Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
140410 Main Ingredient's MENU - Angala,The Vineyard’s Pinot Festival, Norma ‘The First Lady of South African wine’, Diet? No, change of lifestyle, Ranch Dressing
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A Sea Point sunset
In
this week’s MENU:
Angala The Vineyard’s
Pinot Festival Norma,
‘The First Lady of South African wine’ Diet?
No, change of lifestyle Ranch
Dressing
This week’s Product menu – The next four weeks
or so are so full of public holidays that many of us will be taking advantage
of the short weeks and long weekends. We have some wonderful French delicacies
in jars, ready to heat and eat like Cassoulet, Garbure and Chou
farci, as well as the delicious pâtés and confit duck. Have a look at them here.
If you can find it in the supermarket, we don't
usually stock it, just the products you would struggle to find.... Check our online shop to see more details and prices.
Happy Easter and
Passover We wish you all a very happy Easter and
Passover and hope the year to follow will be happy and fruitful and joyous.
This is coming to you a little earlier in the week than usual – we anticipate
that most of us will be taking a little time off
Angala We try to go away into our magnificent
country areas as often as we can, as the Cape has so much bounty to offer. We
stay at really lovely places, but sometimes we go to somewhere so perfect, so
beautiful and so peaceful that we never want to leave. Our life is not geared
to a pursuit of luxury, but natural beauty and experience are what we love. When
we were married, Lynne said to John she didn’t need a 5 star life, just no
camping (she is an ex girl guide and back-packed around Europe a lot
so camping days are done), but our own bedroom and a bathroom in a clean and
neat place would be fine. But we
do enjoy a little luxury and spoiling. We love being able
to sit outside when we are in the country and not be confined to a room and we
love observing nature. Last week we were invited to Angala, a superb boutique hotel
nestled under the beautiful Drakenstein mountains in Franschhoek and we found
one of those places. Click here to read more.
The Vineyard’s Pinot
Festival Sunday was a sensational day, sunny and
just hot enough to require a large sun hat. We were invited by the Vineyard
Hotel to come to their Pinot Noir festival and we had a great fun afternoon
tasting some of the very best Pinot’s available. Click here to see the photos and learn more
Norma, ‘The
First Lady of South African wine’ Norma
Ratcliffe came here from Canada in 1971, and married Stanley, a farmer who had decided,
in 1964, to grow grapes. She then decided to learn how to make wine and so
began the Ratcliffe dynasty. Norma and Warwick wines are celebrating the
anniversary on Mother’s Day, 11th of May. See the details here
Diet? No, change
of lifestyle We have to confess. We are
Banting. Lynne took John to a Tim Noakes lecture and he got the message,
because the science was explained very clearly by Dr Noakes. Neither of us has
high blood pressure, nor are we pre-diabetic, nor are we likely to be. But we
do both carry the rotund badge of our profession on the front of us and we
would like to do something about reducing it! Is it working? Yes, slowly, and
we feel very energetic. We bought the cook book, The Real Meal Revolution, and it
has certainly inspired Lynne to try a different approach to food. Neither of us
is missing bread or other starches. We do have a very small amount of starch
once in a while but that is allowed. Lynne made a good lamb Massaman curry and
we decided we would like to have a small half cup of rice with it. Our
vegetable and protein intake is up, we still battle to eat fat and oily foods,
but Lynne is getting better at hiding these in dishes we love to eat. A large
Cajun chicken salad with walnuts and avo can have a thick creamy ranch dressing
slavered over it and you don’t notice the huge amount of cream and cheese in
it. And we are becoming adept at swiping the protein from the top of canapés.
It is probably puzzling to the caterers getting their bases back, but we are
certainly not the only ones doing it. Perhaps it will encourage them to think
more about these.
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE You are probably eating special family foods
for the holidays so we thought we would give you that Ranch dressing recipe. It
is superb. We substituted thick Greek yoghurt the buttermilk which we could not
find that day.
Ranch
Dressing
50g blue cheese
(Gorgonzola is best) – 50g real cream cheese (NO low fat allowed) – 100ml
buttermilk – 1 handful of fresh parsley, chopped – 1 small bunch of chives,
roughly chopped – salt and pepper – 100ml water
Blend all the ingredients
together in a liquidiser or use a stick blender. This keeps well in the fridge
and can also be used as a dip with crudités .
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. 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.
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.
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. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen 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
15th April 2014
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 online shop 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 and standard 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 mistakes, we are human and
they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ®
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Sublime Pinot Noirs at The Vineyard Hotel Pinot Festival
Sunday was a
sensational day, sunny and just hot enough to require a large sun hat. We were invited by the Vineyard Hotel to come
to their Pinot Noir festival and we had a great fun afternoon tasting some of
the very best Pinots available.
Roy Davies, General Manager of the Vineyard Hotel, welcomes Michael Pownall GM
of the Taj. These strange Ps had to be used in tweets. If you tweeted an amusing
picture containing this large plastic P you might have won a case of good Pinot
Noirs.
The opening at 2 pm and everyone beings to gather
The outdoor restaurant was also very busy with people having lunch
Musicians to entertain us
Hoteliers discussing wine and life
Gordon Newton Johnson and John Collins at their stand. This was our
favourite stand of the day, the three Pinot Noirs shown were all superb. And
later we got to taste a couple more, including our all time favourite the
Windansea which was judged to be the top red wine in John Platter this year
A very nice place to spend a Sunday afternoon
Glen Carlou was also showing very well. The warm afternoon meant the wines all had to be cooled, but it is a
lovely drink on such a day
Ebony Sanders and Luhein, the friendly staff from Oak Valley, showed us their
Pinots
He just could not resist. Now if
we had had one of those silly plastic P’s we might have stood a chance with our
tweet. One of the giant tortoises at the Vineyard admires John’s glass
All the stalls were dotted across the lawn. Here is Jacqueline Harris from Paul Cluver presenting their Pinots
Gavin Patterson of Sumaridge with his pretty young daughter Amanda
Four Pinot fans Michele Guttler, Dave Swingler, Xenia Oliver and Prof
Peter Roos
Jan van Huysteen and Cindy Muller of Gold restaurant and Rickety
Bridge in Franschhoek, also enjoying the day
The whole happy tribe: Peter Roos, Paul and Dorothy Windover,
Michele Guttler, Dion and Xenia Oliver
John being tweeted by David Wibberley, Food and Beverage Duty Manager at
the Vineyard
Monday, April 14, 2014
A luxurious overnight at Angala
We try to go away into our magnificent country areas
as often as we can, as the Cape has so much bounty to offer. We stay at really
lovely places, but sometimes we go to somewhere so perfect, so beautiful and so
peaceful that we never want to leave. Our life is not geared to a pursuit of
luxury, but natural beauty and experience are what we love. When we were married, Lynne said to John she didn’t need a 5 star life, just no camping (she is an ex
girl guide and back packed around Europe a lot
so camping days are done), but our own bedroom and a bathroom in a clean and
neat place would be fine. We love being able to sit outside when we are in the
country and not confined to a room and we love observing nature. Last week, we were invited to Angala, a superb boutique hotel nestled under the beautiful Drakenstein mountains near Franschhoek and, when we arrived, we found
one of those places. This place works seamlessly, guests' every wish or whim is
catered for, before they think of it. We absolutely loved our stay and so
recommend it to you
The
simple reception entrance belies what lies inside. How did it get the name and
what does it mean? To quote them: “The
birth of Angala. Angala refers to the time eons ago when earth was first being
formed. It was a period during which the Divine was gathering the energy to
create our planet. In the Divine mind, there was the thought of Earth and the
protection of the Angels to hold it safe...”
On the path looking at the cottages
below the restaurant and main rooms
The walkway to our cottage
The front door, with baskets of wood for the wood-burning stove. We didn't need it, the weather was beautifully warm
Everything in nice muted shades of
grey, beige and mustard
The lounge area, with the most enormous
bed behind it
Our own private terrace and garden
area, which leads down to a splashy fountain full of birds and lots of trees
A large bathroom, with a huge shower for
John and an enormous bath for Lynne
No wait, even better, an outside
shower, completely private and not overlooked, but with a view of the garden and
the bird life
Lots of birds in the fountain, white-eyes and some with red rumps, which we didn’t recognise
Who is watching whom? A beautiful olive thrush
A Cape weaver trills as he bathes
The gardens are beautifully planted.
This is the main building
They have an eco swimming pool,
completely self sustainable and natural, cleaned by reed beds. With lots of
relaxing space around it.
Dinner can be had inside ...
...or outside on the terrace. The
weather was so perfect that all the guests chose to eat outside
The dinner menu, good value at R275
for 3 courses
We thought a bottle of David
Finlayson’s award winning shiraz blend, The Pepper Pot, would go perfectly with the
choices we had made - it did
A surprise amuse sent to us by the
chef - a small portion of beef tartare
We both chose the Duck starter and it
was delicious, with duck done three ways, a parfait, smoked breast and a spring
roll. The chutney was a great counterpoint
Lynne chose the seared tuna on a Niçoise
salad as her main. Fresh and delicious
John went for the beef fillet with
Lyonnaise potatoes and a very good red wine jus
The tuna with topping removed to show
how it was seared, as requested - only just!
Diet out of the window. We both had the
apple almond tart. A really good rich dessert served with good coffee
We met the talented chef Marlin Clayton,
who is a local lad, trained by some of the best chefs we know
The bar area at night
The library area and some indoor tables
Lovely light for breakfast on another
perfect late summer day
The bar and library dressed for
morning
Juices, muffins ,croissants, fresh
fruit and many other lovely selections from the breakfast buffet
It’s informal, so help yourself to
whatever you desire. OK, not the J&B or gin... Those come at a cost
Children testing the water and the
wildlife
Lynne’s English breakfast with her
request for just one egg
John chose the cheese and bacon
omelette
No detail had been forgotten in our
room. Some beautiful old roses on our table and some wicked jelly beans
The bar fridge contains everything you
might want and everything is complimentary. The coffee machine gives you a huge
selection of different pods and there was also a good selection of teas
General Manager Ann Morley with Aubrey
Blignaut, the brother-in-law of the owners Peter & Tisha Cunliffe. He also
works at Angala. Ann is the previous owner - Angala was her ‘baby’ and she has
stayed on to manage it - expertly
Our good friend Tammy the tiger cat.
She is affectionate, a great addition to the property and kept us very
amused
An enormous hawk moth, slightly battle
scarred, gracing a wall
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