Thursday, July 04, 2019

Dinner with Warwick and Reuben at The One & Only, Cape Town

The One&Only Hotel is running The Chef and The Vine Dinner Experiences in Reuben’s Restaurant on the last Thursday of every month until the end of November. We were invited to join them for the Warwick dinner last week. Next month's event will feature Hamilton Russell, so book soon if you are interested. R625 a person. This event was extremely successful with 111 guests for dinner
We met JD Pretorius the winemaker and Tom Orpen Warwick's Marketing Manager in the bar area, 
here they welcomed us with a glass of their First Lady Dry Rosé or a glass of Zari non alcoholic fizz
JD with his wife Charlotte and Spencer Fondaumiere, Regional Sales Manager at Warwick Wine Estate
The Rosé has just a light blush and is made from Pinotage
It has light soft fruit, more Grenache like than heady Pinotage on the nose. Cherry fruit, crisp and ziingy and very refreshing
Stays on the palate with good fruit, and great with the food. It has just been released and is R80 on the farm
Some canapés were served: a round of melon topped with mozzarella, rocket and Parma ham
For the vegetarian, an option sans the prosciutto
Lots of glasses at each table setting
The 5 course dinner menu showed the wines paired with each course
The first wine was the Warwick 2016 The White Lady Chardonnay, priced at R85
A classic wooded chardonnay with golden apple fruit and some brioche
Smooth in texture, a lovely zing of apple acidity followed by limes and soft oak on the end
Very satisfying and a good match with the salmon course
A warm mini loaf for four was served with a flavoured butter
The starter, a perfectly seared piece of salmon in a cold yuzu dashi broth, with pickled cucumber, a cucumber gel
and, an inspired pairing with the wine, pieces of fresh mango, grilled
We have no idea where they sourced the out of season mango, but it lit up this dish and the wine
Sadly, there was no spoon on the table for us to drink the broth 
Chef Reuben Riffel came out and told us about the restaurant and the menu and the pairing
A rapt audience
At the dinner, we were given a preview of the yet to be released 2018 Professor Black
which, conversely, is a white blend of 61% Sauvignon Blanc and 39% Semillon
The wine is crisp, full on the palate, rounded in the mouth, then a sparkly tingle on the tongue
A classic of its genre. The grapes are from cool climate Darling (Sauvignon Blanc) and Elgin (Semillon)
It certainly coped well with the rice dish served next. A 'risotto' of rice, peas and very spicy chorizo, topped with crisp pancetta
and grana padano cheese shavings. Served on a swipe of pea purée. More of the creamy purée would have been good
The wine with the Main course was the 2012 Warwick Trilogy,
a classic 'Bordeaux' Blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Cabernet Franc and 14% Merlot
The wine has pure cassis on the nose with incense wood and violets and rich berry fruit on palate, cassis, plums
Some dry tannins, and coffee mocha wood. The wine is still youthful and has great aging potential
Served with a deconstructed Beef Wellington. So a pastry curl topped a very rare Springbok loin, with dots of mushroom duxelle
Served on top of baby vegetables, nice and al dente, in a rather thin but flavourful black cherry and red wine jus 
Sommelier Luvo Ntezo amused us when talking about the pairings and how they had got to them
He also told us that the next Chef and The Vine dinner will pair Hamilton Russell wines with Reuben's food
It will be on Thursday, July 25th. Book now
Thank you Luvo for a very entertaining evening and a good dinner with excellent wine pairings
Warwick winemaker JD Pretorius then told us about the Cabernet Franc, which was the final pairing with dessert
Warwick does not (yet?!) have a dessert wine and they thought this pairing would work well with the tea, nuts and chocolate
Hotel Sommelier Pearl Oliver
Spencer Fondaumiere gave Chef Roryck Erasmus a presentation box of Warwick Trilogy to thank him for the meal
One of the very well trained staff pouring us the 2014 Cabernet Franc from a magnum
Its earthy minerality, black cherry and berry fruit and coffee chocolate mocha flavours abound with freshness and juiciness
The 2015 won Best Cabernet Franc at the 2018 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show 
The dessert it was paired with was a green tea pannacotta, beautifully wobbly and set on a base of pistachio crumble,
served with chocolate ganache darts, a green tea microwave sponge and dots of chocolate mousse
The One and Only has a respectable wine selection, stored perfectly in this temperature controlled wall of wine
It is a large restaurant
And, outside on the canal, we found a chilly wet evening. We are in mid winter and the rain is very welcome
It is a very cold and damp Cape winter this year, hurray. Good for the vines and good for filling the dams
Posted by MENU at 3:26 pm 1 comments

On the MENU this week. American Meat Loaf

This week’s recipe is perfect soul food for this wet and icy weather, but it might even be a good one in the US summer on this day of celebration. Lynne found it in an old American cook book many years ago and it is one of our standards. The great thing about meat loaf is that it has two lives. The day you eat it hot and the next day, when you put a generous slice into a sandwich
She has made one adaptation which makes a lovely difference. Watching Canadian chef Michael Smith on TV this week, she saw that he included cubed cheese in the meat loaf and wow, it was superb in this recipe too
500g Lean Beef Mince - 2 eggs, beaten - ¾ cup of milk - ¾ cup breadcrumbs or cooked bulgar, or ½ a cup of oats - 1 onion, very finely chopped – 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled - 2 teaspoons fresh chopped sage - 2 teaspoons marjoram or oregano - 2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs - 1 teaspoon of salt - 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Topping: 70ml tomato ketchup, 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, mixed together
If you are using oats, soak them in the milk for 15 minutes before using. Combine the eggs and milk, stir in the breadcrumbs, herbs and seasoning. Add to the mince. Grate or put the onion and garlic in a blender and blitz them till coarsely ground. Add to the mix and put into a greased pan or oven proof serving dish. Dome the mixture slightly and apply the topping. Then cover the top with foil, and bake at 180ºC for 45 minutes or until cooked through. Spoon off any excess fat. Slice and serve with lots of vegetables. Serves 6
If you want to add cheese, carefully cut the cheese into 1 cm cubes. Use 50g of cheddar, Edam, mozzarella or any other melting cheese you like and stir into the mixture before baking. We used a mix of cheddar and mozzarella
You can leave out the carbs but it will make a looser meatloaf. They help to hold it together.
All content ©  John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus
Posted by MENU at 1:29 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

Cheese and Wine Festival at the Mojo Market in Sea Point

Always interesting to find an event in one’s own 'Hood. The Mojo Market in Regent Road was having a wine and cheese festival last weekend, so we decided to drop in on Saturday and see what was going on. No charge, you could go upstairs and taste wine and then come down and browse the food stalls and buy some lunch. There were just a few wine and cheese stands. A good move to get more feet through the door. They have been open for over a year and we are honestly surprised they are still there, knowing the local market as we do. It is not a real market, just a place with permanent stalls selling prepared food, drink and some retail items. Don’t go there looking for fresh produce or gourmet ingredients 

 When they were converting a row of shops, we honestly thought we were getting a Fruit and Veg Market - which Sea Point really needs. We dropped in when it opened and were not very impressed with the selection of stalls selling their wares and food at the time. This has improved somewhat. Then we visited again, when Baskin & Robbins introduced their 57 varieties of ice cream to SA and had a counter in the centre. And that, sadly, didn’t work. We so miss the Maple Pecan ice cream.... 
So great to see Simonsig punting two of their MCC bubblies, so we enjoyed a sample of each. Sad to see that no literature about the farms, prices or buying information was allowed on the wine tables. When we asked, we were told that Mojo wanted people to buy the wines at one of the three enormous bars they have below. However, that would only be to drink there. They don’t have an Off Consumption licence or a wine shop that we could see, so it was a missed opportunity for the farms to sell their wines
Iona had three wines, the two Sophies, the Sauvignon Blanc, the delicious Rosé made from Pinot Noir
and their 2018 Sauvignon Blanc, which really impresses
We arrived at 1.30 and it was not very busy but, as the afternoon wore on, it did become busier
Klein River Cheese from Stanford had some of their cheeses for tasting and to purchase
Chopping up bits for tasting took a long time
And a selection of Fairview's La Capra range of wines to try
There is a large area with tables downstairs where you can eat the food you have bought, or drink
Nice to see Wimpie Borman from Groote Post with their red and white Old Man's Blends
(No, he is not underage, he’s married with children)
And more good MCC bubbles, Miss Molly from Môreson in Franschhoek
The table was ably manned by Herman from the tasting room at Môreson
Downstairs, there are four enormous bars. The Mojo bar, the main bar, sells spirits and beers
These make the market look like a nightclub and we wonder who the customers are, as their opening hours are 08h00 to 23h00
They also have live music sometimes and there was a band playing while we were there
Beer
Wine
Quite a few conventional food stands
We were nearly sold a voucher for this stall on line, thinking it was a restaurant
Perhaps it becomes busier later in the day
Ethiopian food looks interesting, certainly something unusual to try one day. They serve rolled up pieces of Injera bread
Their menu
Shwarma and Falafel stall. Something for the vegans here! And lots of different meats on the shwarma cookers
Beer on tap
Biltong stand
Children at tables next to the bar
Fish, we understand
Lynne became excited when she saw Dim Sum but, sadly, not a great selection
This Falafel has moved and there is a fudge and nut stall in front of it, with a hot dog stand behind
Prices
Lynne watching the preparation of wraps on the Mexican stall. It does look interesting and, certainly, the portions were huge; big enough to share.
Peace sign? or should we take this at face (hand) value?
Nice to see what you might be getting
Menu above
John is tempted
We plumped for a Pizza to share and were served by these enthusiastic and friendly staff. The small pizza (Weber?) ovens do have real hot coals beneath the pizza stones and cook quickly. It seemed that they were the most popular stand of the day, we saw lots of pizzas being enjoyed
In it goes
They have a clever production line
And about 8 minutes later our Fig, Brie and Prosciutto Pizza on a lovely thin, crisp base was ready, priced at R125
Our only criticism is that they cook the Prosciutto rather than put it on after the pizza has been cooked
A hot oven does nothing for this delicacy. Perhaps we should ask for it to be added later next time
Christiaan van den Heever of Beyerskloof was very kind and gave us some Synergy to drink with our Pizza; it matched perfectly
We sat upstairs and shared this and tasted a couple of other red wines from Groote Post and Fairview
Ah, information below the remains. You can buy an oven for home use!
Lynne did think this gentleman in the centre at the Beyerskloof stand might be one of our famous local residents
He was supported by several 'companions'. John said he was not Mr CR
And, just setting up as we left, was another cheese farm from Montagu
Posted by MENU at 3:37 pm 0 comments
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