A redwing
starling surveys the world from a Sea Point balcony
In
this week’s
MENU:
Caroline’s Red Wine Review
Honouring Graham Beck
Namaste
Cassoulet
This week’s Product menu: This week’s recipe is cassoulet, South West
France’s perfect winter food. It has confit duck as its central ingredient –
you’ll find it on our table and in our shop.
Buying from us On Line 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 which you are unlikely to find elsewhere
in South Africa. You can contact us by email or
phone, or through our
on line shop. We can
send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. Please do not pay until we have confirmed
availability and invoiced you, then you pay and then we deliver or post. When you make an eft payment, make sure that
it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order. Click
here to see our OnLine Shop.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s
wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods
Market, as always, this
Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip:
Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you
know how. Click
here for a map which shows
where we park.
Caroline’s Red Wine Review This
huge show of Caroline’s choice of her top 60 red wines is held annually at this
time of year. Last night’s venue was the Table Bay Hotel. Very well attended,
it gives you a chance to taste the top wines of many of the good wine farms,
some of which are so expensive you might never get to taste them elsewhere. The
entrance fee of R150 is about half the price of a bottle of most of these wines
and is well worth it. We always find some absolute gems and last night was no
exception. Some new to us and some surprises as well (never prejudge or get
stuck in your opinions; we find wines do evolve.) It is without question that
South Africa is producing some seriously good quality wine. We didn’t manage to
taste them all, who could? But we had a darn good try and we had a lot of fun
doing it. One farm, Hamilton Russell, obviously didn’t bring enough wine as
they were “sold out” and off their table by 7 – bad planning guys, the show
finished at nine. We especially loved the effect Petit Verdot is having on many
of the wines it is used in, adding lovely perfumed elegance to the blend.
We can only mention our absolute favourites and they
were 2008 Constantia Glen Five which was the most approachable wine of the
evening, lovely and soft and full of fruit. Peter Allan Finlayson’s Crystallum
Pinot Noir was elegant beyond belief. MM Louw red blend 2011 from Diemersdal
has absolutely no faults and lovely deep flavours of dark fruit and some salty
liquorice. The Ernie Els 2011 Proprietors Blend has got it all, but still needs
time. Glen Carlou’s Grand Classique 2010 has huge fruit and lots of depth.
Vilafonté Series M 2010 is lovely and soft and drinking well now. Shannon did
not disappoint with their Mount Bullet 2010 and Bruwer Raats has produced a
wonderful savoury food wine with his Cabernet Franc 2010.
Lots of people were talking about the Hartenberg 2008
Gravel Hill Shiraz which has huge concentrations of fruit and will have to wait
a while in your cellar. The Cyril Back 2009 Shiraz from Fairview also impressed
as did the Glenelly 2010 Lady May, which has all the necessary building blocks
to become a really sensational wine in a year or two. But our all time
favourite wine of the evening had to be the Le Riche 2010 Cabernet Reserve,
made by Christo Le Riche, which is complex and complete and a classic
expression of Cabernet. He is definitely carrying on the family tradition. We
predict awards for all of these and indeed some already have achieved
recognition here and overseas. Click here to see the pictures
Graham Beck: Celebrating Diversity,
Expressing Individuality, Honouring Excellence Graham Beck
died three years ago and the team at Graham Beck Wines have now grouped some of
their best wines together with a new wine, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and
Shiraz called Ad Honorem – literally, in his honour. Today, some of the media
were invited to taste these lovely wines and then have a fireside lunch at the
Camps Bay Retreat. Well, we certainly didn’t need a fireside lunch today as,
suddenly, we have wonderful mid-winter champagne days and the temperature was a
balmy 26 degrees. We had the wine tasting on the terrace and then moved into
their dining room. It was rather like being on the Riviera!
Cellarmaster Erika Obermeyer introduced us to the wines,
some of which are very familiar, others not and told us about her philosophy of
wine making with each of these wines. Two whites, the tropical Pheasant’s Run
2012 Sauvignon Blanc and the upfront Bowed Head 2011 Chenin Blanc started the
tasting. The Pheasant’s Run is full of granadilla and figs with lime on the end
and made to age well, the Chenin full of golden fruit with a crisp acidity
balancing the creaminess of the French oak. It is redolent of loquats and
butterscotch and is all made from 40 and
50 year old vines. The Ridge 2011 Syrah is full of vanilla and spice and cream
with rhubarb and mulberries and chalky soft tannins with plums on the end. Then
the Joshua 2011, 94% Shiraz softened by the use of 6% viognier. The wine is
full of red and black plums with soft sweet fruit and has quite intense tannins,
showing that it needs to age, but the viognier does play a role. Matured in 90%
new French oak and 10% American for 15 months, the wood adds incense, spice and
vanillins. We found The William (61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Pinotage, 5%
Shiraz and 4% Cabernet Franc) to have hot, sharp red fruit notes, nice smooth
tannins and a long, long finish. It is a food wine and went very well with
lunch. The Coffeestone 2011 Cabernet named for the koffieklip soil, not a
coffee style, has an absolutely classic Cabernet nose and follows through with
red and black cassis berries, and very chalky tannins, so it also still needs
some time. The best was yet to come with the introduction of the 2009 Ad
Honorem - a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon and 28% Shiraz. Spicy, elegant with
a full-on nose showing cassis and mulberries, Lynne wrote Wow! when tasting it.
A lovely smooth mouthfeel with full fruit and lots of elegance, quality and style,
this is drinking perfectly now and will for several years to come. This wine
spent 27 months in selected first fill French oak barrels and it shows.
Finally the wine made to honour Mr Beck’s wife, the
Rhona Muscadel 2012 made from 100% Muscat de Frontignan. It is wonderfully
packed with honey, spice, perfume and apricot jam on the nose. And a wonder of
sweet delight on the palate with golden delicious apples, ripe apricots and
loquats and loads of honey, although it contains no botrytis. Definitely a dessert
or rich paté match.
Namaste for Thalis “Do
South Africans understand real Indian food?” was a question posed by friends on
Tuesday, when we went to have supper at Chandani’s new branch, also in Roodebloem
Road, called Namaste. Chandani is always chock-a-bloc but we were the only
people at Namaste on Tuesday night, hence the question. We got the feeling they
had opened especially for us because we had booked. They serve a different
variation of Indian food: Thalis and Dhosas. We were treated like royalty and
had a very good experience with lovely food. We were served some crisp
poppadums as an appetiser; they came with a green coconut chutney, a lentil,
chilli & onion chutney for dipping. Then we had a plate of crisp onion
bhaji’s – spiced gram flour (chick pea) balls filled with onions, chilli and
sometimes other vegetables, which were delicious and we could have polished off
another plate in minutes. They have absolutely nothing to do with your
favourite feathered birdcaged pet! Click here to see the photos
The main course was a Thali which has six different
Indian dishes which come on an individual metal tray, with the rice and paratha
(flat breads) put in the middle for you to mix in the different dishes. You can
eat with a fork or get involved with your fingers. We ordered two vegetarian
Thalis and two for John and Lynne which had one chicken and one fish dish. They
are quite small portions of deliciously spiced food, all different. Lots of
paneer, lentils, beans and other pulses are used and combined they taste
marvellous. A very good place for vegetarians. Finally we were brought a small
cup of vermicelli in a thick condensed milk custard – not for everyone, two of
us loved it, the other two didn’t. We declined the spiced masala tea and were
so surprised when the bill came. We paid R420 for four, including tip. One of
the most reasonable meals we have had in a long while and it was very filling. They
do have a small wine list, but we took our own and we were not asked to pay
corkage. We had a Checkers Oddbins 2009 Viognier and a Bovlei Gewürztraminer,
both of which complemented the spicy food well. DO go and try this, be
adventurous, nothing was too hot for us and we would hate to see such a good
innovation fail. Now we have to go back to sample the Dhosas.
Sunday lunch We had good friends and family to lunch on Sunday and Lynne decided the
weather was just perfect for some cassoulet. It was a variation on our normal
recipe and was really good. Cassoulet is often a moveable feast in this country,
as sourcing some of the required ingredients can be a huge challenge. So no
Toulouse sausages in this one because, when we asked at Joostenberg, we
discovered they have stopped putting the obligatory parsley and garlic in theirs – because customers
complained. (?!@!?#?**) Now we consider those to be the quintessential
ingredients in a Toulouse sausage, so we won’t be buying those again. We hate
it when people dumb down food.
So what to use? On Googling recipes, Lynne discovered
that you can also use a very garlicky coarse but soft sausage and this was
solved by buying a Kosher beef sausage from Checkers called a Warsaw and adding
it in thick chunks. It worked very, very well. (Do NOT use chorizo, it does not
work well). Cassoult doen not have smokey spicy flavours. We did buy a pickled hock of pork from
Joostenberg – just pickled, not smoked and it was very meaty. Then we used two
entire legs of tinned French Confit of duck which, of course, we sell. We
opened a four leg tin, removed almost all the duck fat (which that has gone
into the freezer for the next roast potatoes), and separately froze the other
two for another cassoulet or duck confit dinner. Confit is getting rather expensive
but it was so worth it, as the rich flavours it adds to the dish are truly
wonderful. We served it with a 2006 Glenelly Shiraz Cabernet Merlot blend,
which suited it very well.
Confession: You can
use dry white haricot beans (PLEASE don’t use butter beans, they are too bitter
and too large) but the soaking takes ages and you use up so much power trying
to get them soft that Lynne uses tinned Italian haricot beans instead, which
absorb lots of flavour. This recipe takes four tins. Drain them well.
We realised that we have never given you the recipe
before so here is our version:
CASSOULET
600g dried white haricot beans, soaked
overnight in 3 times their volume of water OR 4 tins of drained haricot beans -
1 T duck fat or olive oil - 1 celery stick – 1 small onion – 1 large carrot - 6
whole garlic cloves - 2 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered – bouquet garni of fresh
bay leaves, thyme, rosemary - 1 clove, lightly crushed - 2 tsp lemon juice –
freshly ground black pepper – 1 ham hock or 800 g belly of pork in one piece -
250 g garlic sausages or half a packet of Toulouse sausages, cut into large
chunks - 2 confit duck’s legs – sea salt to season, but only at end
Plus 1 garlic clove, finely chopped - handful
of fresh flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
If you are using soaked beans, drain them, cover them
in fresh water and bring to the boil for fifteen minutes, then drain them again
and discard the water. Roughly chop the onion, carrots and celery and add them
with the whole garlic cloves to a large oven proof casserole with the duck fat
and sweat them off for five minutes. Add the tomatoes, the beans, sausage,
pork, bouquet garni and cover with water. Bring to a boil, skim off any rising
scum, then add the black pepper, clove and lemon juice and transfer to the
oven. Cook uncovered for two hours, stirring every now and then, till the beans
are soft and creamy in texture and the juices have thickened. You may have to
cook it longer to get to this stage. DO not let it dry out ever, top up with a
little water if it starts to.
Take out the casserole, cut up the pork to bite sized
pieces, put it back in and bury the two duck legs in the cassoulet with the
chopped garlic. Return to the oven and cook for another hour or so. Taste and
adjust the seasoning. You may need to add salt at this point, but the pork may
have added enough. Remove the bouquet garni. If there is a lot of oil on the
surface you can sprinkle with breadcrumbs and brown under the grill for a crisp
topping. Sprinkle with parsley and serve in bowls. When serving share the duck
between all the bowls and discard the bones. All you need to accompany this is
a mixed green salad. This feeds six.
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 month 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 Events Calendar. It
needs updating and we’ll do that tomorrow. All the events are listed in date
order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you
right through the year.
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.
Chez
Gourmet in Claremont has a
programme of cooking classes. We plan to visit their French establishment after
Vinexpo. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his
catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed
his seafood course. Check
his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking
classes in Fish Hoek 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. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now being
run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite
Groote Schuur hospital). 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 Wednesday evenings. She trained with
Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
1st August 2013
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 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
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