120112 Main Ingredient's MENU - Jordan restaurant, pesto, Masterchef, picnics, events etc

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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.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/

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Vineyards and mountains, from Jardine on Jordan

In this week’s MENU:1998 Nuy Red Muscadel.

     Jardine restaurant at Jordan

     January – eating sensibly

     Pesto recipe

     SA Masterchef

     Products

     Our market activities, events and restaurants

One of the advantages of having overseas visitors here is that we get to take some of them on a wine tour and introduce them to some of our favourite restaurants and wines. Anne Brand, who studied and graduated with us on the Cape Wine Academy Diploma course, is an excellent person to take to wine farms. She is now resident in Australia and was keen to sample some of our recent best. We started the morning at Grangehurst tasting through their excellent range, buying some of their divine summery rosé, and wishing we could afford more of the other wines, especially the Nikela, after a heavy spending Christmas. We spent far too long chatting and had to rush off to Jordan for our lunch at Jardine.

Sadly, there was no time left to taste the Jordan wines before lunch but John guided Anne to a choice of a glass of the Outlier 2009 Sauvignon Blanc with her starter of “Gazpacho salad” with fried stuffed calamari, iced cucumber, croutons and pesto. The food was absolutely superb and we had a lovely airy inside table, by three open windows where the breeze kept us cool on this 35 degree day. This turned into a really long and relaxed lunch catching up and sitting viewing one of the best view in the Western Cape. John, who also had a glass of the Outlier, started with lime cured yellowtail, late summer pea shoots, green bean and tapenade and Lynne had the absolutely tender seared calves liver salad with roasted turnip, crispy sage and a marvelously matched prune preserve. The liver had a lovely smoky flavour. She is still sticking to her resolution of no alcohol in January so she had a Jordan red (shiraz) grape juice with her meal and good tap water. All the food is so beautifully and simply presented (see the photos) and is even more delicious to eat. Anne and John could not resist the double herbed impala with pomme puree, smoked garlic, braised savoy and meaty porcini, accompanied by a glass each of the Prospector Shiraz, while Lynne was tempted by the salt crust baked fennel, lightly grilled avocado, olive oil, lemon and parmesan with salad leaves and a delicious tapenade - fantastic but rather smothered in oil. All were delicious.

None of us could manage dessert, despite the descriptions being extraordinarily tempting but we were persuaded to have a tour of the lovely, cool cheese room where we succumbed to a plate of six very interesting local cheeses, some known to us, some completely new, to share and that came with two glasses of Boplaas Tawny Port. We left the restaurant as the tasting room was closing – this really was a long relaxing lunch - so we went down the valley, turned left and had a tasting at Neethlingshof which was still open. Our tasting guide Kim Atwood was extremely good at her job, informative and knowledgeable but, sadly, we did not find any of the wines really exciting enough to buy. They do charge for their tastings, a practice we cannot understand because this is straight marketing. When John takes clients on tours, he avoids farms which charge for tastings. If he had to pay R30 per head for a party of six at each of four farms, he would lose R720 of his daily fee, not a happy prospect. Some farms charge more.

January, glorious January     In this month of reappraisal, we are certainly reappraising what we are eating! December is such a month of excess and then there are all the wicked food presents we get, which we are severely rationing. We are trying to fit in more vegetables and much less fat, sugar and starch. It is not difficult in a time when the greengrocer’s shelves are overflowing with wonderful summer produce and the fruit at the moment is a cornucopia of delight. Our breakfast fruit salad consists of banana, mango, green and orange sweet melons, litchis, strawberries, beautiful plums, cherries and pawpaw. It tastes like eating sunshine.

We have so much basil that Lynne was able to whip up a pesto in minutes and wondered why we don’t do this more often. Pesto is very simple indeed to make and can be done in a blender in just a few moments, while the pasta is cooking. You don’t have to use basil – rocket, parsley, coriander all work well and you can vary the nuts – walnuts, almonds, pecans etc. Add a fresh chilli if you want it hot, especially good with coriander. Don’t make it too far in advance as the colour can go very dark. You can try a squeeze of lemon, but that is not traditional. It also makes a really good cold pasta salad when used with rice shaped pasta. You need to make it in the proportions 3:1:1 herb, cheese, nuts.

Basil Pesto

3 large handfuls of basil leaves – 25g grated parmesan or grana padano cheese – 25g pine nuts – 1 crushed clove of garlic –  2 T olive oil – salt and pepper

Put all the ingredients into your blender and blitz until you have a nice thick oily paste still with some texture, adding more oil if it looks a little dry, then adjust the seasoning and spoon onto hot pasta or onto a selection of lightly blanched vegetables.

SA Masterchef will hit our screens in March. One of the judges is someone we know very well: Pete Goffe-Wood, who runs the Kitchen Cowboys course which John enjoyed so much a few years ago. Many of you will have enjoyed his steak rolls and pork pies at the Biscuit Mill on Saturdays. Usually, we get to know a face on the screen and then get a thrill when we see (and maybe) meet them in the flesh. This turns the tables and we get to enjoy seeing someone on-screen whom we know in person.

Products   We haven’t had time, in a busy week, to collect our order of Prego sauce. We will have it by the middle of next week.

Most other products are available, except goose fat, which we won’t see before the end of the month, but we have plenty of duck fat, which is an excellent alternative. If you are looking for anything, have a look at our product list and tell us what you want. We will soon have an online shop as well, accessed through our website, where you can order and pay us through Payfast.

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. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Our market activities     We will be at Long Beach Mall tomorrow, Friday 13th January (lucky day!). We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00 and every Saturday. We will be back at Cavendish next Friday.

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

There is a huge variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events. All the events are listed in date order and we already have exciting events to entertain you through into the new year. Click here to access the list. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Some restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These 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. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

Summer time is picnic time and several wine farms offer picnic facilities. We have put together a list of wine farms who can provide you with a picnic, We haven’t put in much detail, just where it is, phone number, email address and a link to the website. The latter is where you will find all the important information. Go and check it out.

12th January 2012

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 ist 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

Lunch with Jardine at Jordan Wine Estate

John guided Anne to a choice of a glass of the Outlier 2009 Sauvignon Blanc with her starter of “Gazpacho salad” with fried stuffed calamari, iced cucumber, croutons and pesto.

The food was absolutely superb and we had a lovely airy inside table, by three open windows where the breeze kept us cool on this 35 degree day. This turned into a really long and relaxed lunch catching up and sitting viewing one of the best views in the Western Cape. John, who also had a glass of the Outlier, started with lime cured yellowtail, late summer pea shoots, green bean and tapenade

and Lynne had the absolutely tender seared calves liver salad with roasted turnip, crispy sage and a marvelously matched prune preserve.

The liver had a lovely smoky flavour. She is still sticking to her resolution of no alcohol in January so she had a Jordan red (shiraz) grape juice with her meal and good tap water. All the food is so beautifully and simply presented and is even more delicious to eat. Anne and John could not resist the double herbed impala with pomme puree, smoked garlic, braised savoy and meaty porcini, accompanied by a glass each of the Prospector Shiraz,

while Lynne was tempted by the salt crust baked fennel, lightly grilled avocado, olive oil, lemon and parmesan with salad leaves and a delicious tapenade - fantastic but rather smothered in oil. All were delicious.

None of us could manage dessert, despite the descriptions being extraordinarily tempting, but we were persuaded to have a tour of the lovely, cool cheese room

where we succumbed to a plate of six very interesting local cheeses, some known to us, some completely new, to share. That came with two glasses of Boplaas Tawny Port.

120105 Main Ingredient's MENU - Another year, Holden Manz picnic, Tulbagh & Ceres, cherries, events etc

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.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/

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

Saronsberg

In this week’s MENU:

     Christmas and a brave new year

     Tulbagh & Ceres

     Picnics

     Cherry recipes

     Products

     Our market activities, events and restaurants

BACK AT LAST      That was the year that was, one whose passing many of us will not regret; and here we are again, in a new year which some pundits warn will bring even more pitfalls than the last. All we can do, here at ground level, is try harder to build on the things that have worked for us and to look for new opportunities to help us grow. Last year, our first full year out of the shop, was good for us. We grew a little and made a move in an exciting new direction. We are very grateful for your support and will do our best to continue to entertain you, inform you and bring you the delicious things you struggle to find elsewhere.

Ah, Christmas. It already seems that an age has passed since then. We worked so hard in the run up to it that we hardly noticed that it was coming! We were both brought up in fairly traditional households and just love the whole rigmarole and fun that goes with Christmas. We finally got our tree out on the Thursday and the lights and decorations were completed by Friday night. Lynne has been collecting glass and crystal ornaments for years so this year we have a crystal tree. Our five sets of Christmas lights all failed this year - have you any idea what it is like to find more lights just before Christmas? We had a bumper day at the Biscuit Mill, packed our stock into the car, unpacked it at home and collapsed. After four intense weeks at markets and filling online orders, we were running on adrenaline. We slept on Saturday afternoon and for most of Christmas morning and then got up and started preparing our family feast. Scallops - a little undersized so they had to be supplemented with prawns, but delicious, served with Springfield Life from Stone 2010. Duck breasts, previously frozen, were a little dry but helped by Klein Constantia Marlbrook 1998. One year old Christmas pudding with brandy butter, divine, as was the 1998 Nuy Red Muscadel.

We took a good rest in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but Lynne thought we deserved a little change of scene and booked a room at the Tulbagh Hotel (rated with 4 very small stars – we did have a very comfortable room) who were offering extremely good prices (almost half), so off we went for a day in Tulbagh, to be followed by a day cherry picking at Klondyke farm near Ceres. We had a few meals out but, honestly, they were not great - our abiding opinion is that Tulbagh needs to sharpen up its game and give attention to detail. Most of it was very under-seasoned and very underwhelming. Perhaps it’s the season…. Chef’s away? The worst was the breakfast Lynne had at the hotel. Wouldn’t this description turn you on? Sweetcorn waffles with crispy bacon, crème fraiche and maple syrup? Passing on the cream, Lynne’s expectation was high. What arrived were two very soggy thick undercooked pancakes – you could still taste the bicarb, covered in what looked like boiled greasy bacon with slimy white fat. There was enough syrup! The salads at Rijks Country House were shocking, just a few dead leaves of skinny lettuce and six scrapings of carrot. Where was the chilli on the Thai noodle salad? Bland, bland, bland. We did have a lovely tasting at Saronsberg and bought some wine for our cellar. It was hot, the temperature at one point reached 40ºC but, luckily, it cooled down in the evening.

The next morning we bought ingredients for a small picnic at a supermarket in Ceres and headed off into the mountains. Our GPS gave us a few twists and turns and we ended up on top of the wrong pass but the vista was superb and well worth the detour. The countryside is quite barren up there and then suddenly you turn a corner and you find a huge cherry orchard. Entrance cost R15 each and we happily picked cherries for a couple of hours. The trees were laden and they will be open till the 14^th of January. They charge R45 a kilo and less for wild cherries. We loved it and thoroughly recommend it as a family day out. They do give you plastic punnets, but we recommend taking a cold box for travelling back and take hand baskets, they made picking so much easier. Also sunblock and jackets in case it gets windy, which could be chill at this altitude. It wasn’t. We did overdo it a bit and Lynne has been dealing with about 7 kilos of cherries. We have some pictures.

We have made a Romtopf, using some of our cherries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries and used Cane spirit instead of rum. She also made wild cherries in (unsweetened) Vodka retaining some of the pips, so that we get a sort of Kirsch flavour - and also cherries in brandy. Still to tackle is cherry preserve. We have fruit salad most mornings; cherries are a main ingredient!

FANCY A PICNIC?    Just before Christmas, we were invited by Karl Lambour, the new Cellar master at Holden Manz in Franschhoek, to sample their picnic, which costs R145 per person for a basket for 2. Children have a special menu at R45 per head. Karl has moved there recently from Constantia Glen. See our blog for more about the farm, pictures of the picnic and what we ate.

Our picnic list is nearly finished – please let us know if you do them on your farm or in your restaurant and we will happily add you to the list.

A SWEET NEW YEAR   Our most successful dish over the holidays was a chocolate Pavlova Lynne made for New Year’s Eve when we had friends over to wish the old year goodbye. It sounds complicated, it isn’t. You can make it the day before.

Cherry and Chocolate Pavlova

6 large egg whites – 300 g caster sugar – 1 T corn flour – 2 t raspberry vinegar – 25 g cocoa powder – 50 g dark chocolate, chopped – 500 g cherry compote – 250ml cream – 1T Amaretto liqueur or 1 t vanilla bean paste – 150g fresh cherries

Heat oven to 140ºC. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then adding 1 tablespoon at a time, carefully whisk in the sugar, making sure you whisk really well between each addition. When all the sugar has been added, do whisk until the mixture is really thick and glossy and stands in soft peaks. Using a large metal spoon, carefully and gently stir in the corn flour, vinegar, cocoa powder and chocolate, just until incorporated.

Line a baking sheet with a piece of rice paper or baking paper or a silicone sheet. Spoon on the meringue, making a circle and building up the sides so that you have a bowl shape to keep the filling in. You could put the meringue into a piping bag if you want it to look really professional. Bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes, then turn off the oven, open the door and leave to cool. The rice paper is edible but do carefully remove the baking paper or silicone and put the Pavlova onto a pretty serving dish. Don’t worry if it cracks a bit, that is part of its charm. It is meant to be like soft marshmallow in the centre.

When ready to serve, whip the double cream and Amaretto together in a big bowl until soft peaks form. Spoon the cherry compote over the meringue, dollop over the cream, and arrange some fresh cherries on top and serve.

Cherry Compote

½ kg cherries, pitted – 1 cup of water - 250g sugar - juice ½ lemon - 4 t brandy

Put the sugar and the water into a heavy bottomed pan and heat till the sugar has dissolved. Add the cherries and the lemon juice and simmer for no more than 15 minutes, stirring gently only occasionally so the cherries stay whole. Using a slotted spoon remove the cherries and keep aside. Reduce the cherry liquid until it is getting thick, then cool slightly. Stir in the brandy and the cherries and put into a bowl in the fridge until you need it.

Products  The big movers over the Christmas season were duck & goose fat, confit, cassoulet, patés, chestnut products, truffle products and, predictably Prego sauce, which sold out - again. We are still taking orders for it and the back order list is growing, but Sense of Taste won’t re-open until mid January, so we all have to be patient. We have placed a big order and hope to have it by Saturday 14th. Hold thumbs.

Most other products are available, except goose fat, which we won’t see before the end of the month, but we have plenty of duck fat, which is an excellent alternative. If you are looking for anything, have a look at our product list and tell us what you want. We will soon have an online shop as well, accessed through our website, where you can order and pay us through Payfast.

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. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Our market activities     We will be at The Place at Cavendish tomorrow, Friday 6th January. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00 and every Saturday. We are waiting for confirmation of the dates at which we will be at Long Beach Mall, but we expect to be there on alternate Fridays as before, with Cavendish in between.

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

There is a huge variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events. All the events are listed in date order and we already have exciting events to entertain you through into the new year. Click here to access the list. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Many of the specials in our list of restaurant special offers are continuing through summer and we have been told that there will be some new summer menus soon. Click here to access it. These 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. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

5th January 2012

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 ist 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

111214 Main Ingredient's MENU - Christmas Feast and recipe, Healthy eating, Markets, events to amuse you and restaurants

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.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/

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

Buitenverwachting owl

In this week’s MENU:

     Christmas Feast and recipe

     Healthy Eating

     Products

     Drinking and Driving

     Our market activities, events and restaurants

This is the last MENU for 2011. We know that many of you are shooting off for your Christmas break and we are working like crazy at markets, trying to get out late orders in the post and trying to keep our stock levels up. This morning we made a trip to three suppliers to get more of the things you have asked us for. The journey was great fun as we watched our very unseasonal storms sweeping in across the bay. The temperature hovered between 14 and 15°C. It’s a normal La Niña year, when our winter rain comes later and, boy, is it like winter at the moment. We had soup for dinner last night, it was so chilly. Lynne has been trying to change the duvet for summer bedding and every time she gets it out, the night is a lot cooler. We have been promised better weather for the end of the week and hope to see lots of you at Long Beach Mall on Friday and at the Biscuit Mill on Saturday. Many of you seem to have left your purchases until you have received your end of year bonuses and we just hope we can keep up the stock levels to meet your needs. Some of our suppliers have already closed – something we will NEVER understand in the busiest time of the retail year..

The Christmas feast   What are we having this year? No turkey, thank you and we haven’t been able to source a goose anywhere. We are having duck breasts, possibly with an orange/Asian glaze, peas, courgettes and duck fat potatoes. To start we are going to have a very retro dish which we love: Coquille St Jacques – scallops in a creamy white wine and mushroom sauce (yes, John will not have the mushrooms) served in a scallop shell surrounded by smooth piped mashed potato. We managed to find a kilo of small scallops today and when de-shelled they will just do the three of us. Pudding will be one of Lynne’s traditional luxury Christmas puddings with brandy butter and we probably will have ’Spies (our family word for Mince pies) later. Lynne might cook the gammon or it might wait for New Year – she wants to try a new cooking method which is to cook it in a roasting bag and then put it into our hotbox, and finally glaze it. Possible wines for the feast are Springfield Life from Stone or Buitenverwachting’s lovely Hussey’s Vlei Sauvignon blanc with the Coquille, Cordoba Crescendo or Klein Constantia Marlbrook ’98 with the duck and either Chateau Bourdon Sauternes ‘98 or Pierre Jourdan Ratafia with the pud - the last 4 being from our cellar and definitely not for sale! If we decide to enjoy a bubbly, it will probably be on Boxing Day and we’ll choose from our cellar between Silverthorn, Kaapse Vonkel, Laborie or Morgenhof.

If you don’t like Christmas pudding and want a more modern, fresh dessert, try this. It will feed four. Double it if you have more people. Do taste both the juice and the cream and sugar mixture before using and, if it is quite sharp, do add a little more sugar or honey.

Tropical Mango and Orange Tiramisu

1 packet boudoir (finger) biscuits – Juice of 4 oranges – 50 ml orange, marula or limoncello liqueur - 2 fresh ripe mangos, peeled and sliced – 1 tub of mascarpone cheese – 200 ml cream – 150g sugar, vanilla if possible or add 1 t of vanilla extract – juice and pulp of 4 granadillas (passion fruit)

Mix the orange juice with the liqueur and dip the finger biscuits into it. Make one layer in the bottom of a pretty dessert dish. Mix the mascarpone with the cream and the vanilla sugar and spread a layer over the biscuits then follow with a layer of mango slices and some of the granadilla pulp. Make another layer and finish by pouring over the rest of the juice and topping off with the rest of the granadilla pulp. Cover with cling film and keep in the fridge overnight until you are ready to serve.

Healthy eating   On Saturday mornings, while we are preparing for our day at the market, there is a programme on Cape Talk and Radio 702 about health matters. Last week, their guest was a nutritionist. We were struck by the fact that she talked about supplements and advocated pills all through the one hour programme and only mentioned food for the first time at the close. Perhaps this is because too many people eat food which has insufficient nutrition; too much convenience food, laced with preservatives, and not enough fresh food. People often comment to us that they see very few obese people in France and Italy, where fatty foods and carbohydrates are a big part of the diet. They also have lower rates of heart disease than countries like this or the USA. The secret, we believe, is that they eat very little “fast” food and consume lots of fresh vegetables and healthy fats like olive oil, goose and duck fat. The last two are rich sources of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and also do not laminate (plasticise) easily, unlike most of the cooking oils and fats most of us use. We often see customers recoil when we offer them duck or goose fat. They shouldn’t. Have a look at this website which gives insight into the benefits of these fats. We found it very interesting.

Products  The TV chefs have been using duck and goose fat quite a lot recently, and many of you have obviously been watching. We have been selling a lot of it and have had several orders from other parts of the country. Lynne has made more individual Christmas cakes, which make great office presents and we do have lots of lovely luxuries to tempt you. We will be working next week at Long Beach on Tuesday, Cavendish on Friday 23^rd and at the Biscuit Mill on Saturday Christmas Eve the 24^th. Hope to see lots of you there.

We will be working at the Biscuit Mill on Saturday 31^st December as well, so you can get things from us for your New Year’s Eve party.

We have put together a list of wonderful Christmas gifts. Have a look at it here. You may place an order and we’ll do our best to get it to you in time for the 24^th, or you could come and fetch your order from us at one of the markets listed. They include additions to our range of variations on chestnuts and chestnut purees. We also have a great range of meat patés and other delicacies, especially treats from France which our French customers and some who are not French will love to have for their traditional Christmas festivities.

In addition to these, we have stocked up with lots of foodie items which make great presents. We can put together hampers or boxes for you, just select products from our product list or tell us what you want. Lynne has made more Christmas puddings, which have been generously dosed with brandy and made with butter rather than lard. The price has not changed – they are still R85 each and are full of all the necessary luxury ingredients like cherries, dates, figs and nuts. They are pre-cooked and can be quickly reheated in the microwave. She has made small individual Christmas cakes which make delicious small festive gifts and were so popular last year. Also for the rapidly approaching Christmas festivities, we have added lovely small Italian Panettoncino cakes and Cantuccini biscotti.

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, but don’t leave it too late. Remember the old maxim: “Post early for Christmas”!

DRINKING AND DRIVING OVER THE HOLIDAY PERIOD

We had our wine club annual party last Saturday and we are so proud of our friends who do drink responsibly and that most of us arranged for someone to come and drive us home from the party. Clare, John’s daughter came with us to the party and she does not drink, so she was our very kind chauffess for the evening. It is so good to see people being responsible and using family or one of the many services that are springing up. We hope that you, too, will drink responsibly and not drive. If you haven’t been a responsible driver so far during this period, please make a point of it in the New Year.

ENJOY!

As we said earlier, MENU will be taking a break until a little after the New Year. We wish you all a wonderful period of celebration over the holidays, whatever your beliefs (or non-beliefs) and may we all enjoy being with family and eating and drinking wonderful food.

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, Happy St Nicolas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Bodha, Happy Ashura, Happy Las Posadas, and may you all have happy and healthy long lives.

This has been a difficult year for many people, and they will be very happy to see the back of it. Our recommendation: At the stroke of midnight on the 31^st, having opened the best bottle of bubbly you can afford, shout, “Thank Heavens that’s over!”, relax, and prepare to face 2012 with a positive frame of mind. We hope that the New Year will bring better things to us all and that we will be given the grace and the opportunities to help it.

Our market activities  You will find us at Long Beach Mall this Friday, 16th December from 09h00 to 17h00. We will also be at Long Beach on Tuesdays 13th and 20th December. We will be at The Place at Cavendish on Friday 23rd December. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00 and every Saturday, including Christmas Eve, December 24^th and New Year’s Eve, December 31st.

Best wishes from the Ford chaps, Thomas and Hamish – they haven’t had a hard year….

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

There is a huge variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events. All the events are listed in date order and we already have exciting events to entertain you through into the New Year. Click here to access the list. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Many of the specials in our list of restaurant special offers are continuing through summer and we have been told that there will be some new summer menus soon. Click here to access it. These 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. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

14th December 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.

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