice crackers and radishes. Applauded by those who enjoy fish skin
Tiny warm rolls for the parfait
The delicious salt baked beetroot served with local goat’s cheese served two ways, creamy and crumbly. A rich earthy beetroot sorbet and hazelnuts came with a local honey and balsamic vinaigrette. The slices of heritage candy beetroot lit up the plate. This is a great combination and also goes very well with a good Sauvignon Blanc like the Dombeya
Each couple at the table was served these dishes to share
We were served the 2016 Haskell Anvil Chardonnay with lunch, and this versatile wine was a very good pairing for the food. It is lightly wooded, crisp with lemon and limes, and ends with toffee vanilla wood. The red wine served was the 2014 Dombeya Boulder Road Syrah, rich red berries, spice and dark licorice wood
Another of the dishes was the squid and Chorizo, Really crisp battered tentacles, soft rolls of squid and just a few crisp slices of spicy chorizo below. It came with a squid ink vinaigrette, deep fried kale, broccoli, baby potatoes and confit onions. One to return for, again and again...
The pink sous vide belly of pork is one of the main meat dishes and is topped with grilled pineapple and pork crackling. Not too fatty, very tender but proper crackling would be nicer than this airy crisp which has texture but no flavour. Served with a mango chutney and a fermented chilli sauce
For vegetarians and Lynne, the dish of the day, light pillows of fried potato gnocchi with a mushroom ketchup, butternut squash and gorgonzola cream. This is not the only vegetarian dish; besides the beetroot, they also have a Tomato risotto on the current menu
Dessert was a classic Apple strudel, well rolled with thin crisp pastry, good spices, topped with a burnt honey ice cream and a Crème Anglaise foam. We really like Chef Charles' food; he is not throwing lots of unconnected ingredients at the plate (as so many chefs are doing at the moment). Everything that is there should be there and the flavours are clear, right and uncomplicated. And, of course, properly cooked
Posted by MENU at 6:36 pm 0 comments

A day in Franschhoek 2: An Appointment with the Winemaker at Chamonix

Continuing our day in Franschhoek, we had arranged to meet winemaker Thinus Neethling in the tasting room. The farm is above Franschhoek on the right hand side when you enter the village. It is also on the Franschhoek Tram route. The farm has been owned by German businessman Chris Hellinger, who bought the farm over a quarter of a century ago. We were so pleased to see that they have extended the seating area for the Tasting room outside in the sunshine. Inside can be a little dark.
Catching up! Thinus is Cellarmaster, winemaker and viticulturist. We were joined a bit later by Bernard Dewey, the Sales and Marketing Manager
We began with the 2017 Sauvignon Blanc, a good classic South African SB on the nose, grassy, green leaves and some honey on the nose; this is not in the tropical style, and is crisp and clean and very refreshing with zingy acids and green capsicum on the end. The 2017 Unoaked Chardonnay has golden fruit on the nose, and is a quaffing wine, with crisp citrus and peach notes and some nice chalk on the end
The wooded Bordeaux style 2015 Reserve White blend has some 79% Sauvignon Blanc & 21% Semillon added and is redolent of lemon and wood on the nose , on the palate rich with wood and citrus fruit, and some creamy complexity
The star white wine of Chamonix is the 2006 Reserve White 73% Sauvignon Blanc and 27% Semillon which wine writer Tim Atkin MW scored a high 95. This is more elegant and perfumed and very French in style. Crisp citrus with nice gentle wood, long citrus flavours on the end, a truly impressive wine
Then two vintages of wooded Reserve Chardonnay. The 2015 has vanilla oak, from 14 months in French barrels, 70% new, 10% second fill and 205 in a concrete egg. Crisp and fresh with long flavours, wood follows with nice smoke on the end, will age well. The 2016 is shy on the nose at first with smoke, lemon and citrus. Rich flavours on the palate belie the quiet nose, more
Time to switch to red and we started with the 2016 Feldspar Pinot Noir. Balsam hints and very ripe fruit on the nose with some rose perfume. Heady with good fruit, warmth and more of those roses, lovely to drink, a good food wine
Then the 2015 Reserve Pinot Noir, a green leafy nose with a hint of eucalyptus and balsam beneath some mushrooms. Full-on warm wine, silky and fruity with a minty eucalyptus hint, long fruit, prunes and strawberries, The 2016 Reserve Pinot Noir has smoke with some faint eucalyptus, intriguing, and pretty with roses and quality. A little like the Hemel and Aarde Pinot style. Full palate of ripe raspberries, mulberries, a success. Also a bit French, but not shy in fruit and delivery
Then the 2015 Greywacke Pinotage of which 30% has been 18 months in new French oak barrels. An interesting fruit driven nose, The wine has had some repasso treatment, where it is added to a cask containing the skins and lees left over from recently fermented wine. This triggers a second fermentation and increases colour, depth and alcohol. It has good fruit, prunes, plums and raspberries, chalky tannins with some toasted wood on the end and no metallic flavours. A wine made to last and age well
We paused for some light lunch with two of Chamonix's meat and cheese platters
The Cabernet Franc 2015 is savoury with dark berry nose, and perfume. Hot savouriness, smoke blueberries and cassis, delicious
Then the flagship red, 2015 Troika, 48% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot and 15% Petite Verdot. Balsam, cassis and violets, sweet berry fruit warm alcohol, will go well with spicy foods with a good savoury end from the Cabernet Franc
Then a cellar tour. Thinus told us that they farm dry land, they use organic yeast from Germany and they spray just copper sulphate and sulphur when necessary, no other chemicals are used
The cellar has a black mould which was specially imported from Germany, it keeps away other moulds
They were in the middle of harvest, so we were very grateful to Thinus for his time spent with us
We met Mrs Barbara Hellinger in the cellar; she was just off to Germany to see her husband, Chris
Lovely view from the cellar door
Some of the very old and very large German barrels which are still being used in the cellar
Destemmed grapes pouring in to the open-topped barrel 
Purple grapes
delivered by tractor

The Franschhoek Tram comes to drop off and pick up visitors
Posted by MENU at 4:08 pm 0 comments
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