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

The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here

In addition to his Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek 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

Nicolette van Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague Gardens

George Jardine will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at Jordan. Details here

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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This week's MENU recipe - Chilli con Carne using dried Ancho chillies

They are not hot at all and impart a lovely chocolate and smoke note to the chilli. If you like your chilli con carne hot, you will want to add some fresh green chilli to your own taste. You can also use the Ancho chillies to make a chilli cream

Chilli con Carne with Mexican dried chillies

2 or 3 Ancho dried chillies – 1 T olive oil – 1 large onion, finely chopped – 30g smoked bacon, finely chopped – 400g beef mince – 1 T chopped fresh oregano or 1t dried – 1 t ground cumin – 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed – fresh chopped chilli – 400 ml tomato passata or a tin of chopped tomatoes – 1 tin of red kidney beans. drained – salt and black pepper

Toast the Ancho chillies for a few seconds in a hot dry pan, but do not burn them - this brings out the flavour. Remove the stem and the seeds and then soak them in some water for half an hour. They will soften a little. Fry the onions in the oil with a good pinch of salt, till soft, then add bacon and fry, then the beef and fry quickly until it is brown. Add the oregano, cumin, garlic and chilli and stir quickly to blend. Add the passata and the beans. Remove the chillies from the water and chop finely. Add to the pot with some of the soaking water. At this point you may want to add some fresh chilli for heat, then season and simmer until the beef is tender. Add a little water if it needs more moisture during cooking. Adjust the seasoning and serve with boiled rice and a tomato and onion salsa. Top with guacamole and sour cream

This makes four to five large servings. Double the recipe if serving more 

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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This Week's MENU - John Collins tasting, Swartland Survivor launch, Wild Peacock, Chilli

A wintry sunset over Camps Bay beach

In this week’s MENU:

 John Collins Trade Tasting at Ottimo Cibo

 Meeting the Survivor for Dinner at Overhex wines

 Mexican food at Wild Peacock

 This week's recipe - Chilli con Carne using dried Ancho chillies

 Coming events

 Learn about wine and cooking

We write about our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit. To get the whole story with photographs, please click on “Read on.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.

John Collins Trade Tasting at Ottimo Cibo     The week started well with a great tasting of the brands represented by John Collins. It is a small but perfectly formed list of some of our top wine farms and brands: Diemersfontein, Jordan, Kleinood, Newton Johnson, Sutherland, Springfield, Keet Wines and, newly added to the stable, is Le Lude MCC from Franschhoek.  Read On....

Meeting the Survivor for Dinner at Overhex wines     So here is the story of the label. A truck carrying 33 Nguni cows went past one of their wine farms and, as they are wont to do, one leapt off the back of the truck into the vineyards. The truck continued and the cow adapted itself to the new situation. It was adopted by the farmer and was thereafter known as the Survivor. Overhex has produced a range of wines to celebrate this cow and we were invited to join them for dinner at the winery in Worcester and sample the wines over dinner in their newly finished restaurant tasting room.  Read On....

Mexican food at Wild Peacock     Wild Peacock in Stellenbosch stock the things chefs and good cooks want, all the luxuries like oysters, freshwater crayfish, imported and local cheeses, fresh fish, game, charcuterie, chocolate and lots, lots more. They have a retail shop in town and a huge warehouse in the industrial area. This week we were invited to come and see a demonstration of Mexican food products (made in the USA) they are importing.

Following the tasting, we went to their Emporium and Lynne bought two packets of dried smoked chillies, a packet of Ancho and a packet of Californian  Read On....

This week's recipe is a Chilli con Carne using dried Ancho chillies     They are not hot at all and impart a lovely chocolate and smoke note to the chilli. If you like your chilli con carne hot, you will want to add some fresh green chilli to your own taste. You can also use the Ancho chillies to make a chilli cream.

Chilli con Carne with Mexican dried chillies

2 or 3 Ancho dried chillies – 1 T olive oil – 1 large onion, finely chopped – 30g smoked bacon, finely chopped – 400g beef mince – 1 T chopped fresh oregano or 1t dried – 1 t ground cumin – 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed – fresh chopped chilli – 400 ml tomato passata or a tin of chopped tomatoes – 1 tin of red kidney beans. drained – salt and black pepper

Toast the Ancho chillies for a few seconds in a hot dry pan, but do not burn them - this brings out the flavour. Remove the stem and the seeds and then soak them in some water for half an hour. They will soften a little. Fry the onions in the oil with a good pinch of salt, till soft, then add bacon and fry, then the beef and fry quickly until it is brown. Add the oregano, cumin, garlic and chilli and stir quickly to blend. Add the passata and the beans. Remove the chillies from the water and chop finely. Add to the pot with some of the soaking water. At this point you may want to add some fresh chilli for heat, then season and simmer until the beef is tender. Add a little water if it needs more moisture during cooking. Adjust the seasoning and serve with fluffy rice and a tomato and onion salsa. Top with guacamole and sour cream. ALWAYS better the next day.

This makes four to five large servings. Double the recipe if serving more.

Coming Events:

AUGUST

Thursday, 13th August at 18h30  Oneiric  Wines  and  Thomas  Maxwell  Dinner  and  Wine  Pairing in the newly launched private room at Thomas Maxwell. Join Shan Pascall, owner of Oneiric wines and her side-kick Venetia LePine-Williams for a delicious a la carte food and wine pairing amongst stories of the family, the wine estate and taste profiles. The menu has been paired with Oneiric's award winning wines, including the newly released big daddy First Quantum Grand Reserve. Thomas Maxwell Wine Library, Shop 8, 140, 11th Street, Parkmore, Johannesburg. Cost: R465 per person includes 3 course meal and wine pairing. Bookings through Shan Pascall shan@oneiric.co.za

Thursday, 13th August, 18h00 to 21h00 Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction Showcase. Cape Town International Convention Centre. R190 per person including tasting glass. Tickets can be purchased via www.webtickets.co.za. To find out more, visit: www.capewinemakersguild.com, email info@capewinemakersguild.com or call +27 +21 852 0408

Friday, 14th and Saturday, 16th August  Sijnn wines will host a fine wine weekend, partnered with De Hoop Nature Reserve, to showcase their wines against some international benchmarks. David Trafford has carefully selected some special wines to show over the weekend and it promises to be a great getaway for food & wine lovers. Whale watchers haven, De Hoop is based near Malgas, a 30 minute drive from the Sijnn winery. This makes it the perfect venue for a decent break while getting to enjoy some incredible wines. The weekend includes two nights’ accommodation with breakfasts, two 3 course wine dinners, lunch and a guided walk for R3000 pp. There are only a few seats left; to make a booking please email Christine as soon as possible

Saturday, 15th August 08h00 to 16h00  Paul Cluver and Oak Valley invite you to join the official launch party of ElginMTB. ElginMTB is a collaborative project between neighbours Paul Cluver and Oak Valley, who have joined their trails to create an unique MTB experience. Riders will now have the option to legitimately cross our borders and cycle a 70km round-trip – making it one of the longest rides in the country with spectacular single track. View it in your Browser

Click here for details of more exciting events

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

The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here

In addition to his Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek 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

Nicolette van Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague Gardens

George Jardine will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at Jordan. Details here

12th August 2015

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.

If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio

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! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses

A Mexican product demonstration at Wild Peacock, Stellenbosch

Wild Peacock in Stellenbosch stocks the things chefs and good cooks want; all the luxuries like oysters, freshwater crayfish, imported and local cheeses, fresh fish, game, charcuterie and chocolate. They have a retail shop in town and a huge warehouse in the industrial area. Last week, we were invited to visit and see a demonstration of Mexican food products (made in the USA) which they import. www.wildpeacock.co.za/

Following the tasting, we went to their Emporium and Lynne bought two packets of dried smoked chillies, a packet of Ancho and a packet of Californian chillies

Gaby from Aztec foods did the demonstration, supported by her husband

Here she is making a chilli paste. The range does include masa harina the flour you need to make tortillas and tacos

Some of the products come in tins

Here are some of them opened for us to taste

Gaby using a smoked chilli bottled sauce

Ready-made Mole, Adobo and other sauces to use from the pot, and packets of dried chillies

Here she is explaining how to use some of the more unknown products like Nopales, which are pieces of cactus. We tasted them and they are definitely an acquired taste and texture. We found them rather slimy and completely tasteless in a cabbagy way. Perhaps you have to grow up eating them

Azteca is the brand - you can learn more on Facebook

Tortillas should always be heated in a dry pan and, did you know, they have two different layers? The thin one goes inside and the thick layer must be outside

Refried beans are not refried and Achiote is a blend of chilli and other spices including Annato, which colours the food red. Tins of whole and sliced Jalapeno chillies

The range of dried chillies

Dishes Gaby cooked. Pork in Salsa Verde with Nopales

Chicken in Mole Rojo

Nopales salad

Chicken in Mole Verde

Beef in Adobo sauce

Ross Baker has now taken over running the business from his mother Sue, who started it in 2000

Sue Baker

Andrew Baker took us for a tour of the cold storage rooms, each has its own purpose. These are tanks for fresh crayfish

Freshwater crayfish

Fresh oysters

Beautiful sea bass flown in from Reunion

Charcuterie from many different destinations has a room all on its own

Wheels of Edam young and old, in the cheese room

Lots of other slowly ripening cheese

The dried goods storage and dispatch

Valrhona chocolate to keep everyone happy

The Wild Peacock Emporium at 32 Piet Retief St, Stellenbosch, 7600. Phone 021 887 7585

The inside will remind our old customers of Main Ingredient, but they sell lots of fresh foods which we never did. You can also have lunch or coffee and cake and more. Lots of interesting things to buy

And a nice selection of wines and other beverages

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Swartland Survivor wine launch at Overhex, Worcester

So here is the story of the label

A truck carrying 33 Nguni cows went past one of their wine farms and, as they are wont to do, one leapt off the back of the truck into the vineyards. The truck continued and the cow adapted itself to her new situation, was adopted by the farmer and was thereafter known as the Survivor. Overhex has produced a range of wines to celebrate this cow and we were invited to have a 5 course dinner at the winery in Worcester and sample them over dinner in their newly finished restaurant tasting room 

As Worcester is a bit far to drive back to Cape Town at night, Overhex generously put up the media in The Habit bed and breakfast in Worcester. And very comfortable it was too

The breakfast room

A good pool and a place for us to gather in the late afternoon

We arrived by transport at Overhex as the sun was setting. This amazing transformation has taken place over the last 9 weeks

Apparently the restaurant was finished just that morning

It will be a lovely spot to sit out in the summer

Tables set, canapé first course arranged and wine on chill in the buckets

The menu was paired with the four Survivor wines

The two on the left went with the crisp and slightly tropical Sauvignon blanc: Pea puree, onion jam with a piece of artichoke on a sliver of toast and a smoked salmon twirl with an asparagus tip on a cream cheese crostini

With the Pinotage: a deep fried chicken drumstick topped with crisp bacon and a mini vol á vent filled with some sliced beef

The media tweeting in unison!

Michael Fridjhon is acting as a consultant to Overhex and he made a speech

Reporting on Facebook is Brett Hutton

Rather soggy and oily butternut chips with melba toast ...

... to accompany the large rather under ripe brie in a filo platter, topped with caramel onion & walnuts

The chef, Jaco van der Westhuizen

Shante Hutton

Main course was two lamb chops on top of sticky rice, with a couple of vegetables and a parmesan tile

The last course was dessert - chocolate truffles with Oude Molen brandy

Willie Malan, Overhex Production Manager with his wife Natalie, Overseas Marketing Manager for Overhex

Breakfast the next morning at The Habit. The breakfast chef was very good and very quick

Gathering for breakfast was a little slow as some had stayed up late to party. We were too tired to join them after our hectic week

Lynne’s full English Breakfast with very fresh farm eggs and some really delicious boerewors sausage. We would love to know where to buy this, it was excellent. She also had black coffee and a little plain yoghurt with honey

John's cheese omelette with crisp bacon. He had fruit and muesli to start

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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