Supper at Burrata, The Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock

We don't often visit Woodstock these days, but decided to book at Burrata at the Old Biscuit Mill for supper with friends this week. One friend is a huge fan of mozzarella cheese, especially the really creamy burrata, and she had not yet experienced this version of the creamy and beautifully made cheese which they serve and from which they take their name.

Inside, the restaurant is warm and cosy from the fire in the Pizza oven

The Menu

They told us the Pizza oven runs at 450⁰C so the Pizzas cook in just a minute and a half

We took along a bottle from our cellar of Bosman's Wine Club selection Dry Red, made from Nero d'Avola to go with the Italian style food they serve. They allow only one bottle per group and the corkage is R65. We had it decanted and it did go extremely well  with the food. We also ordered a bottle of Beaumont Chenin Blanc, another great match. Nero d'Avola was propagated by Bosmans from Sicilian cuttings. It has Wine and Spirit Board approval, but this had not been published in the Government Gazette when the wine was made in 2013, so it had to be labelled non-vintage Dry Red

The Maitre d', Warren Dauncey, pouring our wine

Burrata is a cream filled mozzarella cheese. Here it is served with preserved figs, green olive oil and some crisp flat breads. It does also come with prosciutto (ham) crumbs if you eat meat

The first Pizzas we have had in a very long while. This was Lynne's choice - the De Mare: Prawns, squid, garlic and aioli with chilli.  Absolutely superb

Friend Ronnie ordered the simple Capperi: a tomato base with white anchovies and capers. Very intense, very southern Italy, he loved it

John had the Prosciutto e arugula. A tomato base topped with mozzarella, Parmigiano reggiano, prosciutto and fresh rocket

We rewarded ourselves with dessert.  Lynne had the Vanilla panna cotta with a hazel and chocolate dacquoise with the delicious mixed berry sorbet and roasted pear

Loraine had the white chocolate custard served with almond amaretti biscuits and a dark chocolate gelato, fresh strawberries and chocolate sand

And the boys had the decadent dark chocolate cremoso, with small caramel filled cannoli, pistachio cream and a pineapple sherbet. They were in their element

We finished a good meal with coffees and grappa, but not for the driver.  The bill came to R1110 including tip. It's a special occasion Pizza restaurant
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Dinner at Dash - The Queen Victoria Hotel in the V&A Waterfront

We were invited to sample the elegance and the fine dining menu at Dash restaurant this week. It was great to have a drink and a chat in the bar with the Managing Director of Newmark Hotels, Neil Markovitz on Saturday night, before we went through to our table in the restaurant. It's in the five star Queen Victoria Hotel, not quite in the Waterfront, but on the hill above, where it overlooks the Craft Market and the dock. You approach it from Portswood Road, through the entrance to The Portswood complex (passing the Portswood Hotel on your left, after driving through the entrance portal). Ask the attendant at the Queen Vic to show you where to park

A Pomegranate Martini. They also have an Elderflower Martini; worth a visit just for these
The seating in the bar was quite popular with friends meeting throughout the evening

White leather seats, slate grey metal topped tables and gleaming glassware all make for understated elegance

There is a long terrace through the French doors, for summer outdoor dining

The interesting and varied wine list's selection of wines by the glass

The full 25 page wine list can be seen here

Mushroom truffle butter and lemon butter with good warm bread. We had glasses of Neil Ellis Sauvignon Blanc and, from the bar, Iona Chardonnay with our starters

First, a small amuse from the kitchen, steak with capers and orange

We did our usual thing with the starters, we ordered two; we wanted to taste and shared them. This is the light and airy, perfectly cooked, twice baked gorgonzola soufflé, accompanied by a scoop of gorgonzola cream and biltong slices. It was really complemented by the crushed hazelnuts. We should have had one each!

Our second starter was tempura prawns with pickled vegetables and a white and black sesame emulsion. The prawns were excellent, so fresh and sweet, but the batter had gone a bit soggy

Our lovely waitress for the evening was Zameka Matina, so professional, so informative and so friendly. Here she pours Lynne her wine for her main course, a Springfield Unwooded Chardonnay

Three excellent crayfish tails with more of those pickled vegetables, served with a spicy aioli on a bed of saffron orzo (rice shaped pasta.) No sharing on this course, although Lynne did give John a morsel to taste

John went traditional on his main course, the grilled and very tender fillet of beef served on mash, rather than the spinach puree mentioned on the menu, and a 'melange' of vegetables with an excellent jus. He had this with a glass of the Rupert & Rothschild Classique

After a good relaxing pause, we approached the desserts. Lynne wanted something light, so took Zameka's advice and went with the Coconut Panna Cotta topped with a toffeed slice of lime, accompanied by a really refreshing and delicious lime sorbet and a passion fruit coulis, on shavings of coconut. This was the first time we have had panna cotta made with coconut milk. It was a little like junket

John's choice was rather predictable for the chocoholic he is: A hot chocolate fondant, cooked perfectly with a good oozy centre, served with an orange ice cream and a caramel sugar disk

The food is all excellent and beautifully presented. We think this smart and elegant but relaxed restaurant is for special occasions, high days and pay days for most South Africans. Do go and investigate, we think you will enjoy it

This amazing bonsai banyan tree is in the foyer of the hotel

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
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Baleia Wines launches their new label at The Twelve Apostles

Baleia Winery in Riversdale wanted to celebrate the launch of their new corporate identity and website and introduce their new wine labels, designed by renowned Graphic Artist Anthony Lane, to the trade and Media. They did it at a celebration dinner at the 12 Apostles Hotel on Friday evening. It was another really stormy night, but most of the invited made it despite the deluge and a great evening was had by all

A warm welcome awaited us upstairs in one of the function rooms

With the new, about to be released Sauvignon Blanc, available to taste with some good canapés

We get to see the elegant new labels on the white wines

and on the reds

Time to go down to dinner in the tented marquee, where many weddings are held

The room was warmed by lots of space heaters as the storm raged outside

Opening speech by Isak Nieuwoudt, Baleia’s sales manager

Maryna Strachan with her husband Paul

Photograph please! Shante Hutton of Wine.co.za

Siobhan Thompson, CEO of Wines of South Africa, with Cape Wine Master Winnie Bowman

The starter for the evening was divine. A pea risotto topped with perfectly cooked prawns and served with the Baleia classic, crisp Sauvignon Blanc or the lightly wooded Chardonnay which is buttery, leesy and full of fresh citrus with a kick of salt.

Owner of the farm Jan-Hendrik Joubert, tells us about the new labels and what is happening on the farm

Main course was belly of pork on a butternut puree with crackling curls. Some portions were a bit fatty, but the flavour of it and the jus was very good and it went very well with the Baleia Pinot Noir, full of dusty violets, vanilla and strawberries on the nose, then sweet & sour red cherries on the elegant palate. This will age very well

Crackling anyone?

Winemaker Jacques Geldenhuys tells us about the wine and their plans for the future

Dessert, sadly, was not up to scratch. Dry chocolate cake crumbs with a dollop of vanilla ice cream is not what we have come to expect from The Twelve Apostles kitchen. Could try harder folks.. However it was a great evening, enjoyed by all and showcasing their lovely wines well
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
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Big Green Egg cooking competition at The Food Barn

Wow, how much fun is it being invited to a Masterchef type cook-off using a mystery box of food and using, to us, a completely new piece of equipment, The Big Green Egg which is a mix of a ceramic pizza oven and a kettle braai. Its heat can be controlled if you know how, there is even a temperature gauge on the outside but it was a huge learning experience - and we did get some help on its operation at Bastille Day in Franschhoek the previous weekend. And our judges were Abigail Donnelly of Eat Out Magazine, Chef Ruben Riffel and Chef at the Food Barn Frank Dangereux. What did we cook? How did we do?

The Big Green Eggs, all set up

The table of ingredients we could use

Some more ingredients

Some tools, spices and a pestle and mortar, should we want to make a spice blend

We were allowed to stand around and strategise for a while, but we had no idea what the choice of protein would be until we began

Looking at the table and getting ideas

Chef Franck Dangereux tells us what we need to do

We have half an hour to produce one dish

At last we get to see the proteins and some different mini vegetables. Duck venison, steak, liver, pork prawns and calamari, fish and some tiny nasturtium leaves for decoration

Everyone getting stuck in

We decided to try use the Egg using several different methods of cooking. We roasted an onion, some fennel and a red pepper. We marinated some prawns and baby squid in a Spanish smoked paprika, garlic, white wine, port and garlic basting sauce. We roasted some chorizo and our Spanish theme started to take shape. But using the egg was quite tricky. We had to get help to get it up to a high temperature to char roast the peppers and when it did, it roared into work in 2 minutes, beautifully blackening the pepper but nearly taking our onion and fennel too far

We wished we'd had time to see how the others were coping. John did manage to do the rounds to take photos while Lynne was doing prep

Decorating the plates as time is running out

We finish to applause from the judges. Everyone finished on time

judges were ( R to L) Abigail Donnelly of Eat Out Magazine, Chef Patron at the Food Barn Frank Dangereux and Chef Reuben Riffel

Two different teams did flat breads or pizza topped with seafood

Our dish of Summer in Spain on a Plate. Escalivada roasted vegetables (red onion, red pepper, tomatoes fennel and garlic) with braaied chorizo, squid and Gambas. Our tortilla was not a success and didn’t make it to the plate; we could not locate a potato

Another team did skewers of meat, and vegetables on a bed of stir fried vegetables

The judges line up the dishes for tasting

Lots of discussion and tasting took place

We were offered some wine to taste while we waited for judging to finish and lunch to begin

Some choices were offered

The bit we dreaded. Each team had to present its dish to the judges

Tweeting begins

The photographer, Cornel de Kock, manages to pause for a glass of wine

The lunch menu

This was a treat and went very well with lunch. Boekenhoutskloof 2012 Semillon, dry yet full of golden fruit

The restaurant manager shows us the wines Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2006 and 2012

Hmmmm. We will never know what they thought

Pete, please sign a release form... Pete de Bruin is Franck's partner in the Food Barn

Burnt onion Risotto with Asiago (an Italian cows' milk cheese) was creamy and perfectly cooked with the rice still having that perfect 'bite'. This could be cooked in the Big Green Egg? Perhaps just the onions, you might have got burned using a pot on the fire, as Lynne did when she tried to make an omelette. Served with a 2006 and 2012 Boekenhoutskloof Semillon, wines we have never tasted before, which went so well with the risotto and the truffle jus

Seawise Bass, on fired aubergine and sweet corn on a shisa Nyama (barbeque in isiXhosa) brik (thin crisp Moroccan flat bread) with a smoked garlic crème and flavoured with star anise. The Bass was perfectly cooked, so crisp on the skin but still moist and flavourful with all the fired additions

Reuben looks younger every day

When they finished judging the judges joined us for lunch

And the winners are: Tarryn Oppel and Paigh dos Santos of Elle magazine

Their prize was a MiniMax Green Egg each. Here they pose with their prize

Dessert was a banana roasted in a Big Green Egg, with a green tea matcha Anglaise sauce, a pineapple coulis, a condensed Milk sorbet and a pine front dipped in toffee lolly. Very sweet and very rich

The wines we tasted with lunch. We were all rewarded for our efforts with a huge bag of charcoal and a lovely stainless steel braai tools set from The Big Green Egg company

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
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